Budgets
Your congregation has been generous and now you need to set a budget. But just saying the words budget time in staff meeting makes many of the pastors’ eyes glaze over. How can you set a budget, align the staff within those perimeters, and insure that they don’t go over their budgeted amount?
Borrowing Designated (Restricted) Gift Balances
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 Hey Fletch … Our finances have trended downward and we borrowed $20,000 from the unused balances of restricted funds. This caused some controversy on the church board. What is your counsel? [...]
Numbers Based on Operating Budget or Total Revenue
Tuesday, May 7, 2019 Hey Fletch … Do you have benchmark data that documents total compensation as a percent of total revenue (restricted and unrestricted), not just of the operating budget? I know over the [...]
Seven Common Mistakes Churches Make When Performing a Ratio Analysis
Church board members are eager to fulfill their fiduciary responsibility and watch over the long-term economic health of the church. However, most are not used to reading nonprofit financial statements. This can make it [...]
How Can We Do a ‘Love Offering’
Monday, May 6, 2019 Hey Fletch … We occasionally receive love offerings for our senior pastor and other staff members. How should we handle these gifts? DRF—There are so many questions floating out there about [...]
Building Campaign that Falls Short
Monday, April 29, 2019 Hey Fletch … Two years ago we launched a building campaign for our church, but we fell short of our goals. Now the board has decided not to expand the [...]
Supporting Missions Work
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 Hey Fletch … Our church provides direct support to several international missionaries. What are the issues we should look at to provide this support with the utmost integrity? DRF—There are so [...]
2019 Mileage Reimbursements
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 Hey Fletch … Some of my fellow XPs have a variety of polices regarding mileage reimbursement for staff. I am wondering about best practices regarding this issue. Any help? DRF—In [...]
Giving to a Short-Term Missions Team
Monday, March 25, 2019 Fletch is back from his research break, writing Predators in the Church Hey Fletch … I’ve been tracking with Dan Busby’s comments in the Hey Fletch column. I know gifts [...]
Gifts for a Needy Person
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 Hey Fletch… We have a widow in our church that is going through serious medical challenges. She has exhausted her financial resources. Several wealthy members of the congregation want to financially [...]
Can a Church Pay FICA for a Pastor?
Tuesday, February 19, 2019 Hey Fletch … It’s been one month after I got your answer to my question. I still don’t have my head wrapped around this issue of FICA vs. SECA and how [...]
Staff Budgets Are Cut
Monday, February 18, 2019 Hey Fletch … I’m been on staff at our megachurch for many years. Every year, I have to worry about the budget for my area being cut in the middle of [...]
Is Pastoral Compensation over $500,000 Excessive?
Thursday, February 14, 2019 Hey Fletch … no names or cities on this one … Few in our church know this and it might be disturbing to many if it leaked out. I just learned [...]
Mileage Reimbursement for Missionaries
Wednesday, February 13, 2019 Hey Fletch! First off, thank you so much for bringing such an informative and fun workshop to Hawaii. It was such a pleasure to see you and we look forward to [...]
Giving Envelopes and Designated Giving
Tuesday, February 12, 2019 Hey Fletch…our church envelopes and website allow donors to make designations. There are words that say, “The board has complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds.” Can [...]
Bonuses for Staff
Monday, February 11, 2019 Hey Fletch … Can you give some thoughts about bonuses for staff? We are toying with the idea and don’t know what to make of it. DRF—There isn’t must hard research [...]
Obligations with Donor Designations?
Tuesday, January 29, 2019 Hey Fletch … What are our obligations in handling donor designations? These come either verbally during a church service, on our website, or by text. They can also be formally given [...]
Should Our Church Pay for Passports?
Wednesday, January 16, 2019 Hey Fletch … I’m wondering if you have any guidance around paying for employee’s passport? It's not expressly written that employees have to go on mission trips through the church [...]
Donor Designated Gifts
Tuesday, January 15, 2019 Hey Fletch … I heard that if a donor designates a gift made to our church, we cannot provide the donor with a receipt under the theory that designated gifts are [...]
Pay for a Wedding
Friday, January 11, 2019 Hey Fletch … If a pastor performs a funeral or wedding and is paid directly, the pastor gives the check to our church finance office. I then add it to their [...]
New Year Help on Taxes
Monday, January 7, 2019 Hey Fletch … I heard you say at the Smart Money workshop, "If a pastor has low housing costs, it can actually hurt them financially." My question is how? Isn't it [...]
Tax on a Church Parking Lot?
Saturday, January 5, 2019 Hey Fletch … Do I need to pay unrelated business income tax on my parking lot? I heard a lot of noise about this last fall but what was the final [...]
Policies on Appropriate Spending
Friday, January 4, 2019 Hey Fletch … Do you have any policies or procedures which outline appropriate spending? Our SP has a credit card but we haven’t ever put limits on spending. We are currently [...]
Salaries for Various Positions
Saturday, December 29, 2018 Hey Fletch … Does the Smart Money for Church Salaries workshop cover pay levels for various positions? One of our biggest challenges is determining competitive wage levels. DRF—The answer is “yes.” [...]