Resources
Guides for church leaders and business owners
Plain-language explanations of the bookkeeping questions that come up most, from fund accounting to QuickBooks cleanup. Written for people who have to make the decision, not for accountants.
Start with your situation
Comparing bookkeepers, software or local resources? See the best-of lists. Weighing a decision step by step, from the rules to hiring help? Start with the learn, compare and decide guides.
Church Guides
How church finances work, how to weigh a volunteer, staff or outside bookkeeper, and what to ask before you hire one. (31 guides)QuickBooks Guides
Church fund tracking, a working chart of accounts, what bank feeds do and don't prove, and cleanup versus catch-up. (4 guides)Small Business Guides
The monthly close, job costing for trades, contractor records before January, and keeping business and personal spending apart. (4 guides)
All guides
- Churches
Switching Church Bookkeepers Without Losing the Thread
A handover checklist for changing church bookkeepers or treasurers: when to switch, what to obtain, how to move access, and how to set a clean cut-off date.
- Churches
Eight Signs a Church Has Outgrown Volunteer Bookkeeping
Eight things a board can observe for itself, why each matters, and what would fix it. Sometimes that is a bookkeeper; often it is a procedure or a reviewer.
- Churches
QuickBooks or Church Accounting Software: How to Choose
Three kinds of software can hold a church's books. What each handles on its own, where each needs a workaround, and what switching really costs.
- Churches
15 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Church Bookkeeper
Fifteen interview questions for a church bookkeeper, grouped by topic, with why each one matters and what a good answer sounds like before you sign anything.
- Churches
How to Bring an Outside-Bookkeeper Proposal to Your Church Board
How a pastor or treasurer presents an outside bookkeeper to the board: the framing, the questions to expect, what to bring, and how oversight stays put.
- Churches
Getting Church Books Ready for an Audit or Financial Review
Audit, review, compilation and internal review explained for board members: who asks for one, what to prepare, and where a bookkeeper's part ends.
- Churches
Pastor Housing Allowance: What the Church Has to Put in Writing
A housing allowance must be officially designated by the church, in a definite amount, before it is paid. What to put in writing and what to keep.
- Churches
Outsourcing Church Bookkeeping: What the First 90 Days Look Like
What happens after a church hires an outside bookkeeper: the order of the first steps, where cleanup fits, and what the church still does itself each month.
- Churches
Recording Online Giving: Fees, Payouts and Matching the Bank
How to record online, app and text giving: gross gift versus processing fee, payout batches, donor-covered fees, refunds and the year-end cut-off.
- Churches
New Church Treasurer: What to Do in Your First 90 Days
A practical 90-day plan for a new church treasurer: what access to get, what to read and verify, what to ask your predecessor, and when to get help.
- Churches
Local or Remote Church Bookkeeper: What Actually Changes
With cloud software, most church bookkeeping is the same from across town or across the country. What changes: paper, meetings, access and response.
- Churches
Do Churches File Form 990? What a Church Does and Doesn't File
Churches are generally not required to file Form 990, but they are not free of federal filings. Payroll returns, W-2s, 1099s and Form 990-T, explained.
- Churches
Volunteer Treasurer, Staff Bookkeeper or Outside Bookkeeper: Who Should Keep the Church's Books?
A volunteer treasurer, a staff bookkeeper and an outside bookkeeper suit different churches. What each does well, where each strains, and how they combine.
- Churches
Which Church Financial Records to Keep, and for How Long
There is no single federal schedule for church records. What the IRS says about minimum periods, what it leaves open, and how to write a retention policy.
- Churches
Why a Pastor's Paycheck Looks Different: Church Payroll Basics
A minister is usually an employee for income tax and self-employed for Social Security. What that changes in payroll, and what stays the same for staff.
- Churches
A Month-End Checklist for Church Books
A month-end close for church books, in order: deposits tied to count sheets, giving platform payouts, reconciliations, fund balances, payroll and reports.
- Churches
Internal Controls for Small Churches: Who Approves, Who Pays, Who Reviews
How a small church separates approving, paying, recording and reviewing, with approval limits, bank statement review, card rules and a written policy.
- Churches
Reimbursing Church Expenses: Receipts, Mileage and Church Cards
How an accountable plan works for a church: business purpose, receipts, mileage logs, church cards, and what happens to a reimbursement nobody documented.
- Churches
A Church Chart of Accounts That Matches How Your Church Works
How a church chart of accounts is organized: the five sections, net assets with and without donor restrictions, funds versus accounts, and numbering.
- Churches
How to Build a Church Budget the Board Can Follow
A step-by-step way to build an annual church budget: start from actuals, project giving, cost staff and fixed bills, then report against it monthly.
- Churches
Cleaning Up Church Books: What a Cleanup Covers
What a church books cleanup works through, what decides how big the job is, what the church has to supply, and what a cleanup cannot do: it is not an audit.
- Churches
What a Church Bookkeeping Scope of Work Should Spell Out
What a written scope or engagement letter for church bookkeeping should cover: services, exclusions, who does what, deadlines, access, fees and exit.
- Churches
What Church Bookkeeping Costs, and What Drives the Fee
How church bookkeeping is priced (hourly, fixed monthly, project fee), the seven things that move the fee, and the non-money costs of a volunteer setup.
- Churches
What to Gather Before a Church Bookkeeping Consultation
A checklist of what a church should pull together before a first bookkeeping consultation, and why nothing sensitive needs to be emailed ahead of time.
- Churches
Church Bookkeeping Basics: What the Work Actually Involves
What church bookkeeping consists of each week, each month and at year end, and the four ways it differs from keeping the books of a business.
- Churches
Bookkeeper, CPA or Auditor: Who Does What for a Church
A bookkeeper keeps the records. A CPA handles tax and audits or reviews. Enrolled agents and attorneys have their own lanes. Which question goes to whom.
- Churches
Benevolence Fund Records: Helping People and Keeping the Paper Trail
What a church benevolence fund needs on file: a written policy, the request, who approved it, proof of payment, and care with gifts meant for one person.
- Small business
One Card for the Business: Why Mixed Spending Costs More Than It Saves
Mixed accounts turn a one-hour month into a three-hour month and blur the numbers you price from. The setup that fixes it, and how to record owner money correctly.
- Small business
Paying Contractors: The Records to Have Before January
Get the W-9 before the first payment, track who was paid how, and know the reporting threshold that changed for 2026 payments. What to keep during the year so January is uneventful.
- Small business
Job Costing for Trades: Knowing Which Work Actually Paid
A profitable year can hide unprofitable jobs. How to set the books up so every project carries its own labor, materials and margin, and what to do with what you find.
- Small business
The Monthly Close, Small-Business Sized
A repeatable month-end routine that ends with reconciled accounts and two or three numbers you can act on, instead of a shoebox and a scramble in April.
- QuickBooks
Bank Feeds Don't Reconcile Your Books
Accepting everything the bank feed suggests is not reconciling. The difference between the two, and the month-end routine that catches what the feed misses.
- QuickBooks
Building a Chart of Accounts You'll Actually Read
Most messy QuickBooks files start with a chart of accounts built for nobody in particular. How to shape one around the decisions you make each month.
- Churches
What Belongs on a Year-End Contribution Statement
Donors need a statement that matches your books and carries the wording the IRS expects. What to include, what to leave off, and what to check before the statements go out.
- Churches
Counting and Depositing Offerings: A Routine That Protects Everyone
A two-person count, a signed count sheet and a deposit that matches the books protect volunteers as much as they protect the money. Here is what that looks like week to week.
- QuickBooks
QuickBooks Cleanup vs Catch-Up Bookkeeping: Which Do You Need?
Cleanup fixes records that are wrong; catch-up fills in records that are missing. How to tell which your file needs, and what to gather before you start.
- Churches
What a Monthly Financial Report for Church Leadership Should Include
A good monthly report lets a board answer three questions in minutes: Are we on budget? Are designated gifts intact? Do we have the cash we need?
- QuickBooks
How to Set Up QuickBooks for Church Fund Accounting
QuickBooks isn't purpose-built fund accounting software, but with a deliberate setup many churches track funds in it reliably. The decisions that matter most.
- Churches
Restricted, Designated and General Funds: A Plain-Language Guide for Church Leaders
Churches use 'restricted' and 'designated' loosely, but the difference decides who can change how money is used. Here is how to tell them apart and track each.
Start with a conversation
Let's look at your books together
Tell us about your church or business and where your bookkeeping stands. Carey will follow up to arrange a consultation, and you'll receive a written scope before any work begins.