The Tithe Log Is What Came In. The Year-End Statement Is What the Donor Can Use.

What to record per gift

One row per gift, the day it is counted or the processor posts it. Fields that get used later:

• Date received — when the church took the gift, not when you deposited it or when the processor settled. Those three dates can be different weeks.
• Donor identity — envelope number, household name, or “anonymous / loose plate.” Statements need a name. Unclaimed plate cash stays off them.
• Amount — the gross gift. Processor fees are a church expense, not a smaller tithe, unless a written board policy says otherwise and donors were told.
• Fund — general/tithe, missions, building, benevolence, or a named campaign. Designated money is not operating cash.
• Method — cash, check number, ACH, card, or named giving app. This is how you reconcile the deposit.
• Reference — check number, processor confirmation, or deposit-slip ID. When the bank disagrees with the count, this column finds the missing $20.

Do not store Social Security numbers on this log. IRS Publication 1771 does not require one on the acknowledgment.

Cash, check, and online are not the same pile

Treat them as three inbound streams that must land in one gift log. Mixing the streams is how a week “balances” on paper and still misses the bank.

Cash

Cash has no bank record for the donor. Under IRC section 170(f)(17), a deduction for any monetary gift — including cash — needs a bank record or a written communication from the church showing the church’s name, the date, and the amount (IRS, Substantiating charitable contributions; 26 CFR § 1.170A-15). That is why the church log, and later the year-end statement, matter more for cash than for checks. Internally: two unrelated people count the bag. Record bills and coin separately from checks so a $1 variance is a cash problem, not “the whole offering is off.”

Checks

The donor already has a bank record: canceled check or statement. Log the check number anyway. It is the fastest way to answer “did envelope 142’s $200 clear?” Keep any scan with the week’s count sheet, not in a personal email account.

Online

Online usually posts on a different day than Sunday’s bag. Log the gift when the processor shows it received; reconcile the payout separately. A $500 gift that settles as $485 after fees is still a $500 gift in the donor log and a $15 fee in expenses. Match each payout to the gifts it covers. Do not type the processor’s net deposit into the tithe column.

How to close a giving week

A clean week is five steps. You can do them on paper. A workbook only helps because the totals are formulas.

1. Count. Two people, cash vs. checks vs. coin, both sign. MATCH or VARIANCE. Note a variance the same day.
2. Log gifts. One row per envelope, loose-plate line, check, and online gift for that week. Fund and method on every row.
3. Split by fund. The bag can be one bank deposit. The books cannot mash designated money into “income.”
4. Reconcile to the bank. Cash + checks = deposit slip. Online = processor report. Gift-log total should equal deposit + processor gross (not net), plus any gift you dated into next week on purpose.
5. File the packet. Signed count sheet, deposit receipt, processor export, and a one-line note if anything was off.

Close the week before the next Sunday’s bag arrives. Two open weeks is how missions money gets spent as general fund by accident.

What a year-end statement must say

The church is not filing the donor’s tax return. For any single contribution of $250 or more, IRC section 170(f)(8) disallows the deduction unless the donor has a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the church. IRS Publication 1771 is the plain-language guide (Publication 1771 PDF). A separate acknowledgment may cover each $250+ gift, or one annual summary may cover several. Gifts under $250 are not added together to trip that rule. Send the year-end statement anyway: cash of any size needs a written communication from the church if the donor has no bank record.

Required contents (from Publication 1771)

• The name of the organization.
• The amount of any monetary contribution (or a list of them on an annual summary).
• A description — not a fair-market value — of any noncash property.
• Whether the church provided any goods or services in consideration for the gift.
• If it did, a description and a good-faith estimate of their value.
• If the only benefit was intangible and religious, a statement to that effect (Publication 1771: religious benefits generally not sold commercially outside the donative context — admission to a religious ceremony is the usual example).

There is no IRS form. Letters, postcards, generated statements, and email (26 CFR § 1.170A-15(b)(3)) are acceptable if the content is there. When no dinner tickets were involved:

“No goods or services were provided in exchange for your contribution other than intangible religious benefits.”

Skip that sentence and the acknowledgment can fail even when the totals are right. Put it on the template and leave it there.

When the statement is “contemporaneous”

The donor must have it by the earlier of the date they file the return for that year or the due date of that return, including extensions. That clock is the donor’s. Publication 1771 notes that charities typically send acknowledgments by January 31 of the following year — common practice, not a substitute for the statutory test. If a donor files in February and you mail in March, you were late for that donor.

Quid pro quo is a separate job

If a donor pays more than $75 and receives goods or services of value — a banquet ticket, a concert seat — the church must disclose a good-faith estimate of that value. The deductible amount is the payment minus that value. IRS example: $100 paid, $40 ticket, $60 potentially deductible; disclosure is still required because the payment exceeded $75 (IRS, Quid pro quo contributions). Ordinary tithes with only intangible religious benefits are not this. Do not print “fully deductible” on a gala ticket.

Common reconciliation mistakes

1. Dating the gift to the deposit, not the receipt. A December 31 online gift that settles January 2 is still a prior-year gift if the processor received it in that year. A January 2 check in the bag is a new-year gift even if someone “meant it for last year.” Check-mailbox edges: confirm with a CPA; do not guess from this paragraph.
2. Logging processor net as the tithe. Fees are an expense. Shrink the gift and the statement understates what the donor gave.
3. Folding designated gifts into general fund. Missions, building, and benevolence need a running balance. Restricted money is not the electric bill.
4. One person counting the cash. Dual control is cheap. Reconstructing a missing $80 after the usher left is not.
5. A statement that is only a yearly total, with no goods-or-services sentence. An annual summary can work for $250+ gifts, but it still needs that sentence. Listing each gift is easier when someone asks where December’s check went.
6. Treating pledges as cash. The statement reports gifts received. Label remaining pledge as not a contribution, or omit it.
7. Printing unclaimed plate cash on a named statement because “they always put $20 in.” If you did not identify the gift, leave it off.
8. Mailing in March and calling it done. See contemporaneous, above.

A workbook that holds the log and the totals

You do not need nonprofit ERP for a church that still counts a physical bag. You need a gift log that still adds in April, a fund split a committee can read, and a per-donor total for the statement. Smart Files Shop’s live Church Tithe Tracker Spreadsheet (listing 4533118846, $6.99) is the 11-tab Excel and Google Sheets file for that job: gifts by envelope, fund, and method; expenses; budget vs. actual; designated-fund balances; and contribution-statement totals from the log.

It is a bookkeeping template, not tax software, and not a claim that the printout matches every denomination’s receipt rules. You still put the goods-or-services sentence on the statement you send. Offering count, benevolence, and fundraising files are on the church finance templates page.

FAQ: Tithe tracking and year-end statements