Blog
Fraud Prevention Programs, part 2
Our Fraud Awareness in the Church series continues with part 2 on Fraud Prevention Programs – Fraud Reporting. We asked churches to respond to this statement: “Our church has established appropriate channels for reporting and resolving sensitive issues like fraud and illegal acts. (Examples include establishing an anonymous fraud hotline, posting notices, etc.)” Survey Results: Only 40% of the […]
Ingredient Four – Managing Your Cash
Monthly cash receipts seldom match what was budgeted and it is not unusual that during some months, cash outflow will exceed inflow. (Like July and August…) Not preparing for this may force a church to: One way to avoid having to resort to these measures is using a monthly cash budget. This is a fairly […]
Fraud Prevention Programs
Our Fraud Awareness in the Church series continues with a two-part series on Fraud Prevention Programs. PSK in cooperation with the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) conducted a survey to determine the extent of fraud awareness in the church environment. We asked churches to respond to these statements: “Our church has established a formal program for managing fraud risk.” “Our church has […]
Ingredient Three – Controlling Expenses
Even though we started with keeping an eye on receipts, most of the budget busts I have seen have been in this area. Stories are legendary about ministers with little regard to the budget process and some of the budget bypassing techniques they employ can be quite creative. Many of these situations I have helped […]
Preventing Church Fraud: Individual Payments
Our Fraud Awareness in the Church series continues as we look at Individual Payments: Contractors and Benevolence. We asked churches to respond to these statements: “Before paying an individual as an independent contractor, our church applies IRS compliant tests to determine if the payee qualifies as an independent contractor.” “Our church has written a policy to direct benevolence […]
Ingredient Two – Keeping an Eye on Receipts
Tithes and offerings are the financial life-blood of a church. Changes in the flow of a church’s resource stream need to be regularly monitored. This is not something that is only to be done during the budget development process. By waiting until then, it may be too late. By keeping an eye on receipts, churches […]
Information Technology
Our Fraud Awareness in the Church series continues as we look at Information Technology Security. We asked churches to respond to these statements: “Our church has a formal information technology security plan.” “Our church financial secretary or accountant/bookkeeper has access to all modules of the church’s software system.” Churches struggle to keep up with the challenges of the rapid change […]
Ingredient One – A Strong Platform
A strong platform for managing the church budget begins with the chart of accounts. For any non-accountants reading this, a chart of accounts is simply a list of the church’s general ledger accounts used to generate financial statements. The accounts are listed according to where they appear in the church’s financial statements beginning with the […]
Payroll Fraud, Phantom Employees
Our Fraud Awareness in the Church series continues as we look at Payroll Fraud and Phantom Employees. We asked churches to respond to these statements: “Someone not involved in the payroll preparation process distributes paychecks or direct deposit stubs.” “We review direct deposit account information for duplicate accounts.” Survey Results – Very few churches do any kind of employee […]