Financial Internal Controls in Heartland Churches

For over twenty-five years, Keller & Owens, LLC has served the professional needs of faith-based, not-for-profit organizations, especially churches. We have seen a number of churches with sound, reliable controls over financial transactions and resources. Sadly, we have seen many with weak and incomplete financial internal controls that undermine the reliability of data used by management, lenders and regulatory agencies. Weak or incomplete controls also raise the risk of loss of resources through financial fraud. In addition, significant financial frauds often result in the disruption of normal church operations, distrust of church leadership and even church splits.  However, the most damaging effect occurs as the general public’s view of the Christian church declines even further. Of course, any inaccurate financial reporting or any theft of precious church resources is unacceptable.

Recently we invited over 12,500 churches in Kansas and Missouri to participate in an on-line survey to tell us about their financial internal controls. This report provides the results of that survey. Among other things, the report discusses the following:

  • Framework for sound internal controls
  • Financial internal controls defined
  • Setting the tone at the top
  • Segregation of duties
  • The importance of internal controls in fraud prevention and detection

We hope the findings in the report will help churches assess and strengthen their financial internal controls.

The free report is available here or through our website under Not-for-Profit when you click on Resources/Links & Downloads.  We are available to answer your questions or to assist you in assessing the internal control system of your church and then making recommendations for improvements, if needed. Let us know if we can help.

You can contact Rich Bili at rbili@kellerowens.com or Robert Simmons at rsimmons@kellerowens.com for more information.