MUST HAVE REFERENCE GUIDE

Site Map or Site Search

CHURCH ACCOUNTING PACKAGE

Contribution Records retention guidelines

by Lorena
(Richmond, VA)

How long do I need to retain records of contributions to the church? The church I work for has been saving them forever, including the numbered donation envelopes. I would like to destroy all the envelopes and as much of the other records as practical.

Thank you.

Comments for Contribution Records retention guidelines

Click here to add your own comments

Mar 02, 2017
 Donor Record retention
by: Bill OConnell

Different men and women of goodwill disagree. I believe 3 years are plenty since the IRS ability to audit taxpayers virtually disappears at that point.

HOWEVER, be sensitive if there is personal financial information in those files (particularly copies of checks). Unprotected files containing this type of data violates the law in most states. If this is the case destroy all these records within a couple of months - after the banking transactions have been reconciled.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Church Accounting FAQs.



Need training on how to use QBO or Aplos effectively for a church or better yet ...need an expert in either of those accounting software to do your monthly bookkeeping and/or payroll? See more on our accounting services!

Contact Me!






Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.