Instructor(s)

Course Description

Introduction to financial management, receipts and payments, bank reconciliation, assets management, investment, budgeting, financial statements and auditing. The aim of the course is to expose students to church financial management principles and practices. This is a comprehensive and yet practical treatment of the subject and is sure to broaden the horizons as well as provide useful direction to those who are in leadership role.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of the course, the student will:

1. Understand the art of finance - the terminology and the assumptions, estimates and biases that underlie the numbers.
2. Know the pastor’s responsibility as steward/manager of the church’s financial resources.
3. Understand the content and presentation of financial statements.
4. Understand financial management practices and implementation of internal controls
5. Understand why budgets are used as a management tool and how they are built
6. Learn how to read and analyse the accounting numbers including the use of ratios.

Course Content

1. Introduction to MS Excel.
2. Overview of church financial management practices and Internal controls
3. Receipts and Payments:
4. Bank transactions
5. Statutory deductions
6. Budgeting
7. Asset Management
8. Investments
9. Financial Statements
10. Retention of financial documents and records
11. Auditing: Files and supporting documents
12. Using Spreadsheets (e.g. MS Excel) for financial information presentation.
13. Accounting software

Mode of Delivery

Through lectures, class interaction, practice assignments