Religious and faith-based entities need the expertise, guidance, and support of a Certified Public Accountant.
So why consider outsourcing? For some smaller to medium-sized churches, having an outsourced bookkeeper can increase expertise & accuracy, lower bookkeeping costs, and provide a missing link in internal controls. Let’s take a look at these one-by-one:
Establish a church accounting system that not just tracks expenses and income but also tracks your assets, liabilities and assets.
There are ways to avoid making mistakes in church bookkeeping.
Atlanta Church Bookkeeping LLC makes a great choice if you have many volunteers or staff. Its main benefit is the possibility to have many users in different roles. Atlanta Church Bookkeeping LLC can be used to track the finances of your church and give you access to an accountant or administrator if your church does not have one.
Laying all that aside....another important reason for keeping books...is to make good financial decisions. You need to be able to pull up a report and see that you are spending more on expenses than you were in prior years.
The problem is that neither the Pastor nor the good hearted volunteer may know how to set up and maintain a proper accounting system, so you end up with an ineffective church bookkeeping system...and may not even realize it...until you have bills not being paid, or doubled paid...or financial records that nobody can make sense of...or make proper financial decisions with.
The biblical pattern shows without question that the pastor should be involved in the oversight of the church's finances, however, Scripture also prescribes the attitude and actions of the pastor to avoid disqualification of influence and trust.
In a non-profit organization, such as a church, the board is the bearer of this fiduciary responsibility and therefore should properly oversee all operations, including finances, to protect the members of the church.
How To Manage Church Records
Identify The Church Records That You're Going To Manage. Based on your local state laws you will need to figure out what records are imperative to keep. ...
Implement A Retention Schedule. ...
Establish Retention And Destruction Policies.