2009 - The Year of 27 Payroll Pays?

I've had some interesting conversations over the last week related to payroll for 2009. We use ADP for processing payroll on a bi-weekly basis. BTW - We love ADP payroll services. Anyhow, we received a communication from them about a month ago that warned us that we may be in a rare situation where we have 27 pays in 2009.

In 2009 because of the way the pay dates fall, companies that process payroll on a bi-weekly basis may have a situation where they will have 27 pays. The problem is: what do you do with that extra pay for Salaried staff? Do you:

• Take the salary and divide it by 27 instead of the usual 26. If so, the bi-weekly pay amount is drastically reduced. That's hard on your staff. Probably won't be a very popular decision.
• Just pay the extra pay. If you do this one, you better include it in your 2009 budget. You could do this in lieu of a salary increase. You'll just have to explain that the salary increase will take place on December 31.
• Todd at New Pointe Community Church is brilliant. He decided to shift all of the salary staff to twice a month instead of bi-weekly. They move from 26 or 27 pays to 24 pays per year. The hourly staff stay at bi-weekly. They avoid a huge hit from 27 pays. The only problem with this is that the number of pays that are processed increases. In fact, in some months, there could be one payroll per week.

It's an issue worth considering. It could have a negative affect on your 2009 budget. Has anyone else recognized this issue? Anyone else have a good solution?

Church Management Software

If you're in the market for Church Management Software, Jason posted about a new article on Church Management Software at Ministry IT. This is a good informational article about several of the systems that are available and what they do. It also includes contact information for the various companies that provide the software.

Here at GCC we use Fellowship One as our Church Management solution along with Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) as our General Ledger accounting solution. We're very happy with both solutions.

I like Fellowship One's scanner based contribution processing and online giving tools. Check images are attached to contributions which eliminates a lot of paper. I also like the ability to search for, locate, and merge duplicate records. The check-in application is pretty cool too.

Great plains offers a great solution for General Ledger accounting. It's got good access security. It offers modules for many different applications. We use Bank Reconciliation, Fixed Assets, and A/P regularly. It's expandable and upgradeable. We use a reporting tool called FRx for writing and running reports.

At this point, Fellowship One and Great Plains do not integrate, but that doesn't offer a huge challenge to us.

McDonald's + Visa = Employer Based Financial Literacy

Looks like McDonald's and Visa are partnering to offer America's largest Employer-Based Financial Literacy Initiative. See article here.

The "McDonald's Practical Money Skills" program is based on Visa's "Practical Money Skills for Life" and is being offered to 500,000 restaurant level employees at McDonald's.

Steve Russell, Cheif People Officer, McDonald's USA said, "Providing information and educating our employees about the importance of financial responsibility has become increasingly important -- now more than ever."

Although I'm happy to see an employer take on the responsibility of personal finance training, I think it's sad that they have to "now more than ever".

I'd love to see more High Schools or Colleges offering personal finance training like Dave Ramsey's Foundations in Personal Finance.

Or, maybe it's not even the school's responsibility. Maybe it's a parent's responsibility to train their children in personal finance. Dave has tools to help.

Churches can help too. Here at GCC, we offer Financial Peace University twice a year. Our next session will be February 23. You can sign up here.

For now, kudos to McDonald's. Maybe other businesses will follow their lead. Dave has plenty of tools to help.

UPDATE - I'm Reviewing My Free Credit Report

UPDATE - This is for Todd. Credit report looks good. Credit freeze is on! It was easy to do online at:

Experian
TransUnion
Equifax

Cost for all 3 was $0 (FREE) for Indiana residents.

____________________________________________________________________

This morning I went to annualcreditreport.com and printed my credit report from the three credit bureaus for free.

Annualcreditreport.com is the official site to get your free credit report without any strings attached that could cost you money.

There are other sites with hypnotically catching jingles (you just can't get it out of your head) that claim to be free but that come with strings attached. The most common is automatic enrollment in a "free" trial membership to a credit monitoring service. If you don't cancel your membership within the 7 day trial you get billed $14.95/mo. until you cancel.

I'm going to review my reports to make sure that there isn't anything on them that I'm not aware of. If there is, I'll investigate because it might be a sign that someone is using my identity to request credit.

After I'm sure that my credit report is in good order, I'm going to freeze my credit so that no one can open a credit account using my identity.

Snowballs...

We got our first snow of the year last week. Man...it's way too early for snow. We're in for a long winter. I really hate winter. Anyhow, we decided to make the best of it and make snowmen. To make these snowmen we had to make giant snowballs. We started with a handfull of snow and rolled it around in the snow as it packed on and got bigger and bigger.

All of this snowball making reminded me of the Debt Snowball concept that Dave Ramsey talks about. Here's how the concept works:

1. Destroy/close credit cards - they can't be used
2. Squeeze a little bit of extra money from the budget every month
3. Make a list of all debts from smallest to largest on a piece of paper
4. Apply the extra money that was found to the smallest debt while paying the minimum monthly payment on all the other debts
5. When the smallest debt is paid off, combine everything that was being paid on that debt with the minimum payment amount on the next smallest debt while paying the minimum monthly payment on all other debts.
6. Repeat until all debt is paid off.

The snowball affect comes as each debt is paid off. As each debt is paid more money is available to attack the next debt. This is an effective and proven way to get out of debt. However, it takes time and requires intense focus from start to finish. It only works if no new debt is added which is why #1 and the budget in #2 is so important.

Excel Resource - Mr. Excel Podcast

Todd told me about this in a phone conversation and posted about it here.

Mr. Excel is an awesome resource if you use Excel regularly. He's got little hints and tricks that I never knew. A couple of examples that I looked at recently involved cleaning up charts with dates and using the consolidate tool to consolidate data from multiple worksheets into one.

This is really good stuff. I've subscribed to his video podcast in itunes. It's free. It's daily. It's about 2-4 minutes each. I'm loving it.

Thanks Mr. Excel!

More on Budgeting

My friend Todd had a good post on budgeting the other day. The things he mentions that he does are a lot similar to the things we do at GCC. We're currently in the process right now.

• We track weekend attendance and per capita giving levels and compare them year over year for trends. Then, we try to determine what we think these two components will do in the year to come.
• Per Capital Giving = Avg. Weekly Giving/Avg. Weekly Auditorium Attendance
• Per Capita Giving forecast X Avg. Weekend Attendance forecast X # of weeks in the upcoming year = Annual Revenue forecast
• How will revenue be distributed by month over the coming year. This is based on 5 or more years of historical giving data.
• We determine what staff costs will look like in the coming year. We start with current staff. Anticipate pay raises, increases in benefit costs like insurance. Can we hire new staff?
• How much is left to allocate to ministry? What are our ministry goals for the upcoming year?
• Set budget targets for departments based goals and what can be allocated after staff cost.
• Ask the departments to submit budgets based on the targets that were set. Targets include operating and capital expenses. I've got to brag on our staff. They are really good at this.
• Review, tweak, approve
• In the end, it all has to balance.

Like Todd, this is all done using multiple Excel spreadsheets prior to the final budget being entered into our Great Plains Accounting System.

Really Simple Financial Advice

I heard Dave Ramsey give a caller some really simple advice on his show this morning. He said, "Don't buy stuff you can't afford." It reminded me of this video.

Security Freeze on Credit Reporting

After Todd's post on credit reporting agencies security freezes, I'm consindering putting the freeze on.

How We Saved on Health Insurance

At budget time we always look for ways to steward our resources better. Last year at this time our insurance agent told us that our health insurance premiums were going to be increasing 19%. WOW! That's a lot of money!

Bob, who is responsible for human resources, wasn't satisfied with this outlook. So, he began to look for possible alternatives that would give us the same level of care but at a lower cost to the church without raising the costs for our staff. Pretty lofty goals I know.

He found an alternative called a Health Savings Account (HSA) or High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). This insurance is designed to shift some of the cost and responsibility for health care to the individual employee. It shifts the cost by lowering premiums for employers while at the same time raising deductibles for emloyees (i.e. $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families).

To compensate for the higher deductibles, employees are allowed to put pre-tax dollars into a Health Savings Account that they can use to pay uncovered health costs up to the deductible amount. Employers are also allowed to make contributions to these accounts. These accounts are owned by the employee and money used for health care costs is non-taxable. Money stays in the account year after year. Once the deductible amount is met, allowable health care costs are covered at 100%.

What we discovered was that we could switch to the HSA plan, keep the same provider network, make contributions equal to 75% of the staff member deductible to each participating staff member's HSA, and still save money over the 19% increase on our old health plan.

So, by contributing 75% of the deductible to the staff member's HSA, we met all of our goals of lowering costs to the church, not raising costs for the employee, and maintaining the level of care. We switched to the plan early in 2008.

For more information about HSAs, I recommend that you contact your insurance provider.

Warren Buffett is Buying American Stock

In this op-ed Warren Buffett says he's buying American stocks for his own personal portfolio.

Warren's words of wisdom: "A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." I love that.

Although there is a lot of fear and uncertainty in the market right now and no one is real sure how long it will be in this funk, history shows that its times like these that are the best opportunity for investing for the future. Buy low, sell high.

Like Warren says in the article, these are investments for the future (maybe 5 to 10 years out).

Don't use cash you need immediately or can't afford to lose like your emergency fund or mortgage payment. Remember, investing has risks of loss.

Instead of trying to pick individual stocks, it might be better to buy shares of a good mutual fund slowly and steadily over time.

Is Your Accounting Team Disconnected?

I recently attended Tim's breakout at ICC called "Creating a Staff Culture that Rocks". In his session, the question was asked (Paraphrase) Does your accounting team feel disconnected or alienated from the rest of the staff?

It seemed like an odd question to me until I heard the context. At this church, the accounting staff was hired from the outside. They didn't attend the church.

I've heard of other churches who hire their accounting staff from the outside or encourage their accounting staff not to attend the church. I admit that I don't totally understand the rationale behind this. If they don't have a stake in the ministry, What's their motivation to do their best work? How can they pull hard for the mission, vision, and values of the church if they aren't involved? Isn't it just a job to them? What motivates them to keep confidential information confidential? What keeps them from circumventing internal controls for personal gain?


I love that we hire a great majority of our staff, including our accounting staff, from the inside here at GCC. I love the way our entire staff is treated like a family. We all attend church here. We all tithe here. We're all invited to all staff meetings like our weekly all staff meeting called SWAT (Staff Working as Team). We're all asked to serve in the church. We're all motivated to pull together for our mission vision and values. We're all informed about what's going on and what's coming up. No one is disconnected or alienated from the rest of the staff team.


What's the benefit of this connection?


As an accounting staff, we love Jesus and we love GCC. We do our best to be effective, efficient, timely, and accurate. We're upset when things don't reconcile to the penny. We do our absolute best to keep confidential information confidential. We do our best to adhere to our system of internal control and prevent fraud or abuse. Its more than just a job for us. We're "helping people take their next step toward Christ...together".


I think its especially important for the accounting staff to be part of the church and staff family. After all, the financial resources of the church are entrusted to their care. They need to care about what's entrusted to them.

FASB Chairman Lessons from Credit Crisis

The Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Bob Herz offers Lessons Learned, Relearned, and learned again from the credit crisis in this article. It's long and technical, but an interesting read. He addresses some of the accounting and reporting issues involved. He has an interesting take on "Mark to Market" or "fair value" accounting.


Quote that caught my attention:

"As I said, at the heart of this chain of events was the explosion of novel mortgages and other loans. While lax and fraudulent lending practices were seemingly the prime culprit, there are two sides in a lending transaction and many consumers eagerly snatched-up "too good to be true" loans, without understanding the consequences. At its height, the frenzy was reminiscent of the investment craze in dot.com stocks. In both cases, misplaced investor enthusiasm was, in my view, due at least in part to widespread financial illeteracy in our country, along with a belief that somehow this time the situation was different and prices would rise forever."



Takeaways for me:

• Average American Financial illiteracy is a major problem. That's why I love what Dave is doing and what GCC is doing through Financial Peace University
• Just because the sweetheart loans were offered didn't mean they had to be accepted
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
• "Perverse incentives often lead to perverse outcomes"
• Remember the risks - In our financial markets potential gains come with potential losses
• You can't assume investment prices will rise forever. Investment prices go up and down.
• Individuals are responsible for the transactions they enter - "No matter how promising the markets may currently seem, even the most sophisticated investor needs to consider all opportunities from a perspective of "caveat emptor" or "buyer beware""

"Accounting has consequences-but can we handle the truth? Accounting has consequences, its meant to, otherwise why do it? External financial reporting is not merely a compliance exercise, nor is it an opportunity for spin. Rather the primary intent is to inform investors and the capital markets [readers/users]. What you measure matters! And, accountability requires honest accounting and informative disclosure, even when the news is bad."

Church Admin User Group

My friend Todd recently blogged about a yahoo user group for church administrators. Todd said, "you need to check it out". Todd is wise. So, I'm going to check it out.

Professional Issues Update

Yesterday, I attended a Professional Issues Update class put on by the Indiana CPA Society. This class is interesting because it covers some of the issues facing accounts today. Here are some highlights:

• The rate of change in science and technology over the next decade is likely to be 4-7 times fater than the last decade! That's like planning for 2006 in 1890 (4x) or 1670(7x)!
• Finding and retaining good people is the top issue for businesses.
• Part of finding and retaining good people involves relating to Generation Y or Mellinials.
• Saw this video from brazen careerist.com which helps you understand what college kids are going through today.
• Saw this 60 Minutes video on the Mellinial work force.
• There's a nationwide increase in accounting students and a decrease in accounting professors
• More students studying accounting and using it to lauch their career.
• Actually heard the facilitator say "Accounting is sexy". Oh yeah.
• Convergence of GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards not a question of if but when. Be prepared.
• IFRS has already impacted Not-For-Profits. There was a case of an Indiana Not-For-Profit that was asked to present IFRS financial statements to obtain a grant.
• Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a reporting language that will be used/requested/required in the future.
• Top Technology Initiatives - Business Intelligence is new on the list this year.

More including power point and web links here.

Background Checks on Volunteers?

Because we want to create the safest, most secure environment possible for our church:

We do criminal background checks on all of our staff prior to hiring them. We add a sexual offender check if the staff member is going to be working with children or students.

We do criminal background checks on volunteers who work with children, students, security, or money. For those volunteers who work with children or students we do a sexual offender check as well.

All of our checks are run through SecureSearch from our Fellowship One church management software.

Our staff member responsible for Human Resources does all of the checks on staff.

For volunteers, there is one person per department who is responsible for running background checks on that department’s volunteers.

PROCESS
Before a volunteer begins to serve in an area where background checks are required, he/she is notified that a background check will be done and asked to complete a background check consent form.

The staff member uses the information from the background check consent form to request the background check in Fellowship One.

Fellowship One transmits the data to SecureSearch who runs the check.

The staff member who requested the check scans and emails an electronic copy of the consent form to the person responsible for Human Resources who attaches the file to the volunteer’s record in our database.

When the check is complete, SecureSearch sends it back to Fellowship One electronically and the electronic report is attached to the volunteer’s record in our database

The staff member who requested the background check is responsible for reviewing the check to assess the results.

If the check comes back clean, then the staff member marks the check “Approved” in the data base and moves on in the process.

If the check comes back with results, then the staff member is responsible for following up with the volunteer candidate. If the results disqualify the volunteer candidate, then the staff member updates the status to “Not Approved” in the database and helps the volunteer find another place to serve. If after further investigation the results don’t disqualify the volunteer candidate, then the staff member updates the status as “approved” in the database and moves on in the volunteer process.

Computer Dependent Accountant

I admit it. I'm highly dependent on my computer. You tend to forget how much you rely on all of you computer equipment, software, and data until they crash.

That's just what happened to us a couple of days ago. At one of the worst possible times of the year, we lost a server and a backup system ( I think that's right. I'm an accountant not a computer guy).

Fortunately, we have the best IT team ever. Jason, Ed, and Justin worked like mad men to get things back up and running by the end of the day they discovered the problem. Way to go guys!

This little incident reminded me of the importance of a good backup system. It's a critical part of an IT and Accounting structure. What would happen if a tornado, flood, hurricane, etc. hit? What would happen to data?

We use several types of backup here at GCC. We use tape drives that backup every night. We also use a web based program called Mozy that provides an easy and inexpensive way to backup data offsite. I'm sure there are other backup procedures that I'm not aware of. But, I'm comfortable knowing that we have some procedures in place.

Backup good...lost data bad.

How We Budget

It's that time of year when most of us begin to think about and begin to prepare our budget for the upcoming year. So, how do we do our budget here at GCC? It changes a little bit every year, but the basic steps are:

1. We determine our budgeted revenue. We do this based on years of history as well as current conditions and a healthy amount of faith. This number drives the rest of the budget.


2. We also determine what the cost of our current staff and debt service will be for the upcoming year. These are centralized and fixed costs that have to be subtracted from revenue to determine how much is left to allocate to other ministry and operating expenses.


3. After the revenue number is determined, Tim and Mark discuss mission, vision, and values to determine goals for the upcoming year.


4. Based on their discussion, Tim sets some budget thresholds for each ministry and operating department.


5. Each department leader is given a threshold and asked to prepare a budget that is within that threshold. The threshold usually includes both capital and non-capital expenditures. They're also asked to include some goals and dreams for the upcoming year in their budget.


6. Department leaders prepare their budgets for their departments and turn them in.


7. We gather all of the budget documents and compile them in an easy to review form.


8. Tim reviews the budgets that were turned in and requests additional information, corrections, adjustments, etc.


9. Once Tim is satisfied with the numbers, he presents the final budget to our Senior Management Team (SMT) who approves the budget.


10. After the SMT approves the budget, it's presented to our Board of Directors who approve the budget.

Finding Extra Cash

What do you see in this photo?

To some it's a basement full of junk. To some, it's a storage area. To me, it looks like extra cash for an emergency fund or to payoff a credit card or charitable donation. With a little work, this basement could be cleaned up and turned into extra cash.

Most of us have stuff in our basements and storage areas that we haven't seen, touched, or used for years. We tend to accumulate this stuff over time because it's easier to stick it in the basement than to figure out how to get rid of it. Some of us think about that one day in the distant future when we may actually need it.

What if instead of accumulating stuff in our basement, we took time to deaccumulate the stuff in our basement? What if we sold everything we haven't seen, touched, or used in a year or more? What if I could convince my wife to let me clean our basement? Hmmm...the possibilities.

What is IFRS?

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is one of the hot topics of discussion at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). It's an attempt to get U.S. companies accounting and reporting on the same standards as other companies around the world. It's not clear when/if they will be required to be implemented. They may not apply to local churches. But, if adopted, this could require significant investment in staff, IT, and other support. I read this article and noted this:



"If we set a date for adopting [IFRS], we need a minimum of a year, if not two years, of no new accounting systems," said FASB member George Batavick. "Companies need a break." Batavick, who said he is a "strong believer in moratoriums before and after" a future switch to IFRS, discussed the concept in response to a question from the audience at a mid-year update webcast. He also said there should be "at least a one-year quiet period" during which no interpretive guidance would be issued.



"In addition to needing time to manage such a massive changeover, said Batavick, companies "also need a period to have their [IT] systems run two [accounting] systems." That's a reference to the fact that any changeover to IFRS will probably require U.S. companies to manage two sets of books for at least two years."

"Trust Is Not an Internal Control"

We have a local CPA firm come in and audit our books every spring. Every year, Bob reminds me that "Trust is not an Internal Control". He also reminds me that he sees as much fraud in churches as he does in other businesses. Mostly because churches often lack appropriate internal controls.


I recognize that sometimes it takes a lot of resources to implement good internal contorls. I realize that a lot of churches just don't have the financial or human resources to implement all of the controls they need. I understand that it's possible to implement so many controls that ministry gets stifled. I realize that internal controls are often perceived as a lack of trust in your staff.


However, I think we need to look at internal controls differently. A good internal control system not only protects the church but it also shows that staff is valued. They are valued enough to put a system of controls in place that protects them from accusation and temptation but doesn't hamper their ability to do ministry. That balance can be achieved.


Check out this report on Fraud. Is your church and staff properly protected with internal control?

Redesign and Changes to Form 990

Do you file form 990? If so, do you know about the redesign and changes to form 990 for 2008? If not, you may want to check it out.

Cash Flow, Projections, and Tools

This article has links to lots of articles about Cash Flow, Projections and Forecasting, and financial tools.

Church Credit Cards

Got a question about church credit cards today. Thought I'd post about them.

At GCC, we do our best to help facilitate ministry. We want every ministry to succeed. We try very hard to make sure that our staff doesn't have trouble purchasing the stuff they need to do ministry.

So, we offer all of our staff that are responsible for purchasing the ability to use a Granger Community Church credit card. We also allow them to use their own credit card for ministry purchases. In either case, the staff member is responsible for paying the statement and requesting reimbursement for ministry expenses.

Along with the priviledge of using a church credit card also comes some responsibility. So, for those who are issued a church credit card we require the following responsibilities:

• GCC Credit Cards are for budgeted GCC ministry expenses only
• GCC Credit Card balances should be paid on time and in full every month
• If for some reason the balance isn't paid on time and in full, the staff member is responsible for paying the late fees or finance charges
• Violations of these could lead to cancellation of the card

We have the ability to set the credit limit for each card based on the staff member and their purchasing needs. We also have the ability to monitor all of the cards to make sure they are being used appropriately and paid on time and in full.

Most Helpful Resource

Of all the resources that I use, the most helpful resource to me as a church finance director has been:

The Church & Clergy Tax Guide by Richard Hammer

I refer to this book several times a year to answer questions about how to treat various situations that arise. Richard Hammer is an Attorney and a CPA. His knowledge is vast and his information is thorough. I recommend this reference book to anyone responsible for church finance and accounting.

I also subscribe to Richard's monthly newsletter "Church Finance Today" which is a nice supplement to The Church and Clergy Tax Guide.

You can find these resources and more at churchlawtoday.com

Random Stuff

I love music. Corey and I have similar taste in music. He reviewed the new Third Day called Revelation here. If Corey likes it, I'll probably like it. So, I'll check it out.

My friend Todd had some interesting comments about Freezing your Credit Report and your "Health Credit Report".

Wanna Save an easy $1,400 a year?

Replace bottled water with Tap water. Article here. Interesting points from the article:

• Typical American Consumer pays $1,400 per year for bottled water vs. 49 cents per year for the same amount of tap water
• Blind taste tests show no difference in taste between the two.
• Tap water has stricter safety measures
• 40% of bottled water sold in stores is tap water
• Average price for 20 oz. bottle of water = $1.50. That puts bottled water at about $10.00 a gallon. And I thought gasoline was expensive! (at $10/gal. for bottled tap water shouldn't there be outrage at "Big Water"?)

I like to drink a lot of water. I admit that I do buy bottled water. But, the way I try to save money on bottled water is by using the bottle over and over again to fill it with tap water.

Finance Casual Q & A Session at Innovate

I'll be hosting a Casual Q&A Session at Innovate on Thursday, September 18. This session is a casual atmosphere where we have the opportunity to ask questions and have dialogue about church finance and accounting.

In order to keep the atmosphere casual, the session is limited to 10 and registration is required. You can register for Innovate here. If you're registered for Innovate, you can register for the Finance Casual Q&A here.

Lone accountant takes on IRS and wins

I saw this headline and had to read the article. A modern day David and Goliath. Chalk one up for the accountant. Way to go Charles!

What are Your Offering Procedures?

Someone from another church was asking about our weekend offering policies and procedures. Although I didn't give them specific procedures, here are the guidelines that I gave them.

1. No less than 2 unrelated people (i.e. not husband and wife) are with the offering at any given time. We typically have ushers, security, and count team members around when the offering isn’t in the safe (maybe 3-5 people). Separate those who collect the offering and those who count and process it.

2. Secure the offering in a safe place when it isn’t being taken or counted. We use a safe that is bolted to the floor with a drop box on it and locked bank deposit bags.

3. Limit those with the safe combination to as few as possible. If possible, staff with access to the accounting system should not have access to the safe. This goes with #4. Keeps staff with access to the accounting system separated from access to cash, checks, etc. Currently, none of the accounting staff at GCC has access to the safe.

4. Separate the duties between those who process the cash, checks, etc. and those who have control over the Accounting System. This is where the volunteer count team helps us tremendously. None of us on staff, who have access to accounting records, have access to the cash because the count team processes the cash and check offering.

5. Create a process for counting and processing the offering so that everything gets counted accurately, separated into appropriate buckets (i.e. General Fund, Building Fund), and posted into accounting systems accordingly.

6. Check and double check. Then, reconcile. This is why we have one person on the count team count and a separate person check the count (both sign the count sheet). This is why we run a batch tape, enter the batch total, and then make sure that the individual items agree to the batch total. This is why our Accounting Team spends most of Monday reconciling all the count team sheets to F1 and then posting the totals to the General Ledger. This is why we reconcile Fellowship One to the General Ledger every month. Everything needs to balance.

7. Reconcile the bank statement to the General Ledger every month. This is a good control for several processes. For contributions it ensures that what was deposited was posted and what was posted was deposited.

8. If someone takes the offering to the bank, make sure there are 2 people who do it together. Otherwise, use an armored car pick up service. I recommend the armored car especially as offerings get larger.

These were the guidelines I thought of. Any that I missed or should be added?

What's the Most Asked Question?

I get lots of questions from other churches about how we do things here at GCC. However, the most asked question is, "How do you do Online Giving?"

My first answer is always, "I love online giving!" But, the main reason that I love online giving is because of the tool we use to facilitate it. Our online giving is powered by Fellowship One or F1 which is our church management software.

Here are a few of the cool features of F1 Online Giving:

• It's secure


• It's donor directed


• It's easy to connect to your web site


• It allows weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. contribution schedules


• It posts online donations to the donor's record automatically


• It reduces check processing


• It allows the use of any or all of credit card, debit card, eCheck(ACH) payment options

It's a great tool for online giving. If you're interested, give the folks at Fellowship Technologies a call.