Reimbursement Policies

[Chris Hole]

We're taking a look at our current reimbursement policy and comparing it to what other churches are doing. If you make purchases for your church, would you mind answering some of the following questions for me?

* Do you think your church's reimbursement policy works well?
* Do you have a church credit card, or do you pay in advance out of pocket and then get reimbursed? (If reimbursed, how long does it take to get reimbursed?)
* Do you turn in receipts?
* Do you have a written purchase/reimbursement policy? (If so, can you send it to me?)
* What size is your church?

You may prefer to send you answers as a private message - maybe not.

[Mike Schutz]

We're taking a look at our current reimbursement policy and comparing it to what other churches are doing. If you make purchases for your church, would you mind answering some of the following questions for me?

* Do you think your church's reimbursement policy works well?
* Do you have a church credit card, or do you pay in advance out of pocket and then get reimbursed? (If reimbursed, how long does it take to get reimbursed?)
* Do you turn in receipts?
* Do you have a written purchase/reimbursement policy? (If so, can you send it to me?)
* What size is your church?

You may prefer to send you answers as a private message - maybe not.

Chris, if you receive information that is not posted for all of us to see, it would be helpful if you posted an overview of your findings. I'm sure it would be informative for many.
Thanks.

[Chris Hole]

Mike, I'll do that.

[Barb Bouldrey]

The church board has a reimbursement policy. The pastor and trustees are allowed to purchase necessary things for the church,using charge accounts or the church credit card, but if they have to buy it themselves they can only be reimbursed if there is a receipt. Receipts must be turned in for everything they charge with who charged it and for what dept.

If we submit something to our treasurer...and we do have a reimbursement form...she is great about getting it to us at the next church meeting.

Dept. heads are given a budget and the freedom to purchase, charge or reimburse for their department. Personal reimbursements must have a receipt.

If John sees something on sale that the church needs or could use, he will ask a consensus of the board on the phone or brief meeting before a service.

Only dept heads and group leaders may charge things or be reimbursed without previous board approval. For example, a S.S. teacher cannot buy a DVD player for his classroom and then ask the church to pay for it. He would have to ask to purchase it in advance...from the S.S. board.

Barb

[Chris Hole]

The church board has a reimbursement policy. The pastor and trustees are allowed to purchase necessary things for the church,using charge accounts or the church credit card, but if they have to buy it themselves they can only be reimbursed if there is a receipt.

When the bill for the credit card comes, how do you know which account the charges go to? Have you ever had charges on it that no one has claimed?

[Jeremy D. Scott]

Our reimbursement policy is inherently embedded in our committee and budgeting system. All monies are budgeted underneath a committee. We just have three - "Finance & Administration", "Ministries" (which serves as the Manual requirement of "Stewards"), and "Facilities" (which serves as the Manual requirement of "Trustees").

I've attached a picture and a generic file (MS Word) for anyone to adapt of what we use. We don't call it a "reimbursement", but rather a "payment requisition" because it's used for ALL monies that leave the church (even my paycheck!). For recurring bills and payments (like my paycheck), one PR per year is sufficient.

We get it printed at a printer on 3-copy carbon (white, yellow, & pink) so copies can go to those who need them (it's explained on the PR). They are also individual stamped by number.

Our policy says that not a cent can be sent without a PR. The PR must come to the church office first. It doesn't go to the treasurer. This protects our treasurer and saves him/her (him right now) from having to make decisions about what and when to spend something. And everyone knows that they can't just go up to our treasurer on Sunday and say, "Hey, I need a check for this." (It took a while, but it's working.) If the money was budgeted, it can be signed by the committee chairperson overseeing whichever part of the budget the money is from. The policy also says that the PR must include a receipt or an invoice. The only time this doesn't really work is for allocation payments or offering "payments" and paychecks.

As for the credit card statement, I'm generally the only one to use it, so I have all the receipts from when it was used. One PR is used for the credit card statement.

As we've moved to paying more than half of our church bills (maybe even 75% now) online, the part that says "Check No." now often serves as payment # or receipt # from online payments.

I'm sure I forgot details, but it's working pretty well for us.

(I designed this at my last church, whose budget and account lines and numbers are far more extensive than North Street's, and as far as I know, it's still working there as well.)

[Ron Davis]

When the bill for the credit card comes, how do you know which account the charges go to? Have you ever had charges on it that no one has claimed?

Our church credit cards are issued with each individuals name on them. A statement is sent with the charges made by each individual so we know who made each charge. I have less than 10 transactions per month so even if I don't have the receipt I can remember what each one was for. The only problem we have is that if I purchase something for other than the youth department sometime it gets charged to my department, but I rarely do that anymore.

[Barb Bouldrey]

Chris,

When someone uses the church charge card at Walmart, Lowes, Staples, or the Christian bookstore(the only places allowed to charge)they must give the receipt to the office secretary and write ON the receipt what it was charged for. The secretary watches that carefully. If the NYI president charges things for an NYI event she writes, "NYI" on the receipt. If I charge things for the Women's Ministry Spring banquet, I write "Women's MInistry" and my name on the receipt.

These charge cards are kept in the church office in a location where only the secretary, pastor and dept heads know where they are and they must sign them out ahead of time. I am not sure all the dept heads know...they usually just ask the pastor or secretary for them.

Yes, when the statement comes, there are often charges not recognized because the secretary does not have a receipt. But she knows who signed out the credit card and can check that date to see who had it. Almost ALL the time it has been one dept. head who forgot to turn in their receipts, but I won't tell you who. LOL (not me)

Barb

[Mike Killingsworth]

The only experience I have in this subject is as the music director in our church I have gone to our local bookstore and picked out material to be used by the choir and all I do is get the material and charge it to the church and they give me the receipt to sign and I give the receipt to our Treasurer and I never give it any more thought. I do know my wife at times has bought different things to be used at the church and turned in the receipt and has never had any problem with being reimbursed. The Teens and Childrens Church have their own spendng accounts that they use but as stated in an eariler post the leaders can't just go out and buy a major item without first asking the Church board about it. We don't have a finance committee or such as that so the board makes the decisions on what money is spent. As for the size of my church we usually run in the high 50's in Sunday School and between 80 and 90 for morning worship.

[William Hunter]

We have a church credit card, a church van used mostly by our youth pastor. I do not turn in the mileage on my POV for the miles driven for church business; I do not expect giving credit for paying many of the church bills; I do not expect to be repaid for the purchase of materials, etc. that my wife and I buy for the church we pastor. I don't bother because there just is not enough money that comes in to repay me. So we leave that with God.

Most of this would be solved if more of those in my cong. who earn a paycheck would tithe a basic 10% rather than spending all their money on themselves and their want lists and going into debt because of their personal greed level. Some of my retired people on their fixed incomes, are some of my biggest annual givers.

Reimbursement would be nice but there is no money there to do so---and whatever else is said, my wife and I long ago made a commitment of all we have to God for He provides what we have in the first place. I have been in the ministry for over 32 yrs. and it has always been this way in the local church.




We're taking a look at our current reimbursement policy and comparing it to what other churches are doing. If you make purchases for your church, would you mind answering some of the following questions for me?

* Do you think your church's reimbursement policy works well?
* Do you have a church credit card, or do you pay in advance out of pocket and then get reimbursed? (If reimbursed, how long does it take to get reimbursed?)
* Do you turn in receipts?
* Do you have a written purchase/reimbursement policy? (If so, can you send it to me?)
* What size is your church?

You may prefer to send you answers as a private message - maybe not.