Statistical Reporting for 2018 is READY and AVAILABLE!

Statistical Reporting for 2018 is READY and AVAILABLE!
To Our Local Church Pastors, Treasurers, and Membership Secretaries:
 
The GCFA/Western North Carolina Conference statistical system opened on January 2, 2019 and is now available for input of 2018 information.  All statistical information must be entered and complete by Thursday, January 31, 2019.  In order to access the system, you can do so in the following manner:
 

• Access http://ezra.gcfa.org to connect to the statistical system login screen.
• Usernames have been assigned to each church as in the past.  Two usernames are available to each church based on the church’s six-digit GCFA number, appended with the letter “p” for the pastor or with the letter “o” for office or other.  For example, a pastor’s username would be 242697p or the office username would be 242697o.  The initial password for each username is stats@2018.  Upon access, you will be asked to change the password before moving forward.  (Other information will be requested; simply follow the prompts for the contact information to be included.)  Once completed, you will be taken to the Statistics Home page.
• The video completed for the 2017 Year End Report is still very applicable- just ignore the references to “2017” and instead, think of “2018.”  The video is located on the conference website.

 
Once you have accessed the system, a Church User’s Guide (updated to highlight some of the changes in the program) and Instructions for each of the lines of the Tables can be found on the Reports page.  Additionally, a comparison of the forms from the previous quadrennium and this quadrennium is also included here.  There is also a FAQ document located for some of your questions, as well as a summary listing of common expenses and the line to which they should be assigned. 
 
A few comments to remember for the 2018 reporting year as we are in a new quadrennium:
 

• GCFA has asked that all information be collected for all church types – Chartered, Mission, New Church Starts (Unchartered) or Satellites.  Radio buttons are included on the Church Info page to indicate your status if other than Chartered.  Satellites or campuses of existing chartered churches which do not have their own GCFA number – whether designated as new starts or not – should be included in the reporting of the lead or main church.
• Information should be gathered from the appropriate persons and sources, verified for accuracy.  Once again, we are requiring the Pastor-in-charge, the Lay Leader and the Treasurer to sign and return by paper Supplement Two, verifying they have reviewed and do attest to the accuracy of the information in all three tables and the two supplements to the best of their knowledge.
• All information reported should reconcile to information held by the church – whether membership, attendance, or financial records.  If computerized membership records are maintained, the information provided should reconcile to that listing.  Financial records should be able to be reconciled to those year-end financial statements completed and audited at the local church. 
• Certain items such as pension and health benefit payments, conference and district apportionments, Special Sunday offerings, and General and Conference Advance specials will be prepopulated from our Conference reports based on your remittances over the course of the year 2018.  These will not appear until the Tables are printed.  This upload is expected to take place by January 17, 2019.  You will be notified via the message board on the welcome screen of Ezra when this has occurred.  Please don’t submit prior to this upload being accomplished.  No changes should be made to these amounts once these have been populated.
• Line numbering is preserved from 2017 into 2018 for this quadrenium reporting.  It is hoped we have made the format simpler and easier to use.
• Notice Table I, lines 2a and 2b- Professions of Faith are segmented between “Through Confirmation” and “Other than Through Confirmation.”
• Line 7a has been added for “On-Line Worship Attendance.”  Please do not include any on-line attendance on line 7.  Line 7 should only include in person attendance.
• Notice the new requirements for line 21 for community ministries.
• You will notice new items for line 16- 16a and 16b.  These were just added and will be used by our WNCC Board of Laity.
• It is important that all church tangible property (land, buildings and equipment) be included in Table II, question 24.  We have noted that parsonage and parsonage-related assets may not have been included in this line in the past by several of our churches.  Please verify that these have been and continue to be reported in question 24.
• The system is designed to review for certain variances and validations once the “Save” button has been pushed.  Should any variances or validations be noted in read, it is critical to include comments regarding the propriety of the variance or review the information for its accuracy to clear the variance or validation error.  Submissions will not be considered complete unless these variances or validations are cleared or contained comments/explanations.
• You will be required to enter a valid EIN before submitting.
• Please take extra care for the accuracy of the information provided.  This information will be utilized to calculate and apportion the Conference and district budgets in the coming year.  If changes are noted following submission, please make your district and Conference office aware of the changes.  No changes can be made to the information subsequent to July 31, 2019 as apportionments will have been set at that time for the calendar year 2020.

 
If you have any questions regarding the system and its input, please do not hesitate to contact your District Administrators (the treasure trove of information) or myself at the Conference Treasury Services office.
 
R. Mark King
Conference Statistician