End of Year Checklist for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers

The End of Year Checklist (2) for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers and a blank checklist also are all available free to download and print for your Church Administrative Office, etc. at your convenience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Most church leaders do not look forward to December of every year which is like a whirlwind due to the long checklist of things to do!

It's the season when Pastors are planning extra holiday services, church staff members decorating the sanctuary for Christmas with all the pretty lights, etc. So when the end of the calendar year rolls around it is very easy to forget about the very important end of the year responsibilities. This is why churches need to always have an End of the year checklist available to ensure these responsibilities have been accomplished!

There are 2 End-Of-The-Year Checklists below, 1 is a short 2 page document and the other one is an extensive 5 page document that covers most everything.

You can download and print the checklist(s) below for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers for the end of the year to help ensure they don't forget a one of these To-Dos listed on the checklist.

The checklist below for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers #1 (2 page document) for the end of the year includes:

• Checklist Title - End-of-the-Year Checklist for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers
• End-of-the-Year tax and Administrative Responsibilities. It’s that time of the year! (Check the box when completed.)
• Housing Allowance – The board or congregation designate a housing allowance for [Current Year] for ministers who own or rent their home (and for ministers who live in a parsonage and who pay some of their housing expenses).
• W-4s – To ensure accurate tax withholding, REMIND all your employees that they should review their W-4 form and submit a new form if there have been any changes due to marriage, divorce or dependents (child turned 21, birth adoption, etc.) since previous year.
• Written Notice to Donors – Donors should be notified either in the church bulletin, newsletter and/or in a letter from the church not to file their federal income tax return before they receive their contribution letter/statement from the church. Currently, donors will not be able to deduct individual contributions of $250 or more if they file a tax return before receiving a contribution letter/statement from their church.
•  Christmas Gifts - See checklist below.
•  End of the Year Contribution Rules - See checklist below.
•  End of the Year Business  - See checklist below.
•  See form below for the rest of the items listed on the checklist.

The checklist below for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers #2 (5 page document) for the end of the year includes:

• Gift Cards: Were any gift cards purchased for staff, gifts/prizes, or benevolence? Those HAVE to be "tracked"! We try to watch and catch them as soon as the church purchases them, so we can set up as a "cash on hand" account in their accounting system. We then have to manually enter the "expense" each time a card is used or given away.
• Possible 1099 payments: I will discuss this in greater detail below as there is a "different" form to file for those payments to independent contractors that were paid $600 or more in 2021. Guest speakers are a good example of an individual that may need a 1099-NEC sent to them.Always start in November pulling "vendor summary" reports to see who may need 1099s and ensuring we have W-9s for them. I export the report into Excel, sort them highest to lowest, and delete all that were paid under $600 for the year. Then I whittle the list further down by removing all corporations and nonprofits (don't need to send 1099s to them) from the list. The 1099 recipients are then pulled and we begin the process of making sure we have W-9s for them. We follow up by pulling that same report in Jan after closing the books for the previous year to ensure we have the totals correct and if anymore ICs slipped up to or over that $600 mark =) NOTE: do not send 1099s to recipients of benevolence payments! However, you should be VERY sure you those benevolence payments were properly documented and paid out according to the guidelines of your benevolence fund.
• See the document below for the rest of the 5 page checklist.

Shepherdbase

If your church needs an affordable church membership database that tracks member's information, contributions, attendance and much more then check out Shepherdbase that I created for my church and I love! :)

Click here for more information on the Shepherdbase (church membership database) to help make merging your church contribution letters and/or statements a breeze!

There is also a blank checklist to download below for you to manually enter your end of the year priorities if you prefer.

End of Year Checklist for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers #1

End of Year Checklist for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers #2

End of Year Checklist for Church Treasurers and Bookkeepers (Blank)

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