Managing Church Finances in these Times – Looking at Operational Expenses
Managing Church Finances in these Times – Looking at Operational Expenses.
Michael Batts, CPA presented a webinar entitled “Church Financial Management in Challenging Times”. And we wanted to share some of the points he makes regarding cutting operations expenses.
Of course, with personnel expenses being 50%+ of the church’s budget, it is normal to first consider cutting personnel. However, is this time you really want to do this? Your church has more responsibility now than ever to meet the needs of your people in new and innovative ways. Consider carefully before cutting people.
The next, normal response is to look for cheaper vendors, cheaper providers. But this is not going to normally mean significant savings. Instead, consider taking this time to step back and take a look at your overall programs and activities, Michael Batts refers to this as preparing a Mission Based Impact Assessment.
In other words, what exactly is your church called to do? Some churches focus on education, some on foreign missions, others on helping the needy, some on Sunday School and Children’s Education. These are just a few examples. This is an opportunity to identify every initiative, program, activity that you are currently conducting and very carefully evaluate these in light of your focus, your Mission Based Impact Vision. Are there activities that are not central to your mission, to your focus? This is where you may find significant savings.
One area is your church finances, use the technology available today to practically automate your bookkeeping. GoodBooks is about helping churches leverage technology so that you have better information with less effort. With GoodBooks, you have a cloud-based bookkeeping system with better internal controls than your manual system. We can set up approval processes so that bills are streamlined and even make payments online. We can integrate your online giving so all donations are recorded automatically. In addition, you will be freeing up personnel resources for the other responsibilities in the church.
Book an appointment today to see how GoodBooks can help.