Dealing with the Church of England Parochial Fees is, for many Anglican church treasurers, troublesome to say the least!
As we approach the start of a new financial year for the Anglican Church, your Diocese will be circulating the new table of parochial fees for next year and it is a good time to consider your current operation and whether it can be improved.
Treasurers have to take care of the different parochial fees that apply for incumbent or retired/visiting Ministers as well as the different classifications for the type of service. More important is the fact that the fees due to the Diocesan Board of Finance should NOT be included within the church’s income.
All of this creates a level of complexity that is easily handled in Liberty Accounts cloud accounting and payroll software through the use of Sales Items.
Sales Items are what will make up your invoice, for example the breakdown of funeral costs:
- Parish Fee for Funeral Service with the incumbent Minister;
- Diocese Fee for Funeral Service with the incumbent Minister;
- Organist fee for Funeral;
- Flowers; etc.
Importantly these Sales Items can update both your income OR liability accounts. So whist the Parish Fee item will record to an income account the Diocese Fee item will record to a liability account.
For the individual who prepares the invoices the complexity is removed as all they are doing is selecting the appropriate Sales Items and the system will then update the accounts automatically. Once the invoice is prepared it can be printed/emailed to the ‘customer’.
With the Sales Items differentiating between Parish and Diocese Fees, and whether they are recorded as an income or liability, the hard work is done. The treasurer can be assured that the Income & Expenditure, Statement of Financial Activities, Return of Parish Finance and Balance Sheet reports all reflect the correct values.
If you are not yet a user of Liberty Accounts Email us today or call on 0800 170 1150 to arrange a no obligation web presentation or simply try it out for yourself by registering for a FREE TRIAL.
