My New Experiment

Chances are that there won’t be many people that find this experiment very interesting, but I hope to use it in a couple of different ways. I am going to start using my blog to take the things I learn in my classes at Tennessee Tech and apply them to my position at Faith Promise Church. Here are a few of the main reasons I wanted to do this:

1. Application. It is often difficult to apply things learned in business classes to the nonprofit world. This will challenge me to make application and find ways to improve what I do everyday. I would love to get some interaction on this.
2. Improve learning. This will be one more exercises in grasping the material. There will of course be problems to solve, quizzes to take and exams to study for, but this will give me a unique way to better understand the material.
3. Open dialogue. I would love to get some discussion going from other church finance people, accountants and even others they may not deal much in the financial world.

We will see how this goes, but I look forward to sharing what I am learning. The current course is Cost Accounting. I know that doesn’t sound like a blast for most of you, but just open your mind to understanding how this side of ministry works!!!

The reason we do this……….

Thursday night, Faith Promise hosted Volunteer Link.  It is a time for people in our church to identify potential ministry opportunities.  The problem for me is that so often as a staff member I get stuck on the organization part of church and lose sight of what we are really doing.  From time to time, I need a good reminder of what we are trying to accomplish and what impact we have.

At Volunteer Link I was helping to connect people to the First Touch ministry which consists of greeters, ushers and parking lot workers.  Before it started I was talking with a couple I had just met about their experience at Faith Promise.  The husband had grown up in church and wanted to be involved, but the wife had never had a good experience with church.  They decided to try Faith Promise.  The wife told me that she had never been to a church where she felt so comfortable and didn’t feel judged.  Not only that, but she wants to be baptized so that her daughter will come.  Her daughter hates church and will only come for her mother’s baptism.  Baptism as evangelism….hmmm….isn’t that the point?

This was a cool conversation as they talked about how their lives are changing because of what we are doing at Faith Promise.  The husband invited his children who invited their friends and family.  In addition to this, I talked with another guy who hadn’t been to church in 20 years and within 2 months, he is attending every weekend, involved in a small group and looking for a place to serve.

We work hard to create environments for people to experience God in corporate worship, small groups and in opportunities of service.  The stories above are the reason we do this.  Sometimes I just need a reminder that lives are changing because of our weekend worship services.  It is more than just a show!!!!!

Finance Office Improvement #3 – Personnel

This post will discuss the need for improvement with finance personnel, to include volunteers, staff and contract labor.  It doesn’t matter how good an organization is structurally, good personnel make a great organization.  When I consider personnel in the finance office, I have to make sure that I consider all possible solutions.  The factors that play into a personnel decision are budget, required expertise and desired leadership capability.

Everyone always wants more paid staff, but so often the solution could be volunteers or contract labor.  In a church there are so many people that want to play a part and have special skills to support the staff.  Also, sometimes you may be able to pull someone in short term to turn things around or finish a special project.  Paid staff is not always the solution, but if a role requires substantial time and responsibility, it might be time to bring someone on staff as a paid employee.

I really want to improve in this area.  Instead of thinking about what staff positions I need to add, I want to think more about how I can utilize volunteers.  I also want to see how I can bring in specially trained individuals as contract labor to quickly finish some projects.  This will give us the right experience and leadership at the right budget.  It is a tough balance to find, but I plan on growing in this area.

Finance Office Improvement #2 – Reporting

One of the main functions of any finance office is to report spending and budgets to other departments.  I don’t think I have been very effective on this front in the past, but definitely want to improve this area.  I am not talking about more reporting, but better reporting.  So often people provide the information they think people need in the format they think people need it in.  Rarely do they consult with other departments to find out what exactly would help them operate more effectively.

There are several different reporting relationships, but the major one is reporting to the decision makers.  The people who make important decision for the organization must have accurate information in an understandable format.  Better information usually leads to better decisions and that is why it is so critical to communicate the facts appropriately.

Another important reporting relationship is with people who contribute to the organization.  For our church that could be reporting to the congregation.  The reason for doing this is so that the people maintain confidence in those individuals chosen to manage or spend the funds donated.  When someone trusts and has confidence in the organization, they will be much more willing to give and support the mission.

Reporting is such a critical area of financial operations.  Without it people don’t understand where the organization truly stands and they begin to lose trust and confidence.  I want to provide the right information in the right format at the right time, all of the time.  This is going to take some work, but it is something that can provide a significant impact for our organization and the Kingdom.

Finance Office Improvement #1 – Purchasing

Last week I shared some of the tools we use in the finance office at Faith Promise Church.  Next I want to share some of my plans to improve the finance office in the future.  These will not necessarily fall into priority order, but improvement #1 is definitely priority #1.  A little less than 2 years ago I came to FPC from the Spallation Neutron Source project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  At SNS I negotiated and awarded contracts for equipment and services.  In this role, I learned a great deal about how a good purchasing process can save a substantial amount of money.  Here are a few ways a good purchasing system can save money and increase value:

• Competition.  When looking to make a purchase, considering multiple sources will create an atmosphere of competition.  In turn, suppliers will lower their prices or improve their offering.  This increases the value of what you can afford.  It is always good to get several offers for what you need to be sure you are paying the best price for the right solution.

• Purchase consolidation.  With a good purchasing system, information can reveal areas to increase purchasing power.  Identifying frequent purchases from the same vendor will help in purchasing larger quantities at lower prices.  In addition, it is easier to locate what companies products had previously been purchased from.

• Employee understanding.  When employees don’t understand the purchasing process it increases frustration and creates friction between the employees and the finance office.  With a good, clear purchasing process employees recognize the value and allow the finance office to assist them in making better purchasing decisions.

Purchasing is something I know can be improved in most organizations.  I have seen the significant cost savings that are accomplished through competition, consolidation of data, and employee understanding.  Moving forward, I want to improve the way we operate and provide the best possible support in allowing the various ministries of Faith Promise Church to make the most cost effective purchases.  I plan on doing this by creating a clear process, offering valuable support, and providing the necessary tools.

Vision I Can Believe In

This weekend my wife and her sister held a yard sale.  I hate yard sales and everything associated with them.  Luckily I had to work Friday, so I missed it that day, but I was there the whole time Saturday.  As much as I hate it, I had a cool experience after it was all over.  I took a car full of clothes, toys, and other stuff to Knox Area Rescue Ministries to donate so that they can use them for their ministry work.  I have always been a big fan of KARM, but what I experienced on this particular drop off was huge.

There was a man and a woman helping unload and sort through things.  Very positive and helpful people.  When I finished unloading my car, the man asked me if I needed a gift receipt and I told him that I didn’t.  Then he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Thank you, you helped feed and clothe a lot of people tonight!”  He didn’t say it in passing, but stopped and with passion shared the result of me donating some stuff to their ministry.

He didn’t have to say this.  I was actually caught off guard by the statement.  I couldn’t get it out of my mind on the drive home and I found myself becoming passionate about KARM.  I don’t know if he was a volunteer or an employee, but the point is that he understands the vision of the ministry he serves in.  He wasn’t just taking things from cars to the warehouse, he was feeding and clothing the homeless.  That is vision I can believe in.  Do you see the big picture of what God is doing when he asks you to do the little things?

The Future of The Church

I love hearing about high school or college students that feel a call to ministry.  To see God working on those that will lead the church of the future is amazing.  You see youth who dream about impacting the world for Christ.  It is not common to experience this, but when it happens it is a reminder that God continues to work in this world. 

Most of the time this call is felt by those God calls to be senior pastors or teaching pastors, but there are many other callings.  I brought in a student to intern in the finance office at Faith Promise Church and the refreshing things was to hear that he is very interested in a possible career as a church business administrator.  It isn’t a job that sounds glamorous, but it is an area in the church that can help improve the effectiveness of a ministry. 

I am excited to see how this internship turns out.  It is a great opportunity for both Faith Promise and the intern.  The future could be bright.  I will keep you posted.

Church Finance Tools #5, #6, and #7

This is the last post in this series about church finance tools.  This post includes three essential tools to my office and any finance office.  Here goes:

• Excel.  While I believe the right management software or accounting software can meet most of your needs, there is always a place for Microsoft Excel.  You can do almost anything with data when you import it into Excel.  Recently I was introduced to pivot tables and the endless possibilities of their use.  Thanks Glenn!!!

• Pencils. OK, so this might sound a little silly to list as a tool, but for a lot of what I do a pen just won’t work.  When trying to figure out the best way to do something I will write, erase, re-write, erase, re-write, etc.  You can only do that effectively with a pencil.  

• Calculator.  I may love numbers, but that doesn’t mean that I am able to perform complex or even simple mathematical equations in my head.  Without a calculator I would be in trouble.  It would take a ton of time to do the calculation by hand.  Maybe this should have been tool #1 for me!!!

There are a lot of tools that people can use in a church finance office, but these 7 are my essentials (Volunteers, FellowshipOne, ADP, Intacct, Excel, Pencils, and Calculator).  What am I missing?  What tools do you use for what you do to make you more effective?  I am always looking for things to make the finance office better at Faith Promise Church.

Church Finance Tool #4

As promised in yesterday’s post, I am discussing our accounting software today.  Last December we decided to change our accounting software over to Intacct.  I don’t know if I have ever had a harder time in making a decision than the selection of accounting software.  We looked at all different solutions and after months of consideration, we decided Intacct was the best fit for us.  Below are some of the features that are a benefit to00 us:

• Electronic purchasing system.  Intacct allows us to automate our purchasing process. People can make purchase requests from anywhere via the internet and that request will flow through electronic approval.  This gives the requester the ability to see where their requests are in the approval process and they can also better monitor their budget info through the web based system.

• Great reporting function.  The reporting feature within the system is very well done.  You can begin with a good number of default reports, but you can also customize those reports to better meet your needs.  Most organizations have unique reports that management likes to review, so the system offers great flexibility in getting the right information in the right layout.

• Web based system.  I know you have heard this on both the FellowshipOne and ADP posts, but it is something I have become a big fan of.  We don’t have to worry about any software updates, we can turn our paper processes into electronic processes, and there is no software to chew up your computer or server resources.

I believe that our decision to go with Intacct will allow us to accomplish great things for Faith Promise Church.  We are more efficient and effective in our operations.  In addition, purchasing and budget information can be consolidated to identify areas of cost savings.  Anyone considering new accounting software (Church or not) should consider Intacct as a possible solution.  We are extremely pleased.

Church Finance Tool #3

Last December, I decided to change our accounting software.  I will address that in more detail tomorrow, but the change also required us to change our payroll software.  We had been running all payroll in house with the payroll module on our old software.  When we made the change, we decided to go with ADP.  So far, we are very pleased.  Here are some of the major reasons I like using ADP:

• It is completely web based.  I am able to input, review and process payroll from anywhere I have an internet connection (and the appropriate web key).  This gives me great flexibility in running payroll.  Also, our employees are able to input their time sheets electronically and their supervisors can approve from anywhere they have an internet connection.  We have been running this with a small sample of employees and it has worked great.  We will be rolling it out to all hourly employees soon.

• Tax updates and other software updates are done by ADP and I don’t have to do anything.  I just use the sytsem without worrying about management of the actual software.  This eliminates our need for internal IT support and for servers to backup the data.  ADP holds and backups all data on their servers.  All we need is an internet connection.

• ADP processes our payroll through the bank, pays our payroll taxes, files our quarterly tax reports, and files our annual W2 forms.  This saves us a lot of time, especially at year end.  In addition to all of this, we are able to do an easy export from ADP to our accounting system for all general ledger entries related to each payroll run.

We decided to go with ADP, mostly because we needed something that would work well with our new accounting software.  That being said, we have been extremely pleased with ADP.  When it comes to payroll, ADP does it well.  Tomorrow I will talk about our new accounting solution.