Churches are not immune from the frailties of our human condition. It is just as important for churches to have in place procedures to help people be honest as it is for individuals to be honest. Under stress an individual might be tempted to do things they would not otherwise consider. At that point the church has the responsibility to have procedures in place to help that stressed person avoid temptation.
Good accounting procedures also help protect those doing the accounting, paying bills, depositing receipts and producing financial statements.
Churches tend to be more trusting than they should be, and often fail to observe good controls to protect themselves and personnel. Here are suggestions to assure secure handling of the revenues and expenses for which the church must be a responsible steward. The founder and president of a large mercantile chain said that the company has a responsibility to help employees remain honest. He said, “Honesty is the best policy” doesn’t cut it. “Honesty is the ONLY policy.”
- Be sure your church accounting system has a secure audit trail that cannot be circumvented (very few do).
- Employ people who have accounting knowledge and experience. (There is a bookkeeper skills test on the RDS Advantage church software websitewww.rdsadvantage.com Client Login page of Tutorials.)
- Put in place procedures that assure good stewardship of funds. (There is a list of procedures (Secure Accounting Procedures) that can be downloaded from thewww.rdsadvantage.com “Helpful Downloads” page of the Client Login page of the website.)
Your RDS Advantage church management software includes secure audit trails to protect your organization.