Finance
Newsletter
Previous Editions
New staff in Finance – You Can Help Make Their Adjustment Smooth.
We have several new staff who have just come on board.
Particularly with the new staff in Accounts Payable who are beginning to process AP requests, it is very helpful to them–and therefore to you–if you use the correct forms and properly fill them out completely. We’re talking especially about Expense Reimbursement forms, Payment Request forms, and Bank Information forms. Extra descriptions are better than not enough during this training & transition period for our new staff. Thank you for your assistance.
Open Enrollment starts in 10 days! – here are some things to keep in mind.
Remember that WorldVenture’s long-term disability (LTD) insurance is changing with this Open Enrollment. Please make sure you’ve read the announcements related to this transition and know what you need to know about that.
Remember also that you may now change your voluntary retirement contribution to Envoy at any time–not just during Open Enrollment–but that this can only be done through Envoy. Do not contact WV about Envoy changes since this amount is no longer in your budget. However, note that Open Enrollment may be an ideal time to make Envoy adjustments, since changes there will affect your net salary, and so you will likely want to also adjust your salary to compensate for that.
This newsletter is also published on the GMC for future reference. We know that you have much going on and that keeping up with what is happening in Finance may be another item on a never-ending task list. Thank you in advance for taking some time to read these announcements and for the important work that you do every day. Our hope with sending you this information is not that you become an expert in WV financial matters, but that you are informed of changes that impact you directly, and that you know where to turn if you need help. It is our pleasure to serve alongside you!
New Tax Accountant!
Please take special note of the last article in this newsletter announcing our new tax preparer, Village Tax Services. These folks, led by Loren Gill, will replace Lois Huston in preparing your tax returns and answering your tax questions.
New Finance Personnel
WorldVenture has hired a new Financial Services Specialist to better serve you and your donors. Robin Hall is joining the Finance team. You might pray for her as she climbs the steep learning curve of understanding all things WV finance.
Even more recently, WorldVenture found a new Assistant Treasurer to replace Fabian, who as you know stepped up into the Treasurer role in July. You should have received an email announcement introducing Reda Edelen.
Personnel Departure
We are sorry to have to say goodbye to Madeline Shanley. Madeline has served us all in the Accounts Receivable department (“Receipting”) since 2019. She has accepted a promotion to full-time Mom!
Change to LTD benefit
You should have received an email from HR describing the change to WorldVenture’s long-term disability (LTD) insurance coverage. Please read that carefully, and let us know if you have any questions. Note that you will need to specifically enroll in the new LTD insurance policy during Open Enrollment if you want to maintain this benefit.
Please send us any feedback. We want this tool to be as useful to you as possible. Email us at FinanceHelp@worldventure.com.
Soraya Marin – VP/Chief Operations Officer
Fabian Perea – Treasurer
Reda Edelen – Assistant Treasurer
Luke Oravec – Deputy Treasurer (part-time)
Christina Segura – Senior Staff Accountant, Europe/MENA & Americas
Dan Penney – Staff Accountant, Africa & Asia
Kriss Reese – Financial Services Manager
Mary Ackermann – Financial Services Specialist
Becky Binuya – Financial Services Specialist
Renee Chase – Financial Services Specialist
Robin Hall – (New!) Financial Services Specialist
Announcement to expect inaccurate USF balances under certain conditions (Fabian Perea, July 18, 2024)
In the next couple of months, we will be doing some weekly maintenance in our system as we prepare for our annual audit. This weekly maintenance is scheduled from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Mountain Daylight Time (GMT-6), and will occur every Friday from July 19th through September 6th, 2024.
During those hours, your GMC Statement reports may not be accurate. We apologize for this inconvenience, but wanted to let you know about this and that reporting inconsistencies are expected during those hours.
Should you have questions about your funds and the related reports outside of the maintenance times, please do not hesitate to contact the Finance department at financehelp@worldventure.com.
Finance survey results (Luke Oravec, August 12, 2024)
Thank you for your recent participation in the “Three-Question Finance Survey (estimated time to complete, 5 minutes)”
If you are interested in seeing the results, please click the link below:
UPDATE, 8/12/2024 – please the attachment in the thread below for the survey results.
Have you heard about the benefit uniquely for Global Workers called “transition allowance?” We get so few requests for transition allowance that we suspect many of you are unaware of this benefit, so here’s the scoop.
What Is It?
Transition allowance is a special bonus to help defray the extra costs of relocating from the field to the US for home assignments. Like other bonuses, it is a compensatory payment, meaning that it is not a reimbursement but rather additional compensation which is taxed and will be included on your W2 at the end of the year.
How Much Is It?
The amount of transition allowance you are eligible for depends on two factors. One is your family status—family, couple, or single. The other is the amount of time you’ve been continuously on the field since your last home assignment. You take the appropriate family status rate and multiply that by the number of full months since your last home assignment (up to a maximum of 4 years, or 48 months). Here are the family status rates:
For instance, let’s say your term has been 3 years. In other words, you’re returning to the US for a home assignment and it will have been 36 full months since you left the US at the end of your last home assignment. If you’re a couple, multiply $25 by 36 months to get $900.00. In this example, you may request up to $900 in Transition Allowance from your USF to assist you with the costs of transitioning back to the US. (Or you could use it for reprovisioning in preparation for your next term on the field. The funds are personal, so you can use them for whatever you want and no accounting for them is necessary.)
How Do I Get It?
Just ask! No form needed (isn’t that refreshing?). Simply send an email to FinanceHelp@worldventure.com requesting transition allowance. If you do not want the maximum allowed, please indicate the specific amount you would like. You may do this shortly before or after your return to the US for home assignment. We will include this with your next paycheck unless you specify a different bank account for these funds.
Nice, huh?
This is another in our series answering the questions we get most often. Unfortunately, it’s not a simple yes or no answer. There are multiple layers to it. We will deal with a couple layers in this article, but note that this is part 1 of 2 for this topic. We will publish part 2 in a future issue of the newsletter.
The “No” part
The first layer to part 1 of the answer is that WorldVenture does not reimburse the cost of leased vehicles, even if the vehicle is used exclusively for ministry purposes. Although it might not seem related, the reason is the same as the rationale for not allowing mission-owned vehicles on Home Assignment. Home Assignment vehicles must be personally owned (although you can get a no-interest loan from WorldVenture to help you purchase one).
It’s mainly a question of liability. By policy, WorldVenture does not take on the maintenance and insurance liabilities involved in vehicle ownership within the United States. WorldVenture sold all its HQ vehicles years ago and no longer owns any vehicles in the US. Most vehicle leases are similar to ownership in that they ascribe all the responsibilities of maintaining the vehicle to the lessee. This is in direct contrast to a car rental contract, where the maintenance of the vehicle remains the responsibility of the vehicle’s owner—i.e., the rental company. For the same reason that WorldVenture does not allow a Global Worker to have a mission-owned vehicle on Home Assignment, we do not allow reimbursement of vehicle leases, regardless of the usage of the vehicle. Note, however, that ministry mileage put on a leased vehicle is reimbursable, just as it is with a personally owned vehicle.
The “Yes” part
The second layer to the answer is that, in contrast to leased vehicles, WorldVenture does reimburse the cost of rented cars, provided the primary use of the rented vehicle is for ministry purposes.
Another Thing to Keep in Mind
Note that in distinguishing a vehicle lease from a vehicle rental, no mention was made of the term length in either case. The length of the contract is immaterial for determining whether the vehicle is leased or rented. Thus, you need be aware that there are organizations whose mission is to rent or lease vehicles to missionaries at a reduced cost, but who may not be careful in their use of terminology. Righteous Rides and MATS are two examples. Their arrangements are often referred to as “leases” simply because they tend to be much longer than a typical car rental (i.e., three to 12 months). However, these contracts are sometimes more reflective of rentals than true leases in that the organization that owns the vehicle agrees to maintain the vehicle and even to repair it provided the needed repairs are the result of normal wear and tear or age. As a result, these contracts are actually long-term rentals and not leases, despite the terminology that may be used by the organization. This is something to keep in mind if you are trying to determine whether your “leased” vehicle is reimbursable by WorldVenture. The key is to pay close attention to the conditions of the contract and not to the length of the rental period (or even the terminology used by the renting organization).
In part 2 of this article—which will appear in our next newsletter—we will discuss the complicating issue of mixed-use rentals. That is, what happens if you rent a car but put personal miles on it as well as ministry miles? How does the reimbursement of those mixed costs work? It’s not as simple as getting reimbursed for ministry mileage. Stay tuned!
by Luke Oravec
I am pleased to introduce to you Loren Gill, our new tax preparer! Loren will be replacing Lois Huston in the preparation of your personal federal, state and foreign bank account (FBAR) tax returns.
I asked Loren to share a little about himself and his firm and so, in his own words…
We are excited to partner with Loren, and to be able to continue to provide you with this valuable service which we hope enables you to focus more on your work on the field.
We will be sending out additional communications in the future with instructions, policy reminders, and deadlines to help prepare you for the upcoming tax season. It is important that you read through these future communications and any emails from Loren and note important deadlines on your calendar so that we can make this tax season as smooth as possible.
Information contained in this newsletter is intended for internal use by WorldVenture workers, staff, approved volunteers, and board members. Unauthorized distribution to other parties is not permitted without permission from Finance leadership.