Church treasurer's report: how to prepare it, month by month

What the treasurer's report should include

• The opening and closing balance of each account, cash and bank.
• Total income by method: cash, bank transfer, card.
• Expenses grouped by category, such as rent, utilities, missions and outreach.
• The result for the month: income minus expenses.
• A receipt for every expense, available to the finance committee.
• The signatures of the people who checked it.

A month-by-month routine

The secret is to leave nothing for the last week.

• At the service: two people count the offering and write it on a count sheet.
• During the week: each expense is entered on the day, with a photo of the receipt or the invoice.
• At the end of the month: check the bank statement and the cash count against the recorded balances.
• Before the meeting: the finance committee checks the receipts.
• At the members' meeting: present the totals and keep the documents available for anyone who wants to look.

How not to expose who gave

Tithes and offerings are shown as totals at the meeting. The amount each person gave stays with the people who run the treasury, and never appears on a slide, a notice board or in a group chat. Beyond the pastoral reasons, these are personal details linked to faith, which European law protects in a special way.

Mistakes that cause trouble later

• Mixing the cash-box money with the bank money.
• Paying an expense and leaving the receipt for later.
• Recording the offering only at the end of the month, from memory.
• Leaving the spreadsheet in one person's hands.
• Deleting a wrong entry instead of correcting it with a record of the change.

How Atrium helps

In Atrium, each offering and each expense is recorded on the day, with the receipt attached. With one click you get the month's slide to show the church, the report in Excel and PDF, and the dossier with every receipt in a single file. Tithes and offerings appear as totals, without names.

Frequently asked questions