Church institutions

Church institutions

In addition to their core task - the proclamation of the evangelical - church institutions make an important contribution to the community and take on a variety of tasks in society: they are involved in many areas of daily life, for example in child education, school education, care of the sick and elderly and help in a variety of emergencies. They are also culturally influential.

 

Challenges faced by church institutions 

The various organisations and institutions in the public sector are currently facing major challenges and significant changes. Church institutions - many of which are also organised under public law - are no exception. Their tasks are changing. The regulatory, organisational, economic and financial situation is not getting any easier. In addition, church institutions are confronted with demands for a more transparent presentation of assets and the responsible use of funds.

 

Our support

Our experienced team of experts will support you in overcoming these diverse challenges and ensuring the sustainable orientation of your organisation - so that you can continue to fulfil the tasks arising from the various requirements in the future.

Our interdisciplinary team has many years of expertise in auditing, preparing annual financial statements and advising church and denominational legal entities of various legal forms (e.g. corporations under public law, church foundations under public and private law, gGmbHs, associations). We can provide you with comprehensive support for a wide range of issues and offer effective solutions. In doing so, we are aware of the numerous special features - a church institution is not a ‘classic business enterprise’ and requires a partner who takes care of the special features.

Based on the many years of professional and project experience of our interdisciplinary team of auditors, tax consultants, lawyers, management consultants and property experts, we support you in implementing your projects on the path to the future. Together with you, we develop individual, effective and holistic concepts tailored to your institution and challenges. With passion, empathy and at eye level. We help you to reduce complexity and transform answers into solutions that take all professional, organisational and technological requirements into account

‘From idea to implementation’ - tried-and-tested methods lead to immediately applicable processes and systems that generate sustainable added value for your organisation and the achievement of your goals.

 

Specialist, conceptual and quality assurance consulting in the key areas:

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Church organisations must also manage their income and expenditure properly. We support you with your budgeting and accounting.

We offer you expert advice on all tax issues (e.g. Sections 2b and 13b UStG, questions regarding input tax rates, donations, inheritances, capital gains tax, land transfer tax, property tax or payroll tax issues).

We answer all important questions relating to the staff and organisational development of your company and show you solutions tailored to your needs.

With our support, you can develop the controlling of your church institution in a modern and targeted manner.

As part of budget consolidation and the improvement of budget controlling, we provide you with comprehensive advice on the organisation of your debt repayment and borrowing as well as on controlling instruments and lay the foundations for a balanced budget.

In order to manage your property assets, it is necessary to structure your properties - e.g. with regard to ecclesiastical properties (sacred properties and properties essential to the work of the church) and asset-managing rental properties. Based on this, action requirements and potentials can be identified and realised. To this end, we carry out an in-depth property structure analysis. 

We support you in developing holistic strategies for your properties and set the course for long-term and sustainable utilisation of the existing building stock.

We use comprehensive analyses to develop measures for the business realignment of your church institution and also support you in restructuring processes in line with your requirements.  

New fields of action and models can also play an important role for your organisation. We evaluate and identify the strategic future fields relevant to your organisation.

We support you in setting up, developing and testing the functionality and effectiveness of your internal control systems (ICS), including the tax compliance management system and legal compliance in general.

As part of an internal audit, we examine the legality, expediency and efficiency of your internal work processes within the organisation.

We support you in the preparation of actuarial reports (e.g. for the valuation of pension obligations or for the assessment and valuation of construction liability issues).

Management of public projects

We support you with your specific subsidy management. We take a holistic approach and offer services specifically tailored to ecclesiastical institutions.

We advise you on all measures relating to change processes in your organisation (including conception, training, coaching, sparring, monitoring and evaluation).

We provide you with governance consulting tailored to church institutions with specific proposals for the organisation of your administration. 

Evaluation and strategic realignment, restructuring and optimisation of task portfolios and organisational structures

The digital transformation is currently one of the biggest transformation topics, but many others also affect church institutions - as well as all other stakeholders. We advise you on the holistic nature of action/business models, organisation, work and culture as well as technology and jointly develop realistic optimisation measures. 

Enterprise planning (ERP) and document management (DMS)

Digital transformation is often associated with the selection of suitable software. We support you in drawing up the specifications and selecting the right software provider. 

Installing and configuring new software is an important step, but it takes more than that! We support you during the implementation of the new software and the associated adjustments to your administrative processes.  

Digitalisation consulting 

We develop a sustainable digitalisation strategy for your church institution - based on the focus areas of financial accounting, controlling and human resources.

In order to support you on your path towards digitalisation, we take stock of the current situation, from which we can derive specific measures to achieve your digitalisation goals.

We support you in evaluating disruptive and new technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) and applications based on artificial intelligence (AI). We also offer our own application solutions (e.g. Grizzly - the digital solution for property tax, CalcuVATor - your VAT optimisation tool or EarlyBird - the crisis early warning system). 

 

IT management 

We support you holistically in the initialisation, implementation, further development and successful completion of your various initiatives.

We support you in the strategic transformation from ‘classic’ waterfall-oriented organisational forms to more agile or hybrid forms. In addition to the obligatory certifications for the various frameworks, we also have the experience to operationalise these for your specific organisation and the corresponding implementation mechanisms.

Our network of experts:

In order to offer you and your organisation the best possible service, our cooperation partners are also happy to provide you with the following special services:

BDO Cyber Security GmbH

  • Preparation of procedural and security concepts
  • Support in IT security emergency situations

 

BDO DIGITAL GmbH

  • Process documentation
  • Security Enterprise Architecture (sEAM)

 

BDO Technik- und Umweltconsulting GmbH

  • Construction audit and construction process management
  • Technical Compliance Audit
  • ESG - Technical PreCheck

 

Our cooperation partner:

BDO Legal Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH

  • Preparation of contracts, statutes and ecclesiastical laws based on legal and / or tax requirements.


Are you a manager, an employee of a church administration, a religious community, an aid organisation or a non-profit organisation dealing with one of the above-mentioned issues?

Feel free to contact us! We look forward to an initial non-binding exchange of ideas.

 

Contact us!

Christian Salzberger

Christian Salzberger

German Public Auditor, Certified Tax Advisor, Partner, Audit & Assurance
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