When settling into the role of treasurer, there are three areas you will need to explore first :
Record keeping and cash management – ensuring that you are keeping the right records, and that the church is following good procedures for handling money, especially cash.
Different Types of Funds – whilst the basics of being a treasurer are not that different from good management of household accounts, one key difference is that there are different types of “funds” that charities can hold, and each of these has different restrictions on how the money can be used.
Accounting for Different Types of Funds – Once you’ve understood the differences between different types of funds, and are clear what funds your PCC is operating, you will need to make sure that your record keeping makes a clear reference as to which funds income is being added to, or expenditure being spent from.
ACAT New Treasurers Handbook
The Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers (ACAT) have produced an extremely useful New Treasurers Guide and have given permission for us to host it here. This provides a wide ranging overview to a range of topics of interest to new treasurers,
Other Topics
Once you have the basics underway, you might want to look ahead at the Annual Report and Accounts that you will need to produce at the end of the year. Understanding what is required early on in the year will help you make sure that you are following helpful practices as you go through the year. Fuller Church of England guidance is contained in ‘PCC Accountability’ – click here for a pdf of the latest edition (this is a pdf of the pre-print version) or buy a hard copy from any good Christian bookshop.
You will also need at least an overview of the Gift Aid system and Small Donations Scheme, even if someone else is doing the day to day work.