User Support Forum

Hello all,

Guess I get to be the first to put something in this forum.

I'd like to know what process you use when counting receipts and entering them into PowerChurch.

Its been suggested that the only task of finance committee members be to verify each envelope's contents, total all of the checks, cash and coin...and that's it.

I've suggested that we teach one finance committee member on each counting team (eventually all of them) to enter the contributions into PowerChurch giving them permissions to only perform that function.

How do you all feel about the above?

What has worked for you?

What didn't work for you?

AdvanceThanks,
Jeff

Our church uses deacons to count the money. There is an EXCEL spreadsheet that they fill out that automatically totals categories and envelopes. The only problem with this method is the treasurer must be there 52 weeks a year and the other deacons just once a month. Then the part time secretary enters the compiled data into PowerChurch later in the week.

Thanks, Randy.

Anyone else care to share?

Our money counting teams work for a month on a rotating schedule. We have 4 teams presently, each headed by an experienced Finance Committee member, and consisting of 3 unrelated people.

Our money counting teams open all the envelopes and post the receipts to a manual (paper) register. We cleverly call these the "money counters sheets". This team also prepares the deposit. The church secretary verifies the deposit before taking it to the bank on Monday, and posts the receipts to PowerChurch later in the week.

Any discrepancies or corrections are noted and approved by the Treasurer on a weekly basis. When we have our annual financial review, the manual sheets and deposits are cross-checked against the PowerChurch records. Works for us.

Bill,

Thanks for sharing. Currently, we use four teams of two (unrelated) people on a rotating basis. We have discussed adding a third person to the teams. On five Sunday months, we have another team who counts; both of whom are bookkeeppers.

Anyone else care to share?

AdvanceThanks,
Jeff

Hi Jeff, We use a counting team, made up of volunteers. These volunteers are set us in Power Church to enter transactions in the contributions module only. The treasurer (me) then verifies the printed detail to the deposit, and then posts the contributions to the Fund Accounting module. I am in the process of training all counters to be able to do the entering function. So long as authorization is given only to enter data, and print the reports I don't see any problem. The general ledger is available only to the treasurer, so mishaps can be corrected when they occur. I think that you are on the right track. Happy Holidays,

Thanks for your input.

I think we're on the right track once our non-computer user team members get over the shock of learning what we're planning to do. Fortunately, most are computer literate and are trainable.

Have a great 1st!

Jeff

We are very new to PC+. We have 4 or 5 non-paid counters (Trustees) weekly, not counting the treasurer.

( If we have less than 4 trustees available, then the computer input is left for the secretary to input on monday. In that case, the trustees simply balance the envelopes with the money & reords the amounts on the "sheet").

Normally, each trustee opens & counts an un-specified number of envelopes & balances the envelopes with their pile of money by entering the envelope amounts into PC+. The un-posted contribution report is run by each trustee for his inputed data. It's like running an additing machine tape on the envelopes. The trustee balances the report with the money. The treasurer assists with finding errors. A weekly "sheet" (Excel spreadsheet) is prepared with totals for all other kinds of giving received including the trustee's envelope amounts.

The Treasure balances all funds in the room with the "sheet" and prepares the deposit ticket before depositing the funds in the bank that Sunday.

On monday the secretary audits the un-posted report for anything that "jumps" off the page. She signs the un-posted report, & the treasurer posts the transaction in the system.

Tom

I forgot to mention that the "Trustee Chairmen is a counter. If the Treasurer is not available then he does her function or assigns on of the more experienced trustees to perform her Sunday morgning function.

Tom

We have 4 teams of counters, each team consisting of two unrelated people. One person runs the computer, the other opens envelopes and reads checks or cash amounts.

Initially the team will separate loose cash and checks. One team member takes the loose checks and uses our check reader to input these into PC+. The other starts counting the loose cash. Once the first team member finishes entering the loose checks, he then recounts the loose cash and verifies the initial count by the other team member.

The loose cash is then entered as Lucy Cash Offerings into PC+. Then the envelopes are tackled, with the one member entering the data, the other reading the envelope numbers, contribution fund, and amounts .

After all the envelopes have been entered, any cash from the envelopes is counted, totaled, then added to the first cash count. Then all the cash is recounted to insure that we match the the initial count totals.

We run the bank deposit slip, verify that the cash total on the slip equals what the count was, then check off each check amount to insure that the check entry was correct. A deposit slip is created based on the bank deposit slip report, and a copy of the slip is forwarded to the treasurer along with a copy of the funds report.

The original deposit slip is put into a bank deposit envelope with the cash receipts, and the bank deposit report is sent with the checks. Then one of the team takes the sealed envelopes to the night deposit at the bank. Any problems found at the bank are dealt with by the financial secretary who is in charge of the entire contributions area.

One thing we do when we add counters to the teams is insure that they have been members for at least a year, with a history of regular giving.

Well, I'm overdue on sharing what has transpired since my original post. Thanks to all who have shared their specific methodology.

We have successfully trained all of our finance committee counting teams. I believe that it is safe to say that 98% of the kinks have been worked out.

Here's what the team does now:
1. Separate the unclaimed cash from the rest of the contributions. One person counts this and enters each dollar domination and coin on a tally sheet.
2. All of the tithe/offering envelopes are separated by check or cash. The counter at the computer enters the checks via the check reader first. Then the cash contributions are entered.
3. The second person counts / verifies the remaining contributions received that week (AM offerings, Sunday School, Wednesday night, fund raiser monies, etc.) and enters that info on the tally sheet.
4. The person at the computer then enters all of the unclaimed monies (from the tally sheet) using envelope 10000 that is labeled "Cash In" and selects the specific designated fund (AM Offering, Sunday School, etc).
5. In the last phase, the team runs the deposit and unclaimed contributions reports and then audits all of the entries going through every envelope and verifying each entry for each contributor. Lastly, they count all of the checks and verify that the check count agrees with the bank deposit report.

When version 9 is released, the team will also print out a Contribution Funds Report for the Sunday date.


Jeff

Jeff,

How long does it typically take to process your weekly offerings in PC+?

Does your current process take longer?

In as much as I am a retired auditor, I am trying to find the right mix between good internal controls & time constrains. We do all of our counting right after service so as to not require our teams to come back during the week. (I wouldn't like it very much if we left the funds in the safe overnight).

Some of our team members are complaining about the time factor. I am hoping that this won't be a problem in the future. (We have only been using PC+ for two weeks).

I wonder how much time do other PC+ users have to spend!!!!

Tom
2nd Baptist Church of Ypsilanti

SBCTrustee wrote:Jeff,

How long does it typically take to process your weekly offerings in PC+?

Does your current process take longer?

In as much as I am a retired auditor, I am trying to find the right mix between good internal controls & time constrains. We do all of our counting right after service so as to not require our teams to come back during the week. (I wouldn't like it very much if we left the funds in the safe overnight).

Some of our team members are complaining about the time factor. I am hoping that this won't be a problem in the future. (We have only been using PC+ for two weeks).

I wonder how much time do other PC+ users have to spend!!!!

Tom
2nd Baptist Church of Ypsilanti

Hi Tom,

It usually takes our counters anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours to do the entire count. Alot depends on how familiar the person entering data is with PC+. Of course, the time also depends on the number of envelopes and amount of loose cash offerings that come in.

Hope this helps .. I too would like to know how long it takes for Jeff's counters to do the count.

Tom,

The answer is "it depends."

On the first and third Sundays, we have more contributions to process.

Neil's answer is also applicable. As the counting teams have become more familar with PowerChurch, the process accelerates.

If I were to provide the entire timeframe range, I would say it takes anywhere from one to two-and-a-half hours to complete.

We are using a check reader and that has helped with both data entry and reducing the error rate. With the ability of producing the bank deposit and unposted contributions report, verification of data entry by the team members has significantly improved. This has both increased accuracy and reduced the time it takes for final verfication prior to posting by the church secretary.

As our contributions continue to increase, I envision setting up another computer with another check reader to facilitate data entry.

Also, I'm eagerly awaiting a copy of PC+ v9 so that the "contributions only" counting teams will be able to print more reports, such as the unposted contribution funds report.

Prior to using PC+ in the counting room, we were manually recording everything on tally/recap sheets. It was a very long and tedious process that required (for us, anyway) more people to review and then enter into PC+.

Hope this helps,
Jeff

At Holy Cross, The treasurer (me) supervises the counting process. We use the members of the Vestry, (think board of trustees or parish council) as counters. Each of the twelve vestry members serves one month of counting duty every three months. Depending on availability, I'll have between 1-3 people doing the count. Our procedure is as folows:

Ideally, one counter will count the loose plate offering, while the envelope offering is divided amongst the other counters. The envelopes are designed that congregants can designate which of their offering goes to operations, special appeal, etc. Those envelopes are opened by the counters, and the money is counted using sheets that the counter records the various destinations for the funds.

After counting their share of money, the counters will then double check the counting sheets for errors, make sure that all their columns add up to the total, and also make sure that the actual cash and checks agree with their sheets. They then give the whole mess to me and I double check it. Only then is the counter released for the day, otherwise, they have to find any discrepancies and resolve them. If all counters show correct counts, then I combine everything together, make one final double check, and then add the results to a final count sheet which is copied in triplicate. One copy goes to the rector, one copy goes to the parish administrator, one copy is used to enter the data into Power Church and I get the original. The individual counting sheets are copied in duplicate, the parish admin gets one set and I get one for my records and the third copy goes for data entry into PC. My copies of the counting sheets and the final tally are stapled together with a copy of the bank deposit slip, and are put into my files until I get the receipt of the deposit from the bank. I do the deposits, and also enter the data into Power Church. At present, I am the only person trained on Power Church. On a good day, with no hangups, we can do a big count in about 2-2.5 hours. First Sunday is our biggest day.
On the data entry side, I can usually get the count data into Power Church in about twenty minutes.