Where have I been?

I have really struggled lately with keeping up with my blog.  I have been very busy, but that isn’t the real reason that I have been silent.  Over the past few weeks I have lost some of the desire to blog and even tweet.  The desire is coming back slowly.  So what have I been doing?

• Getting ready for the birth of our second child.  This means that we have been doing some serious house work.
• I have been looking for an assistant, so I have been trying to maintain a steady finance office while being understaffed.
• Wrapped up my summer class a couple of weeks ago.

So where am I going?  Some big things are on the horizon for me.  Here they are:

• A son being born as early as this week!!!!!!!
• Taking more classes and I will be sitting for the various parts of the CPA exam over the next year and a half.
• Planning a mission trip for October.  I will be limited on the details I can share on this, but will share a little more later.

Things have been crazy and will only get crazier.  What fun would life be if it wasn’t crazy?

I have more work to do!!!

Right now in my life the phrase “I have more work to do” is repeated often.  Work, class and home are all full of projects and other things to be done.  That isn’t what this post is about.  This post is about some changes I made earlier in the year at work and will have to tweak in the near future.  Earlier this year I made a major change to our chart of accounts.  ***If you hate accounting don’t click away just yet because there is a deeper lesson here.***

Our chart of accounts had become way to large and so we moved to a simple chart of accounts and utilized department categories.  All of that is great and is working well.  To get a chart of accounts right, you have to understand what information management needs to make decisions.  Then you can group costs into these categories (accounts) and provide better information.  Well, I missed some things when doing our chart of accounts and have found some information weak spots.  The good news is that I will probably simplify it more and breakout events and projecs seperately.

The main point of this post isn’t setting up chart of accounts, but having the willingness to make the necessary changes to continuously improve.  When you encounter problems in something you have done, don’t give up or blame someone else, take ownership and learn from it.  I had two instances this week where I made major mistakes.  I could have easily blamed someone else or deflected the failure, but instead I took it as an opportunity to learn.  Through that I have guarded myself from making the same mistakes again.

Take chances, fail, learn from it, and improve.  Along the way if you figure out a great chart of accounts….let me know!!!!

Been a while…..

The past couple of weeks have been pretty stressful. Here are some things that have been going on:

1. My wife and I are expecting a son in August, so we have been trying to get stuff done around the house. Getting the baby’s room ready, doing some work in our 3yr old daughter’s room, and rearranging our multi-purpose room (play room, office, media room, craft room and classroom).
2. In the office at FPC, I have been slowly making some improvements to our financial processes. There have been a few obstacles this summer, but I like the direction we are moving in. I hope that before too long I will be sharing the successes on this blog.
3. Class hasn’t been bad this summer, but with everything going on I have had a hard time focusing. Cost Accounting has been a very helpful course for some of the things I have been working on at FPC. I wonder how well I will do in the fall with a new baby?

Life has been a little busy. What is difficult is when my mind starts processing multiple things from all of the areas above. I just need a little focus and a little more time. I can do something about the focus, but not sure on the time. Any advice on how to gain time.

Intacct – Purchase System

Over the past few months, we at Faith Promise have been working on making our purchasing process more efficient and effective.  We have been using our accounting software, Intacct, to do this.  Here is what our purchase system will look like in a couple of weeks:

• Employees will be able to enter purchases over $200 as purchase requisitions and they will flow through an approval process electronically.  Approvers will be notified by e-mail when a requisition is awaiting their approval.  Once approved and the purchase is made, the employee will convert the purchase requisition to a purchase order.
• For purchases under $200, the employees will be able to enter then as purchase orders or credit card transactions, depending on the type of purchase.
• The finance office will match purchase orders to invoices and credit card transactions to statements.

This system will eliminate useless data entry and improve record keeping.  We will be able to report on different types of transactions.  The coolest part to me is that we have the ability to create different types of transactions for increased customization.  I have to say that I am extremely pleased with the Intacct system and I look forward to the value it will add to our organization.

The Best Part of my Job

Working as the Finance Director at Faith Promise Church is both challenging and fulfilling.  I absolutely love what I do and where I work.  Some of the things I enjoy most are the staff, the creativity and the willingness to do anything necessary to share the love of Christ with the world.  There is one thing that I love more than anything else about my job.  It might seem like a very boring and simple task, but my favorite thing is analyzing giving and attendance statistics.  I admit that I love analysis, but it goes beyond that.  I will briefly explain why I love analyzing these statistics:

1. Giving – I love looking through years of data and charting that data.  When I do this what I see is an amazing work of God as he continues to work in the lives of individuals.  The people at Faith Promise continue to amaze me with the growing amount they give and sacrifice for God’s Kingdom.
2. Attendance – The chart of attendance numbers for Faith Promise provides a pretty steep line.  I love looking at the rapid growth in attendance, not so that I can be proud of our church, but so that I can be reminded of why we do what we do.  We are impacting lives and those lives are sharing the impact with others.

I get to have a little fun by analyzing these numbers and patterns, but sometimes I just step back and stand amazed by what God has done and continues to do at Faith Promise.

Cost Management – Part 3 (Structure)

As I jump back into the cost management posts, I have learned one major thing through this so far.  I have learned that you have options when determining how to setup you cost structure and tracking techniques.  You could track costs in a very simple way by using averages to determine overhead costs or you could find ways to tie overhead costs directly to departments.  It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish in your cost accounting.

In the past at Faith Promise we had some standard overhead costs, but many times those were built directly into the budgets of departments.  We have moved away from this to a system that tracks the type of purchase and the department it was purchased for.  I am not completely sure we are setup up in an optimal way, but I keep considering better ways to track costs.  The bottom line is that you can setup your cost structure in various ways, but you should consider the following things as you review your structure:

1. What do I want to learn from the costs we incur?
2. What information would better help the decision making process?
3. Do I want to have some flexibility in our cost structure to allow for some adaptability?
4. What requirements do we have to meet when presenting cost data?

What other things should be considered when setting up or revising your cost tracking system?

Crazy Week

Last week was kind of crazy.  Aside from the regular work, activities and classwork, we decided to build a shelf for Gracie’s closet.  It took us a few days because this wasn’t a shelf in a box, but instead was made completely by scratch.  Kerri picked out the wood, support structures and screws.  It was a learning experience, but I have to admit that I am pretty proud of that shelf as it was the first thing of its size that I completely built from scratch.

Then last Thursday I got word that my aunt had passed away unexpectedly.  It was such a shock and I still can’t process it.  I am absolutely brokenhearted for my uncle as they had been married 45 years.  Life is such a roller coaster.  With the great joys of life we suffer some major pain.  I have been thinking a lot about life, death and God.  I think as I grow in my relationship with Christ, God becomes more mysterious.  You would think that as we grew closer to God we would understand Him better, but it seems to work the other way.  I have to say that I am alright with serving a God that I don’t understand.  He is powerful, loving, full of wrath and full of grace.

 I don’t get it, but this crazy week has really challenged the way I look at God.  I understand less, but I have more peace.  I pray that God continues to challenge the way I view life.  Every time I think I have God figured out, He throws a curve.  When I am expecting a curve, He throws a knuckle ball.  I am growing to love that about Him!!!!

You always have something to do!!!

Where I used to work a fellow employee once said “I can get 40 hours of work done in 30 hours.”  Their statement was to justify why they didn’t work their full 40 required hours.  The idea is that some people are so efficient that they can get all of their work done in 40 hours.  The truth is that some people are more efficient than others, but that doesn’t mean they should cut out early.  Their efficiency creates a great opportunity for them to spend more time planning and thinking strategically.

What if instead of leaving work early, they spent the extra time thinking about ways to improve their job, assist other employees or change inefficient processes.  I have been operating on the other side of the spectrum lately in not having enough time to get everything done, but recently made some changes that have increased efficiency.  I decluttered and it has allowed me to stay ahead and not work from behind.  This meant that I had a couple of hours last Friday to sit and think about what could improve in the finance office and the church.  I could have easily left earlier, but in that extra time I identified some possible improvements that can help our finance office better support the church in reaching the lost. 

So when you get all caught up and have a few extra hours, use the time to think, plan, read, research and improve.  I want to qualify this by saying sometimes the best thing to do is to go home, especially if you had been working difficult hours.  However, there will be days that you will have the opportunity to spend some time improving what you do.  The reality is that you always have something to do.

Cost Management – Part 2 (Cost Managers)

In part 1, we talked about the importance of cost management.  Now I want to talk about the role of cost managers in organizations and the application to churches.  A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is responsible for the financial management and cost management of an organization.  In the corporate world this is often the second most valued position in an organization behind the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  In the church world, this isn’t typically the case.  I believe that the reason financial personnel aren’t as influential in churches is because church finance has historically been viewed as bookkeeping only.

CFOs are responsible for the bookkeeping and accounting, but they also use the data to assist in making better decisions, help manage risk and increase the overall value of the company.  I don’t see any reason that church finance personnel should not add the same value to their respective churches in the very same way.   Pastoral leadership requires the same valuable input and analysis that CFOs provide to CEOs in the corporate world.

Here are some tools I use as I try to develop into a role that can better support the leadership of our church:

• Talk to your pastor and find out exactly what would help him in the decision making process.
• Get involved with the NACBA and learn from those that understand these principles.
• Subscribe to organizational finance magazines like CFO.
• Join the AICPA, purchase their products or review their resources to stay up to date on general accounting procedures.
• Take continuing education classes to increase your knowledge of accounting, finance, economics and organizational management.

Lets keep learning and growing in the role that God has gifted us in and called us to.  What are some other tools that could help church finance staff add value to the decision making of the senior leadership?

Cost Management – Part 1

This is my first post as I begin Accounting 3210 – Cost Accounting at Tennessee Tech.  I truly belive this class will provide some very valuable insight for application at Faith Promise.  Cost management is all about creating more value at lower costs.  Sounds like something we could all learn more about.  It is so easy to get caught up in the urgent needs of an organization and lose track of the opportunity for strategic cost management.  The reason you want to increase value and decrease costs is that you can then use the unused funds for additional value added purchases.  

Another reason to improve cost management processes is to identify your strengths and weaknesses.  Cost data can show you where you do the best at utilizing funds and where you waste the most funds.  This information can help you make better strategic purchasing decisions and ensure your spending patterns are in line with your budget.  Cost management isn’t just about saving money, but is about creating value through making better decisions on a small scale and a large scale.  I know that I can do a much better job managing costs at Faith Promise and I look forward to implementing some value creating processes.