For a long time, church bookkeepers were confused with accountants. However, they have very different responsibilities. The church's financial records, including income and expense records, are maintained by bookkeepers. They keep track of all transactions and the amounts. They are also responsible for keeping track of all accounts. Accounting professionals, on the other side, do all the work of bookkeepers but also offer auditing, tax planning and financial planning, payroll processing and consulting services.
As your church expands, you might require more functionality beyond what QuickBooks Premier Plus offers. Your growing church will require you to manage volunteers and events as well as enable online giving. You may even need to run email campaigns.
The tip to avoid this church bookkeeping error is to thoroughly look at each individual you are paying for a service they do for the church and using the IRS guidelines (link in the Misclassification article) to determine if they should be classified as an employee with all proper payroll tax withholding and matching or could be classified as an independent contractor.
While you are focusing on building relationships with your community and your organization, we will make accounting easy for you and ensure your financial records are accurate and maintained correctly.
Also, you need to be capable of looking at the bank balance to see at a glance what percentage is designated funds or restricted funds. You will also need to know how much money is remaining to keep the lights on.
While you focus on getting to know your community and growing your organization, we'll work to make the accounting function easy and ensure that your financial records are maintained correctly and accurately.
Atlanta Church Bookkeeping LLC makes a great choice if you have many volunteers or staff. Its main benefit is the possibility to have many users in different roles. Atlanta Church Bookkeeping LLC can be used to track the finances of your church and give you access to an accountant or administrator if your church does not have one.
Churches call the traditional balance sheet a statement of financial position. It uses the accounting equation “Assets = Liabilities + Equity” to show a snapshot of your organization's financial health. It also shows the current balance of each of your funds if you've been implementing fund accounting for your church.
Churches And Transparency
The standards of the Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability require that member organizations provide audited financial statements on request.
Churches and religious nonprofits must maintain highly accurate accounting and bookkeeping records in order to maintain their nonprofit status, budget accurately, and provide reporting to government entities and their parishoners or members.