Ministry payroll & housing allowance
Clergy payroll handled correctly, including housing allowance designation and the dual tax status that general payroll services routinely get wrong.
Financial clarity so you can
focus on mission.
Your team is called to ministry, not bookkeeping. We handle the financial clarity, the compliance, and the planning, so leadership can lead.
Churches and ministries run on a distinct set of rules, and most accountants never learn them. Restricted funds, designated giving, unrelated business income, ministerial payroll: each one is easy to get wrong, and the consequences land on the people you can least afford to let down.
The deeper problem is usually quieter than a compliance slip. Finances become the thing no one wants to own, handled by one faithful volunteer with a spreadsheet, and leadership spends energy on money that should have gone to mission.
We take that weight off your team. We keep the books and the filings clean, set up controls and policies sized for your organization, handle clergy payroll and the housing allowance correctly, and give your board financial reporting it can actually understand. We know the terrain, and we share your convictions.
What we do for churches & ministries
The financial function your mission needs, without pulling your team away from it.
Filings & exemption compliance
Keeping your exempt status clean, and preparing the Form 990 for the ministries, schools, and nonprofits that are required to file it.
Internal controls & policy
Practical financial controls and policies sized for your team, so good stewardship does not depend on one trusted person and a spreadsheet.
Designated & restricted funds
Accounting for designated gifts and restricted funds the right way, so money given for a purpose is tracked and honored.
Reserves & endowment
Planning operating reserves and endowment or long-term funds, so the mission is steady through lean seasons, not just the full ones.
Fractional CFO
Finance leadership for larger ministries: budgeting, reporting to the board, and the forward view a bookkeeper is not there to provide.
A tool we use Ramp: spend management for churches & ministries
Churches and ministries carry a particular weight: giving fluctuates with the seasons, members and elders rightly expect transparency, and every dollar is entrusted for the mission. Ramp is a spend-management platform we use and recommend because it brings order and clarity to that work — corporate cards, expense management, and bill pay that flow straight into your books.
- Spend that stays within bounds. Ramp lets you set clear limits before money goes out, not after — controlling what pastors, staff, and volunteers can purchase, down to the vendor and category. Good stewardship is easier when the guardrails are built in.
- Transparency you can show. Receipts are prompted, collected, and matched automatically by text, app, or email, so your records stay current and complete. When elders, members, or auditors ask how funds were used, the answer is already documented.
- Less administrative burden, more ministry. Invoice details are pulled in without manual data entry, approvals follow a path you define, and recurring bills handle themselves. Staff spend their hours on the work they were called to, not on chasing paperwork.
- Books that stay reconciled. Ramp syncs in real time with the accounting software you already use — QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, or Sage Intacct — so your tracking and reconciliation stay accurate month to month.
A note on results: Ramp reports that organizations save roughly 5% on average, that it can be deployed in under fifteen minutes, and that more than 50,000 companies use it. Those are Ramp's own figures, and we share them as such. What we can speak to is the order it brings to the day-to-day.
Ramp handles the flow of spending and receipts; we make sure it adds up — pairing it with the bookkeeping and fractional CFO work we already do alongside churches and ministries. Learn more about Ramp →
Common questions
Does our church have to file a Form 990?
Most churches are exempt from the annual Form 990 filing, but affiliated ministries, schools, and other nonprofits often are not. We help you know which rules apply to which entity, so nothing is missed or filed unnecessarily.
How should we handle designated and restricted gifts?
Carefully, and in writing. Money given for a specific purpose has to be tracked and used for that purpose. We set up the accounting and the policy so designated giving is honored and defensible.
What is UBIT, and could it apply to us?
Unrelated business income tax can apply when a ministry earns income from activities outside its exempt purpose. It surprises a lot of organizations. We help you spot it early and handle it correctly.
Can you set up our pastor's housing allowance properly?
Yes. The housing allowance has to be designated in advance, kept within limits, and substantiated. Done casually it creates risk for both the church and the minister; we make sure it is done right.
We are a small church without a finance person. Can you help?
That is much of who we serve. We can be the finance function you do not have room to hire, scaled to your size, so your team can stay focused on ministry.
Faithful Steward Scorecard
See where your stewardship stands.
A few honest minutes across earning, saving, giving, and legacy. You'll get a personal report with the two or three moves that matter most. No login, no sales pitch.
Take the 5-minute scorecardLet's see if we're a fit.
A fifteen-minute call is enough to find out. No pressure, and no second meeting if the answer is no.
Schedule a discovery call