Whether you're serving as a pastor, clergy, lay leadership, support staff, or unintentionally helping manage church funds, you are instrumental in helping your church or organization be the best steward possible. As tithes and donations are entrusted to your organization, there are expectations that those gifts will be managed with the greatest care and spent on the things that will further the cause.
Whenever money and people are involved, things always tend to track toward being a bit messy. That's why we strongly encourage our PowerChurch customers to be diligent and organized in keeping their finances. Be tidy, be intentional. While there shouldn't be undue pressure on your shoulders, there are steps that you can take to proactively prevent bad financial stewardship. Let's take a look at a few of those things.
Standard Procedure for Money in and Money Out
It's our hope that your mission is growing, and that typically translates to more money being given and more money being spent. It is important that the processes for income and expenses be understood prior to an organization experiencing exponential growth.
Money In
Standard procedures for income might include multiple stages. These are just a few of the questions that could define your process.
What funds can donors give toward?
It's important that you communicate clearly which funds donors are expected to give toward. This both discourages donors from creating their own designated funds and encourages them to give toward crucial needs within the congregation's mission.
What is the process for counting, entering, or importing gifts?
When a person drops cash or checks in a plate, or box, or slips it to a staff member in passing, what are the processes for accounting for that money? Often times leadership mistakes a complicated process for accountability. Making sure that this process is simple, streamlined, and without gaps will provide pastoral leadership and executive leadership confidence and accountability.
Money Out
Spending money can be a taboo subject in churches and non-profits. It seems that most organizations made up of multiple leaders can experience pendulum swings of conservative or liberal spending behaviors. This is often because it's reliant on the emotional understanding of "how much money is available."
Communicating a Budget
Organizations without vision will perish, but money is a clear indicator of the intent of the mission itself. You've likely heard "where your treasure is, your heart is also" applied to personal lives. It is also true for organizations. Organizational efforts can typically be foreseen by the budget applied to that area. It's important not to miss the impact a budget has on the leadership designated to carry out that mission. The amount of money is not nearly as important as the psyche of being entrusted and equipped. Having a well-equipped staff and leadership is essential, and sometimes that's as simple as explaining the resources they have available.
Awareness of Fund Accounting and Categorizing Purchases
Within church circles, it's not uncommon to hear a pastor joke, "they didn't teach me this in seminary." Many church leaders (regardless of their education) enter a clergy role without an understanding of how to relate a ministry purchase, need, or gift to the chart of accounts. Because relationships, purchases, or benevolence is not always black and white, it can be difficult for church leadership to know "where the money should come from." Ironing these things out (before making purchases) can provide freedom for the ministries and also help best steward funds in the future.
Does the purchase of a new computer to be used as a Check-In Kiosk in the sanctuary lobby fall under the "Office Expenses," the "Media," or the "Children's" budget?
When the youth ministry needs construction paper for a special project, they'll surely find some in the children's department. While sharing is necessary, and construction paper is a minor expense, should they reimburse the limited children's ministry budget?
Predefining these practices can ease tensions and offer a better understanding of spending behaviors.
Timely Reports
When pursuing better financial stewardship, it's important to assess funds and find a baseline and also to establish recurring reports that assess the paths and recent spending behaviors. At PowerChurch, we've realized that many times the church's treasurer or accounting leadership is often very part-time and limited on hours toward the effort. However, it's important that financial reporting be a priority. Clear reports help direct vision, mission, and of course, stewardship.
Having predefined reports that are applicable to your ministry or organization can help ease the time taken to provide reports. For instance, in PowerChurch, users have the ability to utilize our reports to provide essential information to leadership, donors, and other invested parties.
Organized Data
The prior-mentioned efforts would be in vain without good, organized data. For many pastors and mission-minded leaders, "data" is not an exciting word. However, better data helps encourage better behaviors. At PowerChurch, we are biased, but we believe that digital recordkeeping is essential to organizing data. It also helps provide quick overviews of data without adding tedious tasks. Keeping track of membership, giving, and spending digitally allows for quick financial assessments.
In Conclusion
At PowerChurch, we believe that your mission matters and that you should be the best steward of the people and the finances that are entrusted to you and your mission. Our tools and features are intentionally designed to help you steward those things.
If you have a resolution or goal to be a better steward of your mission this year, PowerChurch is here to help. If you are interested in hearing about our newest products and features, we're happy to share.
Our latest PowerChurch Plus Version update has been released and is available. More information on Version 14 can be found here. PowerChurch Online users have all been upgraded at no charge.