Running a church involves much more than bringing people closer to God. It takes time and effort to help each person, and there are administrative duties-including church inventory management-that need to be seen. The good news is that with the right church inventory management software, you can quickly and efficiently get the job done, which gives you more time to focus on your congregation.
How to Run a Church Inventory
Churches face a unique challenge when managing an inventory. Not only do you need to track and maintain your physical items, but you also need to keep track of the people in your congregation-their skills, needs, and whether or not they’re willing to serve. A faithful member of your church who is willing to donate their time to help with maintenance or management is an invaluable asset.
Physical Items
Start your inventory by focusing on your equipment, rather than supplies. Your equipment is anything you need to run and maintain your church. This can be everything from chairs and tables to your AV system.
Supplies are short-term materials meant to be used and then purchased again. If you are struggling to determine if something is a piece of equipment or a supply, consider how long you can use it before you have to purchase more. Equipment lasts several years. Supplies are used up within a year.
With each item, you should track not only the description of it, but the serial number (if available), the date you purchased it, and the initial value. These are important for insurance reasons in case they are stolen or damaged. A rigorous inventory can also help you file taxes and can be a powerful tool in case of an external audit. In other words, this database can help your church be better stewards.
To ensure you don’t double inventory items, and that nothing is forgotten, consider barcoding your inventory. Placing barcodes can make it possible to track items through your church inventory management software, like Flex GTS.
Inventory of Skills
A church is much more than its tangible goods, so being able to track and maintain an inventory of the skills and people who are part of your congregation is equally important (if not moreso). For each person in your congregation, you should know:
- Their full name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- If they are willing to serve or donate time
- Their availability
- Any gifts or special skills they have
Once you have a digital database and inventory of the people in your congregation, it can make organizing service activities easier, and can enable you to share the load of service among your entire congregation instead of constantly calling on the same few you know the best.
Use Flex Gear Tracking Solution (GTS)
Flex GTS is specifically designed to help you track and manage critical assets. This gives you the power to maintain tight control over your resources, while keeping them accessible and easy to manage. Here are just a few ways Flex GTS is built to help you manage your church’s assets.
Free Support
Your subscription to Flex GTS comes with reliable and friendly technical support. That means you don’t have to be a tech genius to manage it. If something goes wrong, our team is ready to help you resolve the problem. We know you have better things to worry about than tech support, after all.
Unlimited Users
Churches have a unique asset other organizations don’t have to manage: volunteers. From year to year, there can be a drastic change in who is willing or able to volunteer to serve alongside church leadership. That’s why we offer unlimited users. You never have to pay for new users, and it’s easy to add newcomers to the system.
Automatic Data Backup
Flex GTS takes away the worry and stress from your inventory management and lets you be confident that your information will always be ready and accessible for you. Your information is automatically backed up daily, so even in the direst emergency, you’re only going to be missing the past 24 hours.
Cloud-Based
You need to be able to know where your assets are when you need them. Having to constantly go back to your office, logon to your account, and then find what you’re looking for is a burdensome waste of time.
With Flex GTS, we make it easy to track and check your inventory from any location by making the entire program cloud-based. That means you can access your system from anywhere and on any device.
More than Just Asset Management
Flex GTS provides you with management software that goes well beyond assets and inventory. It gives you the tools you need to succeed.
Task Management
As your church grows, your “to-do” list only gets longer and longer, and you can’t do it alone. You have to be able to delegate responsibilities within your organization, and Flex GTS can give you that power. It lets you assign, track, and manage tasks to any of the users in your system. This helps you keep track of what is happening and keep the rest of your church running smoothly.
Contact Management
Is it easy for you to send an announcement to your entire congregation? Do you have to sift through stacks of cards or a tattered planner to find the contact information for the contractor you trust?
Flex GTS solves the headache of lost and mismanaged contacts and puts all contact information in a central, easy-to-access location. This makes it easy to find who you are looking for and contact them right away.
Maintenance Tracking
The best way to make sure you get the most from your equipment is through regular maintenance. It can be easy to overlook or forget a piece of maintenance, but that’s where Flex GTS can help. We make it easy to never forget scheduled maintenance while also being able to track and view any item’s maintenance history.
Schedule Your Demo Today
Find out how Flex GTS can help you be a better steward of the resources God has entrusted you with by scheduling your church inventory management software demo today.
