AcctTwo Blog

A few months ago, at our Faith-Based Finance Collaborative, AcctTwo's Managed Accounting Services Controller, Shelly Einspahr, and Covenant Church's COO, Brian Coleman, sat down and talked about how we work together. Little did we know back at the end of February, our world was going to change dramatically in a matter of weeks. The news about COVID-19 was still somewhat sparse, mainly impacting China, Italy, and starting to creep into California – specifically around San Francisco. Churches went from serving thousands to having to pivot and become virtual. In fact, the whole world had to pivot and become remote. Figuring out how all the pieces fit together and how to maintain business-as-usual was a challenge. Even for organizations that have had cloud-based infrastructure in place, it was still challenging at times because most of us went from working 9-to-5 to working 24/7 which included, parenting and homeschooling.

Earlier this week we had a webinar to recap our Faith-Based Finance Collaborative and invited Tammy Bunting, CFO at Concord Church, to join us. Tammy was on our Peer Panel along with Jeff Barber from Park Cities Presbyterian Church, Sheila Buckler from Bent Tree Fellowship Church, and Brian Coleman from Covenant Church.

Last week marked our 5th annual Faith-Based Finance Collaborative. This year our client, Concord Church of Dallas, hosted us in their beautiful facility. We are blessed with so many amazing clients and partners.

Recently the AcctTwo faith-based nonprofit team attended The Church Network Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Church Network Conference is a thought-provoking, three-day event offering multiple ways to network with church leaders, discover and seek out mentors, see emerging technologies, and hone your skills. The Church Network Conference provides a wealth of experiences and benefits for church leaders. 

Why does it have to be so complicated?

If your church is anything like mine, you are constantly trying to navigate the requirements of our nation’s employment laws. When researching the topic of “employee versus independent contractor,” what I find is consistently inconsistent. It’s easy to get lost in the lack of interpretation.

“What happens in accounting, stays in accounting.”

If your finance team’s motto goes something like this, you might have an internal controls problem.

Internal controls are put in place to clearly define proper procedures for finance and accounting team members, to minimize risk, and to alleviate suspicion. Even churches must mitigate risk and ensure that policies and procedures are in place and functioning as intended.

Know the 4 V's

Depending on your role at the church, you’ll hear the word “audit” and come to one of two conclusions:

If you’re the finance manager, you understand the need for the substantiation of the integrity of the data — even though an audit can add to your already busy workload.

The Healthy Church

The Bible has a clear definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 — “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Simply put, the biblical definition of faith is “trusting in something you cannot explicitly prove.” As church leaders, we walk every day in faith.