Catholic Standards for Excellence Forum
Sharing Church management best practices in the Catholic Church
Procedures for Weekly Parish Collections
The following procedures should be consistently followed for parish collections to ensure that all receipts intended for the parish are received, promptly deposited, properly recorded, reconciled and kept under adequate security:
- Ushers should be trained on the proper procedures for collecting.
- Two or more individuals should be present at ALL times during the collection process.
- All receipts should be gathered and combined in the presence of the congregation or at a minimum under the supervision of two or more individuals.
- All receipts should be placed/stored in a secure and locked location (i.e. lock bag or vault) under the supervision of two or more individuals until the collection can be counted.
- The collection should be counted in a secure area by at least two individuals who are present at all times during the counting process. The counters should be independent of the person who records the parish’s financial transactions (both cash and non-cash transactions). The parish should establish more than two money counters who can be rotated on a periodic basis.
- All cash should be recorded on a summary sheet and all checks should be restrictively endorsed immediately. Note: Money should never be taken from the loose collection, and cashing of personal checks from the loose collection should be strictly prohibited.
- The summary of cash counted should be submitted directly to the person who records the parish’s financial transactions. This summary should be reviewed and used to prepare the bank deposit slip.
- All receipts (collections) should be deposited into the parish bank account intact and on a timely basis. Cash collected should be deposited into the parish bank account the same day of receipt.
It is understood that parishes have limited resources in volunteers and staffing, and this places some hardship on keeping the functions separate. However, we must try our best to provide a secure and properly controlled environment for the funds we have been entrusted to administer.
Tags: collections, counting, parish, process
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Brough on -
Thanks for these helpful guidelines, Jill. I find this to be a major issue in parishes around the country. It is so important not only to protect the contributions but also to protect those responsible for collecting, counting and banking. I know that some dioceses have tried to implement stringent procedures (like the Archdiocese of Chicago here, and updated here). I would be interested to hear the thoughts of forum participants on how to ensure accountability once procedures like these have been issued. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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Permalink Reply by Michael W. Ryan on
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Michael's reference to the Chicago guidelines merits special notice not only because of their comprehensive nature but also due to the fact they were subsequently adopted by the Leadership Roundtable as a recommended "Best Practice." Because of the conditions under which the Church's primary source of income comes into its possession, i.e., in the middle of a religious service, the options for effectively securing those monies are very limited. In the broadest terms, it it can be said the collections should be positively secured at the first opportunity, and that is when the ushers meet to consolidate the collection baskets into a single container. In stating they should be "positively secured," I'm referring to the use of serially numbered, self-sealing polyethylene bags OR drawstring sacks secured by serially numbered tamperproof seals, either of which affords the counting team the ability to compare the serial numbers of the collection containers received against the serial numbers of the bags or seals assigned for use by the ushers on a given weekend. All of these procedures and many more vital steps are contained in the Chicago guidelines.
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Permalink Reply by Marianne Linka on
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Good outline of bank deposit preparation. I would suggest that this gets expanded to include the recording of contributions of contributors and the reconciliation of these recordings against the deposit (adjusting for loose cash). By reconciling the recording there is accountable tracking of contributions for reporting purposes. This also helps us ensure that we are being accountable to our contributors through accurate recording of their contributions.
Periodic audit of contribution recording against deposits would assist with accountability.
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While I certainly agree with Marianne that accurate contribution records are important from both the parish's and contributor's standpoints, I view that aspect of accountability as being entirely separate and distinct from - as well as subordinate to - the Church's obligation to ensure that every dollar placed into the collection baskets each weekend is, in fact, properly deposited into the parish bank account.
Insofar as audits and useful analyses are concerned, one potentially useful analysis goes like this:
1.) Total value of all checks minus value of loose checks equals value of checks in envelopes.
2.) Total value of all envelopes minus value of checks in envelopes equals value of cash in envelopes.
3.) Total value of all cash received less value of cash in envelopes equals value of loose cash.
Taking into consideration easily observable giving practices (how many parishioners use the envelope system and approximately how many do not) an unusually low figure for "loose cash" could well be indicative of surreptitious theft and, at a minimum, would warrant further observations, analysis and investigation.
Finally, many dioceses appear to have established two (2) as the minimum number of counters who must be present in order for a count to be conducted in a secure environment. Considering that at some point in the counting process, a counter might have to absent themselves from the counting table for one reason or another -including a powder room break - the presence of only two counters means that one counter would then be left alone with the as yet undocumented collection; from a security standpoint, that circumstance is unacceptable. This is why three (3) is the absolute minimum number of counters that must be present before any count begins. Then, if one counter must absent themselves from the counting table, there will still be two present.
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Permalink Reply by Mark F. Fischer on -
Regarding Michael Ryan's contention that properly depositing contributions is more important than maintaining accurate contribution records, I would like to call attention to the U.S. Bishops' document entitled "Diocesan Internal Controls." It does not resolve any problems on the parish level, but provides a fine overall context in its section entitled "Establishing Internal Controls: Specific Practices, Procedures, and Techniques."
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I'm quite familiar with the document "Diocesan Internal Controls: A Framework" and would only note (as Mark indicated) that it was expressly written for application at the diocesan as opposed to the parish level. As such, the document is virtually devoid of particulars regarding what is required to establish and maintain an adequate level of protection over the Church's primary source of revenue: the Sunday collection. The document's coverage of that topic consists of a 126-word paragraph entitled "Handling of Collections" which doesn't begin to address the several components of that important process.
Once again, I point to the Best Practice codified by the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2005 and subsequently adopted, along with a related addendum, by the Leadership Roundtable on Church Management as its recommended Best Practice for the handling of a parish's Sunday collection. While the bishops' document might well fully address the administrative needs of diocesan operations, it does not contain the detailed guidance needed to protect the Sunday collections from repetitive (weekly) surreptitious theft.
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