BP 11122023 129pm - Flipbook - Page 70
expense is tracked and becomes a basis for planning a better festival in the next year. Involve
your parish business manager in the process, as well as the leaders of the parish festival, any key
parish finance council members, and of course the pastor.
EXPENSES 3 your parish festival policies and procedures should include the level of
documentation needed to support expenses made for the festival. No expenses should be
incurred, or paid unless they have been budgeted for. No expenses should be paid unless fully
documented, with receipts, and approved by an appropriate individual, such as the festival
treasurer. You should consider developing a Festival Expense Form, with an area for appropriate
approvals before payment.
Payment of only authorized and valid expenses is critical. The Accounts Payable process should
follow the formal policies and procedures in place for any other parish ministry. Any expenses
related to the Festival should be charged against the approved budget for the Festival, and not
charged against any other parish departmental or ministry budgets. To reiterate, any receipts or
expenses relating to the Festival should all be contained within that specific Festival budget. All
accounting should flow through the accounting team. Gross income should be reported along
with gross expenditures.
In an ideal situation, parishioners who are participating in the festival would receive approval to
spend a certain dollar amount for a specified expense, and would use their own money in the
process; they would be replenished by completing and submitting an expense form to the
management team, for approval and then payment. The parish should always pay for services
directly and not reimburse parishioners for services including (caterer, DJ, band, etc.), as could
circumvent the 1099 process required by the IRS. Parishioners can be reimbursed for goods
purchased on behalf of the parish.
CREDIT CARDS - We would strongly caution against the use of parish or pastor credit cards,
or debit cards for expenses, as the paperwork by a business office makes the use of credit card
transactions much more work. Debit cards are not allowed within the Archdiocese. If you do
decide to allow a credit card to be used for certain expenses, payments should always be made
directly to the individual, never to the individual’s credit card company. If a parish credit card is
used, there should be strict controls over access to, and use of the card. Since undocumented
charges cannot be substantiated without receipts, any access to, and use of the card needs to be
well managed by the business office.
CASH ADVANCES 3 are always difficult to manage and control, so should be avoided, if at all
possible, because invariably the amount spent will differ from the amount advanced, requiring
extra work by the business office and then reconcile. And often, receipts are difficult for the
business office to track down. If you must have some cash advances, make sure that the business
office is involved in setting up, and then controlling the process. The income remittance form for
events and ministries should include a line for cash advance to be deducted. Thus, if we collect
$500 and started with a cash box of $50 we would remit the full $550, but a line on the income
remit would clearly identify the $50 as the bank and who it was initially issued to. This way, it is
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