The volunteer is worn out
A retired member said yes years ago. Now it's giving, payroll, bills and fund tracking on nights and weekends.
Outsourced church treasurer ยท Remote, anywhere in the U.S.
Your church needs a treasurer. It shouldn't have to be a volunteer.
I keep the books for churches anywhere in the U.S., with extra love for Pennsylvania. Giving, bills, payroll, every fund, and a clear report for your council every month. Your church stays in charge.
One flat monthly fee. No hourly billing. In central PA? I'm glad to stop by.
Why churches call
The treasurer's job is real work. It keeps landing on a volunteer.
The job turns over every few years
Each handoff loses what the last person knew. The new treasurer inherits a spreadsheet and a shoebox.
The council votes on numbers it doesn't trust
The bank balance looks fine, but nobody can say how much of it belongs to the building fund.
Hiring a firm ends the cycle. The work gets done every month by the same people, and the treasurer's seat stops being the job nobody wants.
Who we are
A family business that grew up in the pews
Carlisle Accounting is run out of our home in New Cumberland by me, Billy Carlisle, with my wife Chelsea and my brother Josh. Chelsea and I both grew up in church. We know what a counters' sheet looks like, what a building campaign feels like, and how much a congregation trusts the person who keeps the books.
That trust is the whole job. The money in a church account was put in the plate by someone who sat in a pew on Sunday. They gave it on purpose. We keep track of it that way.
BillyOwner. Bookkeeper and outsourced treasurer.
ChelseaBilly's wife. Grew up in church too.
JoshBilly's brother. Bookkeeping and client support.
The part that matters most
A church's money is not one pile
It's a general fund, a building fund, memorial gifts, missions, and whatever else people gave toward on purpose. Money given for a purpose has to stay with that purpose. That is fund accounting, and it is the difference between a church bookkeeper and a bookkeeper who happens to have a church as a client.
How a general bookkeeper gets it wrong
They set QuickBooks up like a shop: one income line, one set of expenses, one bank balance.
- The bank says $84,000, so the council thinks it has $84,000.
- A restricted gift quietly pays the electric bill.
- At year end, nobody can prove what the building fund holds.
What doing it right looks like
Every fund carries its own balance forward, and every dollar in or out is tagged to a fund when it's recorded.
- The monthly report shows each fund's start, in, out, and end.
- The fund balances add up to the bank, to the penny.
- The council can see what's actually free to spend.
Same bank balance, kept as one pile
Checking account$84,485
What the council thinks it can spend$84,485
The bank balance is right. It just isn't the number the council needs.
Same bank balance, kept by fund
General fund$18,825
Building fund (restricted)$56,350
Memorial gifts (restricted)$6,510
Missions (designated)$2,800
Ties to the bank$84,485
What the council can actually spend$18,825
Sample figures. The point is the shape of the report, not the amounts.
What's included
The whole treasurer's job, for one flat fee
- Fund accountingRestricted, designated and general funds tracked separately.
- Giving and contributionsWeekly giving, online platforms, year-end donor statements.
- Payroll for clergy and staffThrough your payroll company, with the housing allowance and the special rules for pastors kept straight.
- Bill payBills entered and paid.
- ReconciliationsEvery bank, savings, CD and credit card account, every month.
- Monthly council reportBalance sheet, income statement, budget vs. actual, fund balances.
- Budget and review supportReal numbers for budget season and clean records for any reviewer.
- Cleanup and QuickBooks setupBooks brought current and a chart of accounts built for a church.
Pricing
Three sizes, one flat fee
Every church is different. These are starting points, so you can see roughly where your church fits. We set the real number together after one short call, and it stays flat. No hourly billing and no surprise invoices.
Small church
A budget up to about $700,000. A few bank accounts, a handful of funds, a small staff.
- Giving, bills, payroll and every fund
- Every account reconciled every month
- A clear council report every month
- Year-end giving statements
Starts at about
$1,250 a month
Growing church
A budget of about $700,000 to $1.2 million. More funds, more staff, more giving channels.
- Everything in Small church
- Budget-season help
- More meetings with your council or finance team
Starts at about
$2,000 a month
Larger church
A bigger budget, a school or daycare, many staff, or several committees to report to.
- Everything in Growing church
- Reports by ministry or program
- The school or daycare books
Starts at about
$3,500 a month and up
Every size includes
Phone calls, emails, and year-end work. The fee is reviewed once a year, so a change is never a surprise. Month to month, with 30 days notice either way.
Not included: your payroll company's fees, the QuickBooks Online subscription, and any outside audit.
Compare it to a hire
A part-time church bookkeeper at 20 hours a week costs about $25,000 to $35,000 a year with payroll taxes, plus training, plus starting over every time they leave.
About Billy
I do this job for my own church every month
I'm Billy Carlisle. I have a bachelor's degree in accounting from Penn State, I'm a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, and I'm the treasurer at Fishing Creek Salem United Methodist Church in Etters, PA. The work I'm describing on this page is the work I do for that church every month: the counters' sheets, payroll for the pastor and staff, the building fund, the reconciliations, and the report that goes to the council.
My firm also keeps the books for New Harvest Community Church (Brethren in Christ) in Millerstown, PA, and for a few small businesses, which is where my accounting foundation comes from.
I grew up in church, and I see this work as a way to serve. I like working with fellow believers, and I like handing a council a report they can trust.
Billy CarlisleOwner, Carlisle Accounting, LLC
Penn StateB.S. in Accounting
QuickBooks Online ProAdvisorIntuit's program for QuickBooks professionals
Church treasurerFishing Creek Salem United Methodist Church, Etters, PA
Questions a church board will ask
Common questions
Do you take over control of our money?
No. Your church stays in charge. The bank accounts, the QuickBooks file, and the records stay in your church's name. You can turn my access off any time.
We never touch the cash. Your counters count and deposit the offering. We record it and match it to the bank.
We enter and pay the bills, so they get paid on time. If your church wants its own signers on the checks, we can set it up that way. Either way, your council sees every payment in the monthly report.
Everything is written down. You get written steps for your books, so the work never depends on one person's memory, including mine.
Do we have to replace our treasurer?
No. Some churches keep a treasurer as the officer who signs off and reports to the council, and hand the bookkeeping to me. That treasurer's job gets a lot smaller and a lot more pleasant.
Other churches use this to fill a seat nobody will take. Either works. Your bylaws and your denomination's rules decide who has to hold the title. I fit around that.
What if our books are a mess?
That's normal. Plenty of churches are behind. A previous treasurer left, the QuickBooks file hasn't been reconciled in a year, or the fund balances have never really been tracked.
Cleanup is scoped separately up front. I look at where things stand, tell you what it will take to bring the books current, and quote it as its own project before the monthly fee starts. You will not get a surprise bill for it.
What software do you use?
QuickBooks Online, set up for fund accounting with a chart of accounts built for a church. If you're already on QuickBooks, we usually keep your file and straighten it out rather than starting over. If you're on something else, we do the move.
The church owns its own QuickBooks subscription, its own file, and its own data. If we ever part ways, everything stays with you and the next person picks up where we left off.
Do you have to be here in person?
No. Most of the work happens remotely through bank feeds, your online giving platform, and QuickBooks. Bills come to one email address, and documents move by email or a shared folder.
I'm based in New Cumberland, PA, and I work with churches anywhere in the U.S. If you're in central Pennsylvania, I'm glad to stop by in person too, for onboarding, a finance committee meeting, budget season, or a handoff with the outgoing treasurer.
How do we switch?
We start with the free 20-minute church books checkup. If it's a fit, you get a written scope and a flat quote. Then we connect your bank and giving platforms to QuickBooks, set up or clean up the QuickBooks file, and meet once with your current treasurer and your counters. A few weeks later the first monthly report lands, and from there it just runs. See the full onboarding path.
Do you work with our denomination?
Yes. Today I work with United Methodist and Brethren in Christ churches, and the work is the same for most Protestant churches. What changes is the reporting your conference, synod, district, or association asks for, and the payroll rules for clergy. I'm glad to learn whatever forms your church uses.
Next step
Start with a free 20-minute church books checkup
We'll talk about how your church handles its books today, what's working, and what's not. You'll leave with at least one thing you can fix, whether you hire us or not.
- Bring whoever needs to be there: the pastor, the treasurer, the finance chair.
- No sales pitch. I mostly want to hear how your church handles its books.
- If we're not the right fit, I'll say so and point you somewhere useful.