For nearly 15 years, I’ve been speaking out against dividing the church budget by 12 and using that for your Year-to-Date Budget. Everyone always agrees with me, but it’s easier said than done…especially when it comes to the income side. Some months have more Sunday than others. If only there was a fancy spreadsheet….
While working with the Journey Community Church in De Pere, WI, I noticed that they have an interesting way of allocating their offering to fund each budget. This was such a clever idea that could help churches struggling to get on top of their finances so I thought I’d share it.
Last night Sheri and I held a webinar on QuickBooks and your church. We went over why churches should consider QuickBooks, where to get it cheap, and how to set it up for a church. We also went over how to use it to manage donations and use it’s budget tool. We had great participation that really added to it.
QuickBooks can be a pain to use for budgeting. Even the tool is hidden away. In the church world, budgets are rarely optional. In this post I go over setting up a budget and the importance of setting up a secondary budget to make year-end projections.
If I had three pieces of advise I could give to a Finance Committee heading into the budget season, this would be that advice. You’ll end up with a better budget that the church should be more willing to live by.
How can you determine if you are paying church staff, including the pastor, a fair amount? What do you do if you find that you are underpaying or overpaying an employee?
If you are a Dave Ramsey fan, you know what the baby steps are. What would the baby steps be for a church? What does financial freedom look like for a church? I believe this is possible and here are my findings on the subject.