Finance Roles and Tasks

This document sets out the various roles and tasks relating to finance in the parish, it should provide an insight into the various activities under the finance umbrella.

Parish Secretary

Collate invoices, statements, credit card statements and expenses and pass these to the Parish Treasurer for payment.
Collect Cash Counters Statement, cash check sheets and Gift Aid envelopes and pass these to the Finance Administrator.
Place monies received in the office into the church safe for counting, each item in an envelope clearly marked as to purpose, for example ‘Stipend £10’.
For paying out relatively small amounts (say less than £15) use Petty Cash box; complete a slip in the receipts book, get recipient to sign it and make entry in cash record book
Provide a filing service for paid invoices and counting documents.

Parish Treasurer

Receive items for payment on a regular basis, check that the item is due for payment and issue a cheque as required. Enter the payment details into the FINSYS financial system and attach a scanned invoice to the payment entry.
Monitor charity collections and when appropriate, arrange payment either through the diocese or directly with the charity by cheque.
Upon receipt of credit card statement, enter credit card transactions into FINSYS allocating expenditure to the appropriate financial category as indicated on the relevant payment receipt.
Update FINSYS with Petty Cash transactions.
At end of month, write a cheque for Priest’s income, to include (a) Mass stipends (add amounts noted in Mass folder for the month, (b) car mileage (ask priest to read; may not be every month)
Preparing finance reports for the Parish Finance Committee meetings and an annual report for presentation to the parish.
Preparation of year end accounts for the Diocese Finance Department.

Finance Administrator

Weekly

Review Gift Aid envelopes and enter income into Gift Aid Spreadsheet, file paperwork and envelopes.
Review counters sheets and enter income into FINSYS; enter money taken for cash box as a ‘transfer’ item.
In FINSYS, mark ‘pending transactions’ (up to current date) for committing, and commit marked transactions to register.

Monthly

Review statements from diocese and enter income/expenditure into FINSYS
Review SEH statements and update FINSYS to reflect movement of funds

Review Direct Debit income report from diocese and enter data into the Gift Aid spreadsheet.
Update Gift Aid Spreadsheet with Standing Order income for month
On receipt of the bank statement reconcile entries with FINSYS
In FINSYS, adjust any regular payments or income, for changes

Quarterly

Send Gift Aid spreadsheet to Parish Treasurer for review and then send spreadsheet and bank statements to Gift Aid Administrator, together with Cash Counters’ Statements and Check sheets for the quarter

Gift Aid Administrator

Maintain parish Gift Aid records consisting of computer and paper records. Store parish bank statements and cash counters' sheets for a period of five tax years plus the current year to maintain an audit trail for HMRC.
Keep Finance Administrator and Parish Treasurer informed of any changes to enable the Gift Aid Spreadsheet to be updated.
Issue forms to parishioners and receive new Gift Aid Declarations and Standing Order or Direct Debit forms. Update records, copy all forms and forward Declarations and Direct Debits to Portsmouth Gift Aid Office and send Standing Order forms to payees banks.
Issue purple numbered envelopes for special collections to individuals on request
Receive copy of the quarterly Gift Aid spreadsheet and input to the diocesan computer system. Check that the totals agree and submit to diocese to reclaim the tax.
Print a copy of the diocesan computer record and input the totals to individual record cards.
From the cash counters sheets received each quarter keep a running total of second collections and other allowable items in order to submit the annual return to the diocese of the Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme.
Check that the parish bank statements agree with the spreadsheet maintained to calculate the weekly equivalent of Standing Orders and Direct Debits for insertion in the parish newsletter. Inform Finance Administrator and Parish Treasurer of any changes.
At the end of each tax year prepare and issue tax letters to parishioners who have requested these giving the total amount of their donations and the tax reclaimed.
Towards the end of each calendar year estimate the stationery requirements and place order with the envelope suppliers. Once delivered, the boxes of envelopes need to be prepared and labelled. These are issued to parishioners at both Sundays Masses during the last two weeks of March.
Attend meetings of the Parish Finance Committee and provide Gift Aid report as required

Finance Committee – Chairman

To chair and arrange Finance Committee meetings on a bi-monthly basis or as required
To review the annual return prepared by the Parish Treasurer and approve together with the Parish Priest
To schedule the counting teams and recruit new counters as required

Finance Committee – Member

To attend Finance Committee meetings, reviewing income and expenditure and participating in decisions relating to finance in the parish.

Parish Groups - Getting Involved