Congregation Draft

This is MY time of year!  Sunday and Monday night are events that I’m looking forward to.  You guessed it, FANTASY FOOTBALL LIVE DRAFT!  I’m in two leagues for the first time this year.  One is with my good friends I served with in South Africa and the other is a new league that includes my dad, brother and other family and friends.  I’m no pro at this, the best I’ve done is 5th place, but I have so much fun participating.  My forte is definitely in the trash talking department. 

Now I was wondering what it would be like if you were a pastor drafting your congregation.  Would you go for the money people?  How about those that are there every time the doors are open?  Maybe the encouragers?  But what about those that nobody wants like the injured players that won’t get drafted?  Would you draft the complainer?  How about the guy who won’t give a dime or tells you you’re doing it all wrong? 

When I think about it Jesus drafted ALL of us!  He even took those in prison, those that SHOULD be in prison, those that bad mouth him and even me!  Maybe tomorrow when we see someone walk thru the door that doesn’t fit the mold we have in our mind of who should be at our church you should go up and greet them with a smile and tell them you’re really glad they’re there.  Remember, Jesus drafted them at the same time he drafted you!

What is this thing in my pocket???

Last week I went to Maryland to work at a church for a few days.  When I was leaving my hotel room I gave it not one but TWO last minute checks to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything.  Being certain that I hadn’t I went on my merry way.  Arriving home I realized that my cell phone charger was NOT in my bag.  Yep, it must still be plugged into the lamp on the bedside table at the hotel.  The next day I ran down to the Sprint store to get a new one thinking it would be around ten bucks.  I should have known when the store clerk looked at my phone and said he didn’t think they had a cord for that phone any more that I was in trouble.  He found one in the back and it was going to be fourty three bucks and change.  Well, that was WAY too much so I decided it was time for a new phone since it was time for the discount on buying one there. 

Now comes the time of total confusion.  Why does there have to be seemingly thousands of different phones to buy?  This one does this or that but this other one does even more!  What to do?  I finally decided on one and walked out the door with this new “thing” in my pocket.  The first time it rang I didn’t know how to answer it.  It then made another weird noise and had no idea what it was for.  I’m not going to give you all the details and show my age but answering calls is still the hardest part, though I can now handle texts, emails, voice mails, and of course play the games that I was able to download free to my phone!  If only I’d had this thing in the Dallas airport for hours on end waiting for American to find a plane that works.  Not just one way but both! 

I’m still trying to get my fat fingers to type on the touch screen, which seems easier than the Qwerty (I think that’s what it’s called) key pad.  I’ve figured out the basics of apps like the GPS and internet and am very happy that I can listen to Pandora.  If you don’t use Pandora on your computer or phone you’re missing out!  Thanks to my daughter for introducing this to me! 

I’m sure there are gazillions of things I don’t know how to use on this thing that rides around with me in my pocket but give me time and “maybe” I’ll get it all figured out!

By the way businesses and churches, are you paying your employees a fully taxable cell phone allowance instead of giving them one paid by your business or church?  If not, each of your employees must keep detailed call records of ALL calls they make on the phone and you’ll need to add these expenses to their W2′s.  Make it easier and pay them a cell phone allowance that is paid thru payroll…..

ELECTRONIC GIVING

When I’m in the checkout line at the grocery store I absolutely HATE IT when the person in front of me pulls out their checkbook to pay.  First off, they don’t ever seem to start writing the check until AFTER they have a total.  Then they write very slowly, trying to remember how to write out “One Hundred Twenty Seven and 33/100″.  Then after they finally have the check ripped out, the cashier runs it thru a machine that seems to not work until the 5th time, then they write down all sorts of info taken from the infamous drivers license.  By this time I’ve read all the magazine covers, coveted anything chocolate at hand (probably having grabbed a bag of peanut M&M’s) and am promising never to buy more than what I can take thru the express lane!  Today people pay with a DEBIT or CREDIT card!  Swipe that sucker while the cashier runs thru your groceries and click yes to approve the total.  BINGO, you’re on your way and the next person hasn’t finished the magazine covers!  Even my 84 year old dad now pays this way!  All our bills get paid online and I can’t even remember what a stamp costs any more.

However, some churches haven’t realized this yet.  They assume that people will either have $200 cash in their pocket or their checkbook handy.  To be honest there are times I can’t remember where the checkbook is!!!  If your church is considering receiving giving in some electronic form then read this article that I found very interesting.

HIRING NEW STAFF

Churches are interesting to say the least!  I think that one of the most important decisions they have to make is dealing with new staff.  I ran upon a blog that sort of gave both sides.  Click here and enjoy!  Let me know what you think after reading it.

HIDDEN IDENTITY

What if I came to your church or organization as a new employee?  Probably not that big a deal right?  Well, what if I had a hidden TV camera on me that would show everything behind the scenes that went on in your church or organization?  What would the world see when it aired on national TV? 

We’re talking Board and Committee meetings, staff meetings, and of course…… how much your church spent and how you spent it. How about the attitudes of each employee or what they say about parishioners or customers when nobody is around?  Would we see people working hard or hardly working?  Employees that are under paid or over paid?  How about those accounting practices?  Would they pass ALL IRS regulations or just MOST?

It’s something we (including ME) should think about!  Not to mention that the Big Guy upstairs sees it all any way.  OUCH!

A Few “Oversights” That Churches Make

I’ve been working with churches now for nearly 10 years and have come upon a number of “situations” that a number of them aren’t “QUITE” accounting for correctly.  Could have something to do with the fact that they get Sister Agnes’s niece who needs a job to ”do the books” or maybe they’ve just “always done it this way”.  Here are a few that pop up their ugly heads way too often:

*  ”Let’s take an offering and give it to the staff for Christmas.”  Sounds like a great thing to me EXCEPT that they either get some cash out of the bank or write an A/P check.  WRONG!!!  It is TAXABLE INCOME to the staff.  Run it through payroll so it goes on their W2.

*  Here’s your cell phone pastor, it has 1,000 minutes per month so watch those minutes!  We’re paying for it so you won’t have to use any of your money!  WRONG!!!  Two ways to go about this, either give the pastor a monthly TAXABLE phone allowance OR he keeps track of all his personal calls made on the CHURCHES phone and this gets added to his W2. 

*  ”This is a CHURCH not a BUSINESS” is the statement I’ve heard more than once.  We don’t need a budget, the Lord will give us what we need.  The answer I WANT to come out of my mouth is “He already did by giving you a BRAIN” but then I’m not so sure he did sometimes.  Your Finance Committee should be going over the monthly financial statements (the what???) in detail and the Board/Vestry/Whatever it’s called in your church at least in summary MONTHLY.  Get some good software specifically for churches and take care of those hard earned gifts!  While you’re at it set up some solid controls to not only protect your assets but your emloyees from the temptation of “borrowing” some of them.

OK, enough ranting! If churches would only take care of their dollars half as well as those “Businesses” then they’d be in MUCH better shape and the risk of embezzelment would decrease significantly.  Get the House in order!!!

Out The Back Door

In working with various churches and small businesses I’m very surprised at the amount of funds going “out the back door”.  You may be wondering what that means, especially when I use the word “Church”.  This would be funds that are being used for various “non-authorized” expenditures.  Yep, I’m talking EMBEZZLEMENT here!  Now I’m sure you think it couldn’t happen to you or your organization because your accountant/bookkeeper/volunteer is totally trustworthy.  Well I have news for you.  It CAN!  If you’ll set up a few controls  you can significantly lower your risk of your funds going where they shouldn’t. 

• The person that inputs your invoices into your system and prints the checks should not be able to sign those checks. 
• The person that reconciles the bank statement should not be inputting or printing invoices, and definitely not signing those checks.
• More than one person should review the credit card statement monthly.  This includes making sure each transaction has a receipt AND explanation on an expense report, and also that you tick off each card from the summary.  I’ve seen an administrator reviewing the transactions of each person properly, but didn’t realize that he may not have ALL the cards from the account.
• Be extra careful when reviewing checks and credit card receipts for expenditures to vendors like your utilities, Walmart, etc.  They may look reasonable BUT they might be for someone’s personal accounts, not yours.
• Make sure your bookkeeper/accountant takes regular vacations.  It’s amazing what you might run into when they aren’t around.
• Someone other than your bookkeeper/accountant should be opening and reviewing the mail.  Are you receiving statements from vendors with overdue balances and don’t know it?  Are payments being applied on a timely basis?

These are just a few suggestions that may help you stay financially stable AND not see any of your hard earned funds going “Out The Back Door”!

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Once a month or more you probably go to the monthly “Finance Committee” meeting which is probably not your favorite place to be. You get a nice packet of papers telling you “all about” the organization’s finances. Now if you could just figure out what it all means! Does anybody really know what’s going on in all these numbers?

You may be the “Bank Account” type of person, meaning you look at the bank balance and see how much is left to spend. Or maybe you’re the Income Statement person, looking to see what the “Net Profit” is. But what in the world is a “Balance Sheet” or “Cash Flow Statement” and what are they showing me? Well let’s take a look at these and see if we can figure them out………….. in less than 3 sentences each!

The INCOME STATEMENT shows you the amount of sales you’ve made for a business or contributions received for a non-profit and the expenses you’ve incurred, normally for a specific month or year. The bottom line is your net income or loss for that period, meaning did I bring in more than I spent or not.

The BALANCE SHEET shows your financial position as of a certain date, normally the last day of the month or year. At the top of the statement are your Assets, such as cash, investments, accounts receivable, and finally fixed assets which are normally land, building and equipment. Next are your Liabilities, such as accounts payable and debt you may have to pay back. At the bottom is Stockholders Equity or Fund Balance if you’re a non-profit. This would include the stock or bonds that your company has issued plus the profits of the company from the beginning of your existence. Now this is a basic description but it’s a good start. OK, so I didn’t make the 3 sentence rule so shoot me! This is many times considered the most important financial statement so look at it and ask questions so you’ll understand it completely!

The CASH FLOW STATEMENT may or may not be included in your packet of information. The main thing that this statement is showing you is where your cash has come from and where it has gone, sort of a combination of the two statements above.

Now there will probably be a number of “Support Schedules” that you’ll receive. For a non-profit you may have a statement showing the inflows and outflows of various Restricted Funds. You may also have details of construction in process. The possibilities are limitless.

However, if you understand the Income Statement and Balance Sheet you’re off and running to understanding anything you will run into! I know many people that call themselves “Math Morons” that don’t think they can understand ALL THAT STUFF, but by asking questions and doing a little research ANYBODY can get it!

Innovation

We live in a world today that is constantly changing.  If your business, church or organization believes that the old ways are the only ways, well, good luck keeping the doors open.  Then there are those that are constantly changing, never slowing down enough to get organized.  I think a better word for change would be “innovation”.  Here is a blog I found concerning this topic that I thought was really informative.  So Happy Innovating everbody!

Computers

The other day a few of us were reminiscing about the “old days” when the PC first came out.  Remember when they actually put a 5 MB HARD DRIVE in a PC?  How about the first version of Lotus 1-2-3?  Churches and small business’s certainly didn’t do their accounting on anything but ledger paper or cards back then.  Now we have specialty software, databases, unlimited spreadsheets, etc. available to anybody and everybody.  Software like Quickbooks is used by millions of small organizations.  We can attach huge amounts of data to an email and send/receive on our “phones” if we choose. 

However, setting up a network for your church or business takes some knowledge.  Do you need a server?  If so, what kind?  What virus protection are you using?  Is your hardware/software up to date?  For a lot of you out there this means that you need to have someone that KNOWS WHAT THEY”RE DOING making these decisions.  Getting effective and regular backups can’t be a choice but a necessity in our world today! 

Don’t neglect your computer systems!  Get somebody to take care of it and you’ll be ready for anything!