It is quite acceptable for invoices to be sent by fax or e-mail. It is not essential that an invoice must be a piece of paper sent by post.
Vouchers for the expenditure side usually take the form of invoices, sometimes called bills (though the word ‘bill’ can be applied to other documents). However, vouchers can take the form of receipts, letters, statements, tickets or other documents.
An invoice is not a demand to pay a sum: it is a statement that one party to a contract has completed his part and is entitled to payment. So an invoice is properly issued even when you have already paid for the work. Such invoices should have ‘Invoice paid on 4 May 2012’ or similar words on them, but this is not a legal requirement. If you receive an invoice for work already paid for but where this is not indicated, it may be advisable to check that your payment has been recorded.
Where a remittance advice does not comprise an invoice, it is necessary to show that the payment was properly incurred.
For a donation to a charity, a copy of a covering letter from the treasurer is probably the appropriate remittance advice. It clearly identifies the payment as a charitable donation and not a payment for a visiting speaker or supplies of literature.
For internal expenditure, such as reimbursing the minister’s expenses or paying the choir, the voucher should be signed by the person you paid (particularly if paid in cash) or a note made when paying by cheque. Supporting paperwork should be attached as appropriate. For example, the minister should identify the cate-gories of expenditure, such as stamps, coffee, petrol, etc. Some of these items may have vouchers, such as a receipt from the post office, supermarket or petrol station, stapled to the form or paper which notes the payment. These additional receipts should be filed when provided, but they are only normally required if the amount is particularly large or the expenditure unusual. A church may wish to set a limit when a receipt must be produced or may wish to state what items constitute usual or unusual expenditure. However, that is a matter for the church authorities.
For accounting purposes, there is no real difference between an invoice and an expenses claim. They can be kept in the same file or separately, as you prefer.
Occasionally, you may receive an expense claim with a huge pile of receipts attached. In such cases, it can be acceptable to note on the form that you have seen the receipts, and then throw them away.
Payment of the choir may comprise a photocopy of a page from the choir register on which the choirmaster has calculated the amount payable to each member. The treasurer should have sufficient details to know how much was payable to each member, even when the choirmaster makes the actual payment.
Sometimes a payment is accompanied by a form, such as payment of tax or insurance. In such cases, a photocopy of the form can serve as the document.
Sometimes one cheque may be written to pay for several invoices, such as when the church handyman has submitted four invoices for the four jobs he did that month. The four invoices should be stapled together under a single folio number. The principle of the audit trail applies even at this level, in that the figure entered in the cash book must appear on the document. The treasurer must produce a slip or piece of adding machine roll or write on the top invoice how the cash-book figure has been calculated.
Remittance advices
Church income usually comes from three main sources:
1. donations from church members by standing order or cheque
2. loose cash from collections
3. event income, such as magazine sales and hall lettings.
There is no need to create vouchers for every donation by standing order or cheque: it is obvious from the cash book that these are donations. Loose cash will probably have a completed sheet identifying how much has been collected in each value of note and coin, with a date, time and signature. Other income may take the form of a covering letter from the magazine editor or a completed form from the hall lettings secretary.
Record all income
Church income comes from various sources ranging from formal grants and tax refunds through to an envelope containing a few pounds from selling coffee after a special service. It must all be recorded.
The church treasurer must ensure that all income receivable is received, and all income received is recorded. It is not enough for the treasurer simply to record whatever is passed to him; the treasurer must be proactive in ensuring that church income is passed to him, or at least is accounted to him. The treasurer should be sufficiently knowledgeable of church life to know of flower festivals, concerts, outings and appeals, plus arrangements for refreshments, musicians, maintenance, hall bookings, children’s and youth work, and any other aspect of church life which involves handling money. This will prevent difficult situations where someone in the church accumulates large funds of which the church authorities have no knowledge, or gets into a muddle and does not know how much has been received or spent.
A simple system should be introduced for all regular sources of income. For example, a hall booking secretary should provide the treasurer with a list of all regular bookings (such as scouts and health clubs), plus one-off bookings (such as birthday parties and wedding receptions). The treasurer can check that all such income has been received.
The magazine editor (or advertising manager) can provide a list of advertisers with agreed fees and when payable. The treasurer should check this against the actual advertisements in the magazine.
Refreshment and flower-arranging teams can fill in a simple form identifying how much they receive and spend each week.
Avoid situations where you have an envelope handed to you at inconvenient moments containing a few pounds from the sale of something after the service. If you know that someone is selling geraniums after the morning service to raise funds for the church, be proactive and give the person a simple form to record details for you.
Never mix church cash passed to you with your own cash. When given amounts of cash, always create a written record somewhere. Some treasurers keep a notebook for odd cash amounts, other treasurers carry a receipt book, and always issue a receipt. Neither is ideal, as there will inevitably be an occasion when you do not have your notebook or receipt book with you.
Collecting funds
A church typically has many sources of income. The treasurer must identify them all and ensure that money owed to the church is collected. Areas where this is likely to be an issue include:
hall bookings
rent from property
interest, dividends and other income from investments
magazine subscriptions
magazine advertisements
sales of refreshments after services
income from bookstall and other sales
fees for weddings and funerals.
A treasurer may have to be insistent that the respective officers do hand over the money. Sometimes people with responsibility in these areas may regard keeping the funds under their control as part of their duties. It must be made clear that legally they have no right to hold church funds against the wishes of the treasurer. In other words, other church officers should generally only hold church funds as a temporary measure until they can be passed to the treasurer.
In addition to regular sources of income, there will be one-off occasions such as concerts, festivals, fetes, fund-raising events and sale of church property (such as selling old hymn books or kneelers). This does not necessarily mean that the treasurer must act as debt collector for each of these items, but it does mean that the treasurer must ensure that someone is responsible for collecting money due, and does do so. If there is a problem collecting money due, the treasurer should report this to the appropriate church authorities who should consider what further