The finance team at the diocesan office now offers a bookkeeping service for parishes. It is hoped that this will be particularly useful for those churches who have treasurers wishing to retire or inexperienced treasurers who might need some support taking on the role, particularly with the legal aspects.
The service was trialled by three different parishes and is now available to parishes or churches in the diocese with an income of less than £250k. Bank statements, receipts and invoices will be collected from the parish and will be used to produce the annual accounts to Charity Commission Standards, as well as reports for the PCC and if needed, help with budgeting. It will ensure all the parish financial legal requirements are met.
Parish Resources Officer, Chris Ottershaw, said: “This is something that a few parishes have told us would be useful and it’s worked well in other dioceses. We don’t want to take business away from other bookkeepers, so there is a small charge of £24 per hour (£20 +VAT) plus £4 a month for the software that’s used, but we hope the service will provide good value for money. If parishes would prefer to use a completely independent bookkeeper, then we can also provide contacts for those who specialise in working with churches.”
St Mary in Stanford-upon-Teme is using the service for their church. Churchwarden Alexandra Winnington said:
“Our previous treasurer had stepped down and no one else was volunteering to do the role, so when we heard about the bookkeeping service, we discussed it as an area church committee and decided to use the service. We still handle all the payments and donations, but make sure we send any invoices, receipts and emails to send across to Bernadette in the finance office. It’s convenient for me to be able to do this regularly so that I know that everything has been included in a timely fashion.
“It would have been a real burden for me to try to cover the treasurer role alongside being churchwarden, so using this bookkeeping service has been a great relief. We pay for two to three hours a month of Bernadette’s time and have quarterly financial meetings with Chris to check where things are. I provide a financial report to the wider PCC and Chris always makes sure I have the information I need. They will also produce our accounts at the end of each financial year. Bernadette is very efficient and I can ask any questions I might need to. It gives me the reassurance that our finances are being handled properly and we’re meeting our legal obligations.”
If parishes are interested in taking up this service, they should contact Chris in the diocesan office.
