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….
The Income Statement (aka Statement of Activities or Profit & Loss) seems like a pretty simple financial report. It shows income. It shows expenses. It shows the bottom line. Sometimes churches can complicate this simple statement, but that can be fixed.
The Balance Sheet is an important tool if you want to understand your church’s financial strength and potential. Sadly, it’s also one of the most neglected. In this week’s offering, I give an overview of the Balance Sheet as well as five key questions you should be asking.
Most of the time, treasurers just want to make sure the leaders and committees we serve have all the information they need to make good decisions. I think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. By giving so much information, the important numbers seem to be getting lost. Here’s how we can bring them to the spotlight.
If you’re reading this, chances are you are a treasurer or rely on a treasurer. What is the biggest mistake treasurers are most prone to making? Is it tax related? Is it investing? What about journal entries? Well, it’s none of those, but the mistake is likely making ministry much more difficult than it needs to be.
If you find your church’s chart of accounts getting longer and longer, perhaps you need Classes. Classes will replace your length with some width. Instead of just going North and South, your reports will go East and West. This is what I explore in this post.
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.
JCT Accounting Co 