2024 Audit Workbook | Audit Guidelines | Audit Planning Form | Submit Audit Results

Dear Rector/Vicar/Priest-in-Charge and Senior Warden,

It is time to turn your attention to the 2024 audit!  As you know, the audit is a requirement of the canons of the Episcopal Church and a good and reasonable business practice.  Every congregation is required to perform some type of audit each year.

Your requirement as clergy in charge (or senior warden) is to determine what type of audit your church will be doing, form an audit committee, and return the attached audit form to communicate this information to the diocese.  The audit planning form is due by April 15, 2025.  Please find and submit the audit planning form online at https://edsd.org/finance/audit/.

Audits must be completed and submitted to the diocese by September 1, 2025.  Please submit all requested documents below.

The diocesan audit guidelines are delineated below. Please note that the guidelines are minimum requirements; any church that is not required to conduct an external audit or external review may do so.  All churches, regardless of audit type, are required to form an audit committee with the following stipulations: Neither the treasurer nor finance committee chair should be on the committee.  Further, the committee should not include more than one member of the finance committee.  It should include at least one vestry/Bishop’s committee member.

The audit instructions and workbook will be available in early February at edsd.org/finance/audit.  It contains the necessary tasks to guide each kind of audit (note external audits sometimes require an additional internal controls questionnaire; see the workbook p. 8 for details).

We recognize that the congregational audit sometimes becomes a tedious and burdensome task. The audit program was designed by the Diocesan Audit Standards Planning Task Force to provide congregational audit committees with a clear step-by-step process which is intended to clarify what is required of them.

Again, please let us know who the members of your audit committee are and what type of audit you are using by April 15, 2025 on the audit planning form online, referenced above.  The final date for submission of the completed audit is September 1, 2025. If there are questions that we can help with, please contact me at jmartinhauk@edsd.org or 619-481-5947.   Harry Jasper, Controller, will be coordinating the audits as last year, and he can be reached at 619-481-5947 and hjasper@edsd.org.

After you have completed the audit, we welcome your comments as to any changes in procedures that you would suggest. Your comments and suggestions will help us plan for next year.

Sincerely,
The Rev. Canon Jeff Martinhauk
Chief Financial Officer
The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego

Audit Workbook

The Audit Workbook for 2023 includes all the necessary information for you to successfully complete your church audit. This document outlines the Audit Terms, Audit Guidelines, External Audit/Audit Review, External Audit Committee Report, Audit Committee, Committee Audit Procedures, and the Audit Committee Report. 

Download the Audit Workbook Here

Audit Guidelines

Approved by Executive Council of The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego December 7, 2013

Please Note:  The diocese only has funding for a limited number of diocesan audits.  We have identified churches that we will be auditing.  If your church is one of those, you will be notified separately.

All churches will conduct an annual audit. A committee audit is required unless a different type of audit is required by the guidelines stipulated below.

Requirements for audits are based on annual revenue. Revenue includes all revenue from church, school, thrift shop or any other parochial organization.

• Churches with revenues greater than $2 million: External audit every other year with external review in every other year
• Churches with revenue between $1.5 and $2 million: External audit every third year with external reviews in intervening years
• Churches with revenue between $1 and $1.5 million: External audit every fourth year with an external review in one of the intervening years and committee audits in the other two years
• Churches with revenue between $500,000 and $1,000,000: External audit or external review every fourth year with diocesan audit in one of the intervening years and committee audits in the other two years
• Churches with revenue under $500,000: Diocesan audit every four years with committee audits in the other three years

In addition, Churches with any of the following are subject to a Diocesan audit:

• Churches must have a diocesan audit for the year in which a rector, vicar, or priest in charge leaves
• During administrative transition (part time clergy, treasurer, church bookkeeper/administrator unless an external audit was done within the last year.)
• Churches that did not submit any audit in the prior year

If your church has been selected for Diocesan audit, your clergy or senior warden will be notified by February 1, 2025.  Otherwise, you will determine which type of audit to perform and notify the diocese by completing the audit planning form at edsd.org/finance/audit.