TO: Interested
Onliners or Ministries
FROM:
Jim Bramer, Retired CPA-Auditor
FILE:
0210-02/jrnl
RE: J I
M 's J R N L for the Month of October 2002
Originated: October 2002
PURPOSE: To contribute to making your Ministry Finance Team more effective:
This Journal process allows me to share some rather personal comments/thoughts (and sometimes written Prayers) about Ministry Finance issues during this month of October 2002. Please go to 0200 for further explanation and links to earlier JIM's JRNLs. Four digit links below xxxx come from www.bcidot.org . See list of Frequently Used Vocational Terms at the bottom of this document. If you would like to receive the monthly JIM's JRNL during the first week of the subsequent month, please join the following Yahoo Group: ---- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JIMsJRNL/. Caution --- the non www.bcidot.org web links that I reference in these JIMs JRNLs; do NOT imply my endorsement per se. Further, if any of the links below do not work, let us know which one at LINK@bcidot.org. Incidentally, our more recent www.bcidot.org links (Web Docs) can be found at 9710.
Click on the topic below and go to the day it was mentioned.
- Bank Reconciliations - weekly
- Benevolent Fund Issues
- BIG PIX -one page "Key Item" Ministry Finance report
- CMS-Church Management Software - updated annual info via Nick N and Christian Computing Magazine
- Employee vs sub-contractor
- Evangelical Christian Credit Union - ECCU - "More than Money" publication
- Fiscal Year End (FYE) and remote CPA-Audit needs met largely via use of the Internet, etc.
- Flagable (red, yellow green flags) effort
- "Gift in Kind" and/or Auction matters
- Grade Report of Ministry Finances by the CPA-Auditor
- Hypothetical Conversation Format - THRDs via www.bcidot.org
- Insurance and inventory re tangible Fixed Assets
- Internal Financial Controls Info - via consultant KERN-DeWENTER-VIERE
- IRS "Charitable Contributions" publication 1771 - as of March 2002
- Ministry Finance Team (MFTeam) - 7 days of Prayer
- Most Important Financial Issues (MIFIs) helps
- Personal Services .... not deductible as a Charitable Contribution
- Policies -- Finance-procedures - that includes more resources from KERN-DeWENTER-VIERE
- PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) sample financials & related matters
- Prayer of Dedication of JIM's JRNL monthly emailing
- Prayer with regard to Christian School Accounts Receivable - SCHAR
- Quickbooks - Use of such for Ministry Fund Accounting and fiscal year end closing steps, etc.
- School Accounts Receivable at Christian Schools - testimonial re use of ECCU's "Tuition Direct" l
- "Special Purpose Funds" in the Old Testament
- Tasks, Finance responsibility lists, etc
- Yahoo Group - "Church -Admin" past Yahoo Group information during 2001 and portions of 2002
- Yahoo Group - "Use of Quickbooks to do Ministry Fund Accounting" sharing via a Yahoo Group
I like to define a policy as: "What a -entity/person- always does , or what we never do, under the specified and understood circumstances." Many times a policy is instituted but not placed in writing and formally agreed to by the ruling body. If you do not have written Ministry Finance Policies I suggest that you begin with a quick fix .... namely, you answer YES or NO questions in the FAQ within 5001. Hopefully, your Church will complete this process more formally as they obtain the 5005 referenced Word doc. You will notice that 5005 hyperlinks to resources on www.bcidot.org as the Church personalizes their unique financial policies, etc Consultants KERN-DeWENTER-VIERE per this Article have also provided some Online Policy and Procedures manual resources that you will find helpful.
Dear Heavenly Father. Again I want to praise and glorify your wonderful Name. How awesome you are and to think that you were willing to send your only Son to remedy my personal sin problem. How can I thank you enough. Yesterday's sharing reminded me that I need to present to You again my continued interest in being of help to Christian Schools. As you know, Lord, I am not directly working with one now and my heart's desire is that Christian Schools particularly deal in the right way with what PARENTS OWE THE SCHOOL. Oh Lord, I now re-dedicate the contents of the "School Accounts Receivable-SCHAR" portion of www.bcidot.org toward that end. In the precious name of the Lord Jesus, Amen
When you you go to u 0209 you will better understand why ECCU's Tuition Direct services to Christian Schools mean so much to me. The endorsement by the Apple Valley Christian School in Southern California (click here) is especially encouraging since they were one of the first users of this service in the 1980s and they still use it.
Recently Fran ( plse go to 0046 re fictional MFTeam members) contacted me and expressed some concerns about how to carry forward SPFund balances to the new fiscal year when using our recommended QBooks Ministry Fund Accounting Method 1. After following the QBooks Hands On Sample steps beginning at 0079, Fran is no longer concerned about the recalcitrant year end QB Retained Earnings account.
As I have mentioned here, I am really impressed with the available Yahoo Group resource to Church Administrators when you click here. A VERY generous Brother has made available his "***.pst" files via Microsoft Outlook of year 2001 and YTD 2002 earlier group interaction on this Yahoo Group web site when you click here and follow the protocol. This person's email address is bbishop@gracecommunitychurch.org
Thursday, October 24, 2002 info
Written Job Descriptions are needed as someone assumes a specific paid or volunteer position. But what we have done within 0074 is to make a list of likely Ministry Finance tasks and then allow the Ministry leaders assign said tasks to the applicable entity/person. This is a little different, but I trust it helps you to 'cover all the bases.' Understandably, your task list will likely be different than this one.
As we continue to emphasis within JIMs JRNL, Financial Internal Controls within a Ministry is vital. I hope you find this Article provided Online by KERN-DeWENTER-VIERE some more help along these lines.
I am convinced that those really interested in the finances at a Ministry need to have the desirable overview of both what has gone on and where they are. I have attempted to portray such key items in what I call a "Big Pix" one page financial report. When you digest the content of the 5012 example, you have a snap shot of what has gone on within the SPFunds plus the GPFund in relationship to the authorized budget. It also succinctly shows the operating assets and the obligation groups who belong to such assets. You, of course, would personalize a Big Pix to your unique situation.
The Evangelical Christian Credit Union (ECCU) is a terrific resource to those who know Christ as their Personal Lord and Savior; plus to said Ministries. I really enjoyed serving on their Board for most of 1980s when I was in Southern California. I trust you click here and sign up for their MORE THAN MONEY periodic emails. Since moving to Fresno in 1994 we have been very satisfied to Bank Without Bricks.
Within the context of Ministry Fund Accounting, please notice how we define Special Purpose Funds - SPFunds when you click here. It might interest you to know that when you read 0070 you will find that there were SPFunds way back in the Old Testament.
A
Ministry Finance Team member and I were addressing a specific
issue which I presented as a Forum THRD ( see
0046
) and he shared this
with me: "I am sure for many this approach helps them
understand the situation, Jim, but it is a little hard for me to
relate to your hypothetical conversation format." My response was: "Thanx for sharing ... please
give some feed back as to an alternative format with these written communication
objectives in mind : 1> Present a generic statement of
Ministry financial facts - not share private Ministry
info; 2> Provide Q & A like interaction
structure ... preferably with a generic
member of a Ministry Finance Team - again with privacy in mind,
3> Hopefully identify and solve the named Ministry Finance
issue
This fellow MFTeam member then
concluded maybe this was as good as anything, under the circumstances. Feed back from any JIM's JRNL reader
about an alternative format to
JRNL@bcidot.org is also VERY welcome.
The administration of the Benevolent Fund (some of you call it the Deacons Fund, or something similar) at a Church often is a challenge. Especially when people want to "pass through" gifts to those who they believe need help. I trust the protocol as set forth within 5021 helps your Church to conclude how best to handle Benevolent Fund matters.
I trust all of you are aware of the resources found at www.charitychannel.com. My interest was piqued by the topic of "Auction Checkout" in one of their EVENTS Discussion threads. Jack Wilson at www.nwsoftware.com provided some great helps along these lines. You also might find Gifts in Kind information within 0055 of value.
Please read the content of this 1101 link regarding some sample QB provided financial reports for a PTO (Parent Teachers Organization). Particularly click here and go to some PTO Budget and Forms information on this 1101 link by a very special lady who often refers to herself as "Critter", but I prefer to call her "Christy Forhan".
Please do your best to change red or yellow flags to green flags as you evaluate your "flagable" fiscal affairs when you go through the process set forth within the content of 0039
It is always desirable to "hone in" on what is most important. With that thought in mind, I trust you find some enabling help from the content of our MIFI (Most Important Financial Issues) link at 0122 .
I am reading the October 2002 copy of Christian Computing Magazine - subscribe and get your copy via www.ccmag.com . Church management consultant-author Nick B. Nicholaou ( nick@mbsnet.com ) has provided within this edition some FANTASTIC CMS (Church Management Software) resource information as shown when you click here.
You will note when reading 5432 that a remote NoName Church Ministry provided fiscal year end information to their CPA Auditing firm using the Internet. Annual financial transactions (Trial Balances, even copies of their General Ledger), worksheets and year end documents were converted to Excel and then to web pages. Cross references from a web page document to various supporting documents were done using the Internet's hyperlink tools --- plus use of Adobe scan/print out features. The Ministry generated annual report according to GAAP and placed them on web pages, or produced via Word and sent by Email attachment. This could be especially helpful when the CPA Audit firm has multiple year Audit or Review engagement as described with 0003.
As of March 14, 2002 the IRS has a new publication 1771 called "Charitable Contribution - Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements" that all Ministries should understand. It can be obtained and printed out via Adobe by going to http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1771.pdf .
In my hearing this past week I heard someone ask Fran how things were going in using Quickbooks to do the monthly Bank reconciliation. Fran's response was something like: "Oh, I get the Bank Statement Online from the bank and do it weekly .... it makes it a lot easier and and I can more closely see that the checking account has in it only the money it needs with the balance in our Daily Interest Bearing Savings/Money Market Account." Fran then proceeded to share the content of ( 0165 ) with this person.
I learned recently that a Church make full use of (
0055 )
which covers the
topic of non-deductible personal services as a charitable
contribution, etc. Or, in essence, a substantial roof
on the facility needed to be updated. Various bids were in the
neighborhood of $90,000, but a very gracious contractor charged
the Church only some $48,000. The Church obviously was most
thankful. The contractor took his business expenses on this
job as write offs, but no charitable contribution as such.
Saturday, October 5, 2002
I am a part of a
Ministry Finance Team that I can
drive to and from the same day for
their monthly meetings. This week the
Ministry's CPA-Auditor met with us
and presented his annual
attestation (it this case it was annual review
and not an opinion audit). Part
of what he did was to pass out one of
the two page grade reports
you can learn about when you go to (
0128 ).
He then went through it item by item as he gave us his
grades and where he felt the
Ministry had weaknesses. We all
pretty much agreed with him and discussed
some ways to make improvements.
Kinda rewarding to see another CPA-Auditor use these tools.
I learned of this the other day. XYZ Ministry is brand new and they retained Fran to help occasionally with administrative duties. Fran was being paid as a sub-contractor with no payroll tax withholdings and I set forth a red flag ( 0024 ) at the time. It is of real encouragement for me to learn that their Ministry Finance Team ( 0000 ) now requires the necessary (though burdensome) employee payroll tax withholding/processing, etc.
How long has it been since you have reviewed your Facility and Equipment insurance coverage? Do you have an inventory, or a documentation mentioned in the following: http://www.crown.org/newsletter/default.asp?issue=297&articleid=102 Perhaps the content of 0033 will help you with a needed Fixed Asset Inventory.
Prayer is vital to your Ministry, right!!!! Your MFTeam, or Ministry Finance Team (0000) needs prayerful intervention. Hopefully the content of (0034) contributes to this happening 7 days a week
My goal is to NOT bore you with personal matters..... but today Bettie and I are celebrating 49 years of wedded bliss. Something news worthy, wouldn't you say !
Good morning, Lord. You are the Almighty and I praise your Wonderful Name. Today I am writing out this prayer as I seek the intended effectiveness of this JIM's JRNL publication as I dedicate it to You. Unless You indicate very clearly otherwise, Lord, my plan is to email this out the first week of every month to interested Onliners. My prayer is that the content of JIMs JRNL will contribute to the effectiveness of their Ministry Finance Team as would be pleasing to You. In the name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Amen
Frequently Used Vocational Terms Above:
GAAP = Generally Accepted Accounting Principles/Practices; GPFund or GPF = General Purpose Fund; MFTeam or MFT= Ministry Finance Team; QBooks or QB = Quickbooks; SPFund or SPF = Special Purpose Fund
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Click here and go to a list of earlier JIM's JRNL -- Contact is: JimRetCPA@bcidot.org
This Document was last updated on May 01, 2008 05/01/2008 08:24 AM