- - - Rejoice in the Lord always ... again I say Rejoice !!! - - -

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                    TO: Interested Churches                                                                                                                              FROM: Jim Bramer, Retired CPA-Auditor
                                                                                                                                                                                                 FILE: 5024-02/chu   

                     RE: Church Building-Construction Issues                                                                                             Originated:  December 2002                       

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          Below is a hypothetical Online Email thread (THRD) between  Jim@bcidot,org  and one of the these Ministry MFTeam members: PAT (Ministry Executive), LEE (Ministry Volunteer Treasurer), and FRAN (Ministry Computer Bookkeeper).     Click here and go to List of threads (THRDs) at www.bcidot.org

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From  Lee:  

    Our Church's annual income is almost $500,000 per year and we have a new building project underway.  My understanding from reading some of your link contents within www.bcidot.org  is that we should manage the building project via a separate set of books from the general fund. Is this correct?   Oh,  by the way ..... we use Quickbooks (QB) to do our bookkeeping.

        From:   Jim@bcidot.org 

    This sounds like you have some 'growing pains'  -- trust all goes well.  If it were me, I would handle the receipts (to include both contributions and loan proceeds) and disbursement (often under project budget control) in a separate QB set of books.

From Lee:

    Please explain some of benefits in doing this as it sounds like a lot more work.

From: Jim

    OK ... but first let me show you below a suggested one page financial statement that gives you and other interested readers a overview of all of your annual Church finances.  Go to  5012  for more perspective on this approach.

        From Jim:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
2			Annual Church Operating Financials
3			October 1, xxx8 through September 30, xxx9
				(See BUILDING Only Below)
5	Church				Special	General	GPF Expend
	Totals				Funds	Fund (GPF)	Budget	Variance
7		Revenue:
8	$159,035		Donations		$73,481	$85,554
9			Cross Funds		$8,555	($8,555)
10	$4,579		Other			$4,579
11	$163,614		Total		$82,036	$81,578
12		Expenditures:
13	$51,847		Salaries/Benefits			$51,847	$51,900	($53)
14	$8,725		Rental/Debt Svc Costs			$8,725	$8,760	($35)
15	$4,150		Facility Operating Exp			$4,150	$4,200	($50)
16	$53,875		Mission Support		$53,875			$0
17	$20,642		Church Expenses		$3,500	$17,142	$17,040	$102
18	$25,845		Equipment Acquisition		$25,845	$0	$0	$0
19	$165,084			Total	$83,220	$81,864	$81,900	($36)
20	($1,470)	Excess Revenue (Expend)			($1,184)	($286)
21		Begin Bal Oct 1, xxxx8			$10,455
22		Ending Bal as computed			$9,271
		Spoken for as follows:
24			Board Discretionary		$2,955		Ending:
25			Restricted		$4,201		Bank Bal	$13,298
						General
27			Missions		$2,115	Fund Bal	(1) Less Bldg	$4,313
28					$0	below	Total	$8,985
29				Total Funds	$9,271	($286)	Cross proof is:	$8,985
				BUILDING FUND ACTIVITY
				Through September 30, xxx9
33	Receipts				Completed	Projects            Budget
34	· Donations				#1	$12,500	$15,000
35	·  B4 10-01-xxx8		$20,788		#2	$26,877	$25,000
36	·  Since 10-01-xxx8		$24,319		#3	$11,639	$10,000
37	·     Total		$45,107		#4	$27,723	$30,000
38	· Loan Proceeds		$32,500		Total	$78,739
39	Total