Questions re Accepting Credit Cards (part 2 of 5)

Posted on October 24, 2017 Written by

Churches which do not have online giving often have several questions which hinder them from proceeding. Here are some of the concerns I’ve run into over the past few years:

  • Portal Fees
    • Digital donation providers themselves have a fee which usually depends on the size of the church (number of Sunday morning worshippers).
    • This is the fee paid to the provider their services
      • A portal that makes is easy and friendly to give
      • Back office assistance to post contributions
      • Help in creating categories for gifts
      • Continuing training to existing and new staff at the church
      • Ideas for successful marketing and implementation
    • This fee is to the digital donations provider just as we’d pay the plumber for their labor (that is, the portal fee) and we also pay for parts (that is, the credit card fees) – two different expenses paid to two different companies.
  • Debt by members
    • Some churches are concerned that members will get deeper in debt by using their credit cards to pay their tithe. There are two ways to address this within the church:
      • Encourage people to use a debit card or an ACH transfer (bank to bank). These are cheaper for the church and don’t create credit card debt.
      • Have a class teaching members wise money management using materials from Financial Peace University and/or from Crown Ministries. These classes can really help people get their financial house in order AND tithe.
    • But some people want to use their credit card to earn rewards points and they will pay off their credit card balance each month.

 Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church finances, generosity, leadership, strategy Tagged: , , , , ,

Questions re Accepting Credit Cards (part 1 of 5)

Posted on October 17, 2017 Written by

Churches which do not have online giving often have several questions which hinder them from proceeding. Here are some of the concerns I’ve run into over the past few years:

  • Online Giving (itself)
    • Making financial transactions online has been normalized by society in the past 10 or 15 years. Amazon and other online businesses have made us comfortable with spending money online and using our credit cards on our computers and smartphones.
    • In 2016, our society spent more on restaurants than groceries; in 2015, we spent more electronically than we did using cash and checks. We have moved inexorably into the age of electronic transactions.
    • I predict that by the year 2025 (maybe 2030) we won’t even be using credit cards anymore – transactions will be made using Apple or Android pay or some other electronic financial exchange system which is being created even now.
  • Fees paid by the church
    • All credit cards have fees ranging from about 2.3% to 5% of the transaction. VISA and Mastercard have lower fees while American Express has the highest. Most VISA and Mastercard providers have fees in the 2% to 3% range.
    • Remember that banks have fees on every check and cash transaction they process, albeit about 25 to 30 cents for each one and that is lower than credit card fees.
    • Fees on credit cards is very much a “cost of doing business” in today’s world. Just as every church has a copy machine and air conditioning, fees on credit cards are just part of being “in business” for a church.
    • Frankly, the fees aren’t that much. If a church gets as little as $10,000 in online gifts during the year, the fee for that is about $250 which seems pretty small when weighed against the $10K that came in.

Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church administration, church finances, generosity, leadership, strategy Tagged: , , , , , ,

Good churches need good manuals – Finance Manual

Posted on December 14, 2016 Written by

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A finance manual is critical. Church finances require the utmost level of trust from the donors and members toward the pastors and finance staff. A finance manual establishes the policies by which the church’s money will be governed and used. Parts of this document are a legal requirement but most of it is designed to ensure confidence in the handling of funds.

 

If a church does not have a finance manual, it can create the appearance of lack of integrity and a haphazard attitude towards donated money. That is not the biblical standard. Paul tells the Corinthians to do all things in their church “decently and in order.”

 

A good finance manual will address accounting, banking, record-keeping, software and hardware, document retention, communication with donors, accounts payable, financial reporting, audits, gift acknowledgement, and too many other things to list here. These policies ensure that even though staff may come and go, the practices within the Finance Office remain constant and completely above-board.

 

A personnel manual is a living document – it must be reviewed every year and updated at least every other year. Not doing that minimal step is a failure by management. Most policies will remain the same such as contribution processing, payroll, or accounts payable. But as times change, new policies must be written and old policies changed to address changes in the law or accounting standards regarding overtime, designated funds, and PP&E (property, plant, & equipment).

 

The finance manual template at www.churchbestpractices.org has

  • A Gift Acceptance Policy to help the church know what gifts can be accepted without question versus those which require research
  • A policy for using church-issued credit cards and reporting the expenses charged on the card
  • Fundraising ethics standards to ensure the church abides by IRS rules

 

This manual is only $30. It is updated annually to ensure its compliance with the latest legal and tax changes.  This manual is a great starting point for churches needing to develop a manual scratch or to update their current one. It will save hours of research and writing. By using this manual, a church will need only to add sections that are specific to their situation and/or remove non-legal policies which don’t apply to them.

Filed Under: accounting, church administration, church finances, leadership, planning, strategy Tagged: , , , , ,

Employees Should Pay for Benefits with Non-Taxable Dollars

Posted on November 8, 2016 Written by

2016 06-June 14 (11)

The rule of thumb is that you always want to pay for benefits with non-taxable dollars. If you pay for them with taxable dollars, then when you get the benefit, you have to pay taxes on that benefit. Taxes on premiums are always cheaper than taxes on benefits. The best example is life insurance: the premium on a life insurance policy is a few dollars a year (depending on what the premium is and your tax bracket) but that is certainly cheaper than paying taxes on a life insurance benefit of $50,000 or $250,000! Other examples include disability policies and benefits and long-term care.

Health insurance and its related health savings accounts are not, by law, taxable (as of when this post is written). In fact, employee payments for both health insurance and HSAs are tax-deductible and employees should be encouraged to max out their HSA amounts if financially possible (same goes for retirement).

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church staff, planning Tagged: , , ,

Overtime Laws

Posted on October 28, 2016 Written by

2016 03-March 29 (8)

On December 1, 2016 new overtime (OT) rules as approved by the US Department of Labor go into effect. Actually, most of the overtime laws are over 30 years old. In May 2016 the DoL altered one major component of the OT laws but almost everything else remained the same.

 

The major change is that salaried employees must make over $47,476 (just round that to $47,500) to be exempt from OT. Salaried workers who are below this dollar threshold and who do not make executive-level decisions should keep track of their work hours. While tracking hours worked each pay period is a pain, it is necessary in order to know if the employee should receive OT compensation.

 

Some other information about DoL laws:

  • Hourly workers are never exempt from OT
  • Contractors must truly be from an independent company that has several clients and not just an outsourced former employee or two

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church finances, church staff Tagged: , , ,

Stock Gifts (part 3 of 3)

Posted on September 2, 2016 Written by

2016 05-May (10)

Several times during the year it is a good idea to place in the Sunday bulletin, the quarterly donor gift statement, or other form of communication a reminder that people can give stock to the church. Below is the bulletin “blurb” which I use regularly.

 

Many members of (insert church name) donate appreciated stock. They give to the ministry budget, to missions’ offerings, the church’s endowment, or the building campaign. You can transfer your stock electronically to (insert church’s name)’s account by contacting (insert church’s broker) at (insert brokerage name and phone number) or (insert church contact) in the church office (insert church phone number). To give electronically, your broker will need a DTC number (insert number) and the church’s account number at (insert account number).

 

Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church finances, generosity Tagged: , , ,

Stock Gifts (part 1 of 3)

Posted on August 19, 2016 Written by

2016 05-May 10 (2)

Virtually all stock in the US is common stock. There are lots of other kinds of stock (preferred, private, etc.) but common stock is typically what is traded on the major stock exchanges. Almost all stock is now held in “street accounts” or an electronic account in a brokerage. Paper stock is available but it is cumbersome to transfer so most people use electronic stocks. For purposes of this post, stock gifts include mutual funds.

 

Stocks which have increased in value since their purchase are an excellent way for members to make gifts to their church without incurring tax consequences. Churches can accept paper stock gifts without having an account with a stock broker. However, only brokerage firms with selling rights in a stock exchange (think NYSE, New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street) can sell the stock. Churches without an account with a broker cannot accept electronically transferred stock from a member’s street account.

 

Churches which may get stock gifts should be pro-active and establish a brokerage account. This will require the authorized body of the church to approve a required corporate resolution (the wording is provided by the brokerage firm) which authorizes specific people in the church to sell stock. Typically the people who are named on the resolution are the church’s treasurer, chairperson of the Finance Committee, and the staff person responsible for the church’s finances.

 

Once the account is established and the resolution is approved, then the church can accept and sell donated stock without much trouble. All stock gifts must be acknowledged by the church and there is a specific way to value stock gifts.

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church administration, church finances, generosity Tagged: , , ,

Finance Office: Computer Filing System (part 2 of 2)

Posted on April 5, 2016 Written by

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In part 1 I discussed how to set up the hardcopy or paper files of the church’s Finance Office. This post discusses how to organize computer or server-based files. My prediction is that within 5-10 years almost all finance office files will be kept on a computer. I encourage you to begin moving that way as soon as possible.

The first equipment you’ll need (after a computer) is a scanner. Most photocopiers today are also scanners. Or you can get a good quality flatbed scanner for about $200 or top line color “All In One” scanner/copier/printer for about $700. You should also invest in the latest version of Adobe which allows you to work with PDFs. I also encourage you to have an account with Dropbox and to either keep all your files on Dropbox (that’s what I do) or use it as a backup system.

Regarding the file organization itself, have:

  • A folder for every fiscal year and the following subfolders
    • For each month’s financial reports: put all regular financial reports in PDF form in the respective folder to easily access them in the future
    • Budget folder – all docs related to the current year budget
    • Memorial Letters folder – copies of all memorial acknowledgements
    • Stock Gifts and Non-Cash Gifts
    • Finance Committee meeting agendas and minutes
  • Additional folders for other major categories such as
    • Insurance
    • Contracts
    • Tax exemption docs
    • Employee Personnel Forms (tax forms, direct deposit form, etc.)
    • Finance Office Forms (all forms related to the Finance Office)
    • Building Projects & Campaigns (one folder for each one)
    • And as many other folders as necessary to group major activities and events. Caution: do not have an excessive amount of folders or you’ll spend a lot of time hunting for docs.

How you organize the folders is up to you. I organize everything by year – the budget, the monthly financial reports, the audit info, etc. are all in the folder of that fiscal year. I can find things easily if I know what fiscal year or two I’m dealing with. I can’t encourage you enough to be passionately organized about your folders – it will help you later and save loads of time.

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: accounting, church finances Tagged: , ,
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