Welcome to the Finance Committee
Erskine Finance Team is responsible to oversee, manage and report the church’s finances and accountabilities. An operating budget is created that includes the budgets of all the ministry, mission and physical resource teams. The budget is approved by Session & Congregation to meet Erskine’s Vision for the year.
The Team consists of members of the congregation who represent church groups. This team meets Quarterly but also carries out monthly reviews of the budget reports and communicates the status of budget with any highlights, concerns or celebrations to Session and then the congregation via the newsletter and church bulletin and yearly in the Annual Report, at the AGM which is preceded by a budget planning meeting attended by congregation members and team chairs.
The Treasurer meets with the bookkeeper bi-weekly to ensure all income and expenses are accounted for. Reports and funds are submitted to the Govt. of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada.
Accountable stewardship is the Finance team goal and is achieved by:
- a scheduled team of counters so there are always 2 persons handling donations each Sunday. These donations and other payments are tracked in a spread sheet in real time and the deposit slip is created to match.
- all contributions requiring tax receipts are tracked confidentially, separately and at arms length to the finance team.
- the process for e-transfers has been set up with a single use email account.
- all expenses submitted for reimbursement must be accompanied by the paid receipt and an approval form signed by the chair of the responsible team.
- all teams must get approval prior to spending funds on anything not included in their budgets or if it exceeds the amount.
- 2 authorized signers are required for all cheques sent out by Erskine.
- Finance also coordinates and communicates with the Trustee team to ensure that invested funds, budgeted to be transferred to the Operating budget are done so in time to avoid insufficient funds and also only when needed to ensure maximum interest earned by the invested funds.
- submission of the Registered Charity Information Return and the Congregational Assessment for PCC to meet the timelines required.
- The office administrator ensures that all bills, cheques received and communication for the Finance Team are secured and made available to the Treasurer and bookkeeper so that bills are paid and communication acted onto meet the timelines.
