Many churches and non-profits struggle to survive on a limited budget. Outsourcing financial services saves nonprofits valuable time, stress, as well as valuable resources. Your time spent managing the finances is time you could spend growing your donor base, expanding your organisation, or helping those in greatest need.
Your church has an important mission. Bookkeeping should not be a hindrance to that mission. The best church accounting software allows you to quickly and accurately complete your church bookkeeping, so that you and the administrative staff can return to what matters most.
A small church may not have the budget to hire someone for bookkeeping. To make it more appealing, they often combine the two roles. It may be necessary to hire a part-time employee who doesn't have much experience for other churches. It may be necessary to ask a volunteer treasurer for help with the accounting. You can get better work for a cheaper price by hiring someone who has been trained in bookkeeping for multiple churches.
To avoid making a mistake in church bookkeeping, you should carefully examine each person who is being paid for a service. The IRS guidelines (link to the Misclassification article), will help you determine whether they should be classified either as an employee with proper payroll tax withholding and matching, or as an independent contractor.
Why not outsource? Outsourcing a bookkeeper for small to medium-sized churches can improve expertise and accuracy, reduce bookkeeping costs, and add a missing link in internal control. Let's look at each one.
If you reconcile your bank and card statements with your accounting, you can identify errors like duplicates, missing transactions or bank errors on rare occasions.
Listening is the foundation for a client relationship that is built on trust. Our mission is for you to receive financial leadership, guidance, and advice that can be used to grow your religious organization.
Churches call the traditional balance sheet a statement of financial position. It uses the accounting equation “Assets = Liabilities + Equity” to show a snapshot of your organization's financial health. It also shows the current balance of each of your funds if you've been implementing fund accounting for your church.
Churches And Transparency
The standards of the Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability require that member organizations provide audited financial statements on request.
Churches and religious nonprofits must maintain highly accurate accounting and bookkeeping records in order to maintain their nonprofit status, budget accurately, and provide reporting to government entities and their parishoners or members.