Good Employment News for CPAs & Accountants

I read some good employment news for CPAs and Accountants here and here. Apparently, Certified Public Accountant is one of the Top 10 Best Jobs in America according to CNN Money. In addition, accounting and finance professionals are expected to see an uptick in hiring and salaries in the coming year.

Crystal Cathedral Files for Bankruptcy

I just read this article about the Crystal Cathedral filing for bankruptcy in California. It was a sad reminder to me that even churches aren't exempt from the pitfalls of debt. Our current economic reality is causing many in our society from governments to businesses to individuals to churches to struggle with past obligations.

When we borrow money, we presume on the future. We presume that future cash inflows will cover cash outflows. We presume that future property values will be higher than present values. We presume that the economic future will always be as good or better than the present. When the future doesn't turn out like we presumed, then debt begins to affect our lives, our ministries, our businesses, our country, our future.

Although it may not be realistic to completely avoid debt (each of us has to make our own determination), I think we have to carefully consider the pitfalls before we enter debt obligations. We should include the worst case scenario in our assessment of the future. If we aren't careful our debt will control our future.

Recent Change to Cell Phone Rules

I read this today. A new rule included in a recently enacted small business tax relief act may change the way that churches handle cell phones provided to staff. The article suggests awaiting further guidance from the IRS before altering policies on cell phones.

8 Federal Issues for Churches to Watch

Just read this article about 8 federal issues for churches to watch. Included items are:

• Pastor Housing Allowance
• Health Care Reform
• Expiring Tax Deductions
• Worker Classification
• Fraud

Some of it is speculation right now, but some is reality. It's worth keeping an eye on it.

More Health Care Reform Learning

I attended a seminar on the Payment Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 yesterday. It was offered by our benefits provider The Healy Group and was very informative. If you have the opportunity to attend a seminar to help explain what's contained in the 2,400 page bill, I recommend it. Some things I learned:

• To keep health insurance coverage "as is" or "grandfathered" the coverage as of March 23, 2010 must be documented. In addition all changes to the plan after that date must also be documented. The reason is that there are several common changes that will cause a plan to lose "grandfathered" status like cutting or reducing benefits, significantly raising coinsurance, co-payments, deductibles, lowering employer contributions, and changing insurance carriers.
• For plan years after September 2010, insurers are no longer able to refuse or limit coverage for children with pre-existing conditions. Children up to age 26 will be allowed to stay on their parents' insurance plan.
• A new tax of 10% was added to tanning services starting July 2010.
• As of June 2010 a new high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions who haven't had insurance for at least 6 months was created.
• There is a small business tax credit available for small businesses.
• Starting in 2011, over the counter drugs like aspirin or claritin will no longer be reimburseable from an HSA/FSA/HRA account.
• In 2011, The excise tax on non-qualified distributions from an HSA increases from 10% to 20%.
• In 2011, Employers are required to report on Form W-2 the aggregate cost of health coverage provided to employees in 2011.

New 1099 Rules in Health Care Legislation

I may be behind the curve, but I just learned about this in a class I attended yesterday. It seems that there are new 1099 reporting rules buried in the 2,400 page health care legislation that was passed earlier this year.

These new 1099 rules, if not repealed, will go into effect in January 1, 2012 and will require reporting payments of more that $600 to all vendors not just independent contractors. This will also require collecting TINs from all vendors.

The net effect will be that it will require more time, cost, and effort to collect TINs from all vendors as well as more time and effort preparing 1099s. For example, we normally do a handful of 1099s for independent contractors each year. After 2012, we'll have to prepare several hundred 1099s each year.

Health Insurance Costs Increasing?

I've read a couple of articles like this one and this one recently. They all suggest that health insurance costs will rise for individuals and small businesses as a result of the recently enacted health care reform.

Further evidence of this potential increase in costs was the 26% rate increase that our insurance provider quoted us to renew our insurance coverage this year. Additionally, they refused to negotiate any rate relief with us. To be fair, their reason for the increase was our unusually high loss ratio - not health care reform. Needless to say, whatever the reason, we're shopping for a new insurance provider again this year.

Thought I'd put this out there as a heads up for any churches or small businesses with less than 100 employees.

Giving Webinar Today at Noon

I'll be participating in this webinar with Anthony Coppage from Fellowship Tech and Casey Graham from the Change Group. Should be an interesting discussion.

This is a Big Problem!

Ever seen the US DEBT CLOCK? WOW! This is a problem!

In fact, Secretary of State Hilliary Clinton, said recently that it has eroded our ability to "chart our own destiny" and poses a "national security threat". That makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

My Observations from looking at the Debt Clock:

Savings Per Citizen: $1,033.00 (Really? Guess everyone has an emergency fund)

Personal Debt per Citizen: $52,407.00 (That explains the savings)

National Debt per Taxpayer: $120,577.00

Unfunded Liability per Citizen: $355,217.00 (Sure...Social Security and Medicare are solvent)

US Total Debt per Citizen: $665,047.00 (Guess I better update my balance sheet)


This is unsustainable. We've got to stop spending more than we earn from the upper echelons of government down to each and every individual. Our freedom is at stake.

Interesting Way to Filter Resumes

Read this article about filtering resumes. Found it intersting.

GP 2010 - On the Way

We're upgrading to Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) 2010 today. I'm pretty excited about it. Yes only an accountant can get excited about accounting software. This version is supposed to have some pretty cool collaboration tools, reporting tools, and workflow efficiencies built in. I'm looking forward to figuring out how to use them.

Struggling Cities Eye Taxes, Fees for Churches

That headline to this article caught my eye. What!? Tax churches! Tax money that was already taxed before the donors gave it? Charge fees per member? That'll never happen in America...Right?

From the article:

"As local governments desperately seek ways to cover budget deficits, the debate about taxing nonprofits and churches will only heat up"

“With federal, state, and local budgetary shortfalls in abundance, we should expect to see increasing pressure on churches and other charities to help bridge the funding gap,” Busby says. “For example, a proposal was recently made and defeated in New Jersey to tax charities $100 per employee per year. Encroachment on property tax exemptions will likely be an area where government will become the most aggressive.”

This doesn't surprise me. Common sense tells me that we can't possibly cover the federal, state, and local obligations that our governments have indebted us to (Can you say hundreds of trillions?). My guess is that, unless something drastically changes in our governments' spending habits, Struggling Cities, States, and United States will be eying taxes and fees on just about everything and everyone in the very near future.

Is your church ready to "help bridge the (government) funding gap"?

Eye Opening Meal Portion Sizes

I just read this post regarding Meal Portion Sizes. It was very eye opening. Made me realize that I probably eat 2 to 3 times the normal portion size at most meals. Wow.

Response To Giving Kiosk Inquiry

We just started using the kiosks last fall. So, we don’t even have a full year in yet. Our intent when we implemented the kiosks was to offer people who don’t carry cash or check the ability to give while they’re in the building and to cover the cost of the machines in the first year. I’d say that we’ve satisfied our intent.

Here’s what I can tell you regarding the kiosks. Success with the kiosks depends a lot on your church culture, how the kiosks are rolled out to your congregation, and where the kiosks are placed.

For the 4 months from September through December 2009, we had 63 new General Offering donors give on the kiosks. Their first donations totaled $9,600 with an average gift of $152. These 63 donors subsequently gave $22,000 by the end of the year. Overall we had 226 new donors to the General Offering during the September thru December period. Thus 28% of our new donors came through the kiosk during that period. We took in a total of $95,500 in General offerings on the kiosks in 4 months for an average of $23,900/mo.

This year we’ve had 17 new General Offering donors giving over $1,000 to date. Total new General Offering Donors to date is 143. So, 12% of our new General Offering donors this year came through the kiosk. We’ve taken in $133,880 in General Offerings on the kiosks which is around $30,000/mo.

Fees for the transactions are consistently around 3% of what was given.

For the Period September thru December 2009, the average General Offering donation on the kiosk was $76. For the current year the average is $85 per gift.

Fellowship Tech Dynamic Church 10

I'm at the DC 10 conference this week. I'm pretty excited about some
stuff they have coming over the next few years. Here are some of
the things I'm excited about:

1. Opening the Giving API which will lead to Remote Deposit Capture
and Mobile Giving.

2. New Report Writer. Got a sneak preview this morning. It's going
to be sweet. Ad Hoc reporting, graphs and charts, dashboards, and a
lot of user design capability.

3. Leann will like this. Mass update for Contributions.

Lots of good stuff on the way. It's really hard to be patient and
wait for it to come.

Jason Powell is a Rock Star

I''m glad to be part of the jpowell posse at DC 10. He's a rock star
here. This is a photo of him on the F1 Champion Panel. He was awesome.

Sent from my iPhone

The Next Step for The Church

I was reading this article that Bob forwarded to me and it reminded me why we're reading this book as a staff



As we read we're discussing how the church reaches the vast majority of people who don't or won't come to church. How do we reach those people who are OK with spirtuality, God, and Jesus, but not OK with The Church. It's an interesting read and an interesting conversation.

Vacation, Space Shuttle Launch, Internal Control

What do they have in common? Read on to find out.

I recently had the opportunity to vacation in Orlando, Florida. What a week! Great weather and great fun.

The highlight for me was getting to see a Space Shuttle launch. I love things with big motors like muscle cars, race cars, jet planes, and the space shuttle. I've always wanted to see a launch. We missed it by a day or two the last time we were in Orlando. Not this year. This year, along with what seemed to be 8,000,000 others, we made it to the launch and it was awesome! Check out the video below from my Canon Powershot S3IS. Sorry about the injustice the camera work does to this event as well as the cheesy commentary.



What does all of this have to do with Internal control you ask? Well, in addition to being a healthy thing to do, we think that taking one full week of vacation is an important internal control for our Finance Department. Even though it's sometimes difficult to leave for a full week and let that work pile up. It's also helpful to take a week away from work to diffuse any suspicion that someone is doing something fraudulent and can't leave for a week lest their scheme is discovered.

I recommend requiring all Finance Staff to take a full week of vacation each year as a healthy internal control for any organization.

One of The Greatest Golf Shots I've Seen

This is one of the greatest golf shots I've ever seen!! I was so amazed, I watched it several times in a row on my DVR. This shot took a huge amount of courage to hit. The difficulty of this shot is off the charts. This is a slightly closed 6 Iron (to produce lower, draw trajectory and longer distance) from 207 yards, off the pine needles, through a 4 ft gap in the trees, over a creek, and to within 4 ft. of the hole, for an eagle try...with the lead in The Masters. With the number of really small things that could have made this shot a disaster, It was executed perfectly.

A lot of people, including me, questioned Phil's choice of driver on 18 in 2006 at The U.S. Open at Winged Foot. A lot of people would have questioned this choice as well if it hadn't been executed perfectly. However, that's the type of risk/reward that leads to a win. Congratulations to Phil on an amazing shot and a great win.

I'm Proud of Our Volunteers!

I want to take a minute to brag on our finance volunteers here at GCC. THEY"RE AWESOME! They work behind the scenes week in and week out to help us do all kinds of things like: count and process our weekly offerings, process our weekly non-contribution deposits, track the checks we receive in the mail, post journal entries, and on and on. They are invaluable.

In addition to helping with these tasks, they also provide a key internal control procedure by helping us separate duties between control over assets (cash) and control over the accounting system. I can't thank them enough.

All of these folks take great pride in their work and they are extremely accurate. We recently completed our annual financial audit. Our auditors were stunned by how accurately our teams do their work. They couldn't believe how much of the paperwork prepared by the volunteers agreed to our bank records. They actually asked if the staff prepared the paperwork after the bank processed deposits. I just told them that we don't have to do that. Our volunteers do great work. Way to go team!

I'm so grateful that these folks use and that we give them the opportunity to use their God-given talents to help us advace the Kingdom of Christ here at GCC.

Interest Rates Headed Higher?

I don't know for sure, but this article made it sound like an issue of when not if. Looks like the era of super low interest rates may be nearing it's end.

Need to Know - Donations for Haiti Relief

I read this article about the new tax laws related to Haiti earthquake relief. I'm considering the best course of action for GCC. If your church took donations for Haiti Earthquake relief you may want to read the article and consider the best course of action for your church.

Are there Opportunities for Software Savings?

I read this article today. It reminded me of some of the decisions that we've made recently to save on software and software services.

• We switched payroll providers and save thousands of dollars per year.
• We assessed our accounting system needs and made some changes to our accouting software which saved us thousands of dollars as well.

I agree with the article. If you need to find ways to save money, it's a good time to review software costs to see if you're paying for software you no longer need.

I also was intrigued by this quote from the article:

"Also, companies are more likely to have software that is not a good fit for its intended users — and thus is underutilized — when the finance department drives purchase decisions, contends Brush. That's because when finance is in control, the decision often comes down to price, not utility, she says."

This is why, around GCC, the finance team doesn't make decisions about purchases for other departments. We're not in a position to know what's best for their ministry. The ministry team leaders are in a much better position to partner with our Tech Ops team and decide what the best solution for the best value is for their needs.

Guardrails & Rumble Strips

Our pastor, Mark gave a brilliant message this last weekend about parenting. In the message, he made a great analogy about guardrails and rumble strips. On the road, they keep us in our lane and from veering off course or over the edge. When applied to our lives, they are boundaries that keep us well on our path and keep us from dancing on the edge of disaster.

Although Mark was talking about parenting, I thought about some of the guardrails and rumble strips that we have in our financial lives that keep us from going over the financial cliff. Here are a few that crossed my mind:

1. Emergency or Rainy Day Fund - This fund is money that is saved for emergencies. $1,000 is a great starting point, but it should grow to several months worth of expenses. This fund provides payment for car repairs or for roof repairs or for expenses in the case of lost income. It guards against using debt to fund emergency expenses.
2. Insurance - Auto, home, health and life insurance guard against catastrophic loss caused by events that can't be predicted or controlled. These are important safeguards.
3. A will - An important safeguard against the inappropriate and unwanted treatement of children, life insurance, and other assets when someone dies. Parents have a responsibility to their children to have a will in place. My wife and I don't have a lot of money, but we do have children, life insurance, and a will. We want to control what happens to those things if something happens to us.
4. A Budget or Spending Plan - Guards against ending up in a financial crisis by requiring a plan for each dollar that is earned and disallowing expenses to be greater than income. Helps to safeguard against using debt to fund expenses.
5. Long Term Financial Plan and Investing - Another safeguard against using debt to fund future expenses. Guards against a future with no plan and no money to fund it. It is each individual's responsibility to plan for and fund his or her future - no one else's.
6. Debit Cards - Help Guard against using credit card debt while providing the ease of use and convenience of a credit card.

Giving Kiosk Update

I was finally able to determine how many people gave for the first time on our giving kiosks.

During the 4 months we used the kiosks in 2009, we had 69 people give for the first time on the kiosks. In total, those 69 people subsequently gave $15,225 through the end of 2009.

Self Control & Financial Peace

This past weekend at GCC was a Financial Freedom weekend. We had the opportunity to hear from one of the great Personal Finance Professors of our time - Dave Ramsey. I love Dave. He has an incredible talent for teaching about personal finance in a clear, concise, and entertaining way. Dave said these things that stuck with me:

1. All of our money is God's. We're managers or stewards.
2. The Borrower is Slave to the Lender (Prov. 22:7) We've got to reduce and eliminate debt in our lives. I believe this is becoming increasingly more urgent. What if the people of God had no payments? Would the Kingdom of God blossom in a different way?
3. Have a written plan. Develop a budget and stick to it. This is essential to success.
4. "Act your Wage." Live within your means. Spend less than you earn. Prov. 21:20 A foolish man devours all he has. 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. There is no margin.
5. "Save for a rainy day." "I'm positive it's going to rain." There is going to be trouble in your life. Save up an emergency fund to prepare for that trouble in advance.
6. Give. The tithe is the minimum. Givers ROCK. Giving changes your life. Giving is a natural by-product of 1-5 above. It really gets fun when you become an awsome, lavish, luxurious giver.

So, why doesn't everyone do this? Why isn't everyone physically fit? Dave said that if he could get control of the person in the mirror, he could be skinny and rich. Mark said it starts with self-control. He cited 2 Peter 1:2-12 and specifically verse 6. Add to knowledge self-control.

We're offering an opportunity here at GCC to get knowledge and to encourage self-control through the Financial Peace University course that starts Monday, Feb. 22. Find out more here.

Super Bowl XLIV

Well, it was a disappointing loss for my Colts last night. Both teams played a great game, but in the end, the Saints were the better team last night.

I wasn't that impressed with the commercials. I liked a couple of them. The e-trade baby commercial was pretty funny. This one was my favorite:



For the life of me, I can't figure out why this one caused so much controversy.



Anyhow, good night and good game. Congratulations to the Saints!

GO COLTS! WIN SUPERBOWL XLIV!

Should Churches Accept Credit Cards for Offerings?

I've had a lot of conversations recently about our giving kiosks and online giving. It seems like every conversation turns to: "As a church, we're wrestling with whether or not we should accept credit cards for giving? We teach Financial Peace University. Should we offer the credit card option?" I always offer an extemely helpful answer: I don't know.

The fact is that this is a question every church has to answer on its own. A strict Dave Ramsey Fundamentalist would say absolutely not. I respect that. However, a more "flexible" Dave Ramsey follower might say that there are those in the congregation who use their credit card regularly, for budgeted expenses, and it off every month. Those folks who use their credit card responsibly might appreciate being able to use their credit card to make their contribution so that they can benefit from the points or air miles. Also a valid argument. In fact, I've never talked to anyone who told me that they got themselves into deep credit card debt by over giving to their church on their credit card. Most folks seem to be very "responsible" when it comes to giving to their church.

At GCC, we take the flexible approach. We know that there are donors who are responsible with their credit card and we give them the opportunity to give with their credit card. For those who are prone to getting in trouble with a credit card, we strongly discourage the use of a credit card to make donations. For them, cash, check, or debit card is a more responsible choice.

No matter how a church lands on this issue, there are ways to accept electronic giving that will help to boost giving with or without credit cards. Our giving kiosks by SecureGive have the option to only accept debit cards. Fellowship One, our online giving tool provides the option to give using debit card or electronic check. Both solutions provide the opportunity to accept credit cards.

Kiosk Update/Stats

This is a follow up to a previous post about our SecureGive Giving Kiosks. I've been getting a lot of questions about our giving kiosks. Questions like: Are you happy? Has your giving increased? Do they integrate with Fellowship One? So, I'm going to try to answer some of those questions in this post.

• Between September 11 and December 31, we took in almost 1,250 donations on the kiosks and we received just over $100,000. That's $80/donation and $25,000/month.
• Kiosk donations accounted for 4% of our overall donations in the last four months of 2009.
• We paid around 3% in fees on those donations.
• We have 3 machines. 2 on our Granger Campus and 1 on our Elkhart Campus.
• 1,166 of the donations totalling $92,500 were received on the Granger Campus.
• The most visible machine took in 792 donations for $57,800
• The less visible machine took in 374 donations for $34,700
• 80 of the donations and $7,300 were received on the Elkhart Campus.
• Prior to September, we averaged 42 new donors/month to our General Fund. Between September and December we averaged 67 new givers/month to our General Fund.
• Average monthly giving increased 3% in the last four months of 2009.
• We believe that the kiosks are drawing new donors and adding to the amount being donated to our church.
• The kiosk data can be uploaded to Fellowship One, but the two systems aren't directly connected. It took several months to get the process in place and there is a lot of manual effort involved, but it can be done. There is a lot of room for improvement in this area.
• The kiosks are very easy to use. There is some effort required for first time users to set up some basic information. You can also upload donor information from F1 prior to using the kiosks so that most of your donors don't have to input any information to get started. After that, you type in your phone number, choose your fund, type in the amount you want to give, then swipe your card. It's that easy.
• The kiosks take debit and credit card or just debit cards for you Dave Ramsey disciples.
• I recommend good communication about why the kiosks are being used prior to making them available.
• After making them available, continue to remind donors that they're available.
• Experiment with placement to make sure they are placed in an optimal location for visibility and privacy. There needs to be a happy medium. If they're extremely private, they may not be very visible. If they're extremely visible, the may not be very private.

We're very happy with our giving kiosks. They've already served us well. They have been an excellent add to our giving options.