Church Administrator Duties and Job Description

A church administrator runs the church's operations: the office and records, the calendar and communications, the building and vendors, staff paperwork, and the day-to-day money work like bills, payroll and giving records. The treasurer and finance committee oversee that money, and no one person should count, record and reconcile the same dollars.

What church administration covers

Church administration is the business side of running a church. The administrator does that work every week, so the pastors don't have to. Here's what it looks like, area by area.

Area	What the administrator does
Office and membership records	Answers phones and email, keeps the membership database current in the church management system (ChMS), orders supplies, files board minutes and official records
Communications and calendar	Puts together the bulletin and newsletter, updates the website, keeps the master calendar so two groups don't book the same room
Building and vendors	Schedules upkeep and repairs, manages the cleaning, landscaping and security contracts, renews the church's insurance
Staff and volunteers	Handles new-hire paperwork (including a Form I-9 for every hire), keeps personnel files private, schedules volunteers and runs background checks for anyone working with children
Money	Records gifts to the right fund, enters bills for approval and pays them, runs payroll, prepares the monthly report for the board

Most of that list looks the same at every church. The money row is where problems start, and it's the one part of the job where someone else has to check the administrator's work.

Who does what with the money

The administrator usually does the money work, and the treasurer and finance committee check it. The United Methodist Church's General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) recommends two rules that work for any church. The offering is counted by two or more people, "unrelated to each other," who are neither the treasurer nor the financial secretary. And accounts are reconciled "at least monthly by someone other than the preparer."

Task	Who does it	Who checks it
Count the offering	Two or more unrelated counters, not the treasurer or financial secretary	The treasurer gets a copy of the count
Deposit it	The counters or the administrator, the same or next business day	The treasurer, against the count
Record gifts to their funds	The administrator or financial secretary	The treasurer, against the deposit
Enter and pay bills	The administrator	The treasurer or a pastor approves each bill before it's paid
Run payroll	The administrator or a payroll service	The treasurer reviews the payroll register
Reconcile the bank accounts	Someone who didn't record the deposits, at least monthly	Someone outside the treasurer and financial secretary, quarterly or at least twice a year
Report to the board	The administrator prepares the monthly report	The treasurer presents it, and the finance committee reviews it

GCFA's guide covers the counting, the same-or-next-day deposit, the treasurer's review of the count and deposit, and the reconciliation. Who deposits and records the gifts, and the bill, payroll and report rows, are how we'd set it up, and your bylaws or denomination may assign them differently.

In a small church, the administrator is often the financial secretary too, or the treasurer keeps the books. That can work if you add one check: someone who didn't do the work reviews the bank reconciliation each month and signs off on it. More on the controls in segregation of duties, and on the other two roles in church treasurer responsibilities and finance committee responsibilities.

The administrator's calendar

Most of the job runs on a weekly loop, and the federal deadlines cluster in January. Here's the year, with who owns each task.

When	Task	Owner
Weekly	Deposit the offering the same or next business day	Counters or administrator
Weekly	Record gifts to their funds and enter the week's bills for approval	Administrator
Weekly	Bulletin, calendar, room bookings and volunteer schedules	Administrator
Every payday	Run payroll	Administrator or payroll service
Monthly	Reconcile every bank account	Someone who didn't record the deposits
Monthly	Close the month: budget vs. actual and fund balances for the board	Administrator prepares, treasurer presents
Quarterly	File Form 941 by April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31	Administrator or payroll service
Quarterly	Second-person review of the reconciliations	A third party the finance committee designates
Before the first paycheck of the year	Board sets each minister's housing allowance as a dollar amount	Board, recorded in the minutes by the administrator
By January 31	Annual giving statements to donors	Administrator
By January 31	W-2s to employees and the Social Security Administration; 1099-NEC forms to contractors and the IRS	Administrator or payroll service

For the monthly close, the month-end checklist and the financial report template give you the steps and the board report.

The year-end rows have details that trip people up:

January 31 moves to the next business day when it falls on a weekend. For 2026 forms, the W-2 deadline is February 1, 2027.
Giving statements. A donor can't deduct a single gift of $250 or more without a written acknowledgment from the church, and weekly offerings under $250 aren't added together. One annual statement can cover several gifts, and IRS Publication 1771 says charities typically send it by January 31. If a donor got something back for a gift over $75, such as a dinner ticket, that gift needs a disclosure statement too. See church giving statements for what to include.
Housing allowance. The minutes, the budget or the minister's contract all work, as long as the amount is set before it's paid. If none of the salary was designated, all of it is taxable income for the minister.
No Form 990. Churches don't file one, so the year-end report goes to your board and congregation, not the IRS.

What a part-time administrator should keep, and what to hand off

Larger churches may hire a full-time administrator, and smaller and mid-sized churches may hire part-time staff. With fewer hours, keep the work that has to happen in the church office every week and hand off the work that's specialized or comes up a few times a year.

Keep:

Phones, email and the calendar
Recording gifts and entering bills
The bulletin and room bookings
The monthly report for the board

Hand off:

Payroll, the quarterly 941s and the W-2s, to a payroll service or payroll software that files them
Building projects, to a facilities volunteer or a deacon
Volunteer scheduling, to each ministry's leader in the ChMS
The year-end report to the congregation, to the treasurer

Church administrator vs. secretary vs. treasurer

A church secretary runs the front desk: phones, email, the bulletin and visitors. An administrator runs operations, often supervises the secretary, and is responsible for the building, staff paperwork and the money work. In a small church, one person often does both jobs under either title.

The treasurer oversees the money the administrator handles and reports on it to the board.

Skills a church administrator needs

Organization. The same week can hold a payroll run, a broken boiler and a wedding rehearsal.
Discretion. The administrator sees salaries, giving records and private pastoral matters.
Bookkeeping basics. What a restricted fund is, how a bank reconciliation works, and how to read a budget vs. actual report. Fund accounting for churches explains restricted funds.
Comfort with the church's software. The ChMS, the giving platform and the accounting system.
Plain writing. A board member should understand the monthly report the first time through.

A church administrator job description you can copy

Paste this into your own document and fill in the bracketed parts.

Church Administrator, [Church name]

Reports to: the senior pastor for day-to-day work, and the treasurer for financial work

Hours: [__] hours a week

Summary: Runs the church office and operations so the pastors can focus on ministry. Handles the day-to-day financial work under the oversight of the treasurer and the finance committee.

Responsibilities:

Office: answer phones and email, keep membership records current in [ChMS], order supplies, file board minutes and official records.
Communications: prepare the weekly bulletin and newsletter, update the website, keep the master calendar and room bookings.
Building: schedule maintenance and repairs, manage vendor contracts, keep the church's insurance current.
Staff and volunteers: complete new-hire paperwork, keep personnel files confidential, coordinate volunteer schedules and background checks.
Finance: record gifts to the right fund, enter bills for approval and pay approved bills, run payroll or work with the payroll service, prepare the monthly financial report for the treasurer, send annual giving statements by January 31.
Not part of this role: counting the offering, or reconciling the bank accounts this role records. Those belong to the counting team and [name or role].

Qualifications:

[2+] years of office administration or bookkeeping experience
Working knowledge of fund accounting and bank reconciliation
Experience with church management and accounting software
Discretion with confidential financial and personal information
[Membership or statement-of-faith requirement, if your church has one]

Where Grain fits

Grain is church fund accounting software, and it covers the money row of this job. Gifts sync into their funds from Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS or Subsplash, so nobody retypes the giving report. Bills go through approval before they're paid, so your approval policy lives in the software instead of in someone's memory. The payroll add-on ($50 a month plus $10 per employee) handles the 941s and W-2s and splits each paycheck across funds. Starter is free for churches with up to $20,000 in monthly expenses. Here's how church administrators use Grain.

Frequently asked questions

Does the church withhold Social Security and Medicare from the pastor's pay?

Not on pay for ministry work. The minister pays self-employment tax on it instead, unless they've applied for and received an exemption. Churches also aren't liable for federal unemployment tax (FUTA).