A Church of Ireland parochial accounts template

1
A Church of Ireland parochial accounts template

• Rationale and update
• following June meetings in
• Moira, Dublin and Charleville

2
What happens now

• 457 parishes and parish groupings
• Much higher number of Select Vestries
• Every SV is monitoring income and expenses
• Every SV is producing annual accounts
• Every set of accounts is individual to the parish
• Every set of accounts is individual to the Hon
  Treasurer

3
The strengths of the current system

• Strong form of parochial financial governance
• Annual Easter Vestry
• Annual elections
• Annual financial report
• Annual report is audited/certified
• Hundreds of Treasurers give their time and
  expertise
• The system works

4
Changes

• Greater expectations of Treasurers
• More reports
• More analysis
• Increased use of computers for parochial
  accounting
• Charities legislation
• More external scrutiny
• Need for more consistency in reporting

5
Opportunity

• To respond to changing times
• To respond to the demands of a more sceptical
  world
• To develop a template for parochial reporting
• To develop an IT tool to assist in parochial
  record keeping
• To develop an IT tool to assist in producing
  reports and returns

6
What it might achieve

• Provision of a clear audit trail for transactions
• Ease of producing reports
• Consistency of reporting
• Easier handover to a new Treasurer
• Inter parochial accounting support
• The creation of a Church of Ireland standard
  for financial reporting
• Easy template for charity reporting
• Would receive central support when being
  implemented

7
Outline of pack concept - I

• Not spreadsheet
• Too idiosyncratic
• Too easy to corrupt
• Inbuilt C of I chart of accounts
• Every cheque/receipt would be ascribed to an
  account
• An account is a description of what the
  transaction was for
• All transactions filed under the relevant account
• Every account automatically linked to a heading
  in the financial statements

8
Chart of accounts
9
Outline of pack concept II

• This would enable reports/financial statements to
  be produced on request
• A number of standard reports would come with the
  pack - eg
• A parochial report
• A diocesan report specific to the diocese
• A charities report compliant with good practice

10
Outline of pack concept - III

• Simple in concept
• Not attempting to do too much
• Simple to use
• Not requiring any accounting knowledge
• Not requiring any prior IT knowledge
• Standardised for straightforward use
• Easy to buy
• Widely used
• Flexible for the more advanced user
• Can download to spreadsheets
• Can be customised by user

11
Process

• RCB has been looking at possible solutions
• Has demonstrated an option to Diocesan
  Secretaries re C of I package
• Has demonstrated an option to Rectors/Treasurers
  at public meetings
• Asked for written feedback at meetings

12
Feedback from meetings

• Of written feedback received - 125 forms
• 97 supported the idea of a parochial accounting
  template
• 91 said that they would consider using a C of I
  package in their parish
• 89 thought that it would be possible to set up
  inter parochial support groups to assist with the
  introduction of a new computer accounting pack

13
What do you think

• Is it a worthwhile idea?
• Would it help treasurers (or not) ?
• Would it help the C of I in any way?
• Do you think we should develop the concept
• Would treasurers use it?
• What support would they need?
• Email response to charities_at_rcbdub.org
  www.ireland.anglican.org/charities