Audit Reports
Overview
Annual audits are required by the canons of The Episcopal Church for all parishes, missions, and other institutions like the Diocese of Long Island. The primary purpose of the audit is to ensure that financial statements are fairly stated, meaning cash, expenses, and investment funds are stated correctly for any given year.
Any person handling the money or investments of the church needs an audit to protect the church assets and themselves against suspicions of mishandling of those assets. By having an audit done on an annual basis, it gives confidence to the congregation and helps boost individual tithing. In addition, an announcement to the congregation that audit has been completed successfully reveals that all monies and investments are properly accounted for.
Who can do the audits?
The canons permit audits to be completed by an independent certified public accountant or by an audit committee as shall be authorized by the finance committee, department of finance, or other appropriate diocesan authority.
The audit committee is made up of a minimum of three members. Audit committee members should be independent of the decision-making and financial record keeping of the church. At least one member should be a financial expert. An example of a financial expert is someone who knows how to balance a checkbook or preferably has professional experience in the finance sector.
The person who submits the final audit report to the diocese should be the member who is considered the financial expert. This will make it easier to work with the diocesan finance department should any questions regarding the report arise.
For more information regarding the audit process, please consult the Manual of Business Methods in Church Affairs, available by clicking on THIS LINK.
Forms you will need:
Audit Committee Certificate Form2022 Alternative Audit Form
2022 Alternative Audit Procedure Workbook for Auditors
Other references:
2021 Audit Filing Status for Parishes in the Diocese of Long IslandReport of Prior Years’ Delinquencies
Submitting your audit report to the Bishop's Office
You will need a signed audit certificate in addition to your balance sheet and income sheet before submitting your completed report to the diocese. Please combine them together into a single PDF before starting the submission process. If you need help combining PDF files, you can easily combine them by using this free tool from Adobe: MERGE PDFs.
Once you have all of your documents ready, please CLICK HERE to complete the Audit Report Submission Form.
Questions
Please contact audit@dioceseli.org