There is no doubt that church managers are busy people. As you develop a budget, focusing on the “right” areas of the budget means prioritizing your time so that you spend the greatest amount of effort on those areas that will provide the most significant benefits. A nice tool to deploy during this phase of the process is to calculate the Budget Category Impact Percentage (BCIP).

If time is money, the BCIP calculation is a simple formula that can assist you to quickly assess the relative size of a specific budget category as compared to the total receipt or spending for the overall Income or Expense category. If you calculate which categories have the greatest impact on the budget, you can spend the majority of your time focusing on those areas.

Let me use a simple example of revenue categories to show you what I mean:

St. Jane’s Church

At the fictional parish of St. Jane’s, the church receives revenues from the following sources:

Next, calculate the BCIP by dividing each Revenue Category by Total Revenue.

• Total Collections ($357,000) divided by Total Revenue ($378,300) = BCIP (94%)
• Total Holyday Collections ($16,000) divided by Total Revenue ($378,300) = BCIP (4%)

Using a spreadsheet or other mode to make calculations, you can make the calculations for each category quickly by dragging the formula down the column. As you review the information, what are your observations?

Like most churches, Sunday Collections drive the majority of the income for St. Jane’s. You can see that items like Flower Donations and Bulletin Advertising make up only a tiny proportion of the overall revenue.

“So, why does this matter?”

The problem is that many churches spend an inordinate amount of time on reviewing/estimating/analyzing categories that are not driving large portions of the budget. If you have two hours to spend on a budget analysis, focus on the largest drivers of revenues and expenses. By the way, the same process used above for revenues should also be used for expenses. Most likely, after you calculate the BCIP on expenses, you’ll find that salary and benefits make up a large proportion of expenses, and this makes sense because people are your most important resource! Take the analysis to the next step – what is the next expense category that is driving expenses? And the next?

Tip 7: Prioritize Time – Calculate a Budget Category Impact Percentage (BCIP)

Armed with this information, you can begin by reviewing those categories with the largest impact on the budget. I am not arguing that all budget categories are not important. But, with limited time, focus on the income or expense categories with the greatest impact on the budget.

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Portions of this text come from Michael J. Castrilli and Charles E. Zech, Parish Finance: Best Practices in Church Management (New York: Paulist Press, 2016) Chapter 5.

Truth and light are central tenets of our faith. Even though we know this in our hearts, as it relates to financial transparency, at times, we forget this in our heads.

I don’t believe that a majority of people are trying to deceive by their lack of financial transparency. In fact, I think many leaders believe that a budget completed alone is a budget completed better — fewer people, fewer questions, less anxiety!

But time and time again, church management researchers conclude the same point — financial transparency yields the best results — people are more likely to give, engage, and trust that their money is being well used.

“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31b-32)h –

As I was thinking about the topic of financial transparency and the freedom that comes from allowing light to shine on the truth, I remembered a story from grad school. My classmates and I were asked to come to the first day of class with a short one-page response to this question, “Is lying ever justified?”

Now I admit, I don’t remember the details of my paper, but I do remember my point – I firmly believed, and still believe, that lying is not justified. Trust me; I am not trying to sound like a saint.  And yes, some of my classmates articulated very well that lying for the sake of public safety is positive, but I was not convinced.

My point is that even in public service, where the truth might be hard to hear, and even in the case of public safety people may panic — I believe that the truth gives people the freedom to panic — or the freedom to make a different choice. Instead of panic, what if people rise up and join together in a spirit of community to meet the challenge together? Without the truth, individuals and groups have no choice but to go forward in the dark — without the benefit of information and knowledge to decide the next right action.

Transparency is a commitment to openness in process, methods, and decisions.

The same can be said of financial transparency. Yes, parishioners will ask more questions when finances get discussed in public. But without a transparent, collaborative, and open budget process, it is far more likely that when difficult choices arise, the stakeholders without knowledge of the budget, will be less likely to support difficult trade-offs.

As non-profits, our profit is mission – people deserve to see how their money is being put to use to achieve that mission. Financial freedom does not come from worrying about what was created behind closed doors or justifying to others what was created in their best interest.

Freedom comes from opening financial doors for all to see.

Transparency allows the light to shine through all things — and we know from our faith, and from our lives, that when light shines through – it can be amazing!

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