If you are a new visitor to our site, you may be asking what exactly it is that we do to help. Let me tell you a story about a church we recently helped in a big way.
A few weeks ago, we got a call from a church that we spoke to several years ago. When we met with the church, we gave them our opinion on certain things that they were doing that they really shouldn’t be. For example, they were operating without a budget and the pastor was the only person signing checks. We prepared a budget for them and advised the pastor to appoint someone else to sign the church’s checks.
A few years went by, and we heard from them again. Not much had changed: they were still operating without a budget and the pastor was still the only person signing the checks. This time, though, they were definitely in need of our services. They had been renting part of another church but had found a new building that they wanted to buy. The only problem was that since they didn’t have a budget, they couldn’t provide the bank with the financial statements they were requesting. So they asked us to come alongside them and help them get this loan.
We went through three years of bank statements for them to figure out how much money had come in and how much money had went out. We were able to recreate their information and assign every amount that was spent to a line item on the new budget we prepared for them. We were then able to prepare a budget for next year based on the last three years’ information.
Going forward, we will be keeping the books for this church. At the end of every month, we’ll be able to tell them how much money they spent and where it all went, something they didn’t know before we came along. We even created some new forms for them to use that will make things much easier for them.
How do we help? In what ever ways we can. Whether it be by getting the word out about your church by creating a website for you, or helping your church control your spending by keeping track of your books.
The word is still out on whether the church will get the new building…check back soon to find out!
