Giving - Administration & Logistics
The following post is taken from a series on Giving that I posted on my personal blog. Your are welcome to check out the entire post if you’re interested (Part 1 | Part 2) but we thought it might be helpful to share the more practical posts here on the ChurchBiz blog.
Who will collect the offering? How will we count it?
Whether your church passes the offering plate or utilizes a give box, there is a need for someone to collect the offering for each service. Typically this will need to be part of a finance or leadership team. I recommend having two people present when the offering is collected for accountability.
Once collected, the offering will need to be counted. This, too, will need two people present if possible. Both can count and sign off on the amounts collected. Having them write down these totals on a deposit slip where both counters can sign that they confirm that amount would be helpful.
Once counted, the offering should be placed in a secure bag (like a bank bag) and stored away in safekeeping until it can be deposited at the bank. A good practice is to have one of these people or another finance team member deposit the money once a week (at least monthly). There are tools that some banks have to make this process easier. If your church is processing a large number of checks, you might find it worthwhile to ask your bank for a check scanner. This would allow you to count and deposit checks from your church. Cash would still need to be taken to the bank, but it would allow you to make less frequent trips. Some banks have remote deposit features with their phone apps, which might work for churches processing a small number of checks.
How do we record our giving?
After money has been collected, counted, and deposited, it needs to be recorded. There are two major reasons to record giving. First, it must be recorded (and coded) for the church giving records. If a $10,000 check is given to a fund other than the general giving fund, it should be documented for the church’s bookkeeping. Second, it must be recorded to be reported to donors at the end of the year.
How will we record what is given and integrate it with our online giving?
Most online giving platforms automatically record donations to appropriate funds and keep track of donor records. But how do we incorporate offline giving into these systems? This is where batch entries come in. A batch entry is a manual entry that records offline donations into your online giving platform. Let’s say that this past week your church received five checks totaling $3,000 and $250 in cash given. After this money has been collected and counted, those same people could enter the details of this into your giving platform as a batch. Each check would be recorded to the person who gave it and the fund which it was given for. Cash would be entered as anonymous and likely go to the general fund unless you knew otherwise. Once the batch is named (usually just the date of entry), it is ready to be finalized. Most systems refer to this as “committing” the batch. Once the batch is committed, your offline giving will be totaled with your online giving records. All your giving is recorded in one place!
If your online giving platform doesn’t have this capability, it might be time to find a new system. Here are my top three recommendations for those looking for a new platform or church planters getting your online giving setup for the first time. If you are a church planter just starting, you need to establish a bank account before you can sign up for any online giving solution.
Planning Center Giving - Planning Center giving is hands down my favorite online giving platform. Not only does it integrate nicely with the other planning center applications, but it has a multitude of helpful features. PCO Giving is easy to navigate for your finance team and anyone else needing to access your giving information. It also has a straightforward way to generate year-end donor statements. If you want to learn more about PCO Giving, you can check it out here. - LINK
Subsplash - Subsplash giving is part of the Subsplash application and website software. While its backend navigation is a bit tricky, it delivers all the features you might need. If you use Subsplash for your website or app, it might be best to use their giving module for your church. LINK
Pushpay - Pushpay is another solid option for online giving. Admittedly I have the least experience with Pushpay, but it is worth considering. Like Planning Center and Subsplash, they also offer a variety of church management solutions. Pushpay is the only giving portal that connects directly with Quickbooks. Your bookkeeper or finance team will love that feature. LINK
Once you have the above questions answered and a giving platform in place, you will be well on your way to faithfully administering the offering your church receives. And if you need professional help, the team at ChurchBiz would love to help you navigate these issues. Whether you’re a church planter setting up giving for the first time or an existing church looking to improve your giving processes, we can help!
In the next post, we will look deeper into the donor management part of these giving platforms and discuss how you can utilize them to simplify year-end giving statements
