Help I'm a Church Treasurer...  

Thank you for being willing to take on the role of treasurer.  We hope that this page will be of some assistance in working with the Association as you find your feet in this new role. 

The main person to contact with any administrative issues is Richard Stanford-Beale our Operations Manager.

There is a very useful article on the ACAT website (see below) called What to consider when you’re asked to become a Church Treasurer… 

An index to all the finance specific advice and guidance can be found here. 

Baptists Together also have a Facebook group, set up specifically for Treasurers from Baptist churches - designed to be a forum for sharing of experience, good practice and mutual encouragement. To join the group, please click on this link.

People to notify

There are a number of people that you should notify that you are now the treasurer to ensure you receive appropriate correspondence:

• Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers

• Baptist Insurance Company Plc

• HMRC

• The church's bank and any other providers of services who will need to send invoices to your address.

Ministry costs for churches

The BU website has both guidance and a  spreadsheet on Ministerial remuneration designed to help you calculate the costs of appointing a minister.
 

Baptist Pension Scheme

You can get information on the Baptist Pension Scheme from their website.

The Scheme is now administered by Broadstone Consultants & Actuaries Ltd. and as a treasurer if you have any current or past employees in the scheme you will have access to the 4mystaff pages which are a secure access website designed to assist you in administering your pension contributions and meeting your auto-enrolment obligations.
 
You should have been provided with a User Name and Password to allow you to log in.  
 
It is also important to remember that you need to notify Broadstone of any of the following events:

• When a member is due to leave the employer’s service (including retirement), giving the date they will be leaving
• If a member chooses to opt out
• Death of a member
• Changes to part time hours
• Changes to stipend or salary
• Changes to contributions (eg. if a member wants to pay AVCs)
• If a member changes address
• If a member is absent from work due to illness or injury (after four weeks)

Church Subscriptions

Both the BU and SEBA will ask you for a subscription based on the number of members in your church. These are different requests and the funds raised go toward the running costs of the individual organisations.   

Grants

Details on our grants can be found here but if you want to know more please speak to Paul Kerley

SEBA Bank Details

With the exception of Home Mission donation as above, payments to the Association should be made to
 
Account Name: South Eastern Baptist Association
Sort Code: 08-92-99
Account Number: 67355714

Please make sure to follow the instructions provided for each payment for what reference to use to assist us in identification of the funds. 

If would also be helpful if you could send an email advice to Steph Tidy, the Association Administrator
 

Gift Aid

If your church is registered to receive Gift Aid you will be able to submit claims online once your details have been advised to HMRC
 
Please be aware that you are not restricted to submitting claims annually and more frequent claims may help with  your cashflow.
 
It is important to keep and retain accurate records of gifts for which claims are submitted as HMRC do carry out audits.
 
Claims under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) are claimed as part of the same process.
 
Information about Gift Aid and GASDS can be found on the Baptist Union website (see page 3) and also on the HMRC website.
 
It is worth pointing out to the church that any high rate tax payers giving by Gift Aid not only help the church but can reduce their personal tax bill.  If they were not aware of this they can claim back tax for up to four years.