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Finance Newsletter

New Accounting System

As a Church with a fine Scots tradition it is appropriate to paraphrase Robbie Burns on the best laid plans of mice and men. August has turned out to be one of those months where our plans went astray. While we had no major problems there have been a number of niggling issues that have given rise to implementation delays. The lesson from the last implementation is don't go live until you are sure the system is operating correctly. We have therefore postponed the start date. Parishes paid a big price for a hasty implementation in 1998 and we do not wish to put them in the same position again. While missing the deadline puts me in an embarrassing position that is preferable to potential chaos in parish accounts.

The major problem caused by the delay was the increasing amount of data that had to be entered in both the existing system and the new system. Too much of our time was going into double entry of data rather than implementing and testing the new system. Because the new system is so different from the old (changed chart of accounts and different operating structure) converting the data to a format acceptable to the new system was proving very time consuming.

We have therefore made the decision to continue the existing system until 30 September then transfer balances to the new system as at that date. This will allow interest calculations for the first quarter of the year to be performed by the old system and take away the need to double enter data. Your September statement will be produced by the old system. It will be accompanied by a statement from the new system showing the opening balance transferred to the new system.

A number of milestones have been achieved. We are well into the testing of the new system. The proposed start date is dependant upon us not finding a major problem during testing. Testing is scheduled to be completed by 12 September. The physical environment to allow remote access is now in place. The software to allow access has arrived (a couple of months late) and will be installed next week. The ultimate aim is to give parishes' remote access to their account information and to be able to initiate though not approve transactions electronically.

National Services Levy Direct Debit

We had planned to process the first invoices and direct debits for national Services Levy in the new system. The change to our plan noted above has meant that we have had to put the direct debits through the old system at short notice. Charges were left unchanged from the prior year to permit the processing at short notice. Charges will be adjusted in September to reflect the NSL charge advised by this office in June. We regret any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Amalgamated Investment Fund

The interest rate paid on deposits with the Amalgamated Investment Fund remains at 6.0%. This rate is 1% above the Reserve Bank's Official Cash Rate.

Ministers Mortgages

The interest rate on minister's mortgages remains at 6.6% for the month of September.

Notification of AIF Withdrawals

Many parishes use email to notify the Assembly Office that they wish to withdraw funds from the AIF. This is a convenient method of notification as it allows us to quickly and easily acknowledge receipt of your request. When using email for this purpose we ask that the email be sent to FSD(at)presbyterian.org.nz. Email sent to this address goes to myself, Ram Ayyar the Accountant and Sulupo Nanai the Assistant Accountant guaranteeing someone will read it. Email sent to a specific person can be overlooked if that person is absent. Currently we have the systems administrator override the password of an absent person so as to check there are no email requests for transfers waiting processing. This is not a satisfactory arrangement and we request that you use the above address so we can eliminate this requirement. Only transfer requests should be sent to this address. Other queries can be addressed to our normal mail boxes namely geoffb(at)presbyterian.org.nz, 
rama(at)presbyterian.org.nz or sulupon(at)presbyterian.org.nz.

Audit Confirmations

We are working our way through the queries that have come out of the audit confirmation. We will be responding to those who have queried a balance in due course but at the moment our effort is focused on getting answers to the auditors.

Statistics

Just a reminder that statistics returns are overdue so if you haven't returned your forms to the presbytery recorder could you please give this matter some attention.

Tutahi Tatou

I encourage you and members of your parish to attend the series of TT workshops to be held in various locations around the country. One of the topics to be covered during the day will be the single assessment. This session will be lead by a member of the Administration and Finance Policy Group. They will be talking about the reasons why the single assessment was proposed and seeking further feedback on the definition of income to be applied. This is your opportunity to influence the formation of church policy. I will be attending the gathering in Palmerston North with Catherine Barclay of the Policy Group.

Auditors

I have received recently a number of calls from parish treasurers struggling to find an auditor. Increasing parishes are finding that long time auditors who have often been performing the task without charge are retiring. Finding a replacement without going to a firm of chartered accountants with their associated cost structure is proving difficult. The Administration and Finance Policy Group is aware of this problem and is actively considering whether a person other than a chartered accountant can perform the audit.

Geoffrey Bell
Manager Financial Services