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They've asked me to be ...
Church Treasurer
THE PERSON
As Church Treasurer you will have a very rewarding and satisfying job: you may already be familiar with accounts, but even if you are not you may discover that the tasks are not nearly so daunting as you may have imagined.
In fact many of us are more experienced than we realise. We manage our household accounts, our bank accounts, credit card accounts and our monthly or quarterly payments out of our available income and we are doing this every day. You have been asked to become the Church Treasurer for the qualities of honesty and integrity that others have recognised in you.
Yes - it helps if you have an organised approach to work, a tidy mind and can think logically.
- it helps if you are willing to learn and are not afraid to ask for help.
- it helps if you have experience of clerical work.
The job involves you in every part of the life of the local church, gives you many opportunities to put your faith into practice as you advise, when asked to do so, on giving or on giving away or on choosing priorities for use of the church funds. You will be surprised how the members of the Church Meeting will be prepared to listen to you.
The description of procedures in the following pages may help you to make up your mind.
THE APPOINTMENT
You will be appointed by the Church Meeting on the recommendation of
the Elders Meeting. You are accountable to the Church Meeting and to
the Elders Meeting (though in practice and to avoid duplication many churches decide on one or the other). If there are co-signatories consider with the Elders who they should be and make a recommendation to the Church Meeting which needs to pass appropriate resolutions for new bank mandates.
Where the church has a Finance Committee you should automatically be
a member of it and that Committee will report to either Church or Elders Meeting. If your church does not have a Finance Committee and there are enough people in the congregation it is a good idea to start one. It will ease any sense of isolation, and mean you are not the only person making financial recommendations to the Church.
It is helpful when the Treasurer is also a serving Elder but the treasurership may be seen as a special field of service and it may be possible to relieve that person from some of the other duties of an Elder.
THE JOB
1 Has the responsibility for ensuring collection of all Church income, delegating where appropriate.
2 To pay all expenses as authorised by the Church Meeting.
3 To record all transactions.
4 To report in compliance with the Charities Act and to provide an annual statement of receipts and payments and a statement of assets and liabilities for the Finance Committee, and/or Elders, and the Church Meeting.
5 To prepare a budget and enable the Church to have a sound financial policy.
If you are also expected to record the freewill offerings and operate the Gift Aid scheme, you would be well advised to suggest at once that these two jobs should be undertaken by others, though in conjunction with your job. Even in a small church it might be possible to delegate the recording and banking of Sunday collection to another person. The United Reformed Church has produced an information leaflet for those operating the Gift Aid Scheme.
THE RULES
1 Ensure all money is paid into the bank as soon as possible - it is safer there. Always make a written note of what you have paid in.
2 Pay all bills by cheque and never write a cheque without a bill or invoice even if it is only a hand written request by a church member.
3 Do not mix up Church funds with your own money - ever.
Never accept cash without writing down a note of who gave it to you and what it is for.
4 Enter all money received in your books, even though it is for a special collection, which may be going to be paid out at once.
5 Order monthly bank statements and make certain that the cash book agrees with the bank statement every time, making allowances for the cheques which have not yet gone through the bank.
6 Attend Church Meetings whenever possible, keep your eyes and ears open and make a note of all decisions affecting finance.
7 If you do not understand - ask. Your Minister, Church Secretary or District Treasurer may be able to help, or know someone who can.
THE HANDOVER
Arrange a meeting with the retiring Treasurer and discuss his/her methods. How is the Ministry & Mission Fund contribution paid? (It should be on Direct Debit from your church bank account). Does your Minister have a car allowance and how is it paid? Make sure that changes of addresses are notified for all correspondence, for example bank statements, utility, telephone and insurance bills as well as all maintenance contracts.
When was the insurance cover last reviewed? Who pays the caretaker and cleaner and on which day of the week? The retiring treasurer will be a useful source of information and may have already supplied you with a list of duties.
Details of how a minister is paid and what allowances he/she is entitled to are contained in the Plan for Partnership in Ministerial Remuneration - essential reading for every church treasurer. The Plan is available through the Finance Office at Tavistock Place as well as being on the United Reformed Church website.
If it is not possible to meet your predecessor you may have more difficulty in sorting out the financial position of the Church. If you are not an accountant yourself but there is an accountant in the congregation it would be wise to enlist their help in giving you a fresh start. If not, ask your District Treasurer if they can suggest someone to help you.
In any event have a good look at the books you have inherited. Remembering what you are required to do, will you be able to continue this system? Is it a system at all? If you are not used to keeping such accounts it would be very sensible to discuss matters with someone who is experienced in looking after Church accounts so that they can show you how best to proceed.
THE METHOD
You will soon find that the less you do in cash the easier it will be for you. Pay everything into the bank and make out cheques for everything and insist that this is the way you prefer to do it.
You may find it useful to carry a small notebook with you at all times. In this you will record all those small sums which are handed to you whenever you are at the church and which you can so easily forget about if they are not recorded: flower money, use of the halls money, magazine money etc. Write them in your notebook and give the person concerned a receipt.
The independent examiner/auditor of the accounts will require you to produce receipts/vouchers for all payments made in cash.
Enter up all financial transactions in your cashbook or ledger as soon as possible.
PAYE AND NATIONAL INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS
Church treasurers are reminded that in certain conditions employees of the church e.g. organist and cleaners may be liable for income tax by deduction as PAYE and National Insurance contributions. The Finance Office at Tavistock Place should be consulted for further information.
SUNDAY
The following is a suggested procedure for dealing with the offering.
It is essential to have two people at the counting of the cash. If you have not delegated the recording and banking of the offertory to a small team the Free Will Offering (FWO) secretary may be able to assist.
1 Count the loose cash first, making a note of the amount and put it on one side.
2 Open the FWO envelopes and note on the outside of each envelope the amount taken out.
3 Whilst the FWO secretary adds the written amounts up, the treasurer counts the FWO cash and the two should agree. The best way to add up the envelope amounts is to enter them on a pre-printed sheet with all the envelope numbers. This sheet can then be taken away by the FWO secretary and entered in the register.
4 A similar procedure can be used for any special collection envelopes.
5 When all the cash has been counted it should be recorded in a register and signed by those who have counted the offertory. It should then be prepared for the bank and banked as soon as possible.
6 The amounts of the various collections should be entered in the pocket notebook for later entry into the cash book.
Before leaving the church make sure you pick up any bills for payment.
MONDAY (or as soon as possible)
Having entered the cashbook for the week, prepare to pay the bills, setting aside any which you may wish to query. Ensure that the Committee responsible for initiating the work has cleared the bill for payment.
Pay into the bank the cash from Sunday’s collections and any other amounts received. This can be a tiresome weekly chore, which might be delegated to someone else with time available on Mondays during the daytime.
Is it the end of the month or the quarter? Are there other payments to be made - Minister’s expenses? Organist’s fee? Is the current special collection, e.g. Commitment for Life, now finished? If so, the cheque must be sent off. Is there enough in the bank to cover all these cheques or is it necessary to make a transfer from the deposit account?
Finally, is a Church Meeting imminent? Are there any particular matters that would be of interest to members such as unusual expenditure items, special collections, responses to appeals, weekly giving for the year to date compared with last year?
THE BUDGET
By the last Church Meeting before the end of the financial year the congregation is expecting some indication of the income and expenditure for the year and the outlook for the coming year. Budgeting is intelligent guesswork - based on what you already know. If you work with a Finance Committee they will assist with this and present it as a committee resolution to the Church Meeting. The District or Synod Treasurer should have discussed with you the contribution required for the Ministry & Mission Fund. You will need to discuss Minister’s expenses and all the expenditure relating to the Church, Halls and Manse. If the Church plans new work or outreach any cost implications of this need to be included.
When drawing up the expenses in the budget be cautious and make sure that you allow fully for all expenditure that can be foreseen and then, after budgeting for known income (investments, lettings of halls, etc.) challenge the congregation to meet the rest by their giving.
CHARITIES ACT REQUIREMENTS
For churches with annual income of less than £100,000 there are very few regulations as to the form of accounts to be prepared each year. The United Reformed Church has produced guidance notes “The Charities Act 1993 - Accounts of Local Churches” to which you should refer. There are separate guidance notes for larger churches.
The Church Meeting may need to appoint an independent examiner or an auditor as a requirement by the Charities Act 1993. If neither gross income nor total expenditure exceeds £10,000 for the current financial year there is no legal requirement for annual accounts to be independently examined or audited. Independent examiners and accountants can often offer help and advice with the layout of the accounts to make them more comprehensible to the congregation.
You are however obliged to supply the independent examiner with any information and documents as required, i.e. cash book, your notebook, bank statements, cheque stubs, paying in book counterfoils, bills paid, receipt books and Minutes of the Church Meeting. The guidance notes referred to above also contain a summary of the basic steps applicable to independent examinations of the accounts of churches with income of less than £100,000.
Once the books and papers have been examined, the independent examiner should provide a report with the accounts for presentation to the Annual Church Meeting.
USEFUL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Each summer the Finance Office produces a list of various resources which will help treasurers titled “Information available for those involved with
church finances”.
The United Reformed Church website (www.urc.org.uk) is also an important source of information, together with Reform magazine. If you do not have access to these find someone in your church that does. These will give information form the Finance and other offices at Tavistock Place. The Life & Witness Office provide resources that will help churches with their financial challenges - TRIO (The Responsibility Is Ours); and develop your church’s thinking in terms of resources that might be needed for a particular enterprise or initiative - Is your church getting in on the ACT?
July 2003
Produced by Communications and Editorial, Graphics Office on behalf of the Finance Committee.
Published by the United Reformed Church, 86 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RT
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