The Churches Fix Kit
Built for church treasurers, bookkeepers, administrators and finance teams.
The churches that reached the most people mostly did it by giving the most useful thing away — Life.Church gave the Bible app to the world for free and it went everywhere. This kit finds where the money leaks in your own work and gives you the steps and the words to close each one.
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The 10 leaks it covers
3 you can close it · 3 the other side owes it · 4 a pro decides
- Designated (restricted) gifts pooled into general funds — balance can't be shownWhere to look first: List every fund people have given to for a purpose: building, missions, benevolence, youth trips.Keep it from coming back: Every gift for a purpose gets tagged to its fund the day it's deposited. Put the 'if fully funded' wording on every appeal before you ask.You can close it
- Clergy payroll and housing allowance set up by volunteers, not reviewedWhere to look first: Pull this year's payroll setup for the pastor: how pay is coded, whether Social Security and Medicare are being withheld or matched, and the housing allowance amount.Keep it from coming back: Adopt the housing allowance at the budget meeting before the first January paycheck, every year, in the minutes.You can close it
- Building cost per hour of use never calculatedWhere to look first: Add up a year of building costs from your books: utilities, insurance, repairs and maintenance, cleaning, and mortgage payments.Keep it from coming back: Recalculate the cost per hour at each budget meeting. Price any outside use against it before saying yes.You can close it
- Card and ACH processing fees taken off online giving, never shoppedWhere to look first: Pull one month of your giving platform's payout report. Compare total given to total deposited. The difference is what processing took.Keep it from coming back: Check the payout report against gifts every month. Re-shop the processor every year.The other side owes it
- Denominational assessment still figured on old membership or budget numbersWhere to look first: Find the formula your denomination or network uses (your conference, presbytery or network office publishes it).Keep it from coming back: Each year when the assessment arrives, check the figures it uses before you pay it.The other side owes it
- Bank fees on church accounts, and reserve funds earning nothingWhere to look first: Pull the last three bank statements. List every fee: monthly maintenance, per-item, wire, ACH, stop payment, overdraft.Keep it from coming back: Read the bank statement every month, not just file it. Review account type and reserve placement at each budget meeting.The other side owes it
- Church software subscriptions overlap and are never reviewedWhere to look first: Pull the last three months of the church card and bank statements. List every recurring charge: who, what it does, how much, who uses it.Keep it from coming back: Review the full list once a year at budget time. No new subscription without checking what you already pay for.A pro decides
- Building loan terms (rate, balloon, prepayment) not reviewed in yearsWhere to look first: Find the note and the latest loan statement. Write down: balance, rate, whether the rate is fixed or changes, the maturity date, any balloon payment and its date, and any prepayment penalty.Keep it from coming back: Review the loan terms at each annual budget meeting and two years before any balloon date.A pro decides
- Church property and liability insurance renews every year without being shoppedWhere to look first: Pull the current policy and its declarations page. Note the renewal date.Keep it from coming back: Start shopping 90 days before every renewal. Tell your agent the same week anything changes (building work, vehicles, new ministry).A pro decides
- Service contracts auto-renew with escalators and are never re-bidWhere to look first: List every service contract: cleaning, lawn, HVAC, copier, security, pest, snow. For each, note start date, price now, price at start, renewal date, notice deadline, and any yearly increase clause.Keep it from coming back: No contract renews without someone reading the price and the notice date first.A pro decides
Free: one full leak from this kit
No sign-up, no email. Here is leak 1 of 10 exactly as it appears in the kit, so you can see what you get before you buy.
Designated (restricted) gifts pooled into general funds — balance can't be shown
You can close it- List every fund people have given to for a purpose: building, missions, benevolence, youth trips.
- For each, add up gifts given for that purpose and money spent on it. The difference is what should be left.
- Check whether that amount is actually there, in its own account or tracked as its own fund in your books.
- Sort each fund: was it given by donors for that purpose (donor-restricted), or did the board set it aside on its own (board-designated)? They follow different rules.
- Going forward, give each restricted fund its own line, and report its balance to the board every month.
- If donor money was used for something else, take it to the church's accountant or attorney. Changing what a gift is used for may need the donor's agreement or a court - they decide.
Your part: Approve the fund list, keep the money where it belongs, and take any past problem to your accountant or attorney.
A) FUND REPORT REQUEST (to your bookkeeper or treasurer): Hi [NAME], For our next board meeting, could you prepare a one-page report for each designated fund - [FUND NAMES] - showing gifts received for it, money spent from it, and the balance today, starting from [DATE]? Please also mark which funds came from donor gifts for that purpose and which the board set aside on its own. Thank you, [YOUR NAME], [TITLE] B) GIVING-FORM WORDING (going forward): "Gifts to the [FUND NAME] will be used for [PURPOSE]. If the [FUND NAME] is fully funded or the purpose can no longer be carried out, gifts will be used where most needed at [CHURCH NAME]."
Every gift for a purpose gets tagged to its fund the day it's deposited. Put the 'if fully funded' wording on every appeal before you ask.
What this kit can't decide for you: Whether a past use breached a restriction, and how to fix it, is an attorney's / accountant's call. The giving-form wording is a common practice, not legal advice; the church's attorney should approve it. State law varies.
That's 1 of 10. The other 9 come the same way in the kit: steps, words to send, a habit to keep each one closed.
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What people in this work look up
When churches and the people who keep their books go looking for answers, they search things like “pastor housing allowance”, “church budget”, “church finances” and “church accounting”. Those searches turn up forms, averages and other people's numbers. This kit starts from your own records instead: the 10 places money leaks in this work, where to look first and the words to send to close each one.
What you get for each leak
- Numbered steps to close each leak
- Your part, spelled out
- Words you can use: letters and scripts, ready to send (fill in the brackets)
- A habit that keeps each leak from coming back
- An honest line on what the kit can't decide for you
A page from the kit
Questions people ask
How should a church handle designated funds?
Restricted gifts pooled into the general fund leave you unable to show the balance. The kit shows how to track each designated fund on its own.
Who should review the pastor's housing allowance and payroll?
When volunteers set it up and nobody reviews it, mistakes stick. The kit lists what to check and what to bring to a professional.
Where does a church budget leak money?
Card fees on online giving, bank fees, idle reserves, overlapping software, auto-renewing service contracts and insurance that's never shopped. The kit covers each one.
What it can't decide for you
This kit works from your own records. It doesn't give legal, tax, licensing or financial advice, and it never tells you what to charge. Where a CPA, attorney, insurer or state board makes the call, the kit says so and gets your records ready for them.
14-page PDF · instant download after payment · Code VYR-KIT-GRACE-01
Opens secure checkout. Instant download after payment. 30 days to ask for a refund — refund policy · terms
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