Let’s talk about the documentation that you should maintain relating to your church deposits while you are managing the church office.  First, let’s sort out all those papers relating to the weekly deposits into something we can understand.

Documents

The documents that you should have together in one batch, for each deposit are;

• The tally sheet which provides details such as each denomination of currency and coins, the total for currency and coins, description of check deposits, total number of checks and total of checks deposited, and the overall total  deposit.
• Copies of each check deposited as per the tally sheet. Try to copy the checks in the same order that they are listed on the tally sheet, since very often two or three checks are copied on to one sheet of paper.  This makes for easy checking later on.
• A copy of the bank deposit slip.  The original was sent to the bank along with the deposit.
• The data entry batch report.  This will provide details of the allocation to the contributors account and will indicate details of their payment such as cash or check details.  As a control measure this detailed report total must match back to the total of the tally sheet.
• Notices or advisory from the bank.  This may relate to an error in adding up your totals where say, you pick a total that should be $20 as $200.  Your tally sheet and deposit slip will be over by $180 ($200-$20).  The bank will send a notice to indicate that deposit was overstated.  The reverse may also be true where the deposit is understated.  In either case the bank will send you an advisory and this must be kept with the deposit that it relates to.

Internal Controls

Your internal controls are being supported in three ways by comparing the tally sheet and the data entry batch report with the bank deposit slip.  As an added measure, you might want to compare the bank statement entry if online banking is available.

If a discrepancy is found between the management software report and the tally sheet, a quick cross checking of the details on the tally sheet with the envelopes and system report will clear things up.  But, it is only quick if all these documents are in the same place.

These documents must be stapled together.  Be careful not to use paperclips because they will fall apart later and this is paper work that needs to be kept for at least seven years. 

Deposit Folders

Keep the weekly deposits in a file folder for that purpose only.  I mean, don’t put any other stuff in the folder with the deposits. I would suggest one folder for each quarter unless it gets too bulky then you may want to have one folder for each month.  Make sure to use file fasteners to attach the batches into the file (not treasury tags) and, they should be added in date order, that is, first week at the bottom, last week on the top.

You should ensure that this file is kept up to date in a timely manner and the entire file should be submitted on a monthly basis to a senior person for review. 

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MANAGING THE CHURCH OFFICE

Managing Church Finances- The Office Filing system

Managing the Church Office: Accounting for Cash and In-Kind Donations