Outsourcing Your Church's Accounting? Here's Why You Shouldn't
Picture: Illustration accounting |
If you've been struggling to keep your church's books in order and make them more efficient, outsourcing your accounting might be a good solution. But if it's not something you should consider, here are some reasons why:
You aren't going to save money.
When you outsource your accounting, you'll likely pay more
than if you did it in-house. This is because:
- You will be paying for the outsourcing company's services and software.
- Your church will be spending money on salaries for their employees (this can be avoided by hiring freelancers).
Your church won't save time.
When you outsource your accounting, you will need to set up
the outsourcing process. You'll also need to supervise this process and make
sure that the outsourced work is done correctly and promptly.
Here are some things you should know:
- The company or individual doing your accounting will not be able to do all of these things himself or herself—they'll need help from other employees who specialize in different areas (like payroll).
This means that someone else needs to be trained on how everything works before they can begin working on it themselves!
If there aren't enough people available within their organization who are skilled enough at handling these tasks then it could take longer than necessary before everything gets done properly -
which would mean less money saved because resources weren't being used efficiently enough due to lack thereof."
You're likely to get off-the-shelf software.
You're likely to get off-the-shelf software. Since you've
worked hard to build your church's brand and identity, you likely want to keep
things consistent with your other marketing efforts.
But this can be challenging when using software designed for
other types of businesses (like accounting or payroll).
Off-the-shelf accounting packages come with different
features and functionality than what churches need, which means they won't
necessarily be well-suited for managing their financials.
In addition, these programs tend not to offer as many
customization options as customizable ones do—which means that if there's a
feature in an online accounting package that could help you get more out of it
(like reporting every month), then it might not be available at all or at least
not easily accessible within the existing system built by its developer.
Read Also: What Is A Church Accounting Software And How To Buy?
You might get an outsourcing company based in India or other places outside the U.S.
If you're considering outsourcing your church's accounting,
it's important to consider the location of the outsourcer.
You might end up getting an outsourcing company based in
India or other places outside the U.S., which can make communication difficult
and also limit your ability to understand what their values are and how they
operate.
Outsourcing companies may not have experience working with
churches or other religious organizations because many of them are focused on
secular businesses like retail stores or manufacturing facilities that don't
require much interaction with customers or employees who work for them (and
therefore won't be familiar with how things work at a church).
In addition, there may be cultural differences between
American workers and those from overseas; if these differences aren't considered
during negotiations between you (the hiring party) and potential vendors, there
could be friction later on down the line when issues arise unexpectedly during
project implementation efforts—or worse yet, even before anything starts!
The work might be done by someone who's not a church accountant.
- The person doing the work may not have a background in accounting, church accounting, or software development.
- The person doing the work may not be your accountant in-house and has no knowledge of your books and how they're kept.
- The person doing the work may have some experience with accounting but it's not enough to give them confidence that they can handle all aspects of controlling expenses for an organization like yours.
Outsourcing may seem like a good idea, but doing the accounting yourself is a better option for your church.
Outsourcing may seem like a good idea, but doing the
accounting yourself is a better option for your church.
While outsourcing your bookkeeping can be attractive because
of the flexibility and cost savings it offers, several drawbacks outweigh these
benefits.
First, you'll have less control over how things are done—and if something goes wrong with your outsourced company's service or performance, you won't have any way to fix it yourself! Second (and most importantly), -
by
hiring someone else to do this work for you instead of doing it yourself (or
even using an app), there's no guarantee that they'll be able to provide the
quality service needed by growing churches with more complex financial
situations than smaller ones might experience regularly; thirdly...
Conclusion
We hope that you’re now more confident about why it might be
a bad idea to outsource your church’s accounting. If you still have questions
or need help with your accounting, don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our
accountants!