My experience using Liberty Accounts software designed for church and charity accounting
As a risk management consultant working in the transport, energy, and pharma sectors, reliability and security are critical to Manny Kemp. In his role as treasurer of the Eden Baptist Church in his beloved Cambridge, those factors are just as important.
“For churches, where every single penny counts, and much of the upkeep is done by volunteers, it is crucial that every process is straightforward and that users can collaborate with total confidence,” says Kemp, who also serves as deacon of Eden Baptist.
This is why he has been a long-time fan of Liberty Accounts’ cloud-based software, which he says is not only extremely dependable but intuitive enough for those without a bookkeeping background to feel comfortable with. “Unlike many off-the-shelf solutions, Liberty’s packages are specially designed for charitable organisations,” explains Kemp, “which make them particularly well-suited for users involved with church finances, many of whom work remotely”.
What’s more, he points out, as part of its extra-mile service, Liberty has even collaborated directly with him to tweak software functionalities. “The expenditure handling tool we use, for instance, was an improvisation, and the system we came up with works very smoothly indeed,” he says.
“At the end of the day though, cost is always going to be the real clincher,” adds Kemp, “And here, Liberty is definitely the most economical out of the options out there”.
Two ways Liberty helps my church accounting
According to Kemp, Liberty’s software enables Eden Baptist Church—which is classed as a larger charity for reporting purposes—to keep on top of its fiscal housekeeping duties in two main ways.
Firstly, its fund-accounting function lets team members to create and administer multiple funds in real time. “There are five regular ones—for general outgoings, building costs, student ministry, staff matters and theological training—plus other funds for specific events, such as the Harvest Festival, which are added regularly,” says Kemp. “All must have a separate SORP-compliant set of accounts and Liberty’ software enables us makes good on that legal obligation with no effort”.
Secondly, he says Liberty’s donor ledger tools—which manage all the information needed to support Gift Aid claims—improves the church’s cashflow, boosts efficiency and saves time. “One sixth of our total income comes from Gift Aid but before we opted for a cloud-based service, we outsourced the work to a bookkeeper, who filed quarterly as it took so long”. Once, in those pre-automated days, the church discovered it had £30,000 in eligible retroactive claims.
More efficiency and day-to-day control of church finances
For Kemp, even more efficiency and day-to-day control of church finances is possible because of the various reporting features in Liberty software. “While compliance on the reporting front is made easier with ‘one-click’ statement of activities, there are lots of nifty tools to configure and help plan budgets for different funds,” he says. “As all data is available in Excel, and I am a bit of a geek, I create templates for a number of spreadsheets into which I can just drop copy at any time.”
Up-to-date tool and relevant data to overview the church finances
Ensuring he is up-to-date with the relevant tools is particularly important for Kemp. As well as serving as treasurer of Eden Baptist Church, he also helps out at the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, a group made up of students from across the city’s colleges, and Foundation’s Trust, a local christian charity. And since 2017, he has also been a volunteer trainer with the Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers (ACAT).
To date, he reckons he has personally trained more than 1,000 church accountants since 2017, many of whom have gone on to fulfil the roles of treasurer or administrator at many other organisations.
“Naturally, when I am training church accountants, I’m usually asked what software I use,” says Kemp. “I’m always happy to tell people I am a big fan of Liberty Accounts”.
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