Michael W. Ryan

The Basic Elements of a Truly Secure Sunday Collection

Before any Sunday collection system can be deemed adequately secure, appropriate security equipment and procedures must be applied so that no one  -  not even the pastor  -  has lone, unobserved access to those funds.  This mantle of protection must begin immediately after the collection is taken up (when it is consolidated into a single container, usually in the vestibule of the church) and must remain absolutely unbroken until all monies have been accurately tallied and properly deposited in the church bank account.  In order to reach that objective, the following criteria must be met.

•  The container into which the funds collected for each Mass or service are consolidated must be of a type that can be closed and positively sealed. The act of sealing must be done immediately after the consolidation.  On two-collection Sundays, the sealing of the 1st collection may not be delayed pending completion of the 2nd collection.  Further, either the device used to secure the container or the container itself must be serially numbered and of a type that cannot be opened and reclosed without reflecting that act.  This is necessary so that, from church vestibule to counting room, each person in the chain of custody can, through simple visual examination, determine whether anyone had or could have had access to the funds contained therein.

•  Detailed written operating procedures must be developed for the collection, consolidation, transport, interim storage, counting and banking operations.  The counting procedures must provide for the presence of at least three (3) counters before any sealed containers are opened, and establish continuous observation and control over the funds (especially the currency) by at least two (2) persons, from the moment the storage containers are unsealed and opened until the funds have been counted separately by two persons, verified, recorded on a witnessed bank deposit slip, and locked or sealed in a bank deposit bag.  The use of rotating teams of counters is highly recommended.

•  Each week's count must be documented via standardized forms.  These forms must be designed so that, when completed, they clearly reflect the serial numbers of the seals or sacks assigned for use by the ushers, the serial numbers of the seals or sacks received and processed by the counters, and whether the required count verification and witnessing procedures were followed.  The forms must be reviewed and filed each week by someone not otherwise involved in the counting and banking process.

If you or someone in your church or diocese has significant experience in the field of Security, with emphasis on the control mechanisms required to secure a cash operation, the above criteria should provide an adequate basis for developing your own system.  However, if such expertise is not available to you, we respectfully suggest that our guidelines are clearly the most effective and economical alternative available anywhere.  In that regard, we reiterate that the guidelines and related forms may be downloaded from this Website free of charge.

Finally, consider this Catch 22:  Most pastors and other church leaders will tell you they would implement secure procedures if and when they had reason to believe a loss problem exists.  But without effective security procedures already in place, there is no mechanism that will alert them to such a problem if and when it arises.

And that, we dare say, is good food for serious thought!

Download Collection & Accounting Guidelines

These newly expanded guidelines, which relate to both a church’s  Sunday collection and its disbursements operations (including bank accounts), contain step-by-step, easy-to-understand instructions on how to proceed.  The guidelines even include a description of the simple, low-cost equipment which must be combined with the recommended procedures before your Sunday collection and disbursements operations can be elevated from the status of a sitting duck (most are) to that of an unobtrusive Fort Knox. 

It’s been said that one picture is worth a thousand words.  In this case, however, one picture could be worth a thousand dollars  -  every week  -  to a single parish.  The two pictures shown below depict what are, for all practical purposes, the only two acceptable methods for securing a Sunday collection.  In either case, this procedure must be performed immediately after the collection has been taken up by the ushers.  Any delay whatsoever opens the door to the possibility of surreptitious theft.

As an adjunct to the Collection Security Guidelines, we are pleased to offer a variety of forms which, when used in concert with the guidelines, will enable any church to establish a well-documented, truly secure Sunday collection system.

The forms are listed below and may be obtained by clicking on each form’s name.  You may then either download the form or open and print it directly from this website.  Because the page margins and (in one instance) page orientations differ, however, we recommend you download the forms and open them in your own word processing program.  That way, you will then be able to make any needed adjustments before attempting to print them. 

Once you have made the necessary margin and (regarding the Currency form) page orientation adjustments, each form should print in the format for which it was designed.