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insufficient data is available to make serious appraisal feasible,
or which were appraised and found to have only limited potential for
Church financial management.
3.5.5.1
The probables
(i) Budgeting and the management of cash flow so as to
optimise the availability of working capital and minimise
the need for short term borrowing - a need well recognised
at diocesan level but probably not so - or not sufficiently
so - at the parochial.
(ii) Capital investment appraisal, specifically with reference
to church reconstruction.
(iii) Investment of parochial funds so as to minimise the
number of bank accounts involved and maximise interest
received.
(iv) The concepts of cost benefit analysis and the economic
theories of increasing and diminishing returns,
specifically with reference to the deployment of clergy,
new church development, and redundant church closure.
(v) Standardisation of parochial accounting systems -
essential in theory but difficult in practice.
3.5.5.2
The possibles
(i) Inflation accounting which, after consideration, appears
to be of limited value, but if the present 'official'
encouragement continues it is foreseeable that the General
Synod may adopt such a policy and by implication expect
dioceses to do likewise - against such an eventuality the
Bradford Diocese might find to it useful to have a retained
consultant available.
