Behind the Curtain
Larry Fournier, September 2016
Hi everyone! Time to dust off the ol’ crystal ball… this is the time every year that the Finance Team puts together that magical document known as the Annual Budget for presentation at the Annual Conference which will be held October 27th. Speaking of the Annual Conference… that is the one place where you really get to see (and participate in) what goes on “behind the curtain”. Yes, it is a business meeting… but not like the ones in the corporate world. All facets of our Church and Church life are reported and celebrated… ya’ all come!
OK, back to the budget…The usual process is to ask each of the Team Chairpersons for their input, and then try to figure out a reasonable compromise between a “Corporate Budget” and a “Faith Budget”.
A Corporate Budget will project future income and expenses based on expenses and giving trends for the past year. “Each year… spend it or lose it”. This type of budget works well with predictable expenses like salary, benefits, utilities, insurance & maintenance. A Faith Budget allows us to designate spending for our needs and have faith that any desired income will be received as needed. “Money is budgeted, but don’t spend any until there is enough money in the bank.” We favor the “Faith” budgeting process for the Programs portion of our budget. The effect of using this type of budget is that each Team Chair needs to work with the Treasurer before any large expenditure is made to determine how the expense will be handled. This process allows a bit of flexibility to look at the total amounts budgeted in each category and re-allocate individual line item funds when required.
Our current budget breaks down something like this…
62% for employee salaries & benefits, employer Social Security & Medicare contributions
24% for Church & Parsonage utilities, insurance, maintenance & upkeep
4% for our Programs (Worship, Sunday School, VBS, etc.)
10% for our Conference Apportionments
Notice anything missing?
We have several programs that are “self-funded” and receive only a minimal amount in the annual budget. These include Missions & Out-Reach, Youth program, and Adult groups. While these groups are self-funded, they have made a mark not only in our Church, but in our Community as well.
So how does all this work? The actual budget document is a large spreadsheet with multiple income and expense line items for each area in the Church. Each Sunday, the Counting Team counts the money received and enters the results into PowerChurch, our computerized Church Management System. As bills are received and paid, the bills and amounts are also entered into PowerChurch. (More details about PowerChurch in another column…).
At the end of each month, Joe Greenwood our Financial Secretary uses PowerChurch to create the monthly Financial Reports, showing income & expense for the month and also tracking to the Annual Budget. I monitor our bank account balances every week to determine what bills get paid and when.
My next column will continue with the handling of expenses, and more information on PowerChurch… thanks for taking the time to read!