Certain overhead expenses such as utilities, insurance, telephone, secretarial, repairs, maintenance, and supplies, may be allocated to Fundraising, Parochial/Day School, and Greek School only if they are:
- Approved by the local Metropolis Finance Committee
- Documented in the annual submission of the total commitment forms, and
- Comply with the guidelines below:
- The method and rationale of the allocation method must be clearly substantiated, documented, and quantified by the parish and approved by the local Metropolis Finance Committee.
- The documentation must include which expenses are being allocated, and where these expenses are posted in the parish’s income statement, and included in Line B – Total Expenses.
- The expenses must be ongoing, significant and incremental to the cost of the operations of the parish.
- Ongoing: The costs are incurred throughout most of the year and not just for a few days or a week a year. Examples include extra insurance, shared administration staff, extra security, extra janitorial services, etc. Expenses related to short-term events such as festivals, dinner/dances, and golf outings cannot be allocated.
- Significant: Expenses of less than $2,500 annually per expense category, for example utilities, insurance, etc., cannot be considered for allocation.
- Incremental: It must be obvious that the costs in question would not have been incurred except for the fundraising events or school activities. A reasonable test to determine if an expense item can be allocated is to ask how much of the expense would be eliminated if the activity in question were to be terminated.