Church Accounting for Clergy, Treasurers, and Financial Secretaries. What is Church Accounting? Church accounting is the task of keeping track of assets, revenues, and expenses and doing all this while staying compliant with all the reporting requirements of your country's current laws and regulations...in the United States it is the Internal Revenue Service. It is different from all other accounting because churches usually utilize "fund accounting" practices. What is Fund Accounting? Method of accounting and presentation whereby assets and liabilities are grouped according to the purpose for which they are to be used. "Fund Accounting" creates a distinction between restricted and unrestricted funds. What Are Restricted and Unrestricted Funds? In a church or ministry, money is often given for a specific purpose. These gifts are "restricted". An example would be if a generous donor gave your church $20,000 for a new fellowship hall....that money would have to be kept separate from the general fund in the church's accounting records. You would not be required to open a separate bank account, but in your accounting records, all expenses and future donations for that hall should be recorded in a separate church fund account. "Unrestricted" funds are the tithes and offerings that come through the regular offerings. These funds can be used for immediate needs, such as paying salaries or basic operational cost. Who Am I? My name is Vickey Boatright. I am a fund accountant for a nonprofit organization. I live in beautiful Oklahoma with my husband whom I adore, three grown children, and three of the best grandkids God could possibly bless a grandma with. Why did I build this website? One day about 5 years ago, I went to visit the church secretary and found her a little overwhelmed with all of her financial responsibilities of our growing and expanding church. She was trying to keep track of the church's finances by hand in a paper ledger. I told her I would try to find a simple free accounting program or spreadsheet for churches on the web. Um...I couldn’t find anything "free". I don’t know about you, but even though our church is growing, there wasn’t any extra money to shell out on expensive church accounting software. Don't get me wrong...some of those church software programs are really nice if you have the money. So...I built my own monthly/annual report spreadsheet. They were pretty basic in the beginning; had to hand put in all the numbers in the church's financial monthly reports. But...being the perfectionist and partly lazy person that I am...I kept tweaking them until I finally come up with one that would automatically generate monthly /annual reports and a cash flow sheet. Our church secretary really likes them. She said it has cut hours off her volunteer work time and has helped her become better organized (her words not mine).So I decided there were probably a lot more churches that might be in the same boat we were in and I decided to...Pay It Forward. You know that place in the Bible where those lepers were in that camp where God had caused a disturbance in the night and they had all got up and ran for their lives? Those lepers, who were starving to death the day before, found themselves surrounded with food and riches. One of them said brethren we do not well...we need to share (I’m paraphrasing here...you can find it yourself in 2 Kings 7). Well, that’s what I decided…there must be other church secretaries, treasurers, and pastors who could use my church accounting spreadsheets to make life just a little easier. Note: I have had several request for recommendations for church accounting software. Since my church presently only uses my spreadsheets...I have not had the opportunity to test any other software. If you are currently using church accounting software...could you take the time to pay it forward? I want to build a page with your recommendations. Could you contact me with what software you are currently using? What you like about it and what you don't? Thank You!