This is the role where the Discipline itself tells you how to write the job — by telling you what may not be combined. The positions of treasurer and financial secretary should not be held by one person, those two should not be immediate family members, and no immediate family member of appointed clergy may serve as treasurer, finance chair, or financial secretary (¶258.4). Almost every church embezzlement story is a story about one person doing two of these jobs because they were the only one who volunteered.

Written here at three sizes. Note that the separation of duties does not scale down: a quarter-time bookkeeper still may not both receive money and reconcile the account.

Flag, not answered here: whether the person is an employee or a contractor. Churches routinely 1099 a bookkeeper who is, by the IRS’s tests, an employee — because the church controls the hours, the method, and the tools. Getting this wrong is expensive. Decide it with your conference office or accountant, not from a template.

The template

Job Description: Bookkeeper

[Church Name] · Approved by SPRC [date] · Reviewed [date]

Reports to: [the pastor / church administrator] for supervision; works with the committee on finance and the treasurer on financial matters Classification: [full-time / part-time] · [exempt / non-exempt] · [employee / contractor — see above] Hours: [ ] per week Compensation: [rate], reviewed annually with the budget

Purpose

To keep the church’s financial records accurate, current, and auditable, and to give the finance committee and church council the information they need to make decisions.

What this position does not do

Stated first, because it is the point:

• Does not serve as treasurer or financial secretary if those roles are held by a family member (¶258.4).
• Does not both count/receive contributions and reconcile the bank statement.
• Does not sign checks [or: signs only as a second signature under $ ___, never alone — choose, and write it down].
• Does not open mail containing contributions alone.
• Does not have sole access to any account, record, or password. Access is recorded in the church’s account register.

Core responsibilities — FULL TIME (30–40 hrs)

Recording

• Enter all receipts and disbursements; maintain the general ledger by fund.
• Maintain designated and restricted fund balances separately — restricted gifts are used only for the purpose given (¶258.4).
• Record contributions from counters’ reports; prepare quarterly and annual giving statements.

Payables and payroll

• Prepare check requests with supporting documentation for the treasurer’s signature.
• Process payroll; maintain records for withholding, benefits, and Wespath remittance.
• File or coordinate filing of required payroll returns.

Reporting

• Prepare monthly financial statements for the finance committee and council.
• Prepare the annual report for charge conference and support the annual audit (¶258.4d).
• Track apportionment payments and report progress.

Controls and records

• Maintain written financial policies with the finance committee and flag anything the church is doing that departs from them (¶258.4c).
• Maintain vendor files, W-9s, and 1099 preparation.
• Retain records per the church’s retention schedule.

At HALF TIME (15–20 hrs) — what changes

Keep: all recording, payables preparation, payroll, monthly statements, audit support, restricted-fund tracking. Controls do not shrink.

Move: contribution statements to a quarterly cycle; vendor file maintenance to the administrator; apportionment tracking reported quarterly rather than monthly.

At QUARTER TIME (8–10 hrs) — what changes

Keep only: recording receipts and disbursements, payables preparation, payroll, and a monthly statement. That is a full plate at ten hours.

Move: giving statements to annual; audit support becomes “assemble records for the auditor” rather than “prepare schedules”; reporting to committees goes through the treasurer.

What must not move: the separations listed above. If quarter time tempts the church to let one person do everything because “it’s only a few hours,” that is exactly the condition under which losses happen and go undetected for years.

At this size, seriously consider an outside bookkeeping service. It costs more per hour and frequently costs less per year, and it comes with built-in separation.

Qualifications

• Bookkeeping experience, ideally fund accounting [church or nonprofit fund accounting is genuinely different from small-business accounting — say so in the posting].
• Competent with [specify software].
• Discreet. Giving records are confidential, including from the pastor if that is your church’s practice [decide this deliberately and write it down].

Screening

Background check including a credit and criminal check appropriate to a financial role, before the first day. References checked directly, including prior financial roles.

Bonding

The church’s treasurer(s) shall be adequately bonded (¶258.4). Confirm that the bond or crime-coverage policy also covers this position, and that the amount is reviewed annually with the trustees’ insurance review (¶2533.2).

Adaptation notes

Separation of duties is the whole design. Three functions — authorize, record, reconcile — belong to different people. A church too small to split them three ways splits them two ways and has a non-signing person review the bank statement monthly. There is always a way; “we’re too small” is a choice, not a constraint.

Counters count in pairs, and neither is the bookkeeper. The counters’ report, not the deposit slip, is the source document.

The finance committee reviews written policies annually (¶258.4c) and provides for an annual audit (¶258.4d). The bookkeeper supports both and is never the person who decides whether they happened.

Restricted funds are not a budget cushion. Contributions to benevolence may not be spent on anything else (¶258.4). Track them separately and report them separately, and make it easy for the council to see the difference between “money in the account” and “money we may spend.”

Confidentiality of giving records is a live question in most churches. Decide who may see individual giving — commonly the financial secretary and the counting team only — and put the answer in writing before someone asks in a meeting.

Employee or contractor: see the flag at the top. If in doubt, treat as an employee; the penalty asymmetry runs strongly that way.

Elsewhere

• Forms and assets — GCFA — the Local Church Audit Guide and related forms; the audit guide is the clearest statement of the internal controls behind this page.
• GCFA — Legal Services — including clergy compensation and payroll guidance, which is unlike ordinary payroll.
• Guidelines: Finance 2025–2028 — the official UMPH booklet for the committee this role serves.
• Wespath — benefits and pension remittance, which this role usually processes.
• Personnel policy skeleton — including the conflict-of-interest section, which matters more here than anywhere else.