The financial staff at Faith Assembly of God in Orlando, FL, used to dread processing their year-end contribution statements and with good reason. This megachurch with almost 4,000 in weekly attendance would have to take days out of their schedule to print out the contribution statements, fold and stuff them into envelopes, prepare the statements for bulk mailing, and then deliver them to the post office. Carole Suddeth, the chief financial officer at Faith Assembly, knew there had to be an easier way to get their statements processed. So, she decided to turn to Faith Assembly’s technology solution partner of 18 years, ACS Technologies, to get the help they needed.

Year-End Burden
Carole shares, "Since we have a large congregation, we print thousands of statements—during some years as many as 10,000. We could only use our financial staff to print, fold, and stuff them due to the sensitive information they contained, so the process would take days to complete. The printer would jam or shut down so you had to baby-sit it to make certain all the statements were printed. Once you printed all the statements, they had to be folded and stuffed into envelopes. And even though you printed in zip code order, you had to separate the ones that had multiple pages because the postage could be different. Then, you had to seal them, prepare them for bulk mailing (counting each batch) and take all the statements to the post office for mailing."

Solution Provided
"While attending an ACS National Convention, I spoke with Libby Dorn, a member of the ACS Central Services Support Staff. Libby was very thorough in explaining what ACS Fulfillment Services was designed to do," states Carole.

"Fulfillment Services handles a church’s charitable contribution reports and financial statements on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis," explains Libby. "Clients simply create a search within their database and email the file to Fulfillment Services. Once we receive the file, the church is done with their part. Then, we send the file to a print house where the statements are printed, stuffed, and mailed out to the church’s attendees on behalf of our clients."

Time and Money Saved
Carole continues, "The biggest benefit of using Fulfillment Services is the ease in knowing that the project was being done quickly and efficiently. The financial savings are a big plus as well—we saved hundreds of dollars by switching to Fulfillment Services. If you calculate the cost of purchasing the statements and envelopes, the toner to print the statements, the man hours to print, fold, sort, seal, and transport them to the post office, and then multiply that by your hourly wage, employer’s FICA, and worker’s compensation premiums, and add in your mileage reimbursement to the post office and back, you save money PLUS the time to do all of this!"

"This last year, I processed the file, emailed it, and received my own statement at my home eight days after I emailed the file to ACS," says Carole. "There were many years that it took almost that entire amount of time to process and get them to the post office. Then, it would take awhile to get caught up with the work that was put aside while we processed the statements. Of course, with it being year-end, we didn’t have any time to spare so we ALL dreaded statements in January! We have been able to use our finance staff in other realms instead of printing statements during our busiest season. Knowing that all we had to do was complete the contribution postings for the year and email a file was so wonderful! We wish all of our year-end procedures were just as easy," Carole states.

Additional Benefits "Fulfillment Services has freed up our personnel to do other things," Carole continues. "If we wanted to start sending statements out on a quarterly basis when we begin our Capital Campaign, it will not require additional man hours to get the job done. This would be helpful in acquiring future donations during this campaign."

"The people in Fulfillment Services have always been very helpful," adds Carole, "even when we make mistakes uploading our files. The first year that we used Fulfillment Services, we created an incorrect search and the data we transmitted to Fulfillment Services was wrong. Libby helped us determine the issue and correct it. The next year, we had no problems at all. The process has become so smooth and easy that it makes me wonder why we didn’t switch sooner."

Libby states, "I help Carole with her file upload and make sure it’s in the right format along with complete comments. I also help her order her forms and supplies for the coming tax year. No matter her question or concerns, I try to get an answer for her or direct her to the appropriate person that has the knowledge of what she needs."

Peace of Mind
Carole continues, "I can’t say enough about Fulfillment Services and the peace of mind that it gives us during our busiest time of year in Faith Assembly’s finance department. I try to speak with Libby at every convention to see what new products and services are available in her department. We can always trust ACS to get the job done in a professional and timely manner. I have used ACS for almost 15 years, and the company seems to be growing as quickly as the technology does! I feel that ACS is a great product, and if I find a tool that saves me both time and money, I jump on it. I am a big advocate of ACS and all the products and services they offer."

ACS Technologies Products and Services Used
People Suite: People, Contributions, Connections, Checkpoint, Attendance, Reservations, Access ACS
Financial Suite: General Ledger, Payroll, Fixed Assets, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Purchase Orders
Growth Suite: Facility Scheduler, Volunteer Manager, Report Designer, Ministry Scheduler, MAX It!, CASS It!
Services: Network/Multi-user, Small Business Multi-User, Fulfillment Services

About Faith Assembly of God
Our Mission is to exalt Jesus Christ; to share the truth of the gospel with the lost in our community and the world and to diligently disciple believers while graciously serving all who encounter our ministry.
Web Site: faithassembly.org

To learn how Fulfillment Services can save you money and free up your personnel, visit acstechnologies.com/services/fulfillment or call 800.669.2509. We have sales consultants standing by to help you.

ACS Technologies Group, Inc.
ACS Technologies designs desktop and Web-based software solutions that help over 50,000 faith-based organizations manage their information better. We have been dedicated to serving churches, schools, and other organizations since 1978. To discover how we can further help meet your needs, call us today at 800.736.7425.