Money & Mission

By Paul Goodyear, Territorial Financial Secretary

The world is changing at a dizzying pace. The speed of technological advancement is increasing exponentially with each passing year. The purveyors of doom and gloom predict that many of today’s jobs will disappear in our lifetime.

Those of us who work in business and finance roles will find that many jobs in our industries will be easy pickings for machine intelligence. Machines will be able to perform many of today’s tasks faster, more accurately and cheaper than humans can.

That does not mean that there is no future for accountants and others in business and finance roles, but the way in which we perform these jobs will change drastically in the next few years.

Lifelong learning as a deeply held personal value will ensure that we can face the changes ahead and be successful. In this new world, the degree program you completed in your twenties and the accounting designation you achieved early in your career will be less indicative of your potential to be successful in this new world than the books you have read in the last six months, the webinars you’ve participated in, the conferences you’ve attended and the podcasts you’ve heard.

In the past two months, have you followed up on any of the learning opportunities referred to by Arnold Adey in his article “Finance Department Training” in the February 6, 2019 issue of Money & Mission?

For anyone who wants to avoid being left behind, the message is simple: become a lifelong learner, and start today!

By Lt.-Colonel Fred Waters, Secretary for Business Administration

It has been the intention for a number of years to move the territory to establish a procurement office to take advantage of our buying power as a whole. Over the coming months the business department will be finally opening up an initial desk with the intention of beginning the process.

We’ve all been the witness to the power of bulk buying, but typically it’s the supplier or retailer who is setting the parameters. Procurement simply allows us to be in the driver’s seat. Do you know what our single biggest purchase is? If you think it’s food you are right. We buy millions of dollars of food for our institutions, our camps, our CFS offices and more. But we’re buying as individual ministry units for the most part and therefore only getting as good a deal as is related to our relationship or bulk allows.

And then there’s cleaning supplies, paper, office supplies. What would you add to the list?

We have actually been the victim of sales people who have taken advantage of our network and who go from office to office selling at a higher cost to us while suggesting that they are giving us the very best deal. This is simply not true and even if we are getting an extraordinary price, we can do better if we work together.

Procurement will reduce our costs and has the potential if we work together of saving us millions of dollars. It will mean however some compromise. Getting what you have always had from the supplier you’ve always used is likely going to change.

In a world of tight budgets, changing funding and increasing public scrutiny we believe this next step in our ministry journey is timely and needful. Your comments or questions are welcome.

By Patricia O’Malley, Audit Committee Chair

This is the second article highlighting items considered at recent Audit Committee meetings. The February 2019 agenda included the following topics:

• Arrangements for the Committee to fulfill the requirement in its mandate to review charitable information returns. A process for selecting a sample of returns for review was agreed upon.

• As part of KPMG’s required procedures, the Committee is specifically asked about known or suspected instances of fraud and whether, to our knowledge, TSA is in compliance with relevant laws and regulations. The Committee discussed draft reports prepared by financial management and Internal Audit intended to support our answers to these questions.

• The Committee approved a questionnaire for evaluating KPMG’s performance, to support its recommendation to the Governing Council on appointment of the external auditor.

• KPMG reported on the results of their interim audit work to date on the year ending March 31, 2019 and provided an update on work to reduce or eliminate the existing reservation in their opinion on the completeness of donation revenue.

• Lt-Col Waters’ report to the Governing Council provided an update on the results of the compliance review of cash management and charitable receipting procedures. The Committee noted that some Divisions were concerned that their ministry units were not being visited by Internal Audit on a timely basis, particularly when critical follow-up audits were deferred.

• Internal Audit reported on the status of its 2018/19 program. Some audits were not complete and a number of responses to audit findings were not yet due to be received. The Committee also reviewed the plan to recruit new auditors to increase capacity and skills in Internal Audit over the next three years. The plan for the 2019/20 internal audit program will be circulated some time in advance of the Committee’s June meeting so that the plan can be approved shortly after the program year starts.

• The Committee received an informative presentation on the size and scope of TSA’s social services programs from Major Glenda Davis, Territorial Social Services Secretary. This material significantly enhanced external members’ understanding of and appreciation for the work of TSA in this area.

By Justin Yantha, Director of Financial Reporting

This is the fourth and final of a series of articles on reports produced by Agresso. It focusses on the Special Events Report, which is available under the Information Pages, Ministry Units Reports section.

This report allows ministry units that have a special event such as a toy drive or charity breakfast, that they want to segregate out of their normal operations to have a snapshot of the event’s financial result. The report enables a unit to view a specific event by entering an individual four digit code, or all special events in the unit by leaving the special event parameter blank. The example below shows a report layout with two special event codes.

We hope you have found this series on special Agresso-produced reports helpful. If you have any comments or suggestions for future reports, please contact me at justin_yantha@can.salvationarmy.org.

I Corinthians 13: 3 “What if I gave away all that I owned and let myself be burned alive? I would gain nothing unless I loved others.”

2 Overlea Blvd
Toronto, ON M4H 1P4
(416) 425.2111 ext. 2237

116 - 276 Midpark Way SE
Calgary AB T2X 1J6
(403) 201.9223

101 - 85 Thorburn Rd
St. John's NL A1B 3M2
(709) 579.3919

Please click here for back issues of Money & Mission, to see our index by topic or to find a printable version.

For more information about the Finance Department, please visit http://salvationist.ca/departments/finance/

To subscribe:

Please click on the orange "Follow Money & Mission" button and enter your name and email address. You will then be added to our mailing list.

To unsubscribe, please click on the green "Contact Money & Mission" button and send a message saying "unsubscribe".

Managing Editor:

Alister Mason
Senior Editor:

Paul Goodyear
Design Editor & Production Manager:
Angela Robertson
French Translator:

The Salvation Army Translation Department