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Zondervan 2008 Church and Nonprofit Tax and Financial Guide: For 2007 Returns (Zondervan Church & Nonprofit Organization Tax & Financial Guide)

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The Budget Bucket is one of 20 buckets in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit, and I draw heavily on Dan Busby's savvy wisdom in that bucket. Ball #3 in the Budget Bucket is simple: "Monitor Monthly Reports." But here's the catch. When you change board treasurers, don't change your reporting! Pardon the pun, but you can take this one to the bank.

This scene writes itself all across North America: Your nonprofit board elects a new board treasurer. He's from the hardware industry and he's a smart guy. He tweaks the monthly financial reports based on his experience and his accounting knowledge. Your last treasurer was from the hotel industry, and three years ago, she changed the report formats to align with her financial preferences. The previous treasurer asked Cousin Eddie to install financial software from his dry cleaning business. One problem--your nonprofit doesn't do dry cleaning!

Time out, everyone! This makes absolutely no sense and no thoughtful business person would ever permit this craziness in his or her own business. Resist the temptation to allow elected board treasurers and board finance committees to change the reporting systems at will.

The solution? Dan Busby recommends that you establish a standard reporting format and stick with it. Busby says there is one basic rule in preparing financial reports: "Prepare different reports for different audiences. For example, a church board would normally receive a more detailed financial report than the church membership. Department heads in a nonprofit organization might receive reports that only relate to their department." It's simple--but it takes courage to find a report format and stick with it. Busby's book is a must for your church or nonprofit ministry.