Three Free Tools to Calculate What You Need... and Don't.

It’s no surprise that personnel budgets make up a significant portion of our total budget—and we think they should.

After all, people do ministry, not programs.

In this post, you'll find three free tools to help you calculate what you need... and don't.

1. Staffing Budget Calculator
2. Staff to Attendee Ratio Calculator
3. Staffing Compensation Assessment Tool

While most churches are staying within a healthy range of staff budget to the total budget, we’re finding many of these churches are overstaffed with a high number of staff to attendees, leaving most staff underpaid because of the total amount available for compensation. Do you know if you're on track with how much should you be spending on staffing? Find out based on your total annual budget.

Although The Unstuck Church Report for Q4 2022 found that Churches are experiencing less staff turnover when compared to other organizations with the current reported staff turnover rate being 14%, it is bound to happen.

When staff openings arise, here are a few suggested best practices:

• When your church creeps below 75 attendees to 1 staff member, don’t just staff replace them. Get creative. Consider remote workers or outsourcing as you have openings for administration, IT, HR, and accounting for significant cost savings. What positions can be part-time or contracted? Check out our Staff to Attendee Ratio Calculator to determine how many staff members you really need.
  
  PRO TIP: For churches with $1m+ annual budgets, we recommend spending no more than 3% on all accounting and finance staff.
• If you want to keep your best staff long-term, consider investing in and compensating them beyond what church surveys suggest. It’s not just other churches that we’re losing our staff to but roles in the general marketplace that often pay higher salaries. If it's time to analyze the salary of your staff, and maybe even yourself, use our Staffing Compensation Assessment Tool.
• Reevaluate your benefits and give staff options. Many churches are spending tens of thousands annually for benefits that younger staff don’t use and don’t see much value in. They’d rather receive an extra $1,500 annually than the church paying for short-term disability or a small life insurance policy.

Do you want to learn more about outsourcing your accounting team or CFO? Schedule a free discovery call with us today.