Do financial statements have to be prepared by an accountant?

Do financial statements have to be prepared by an accountant?
We often hear from churches that they have been told by a bank that they have to submit accountant prepared and even audited financial statements in order for the loan to even be reviewed. Having financial statements prepared by an accountant is time consuming and expensive and frustrating if the lender ends up saying no for something that they could have determined by reviewing the church loan request with internally prepared financial statements.

Generally, if a lender is telling you that your statements have to be prepared by an accountant for them to even look at the loan this is a pretty good sign they do not close a lot of church loans and probably are looking for a polite reason to turn you away.

We take a different approach; we will review your financial statements and tell you how much your church will qualify to borrow. If the statements will not be accepted by underwriting you will be able to determine if it is worth moving forward at that point based on whether we believe we can provide the financing or not. In many cases we do not need financials statements to be prepared by an accountant. If the church is well organized and their financial statements are in order we can generally use internally prepared statements, saving the church time and money.