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Your Staff Is Floating the Church · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's Friday night.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your kids director is making an order checking out on Amazon Bluetooth.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Craft Kids, the backdrop for Sunday, on her personal credit card.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the youth pastor already bought the pizza.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: The worst leader already bought the stage for Monday.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: She drops the receipts on the office manager's desk.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And three weeks later, nothing.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Six weeks later, she just stops asking.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about this today, about how you reimburse or how you allow your staff people to make purchases.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's different in every church, and in some churches, can I say it's goofed up?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about it today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com, and I'm so glad that you have joined us today.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: That whole scenario that I just described, everybody putting things on their own personal card, it starts a supply rod.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes the church borrowing money from the people on the payroll.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just probably not the best way to put it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm being kindly there, okay?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because your cart is personal, but your ministry is not.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: She did not buy your children's person, did not buy that for her house.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: She bought it for your kids' ministry.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: The youth pizza, the VBS supplies, the welcome table candy.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: You just told her to make it happen.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: She did make it happen.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: It just all went on her Visa card.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: The church got the supplies the next day because she made it happen.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: She's still carrying that balance in 60 days.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then the receipt enters your process, and your process is a big part of the problem as well.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The receipt ends up in the office manager's tray or however your reimbursement goes, and then maybe the pastor has to initial it, and then it goes to the treasure, and then it waits for the next check run.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then somebody's out of town, and then maybe after Thanksgiving, because we're just slammed, and then it's just forgotten.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: She's asked twice, and the third time, she just feels like she's being greedy.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So she stops and just says, That's not that big of a deal.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: You call that patient, she calls it a loan that she never agreed to make that she's probably never gonna get made right.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Three signatures is not an accountability structure when the bill was due last month because she has to pay interest on all of that or just absorb the cost altogether.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is the church using her cash flow as an interest-free line of credit.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I understand.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I understand how you got here.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to you never maybe even thought of it like this about the church kind of floating alone on the staff credit card.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe in your church, you even don't have a really good view of credit cards if you're a big Dave Ramsey guy, right?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or big Dave Ramsey Church.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you're doing financial peace, you're teaching not to use credit cards, but you're having your staff do it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: The card in the office drawer never works on Saturday because it's in the office drawer.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And she said she would grab it, and that's decent, and she did that.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a trap that also this is how a church turns faithful people into a bank and then just says, hey, we'll get back to you.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's that's not a financial policy.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if the church needed the thing, the church should have paid for the thing.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can still honor her, yes, but you cannot keep, you should not keep her interest rate as your operating system.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So stop borrowing, start paying.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Three moves.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Pick them and do them, okay?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is my advice for you today if you've got this kind of reimbursement nightmare, or maybe you're on staff and you're waiting for payment.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Three things.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: First, a church card in the hands of the people who actually buy things.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I hear the pushback.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to give everybody a church credit card.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: There are controls that you can put on church credit cards in people's names.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to your bank and see how you can do it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Man, if you don't trust someone with a credit card with an established limit, then you've got bigger problems on your hands, right?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: A church card in the hands of the people who actually buy things eliminates all of that reimbursement nightmare.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It cuts down on the paperwork and it cuts down on all the angst when things get lost or when something is questioned.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So kids director, youth pastor, office manager, worship leader, anybody that actually has to buy things for the church.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not one locked card in a drawer that nobody can find on Saturday.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Limits, there needs to be limits on it.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have receipts still.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: A statement can actually that actually someone reads, okay?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not intermined or interwoven with that person's personal credit card receipts.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Second, float afloat, okay?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's another idea.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Prepaid card.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: A small standing fund that they don't have to audition for, okay?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: If VBS is on the calendar, the money for VBS should already be in their hands.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, and then number three, a seven-day reimbursement rule.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna continue to do personal reimbursements, here's the deal.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: The receipt comes in, you check it out, seven days, not the next board meeting, not when we do bills.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you cannot reimburse in seven days, you don't have a real reimbursement policy, you just have a delay, at least from your staff member's viewpoint.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And delay is how you taught her to stop submitting the receipts in the first place.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: If the paperwork is late, you just have to get a little louder about it.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Every late reimbursement preaches, okay?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It preaches that the church comes the church's needs come first, and your Visa card can wait.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're asking twice for reimbursement almost becomes a character issue.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the culture you're building, it's not the culture you want, but it is the culture you're building if that's what's happening, whether you mean to or not.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: The newest staff member learns it fastest.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: She covers the pizza, eats the delay, and decides this is just how churches work.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then she buys less.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you wonder why the budget went further this year.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It went further because she stopped putting her household finances on the line.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So pay them back or stop sending them to the store.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the only two honest options here.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, here's your bottom line for today.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: When reimbursement takes weeks, the church is using staff cash and staff finances as an interest-free line of credit.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just not right.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: So this week, I want you to do something uncomfortable.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: If this is a problem in your church, put pull every open reimbursement and pay them this week.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just do it.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then put a church card in the hands of people who can actually buy the supplies.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Again, work with your bank, they can help you to make you feel comfortable so that people aren't going out and putting a Mercedes on their church credit card.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: This week is the time to do this.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I'm maybe making you feel a little uncomfortable here, but believe me, your level of uncomfort, if you're the one in charge, is nowhere close to that staff person waiting to see if they're going to get reimbursed or not.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your comments, maybe how you handle church reimbursements or anything along those lines, or anything just that I can help you with it when it comes to staffing.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Healthy church staff initiatives.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have you reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be right back here tomorrow.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you'll join me on the Healthy Church Staff Opera.