In 2012, I had the opportunity to become one of the Trustees of our parish. I was volunteered for the position of church accountant partly because I think our family shows up most Sundays. Here is a peek inside for those who have not received this “call” to action. For starters, people begin to treat you differently. They will either badger you with questions or turn in the opposite direction when you approach. The questions and comments range from “Why haven’t you cashed my check?” “It’s been two days” to “We cannot contribute this month; we’ll see next time.” In light of this, the position of the church accountant itself is a balancing act. When it’s all said and done, our job was to make sure Assets equal Liabilities plus Owners Equity (A= L + OE).
Our guiding document for this endeavor was the parish budget. We could do nothing outside of it. We had line items for almost anything within the parish, and all of the incoming monies went into one pot. Part of my job was properly filtering this incoming revenue stream against our monthly expenses while adhering to the budget.
The fun times, however, came at the end of the year. People who were often lovely and courteous throughout the year became angry villagers pining for blood at the calendar year’s end. All to see if their contributions were recorded correctly when tax season arrived the following year. Heaven help us if we held a general body meeting to address the year’s financial matters. This meeting could be fruitful or turn into a shouting match with serious grievances. We ended the year, however, with a parsonage purchase, surplus, and firmer accounting groundwork for future trustees.
