Today, churches and faith-based groups face a new era of regulations, accountability, and scrutiny. To ensure your accounting practices meet today's standards, it is critical to enlist the support of a CPA firm that not only has a reputation for integrity, but is experienced in dealing with the challenges you face.
Byron V. Brewer CPA PC has an impeccable track record in the area of church accounting services and the knowledge of how faith-based organizations operate. We can show you how to maintain proper financial reporting and implement acceptable accounting procedures in your church administration. With our assistance, you'll make informed financial decisions, ensure the proper treatment of charitable contributions, incorporate the best stewardship practices, and control costs so more of your funding benefits your congregation and the local community.
Our church consulting and financial advisory services include:
Strategic and financial consulting
Outsourced CFO services
Church accounting services
Information security
Software needs assessment
Wealth advisory and asset management
Training and educational seminars
Discussions with congregation members about stewardship and financial planning
Churches, private schools and other religious organizations periodically have to meet certain financial reporting requirements requested by lenders, donors or board members. Our experience can help your organization meet your financial reporting needs. Audit and assurance services for faith-based non-profits include:
In examining financial statements, we observe certain assets, verify certain transactions and balances with third parties, sample transactions, test support and revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities, and other procedures as necessary. An audit provides the highest degree of assurance that we can provide, that the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Audited financial statements are generally required for bond issues, large real estate mortgage needs and credit challenged credit applications. Church and other religious organization boards may also require an audit in order to provide information to help the entity govern and operate effectively and efficiently.
In a review engagement, we make inquiries and perform analytical procedures designed to identify unusual items or trends that may require explanation by your Organization’s management. Essentially, the review is designed to determine whether the financial statements make sense without applying audit-like procedures. A review provides limited assurance that no material changes should be made to the financial statements.
Reviewed financial statements normally satisfy lenders for long-term banking/lending relationships and for smaller mortgage requirements. Because a review cost substantially less then an audit to perform, you should ask your lender if a review would satisfy their requirements.
In a compilation, we present, in the form of financial statements, the financial information provided by your management, in appropriate form and free from obvious material errors. A compilation provides no opinion or any assurance on the financial statements.
Compilation reports are appropriate for interim (monthly, quarterly) reporting and for annual reporting for organizations that do not require an audit or review.
We assess your organizations financial processes and procedures to determine their effectiveness whether you have the appropriate safeguards in place to protect your assets, prevent fraudulent activity or erroneous financial reporting. We report on our observations and provide recommendations for improvement.
Byron V. Brewer CPA PC maintains the highest professional standards, recognizing our responsibility to the public, our clients and our staff. We work hard to earn their confidence in our professional services and personal integrity. We complete rigorous, ongoing training and continually monitor our work for high compliance with professional standards and best practices. In addition, we obtain an independent peer review of our systems and certain engagements tri-annually.
Serving as a pastor is rewarding, but there are also an incredible demands that comes with the job. Most pastors work long hours and when not working, they are on call, ready to respond to congregational needs. It is only right to compensate pastors fairly. However, it is often difficult for church leaders to determine what is appropriate? We can help guide you through all your compensation discussions. In our experience we have found that most churches spend more on staff than anything else. It should come as no surprise, then, that compensation is an important topic to many congregations.
Our team of professionals have prepared Executive Compensation Reports for a number of large faith-based non-profits. Our compensation team can also assist you in setting up compensation packages for your pastor and other staff. We can help determine appropriate compensation to ensure compliance with IRS regulations.
