Are You Feeling Overwhelmed?

Need help doing the accounting for your church or nonprofit?

You are at the right place!

This site and the topics covered (see below) will help you take out the mystery and bust the myths of Church accounting and nonprofit accounting. The materials are based on accounting best practices, facts and federal tax codes that are specific to small churches and nonprofit organizations.

This site is a great place to start for those with little or no accounting knowledge and for those with experience who may want a refresher as finance laws continue to change.

Whatever experience you have, the congregation expects the treasurer to "take care" of the finances of the church. But many churches are not aware of the complex finance issues, what actions need to occur to be compliant and documentation needed to lessen liability for the church and protect its’ congregation, pastor and staff. 

Topics Covered on this Site:

Built From Real Experience:

Many years ago to assist our church's secretary, I created easy to use accounting workbooks and spreadsheets. She loved them and told several other church secretaries and treasurers about them. They got hold of me and asked if they could use them for their churches. They also wanted additional pointers on setting up a good accounting system and other church accounting issues.

Even with a seasoned accounting background...church and nonprofit accounting was different from commercial accounting and sadly there wasn't much on the internet about the basics of church accounting at that time. And this site was born. It gave me an opportunity to share my knowledge of church and nonprofit accounting, resources, tools and my accounting spreadsheets as well. Who would have ever imagined this site would expand to include over 1500 pages, reader posts and comments!

This soft cover book covers a vast area of church and minister tax issues such as:

• Policy and Procedure Guidelines
• Internal Controls
• Building a Chart of Accounts for a Church
• Receiving and Recording Contributions
• Church Payroll
• Ministers and the IRS
• Church By-Laws
• UBI
• How to account and record stock donations

Read more or purchase here.

Free Accounting Software:

The nonprofit accounting spreadsheets offered free on this site are easy to use and work well for small or start up churches or nonprofits. However, please be aware that they are they are a single entry bookkeeping system (see the difference between single and double entry systems), they cannot track your assets and liabilities and cannot generate a balance sheet. A Balance Sheet has to be created separately; however, there are tons of balance sheet templates free on the internet =)

If you have a large chart of accounts, need to track assets and liabilities, have multiple funds to track, please consider using a full bodied double entry accounting system built especially for churches such as QuickBook. See my QBO review!

In the past, there was a requirement in place to sign up for this site's free newsletter, so you could be notified of any errors or updates to the accounting workbooks. That is not the case now and there is a direct link to download the free accounting spreadsheets on this page:

Free Accounting Spreadsheets

Recent Articles

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1. Financial Statements Checklist

   Oct 07, 24 05:23 PM

   
   16 Steps to take prior to generating monthly financial statements for a church or nonprofit.

   Read More

2. Year End Checklist for Churches and Nonprofits

   Oct 06, 24 11:30 AM

   
   Review this year end checklist for churches and nonprofits. Includes tasks that should be completed before the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition into the new year.

   Read More

3. Housing Allowance Vs. Salary As Retiree Serving Church

   Sep 23, 24 08:43 AM

   I have been declaring my pension as housing Allowance for several years subject to tax on the amount not used for pay SE tax on. Since total income

   Read More