Audits
The National and Diocesan Canons require that each congregation’s financial records be audited annually. Such an audit serves to protect the financial officers and employees of the church and often leads to improvement in the church’s financial management procedures.
Ideally, the services of a professional auditor should be secured to do this church audit. Frequently, however, this service may be costly and beyond the economic means of the congregation.
Another approach is for a team of accountants and/or business people to audit the books of a neighboring congregation, and vice versa. In such a “congregational exchange,” the audit is performed for little if any cost and the utilization of auditors outside the congregation helps preserve the objectivity of the audit.
A third approach, the one described in the downloadable kit, is to conduct a self-audit. The self-audit should be done only in those cases where the two approaches described are not feasible.
The individuals conducting the self-audit should be neither clergy nor authorized signers for any accounts. Treasurers, Accounting Wardens, Bookkeepers, etc. of the church should not be on the audit team.
We thank you for your time and effort in conducting this audit. If we can be of any help, please contact us.
The Finance Department
Audit Kit
Please use the audit kit below for churches under $500,000. For churches over $500,000, we ask for an independent audit by a CPA.
Send audits by Sept 1 to:
The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
Attention: Rob Rogers
240 S. 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
