Church cash flow statement template
Build your church's statement of cash flows in Excel: the year's cash in and out, sorted into operating, investing, and financing, and checked against your bank balances. Building-campaign gifts go in financing, not with the offering, and the mortgage payment splits in two.
Inside your free Excel download
- The year's cash in and out in three sections, with a line for each kind of gift and payment a church has
- Separate lines for building-campaign gifts, mortgage interest, and mortgage principal, each in the right section
- Two checks (ending cash matches your bank balances, and cash from operating activities is above zero) and a filled-in sample
Enter each receipt and payment as a positive number on its line. The sheet handles the signs and totals each section.
Build your cash flow statement
Download an editable .xlsx file immediately.
Example Fellowship Church's year in cash
A preview of the workbook. Your download includes the full editable template.
| Year ending June 30, 2026 | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cash from operating activities | 15,250 |
| Cash used in investing activities | (900) |
| Cash from financing activities | 1,000 |
| Net change in cash | 15,350 |
| Cash on June 30, 2026 | 113,050 |
Keep your next step connected
Start with the spreadsheet. When you need your giving, spending, funds, and reports in one ledger, explore Grain.
Building-fund gifts don't go in operating cash
Example Fellowship Church, the sample in the download, raised $14,000 in cash this year for a new parking lot. The gifts came in through the offering plate with everything else. Sort the year the way the accounting standard says, and cash from operating activities comes to $15,250. Count the campaign gifts with the offering, and the same line reads $29,250, almost double.
The rule depends on what the gift is for, not on whether it's restricted. Under ASC 230, the accounting standard for this statement, gifts that donors restrict to buying or building property, or to an endowment, are financing inflows, not operating ones. Every other gift is operating, restricted or not. So the missions offering and the benevolence fund stay in operating, next to the tithes.
One church's operating cash, sorted four ways
When the church spends the campaign money on the parking lot, that payment goes in investing, as a purchase of property and equipment. A pledge counts only when it's paid: the sample church has $6,000 of campaign pledges still to collect, so they aren't on this statement.
The mortgage payment is two lines
The sample church paid $19,800 on its mortgage this year. Under ASC 230, interest is an operating outflow and principal is a financing outflow. So the $6,800 of interest goes in operating, and the $13,000 that paid down the loan goes in financing.
Some churches don't split it in their books, on purpose. A user on the PowerChurch user forum wrote that their church wants to show the whole payment as an expense because "we need people to give for the whole pmt, not just the interest portion." That works for a budget. On the cash flow statement, count the principal as operating too, and the sample church's operating cash falls to $2,250. Move the interest to financing with the principal, and it rises to $22,050. Your lender's statement shows the split for each payment.
Operating cash isn't the general fund
A healthy operating line doesn't mean the general fund is healthy. PwC's guide notes that operating activities on this statement aren't meant to match "operations" on the statement of activities. The line includes the missions and benevolence gifts, and $1,600 of special offerings the church collected and hasn't sent on yet. It leaves out depreciation, because no cash moves.
So the sample church's operating activities brought in a net $15,250 in the same year its general fund fell $6,900. You'll find the $6,900 in the sample on the church balance sheet template, same church and date. Read the two together.
The last line has to be your bank balance
The statement starts with the cash in every bank account on the first day and ends with the cash on the last day, restricted money included. That ending number has to equal your reconciled bank balances, and the template's first check compares them. In the sample, $97,700 plus the year's $15,350 is $113,050, the checking and savings balances on the balance sheet. If yours is off, a receipt or payment is missing, or a transfer between your own accounts got entered as one.
The template lists actual receipts and payments, which is the direct method. Under FASB's ASU 2016-14, nonprofits that use it no longer have to add the indirect reconciliation, a second schedule that starts from the change in net assets. So you can skip it.
If you'd rather not sort gifts by hand
The hard part of this template is the sorting: going back through a year of deposits to find which gifts were for the building. In Grain, you map your Planning Center or Pushpay funds once, and every gift lands on the right fund and income lines as it syncs. The parking lot gifts sit in their own fund, apart from the tithes. Grain produces the Statement of Cash Flows, the Balance Sheet, and the Statement of Activities from those books. Starter is free for churches with up to $20,000 a month in expenses. See church financial reports in Grain.
For what each fund holds on one date, use the church balance sheet template. For the month against budget, use the church financial report template.
Frequently asked questions
Does a small church need a cash flow statement?
We haven't found a rule that says a small church must prepare one. The Free Methodist Church in Canada's treasurer's guide recommends it for larger churches, to see whether there's enough cash to pay current expenses. It's worth preparing whenever your board asks why the bank balance moved.
Where does money moved into a board-designated reserve go?
Nowhere on this statement. Setting money aside for a roof or a reserve moves no cash in or out. The reserve shows on the balance sheet, as board-designated net assets.