Did the Church Just Lose $45,000?
In short, no, the church did not just lose $45,000. A couple of weeks ago the finance committee met together to review the budget for the 2023 year. We had a very significant shortfall and many of us wondered “where did all the money go?” It took a little bit of sleuthing, but it turns out that a mistake was made all the way back in 2021. The income on our quickbooks program never properly displayed two numbers - Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and the allotment from the Nursery School. All year the numbers showed “0” dollars, despite thousands of dollars coming into the church. When the 2022 budget was put together the income for those areas was properly reported…but the extra income in the line items where that money actually showed up was never reduced. That meant our 2022 budget showed tens of thousands of dollars more than what it should have showed!
With that there is good news and bad news. The good news is that we managed to weather the financial situation in 2022 decently well. That means even with all the assumed income that wasn’t realized, we kept our expenses down enough that it wasn’t a problem. After fixing the numbers, and properly accounting for all of our income 2023 looks like it is slightly out of balance. We are still working to see if we can further reduce expenses to, again, balance the budget. The bad news is that in 2024 we will no longer have additional income from the government like we’ve had since the start of the Pandemic. PPP and ERTC money have helped us weather the storm financially for the last few years, and we’ll be perfectly fine this year, too, but we know we need to make changes in 2024. Changes can come in the form of additional income and they can come in the form of budgetary cuts. I think its always wise to consider both options simultaneously. If we can increase giving a little, and reduce expenses a little, we can much more easily get to a balanced budget. Sometimes even having volunteers step up for things we pay for can be a huge help, so I invite you to consider how you could help in the coming year. What are ways you can give, both through volunteering and in financial gifts, that can help strengthen the church? Perhaps there’s even something we haven’t thought of to help reduce our budget expenses! A little time and effort on your part can go a long way in helping us to get to a healthier place as a church. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions!
In Christ,
Pastor Brian Neville