Audit Services
At the Central States Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Why Should A Church Be Audited?
- Safeguards your organization's financial officers from false accusations of mishandling funds, ensuring accountability and trust.
- Builds trust and confidence among financial supporters by ensuring transparent and accurate money management practices within the organization.
- Establishes fiscal responsibility habits to ensure continuity and accountability during personnel turnover.
- Ensures that donations with specific conditions are consistently managed according to donors' instructions, affirming transparency in fund utilization.
- Ensures financial accountability by reconciling incoming and outgoing funds.
Benefits of Conducting an Audit: Understanding the Purpose and Impact
An audit should:
Verify treasurer reports independently for accuracy and transparency.
- Track the funding flow and ensure proper financial management practices are in place.
- Ensure transparent documentation of how donated funds are used in accordance with donor specifications.
Auditors not only track cash flow within the system but also assess various financial aspects:
- Accounting controls (systems that reduce the possibility of loss or errors).
- Segregation of duties (assurances that more than one person is involved in critical steps in handling money so that there can be checks and balances).
- Ensuring the adequacy of systems and procedures considering various factors like organizational size and budget.
- Adequacy of insurance coverage.
- Ensure clear documentation of donors' specified contributions and their designated purposes within your organization.
What Information Is Examined? Understanding the Data Analyzed
- Copies of your organization's financial and treasury policies and procedures along with approved meeting minutes.
- List of bank and investment accounts with authorized signatories, including any special accounts managed by pastors or administrators on behalf of the church.
- Financial statements for every month of the year, including December of the previous year and January of the following year, spanning a period of fourteen months.
- Statements for both bank and investment accounts for the corresponding period.
- Bank reconciliations for that same period.
- Reviews of general and subsidiary journals as original entry books. For computerized systems, ensure an printed or virtually accessible record of annual transactions by account is maintained.
- Ensure you have records of paid invoices, payroll details, tax forms (like 941's, W-2's, 1099's), income deposits, and deposit records from the last fourteen months for your business documentation.
- Income records and financial statements of the Financial Secretary for the corresponding period.
Essential Items for Bi-Annual Audit
- Bank Statements (Include Savings accounts, Revolving Fund and C.O.D.'s)
- Canceled Checks
- Check Stubs
- Paid Invoices and receipts
- General Ledger (if manual accounting)
- Tithe envelopes
- Tithe & Offering receipts (if manual accounting)
- Weekly contribution reports
- Financial Statements
- Monthly remittance reports
- Board Minutes
- Backup disc(s) including password.
There is no position of trust within the gift of this denomination that is of more importance, or should be more carefully administered than that of the auditor. The constant operation of the institutions must be carefully observed in order to see that no confidence has been misplaced.
Contact Our Auditor
In compliance with organizational policy each church is to be audited bi-annually. You will receive a letter/e-mail requesting your books at any given date during the year.
We recommend that records be sent by a carrier that can provide a tracking number such as UPS or FedEx.
Please ship your books to:
3301 Parallel Parkway
Kansas City, KS 66104