Counting procedures

[debbieg]

This is not actually a technical question and should maybe be posted elsewhere but I figured this is where all the people that deal with contribution issues would be reading.

In the previous topic about how to correct contribution entry errors, John and Neil both explained their procedures for entering the data into PC as it was being counted.

I am curious as to other people's procedures who are not using that method. In other words, I'm sure there are many churches like us that have counters that count the money and then the totals and empty envelopes with giving detail are passed to the person who does the data entry into PC. she performs her entries at home at a later date. She used the Contribution module last year on a stand-alone basis. this year, we will be incorporating the accounting module. I also discovered many errors last year when I started running contribution reports and comparing those to the financial reports (manually prepared).

I guess my question concerns how to prevent these errors when the counting and recording are being done at separate times by separate people. How are others dealing with this?
Debbie

[Lnkoop]

We also do the count your way. Our deacons count special offerings after each service, but these are not recorded unless the people include the gift in an envelop with their number on it (we also record loose checks for that offering too, even without the envelope). The General fund envelopes are brought to the bank and then counted once a month. The dollars are noted on the envelope and then the treasurer creates a spreadsheet. He includes the printout along with the empty envelopes and gives them to me. I do the data entry, run unposted contributions report and I MUST balance with the treasurer's spreadsheet printout. That way we have eliminated all errors. If I find a discrepancy I call him and work it out.
Hope that helps a bit.

[NeilZ]

We also do the count your way. Our deacons count special offerings after each service, but these are not recorded unless the people include the gift in an envelop with their number on it (we also record loose checks for that offering too, even without the envelope). The General fund envelopes are brought to the bank and then counted once a month. The dollars are noted on the envelope and then the treasurer creates a spreadsheet. He includes the printout along with the empty envelopes and gives them to me. I do the data entry, run unposted contributions report and I MUST balance with the treasurer's spreadsheet printout. That way we have eliminated all errors. If I find a discrepancy I call him and work it out.
Hope that helps a bit.

Sounds like a lot of double entries !!

[wms7328]

This is our counting procedure. We have tellers (normally 3 people, minimum of 2) that take all the cash out of the offering on Sunday after services, record the totals for the different funds, mark the cash amount on any envelope that has a name on it and deposits the cash in the bank on Sunday. All the checks are placed in a secure location until Monday morning when the contributions clerk (office staff person) enters all the cash from the teller sheet and the checks into Power Church. The checks are then electronically scanned and remote deposited in the bank from the church office.

We have found this to work well, the cash gets handled immediately and isn't kept at the church at all, the checks are deposited the next day through remote deposit capture (our bank offers this free since you are really saving them the labor to do exactly the same thing when you give them the physical check). Only one person is allowed to enter the contributions in Power Church. All deposits are then verified against bank records by the system administrator. This process has greatly reduced the errors. We have online contributions which the contributions clerk also handles from the church office.

We send out quarterly contribution statements by email and ask that folks let us know of any errors. This has helped catch any errors before too much time has gone by. We are a congregation of approx. 550 and process about 100 checks a week.

[debbieg]

What special equipment is required to do the scanning of the checks and remote deposit to the bank?
debbie

[wms7328]

Our bank provided the check scanner free, will scan about 25 checks a minute. You transmit the scanned images to the bank over internet connection through a computer. They load a small program on the local computer that controls the scanning. Our bank imports these images 5 times a day, so usually within a few hours the bank will accept the checks and deposit will be in your account. It usually takes our office staff about 15 to 20 minutes to scan in 100 checks and make any corrections. The program tries to read the check amount, but usually you have to manually enter the amount on about 10% of the checks.

Other companies will offer this service, such as VANCO but they charge. Our bank offered it free since it saves them the labor of scanning in the checks. We like it because we don't have to go to the bank and it gets the deposit in the account. You do have to agree to maintain the paper copies of the checks in locked storage for 60 days and then destroy the checks.

[NeilZ]

Why don't you have the tellers enter the data directly into Powerchurch, instead of writing everything down, the clerk on Monday can verify what was entered, scan the checks, and still be able to correct any issues as the tellers won't have the capability to do anything other than enter data, and print three reports ?

This would be a good stewardship of church funds, as the contributions secretary would then have time to do other things.

[wms7328]

The tellers just enter the totals for each fund and verify the total cash deposit that is taken to the bank night deposit. We have about 30 people that serve as tellers so training that many didn't seem worthwhile. This process seems to work the best for us, but I"m sure other churches might have different ways.