This webinar will review some core fundamental practices for any church’s accounting and finance functions and will be beneficial for church administrators, bookkeepers, treasurers, finance team members, and certain clergy involved in related policy matters. Topics will income basic internal controls over receipts and expenditures, documentation requirements for expenditures and the benefits of various accounting systems. (Details of accounting software such as QuickBooks or other church management software will not be discussed in detail.) Additionally, we will discuss some common areas where churches misstep in the finance area.

Elaine L. Sommerville is licensed as a certified public accountant by the State of Texas. For more than 30 years, she has focused her practice on churches and other nonprofit organizations. She has assisted in the representation of several large case IRS exams as well as other IRS examinations of smaller organizations. Elaine currently devotes her time to handling various IRS issues for individuals and for exempt organizations of various types. Elaine holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accountancy and Information Systems from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. She is the sole shareholder of the CPA firm of Sommerville & Associates, P.C. Located in Arlington, Texas; the firm employees 10 staff members who provide tax and consulting services to over 300 churches and nonprofit organizations. She is a regular speaker for the Texas Society of CPAs, The Church Network, the Houston Church Coop, and is an instructor for the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). She is a contributing author to the Thomson Reuters/PPC’s Nonprofit Tax and Governance Guide and Form 990 Deskbook. She is a member of the AICPA, the Texas Society of CPAs, and The Church Network.