Do I lose control of my parish finances?
No. You retain absolute canonical authority. You electronically approve every invoice, every payment, and every bank statement. SETON executes the work — you make the decisions. Nothing moves without your approval.
Who owns our data and QuickBooks file?
The parish does. You maintain your own QuickBooks file, hosted on professional infrastructure via Right Networks. If you ever leave SETON, your data comes with you.
What about physical cash collections?
Local staff still count weekly collections and make physical bank deposits. This remains a parish responsibility to ensure security at the "first point of contact."
How do I approve invoices remotely?
Bill.com provides a mobile app with time-stamped audit trails. You approve invoices from anywhere — at the office, on the road, between Masses. Every approval is logged and auditable.
What does it actually cost?
Pricing is cost-plus, no-net-profit, and structured as a predictable fixed monthly fee. A typical small parish runs around $5,500 annually — significantly below the $15,000–$31,000 cost of a qualified part-time bookkeeper, and well below the $8,000–$15,000 audit penalty.
How long does onboarding take?
60 to 90 days from service agreement execution to full cutover. This includes infrastructure setup, data migration, training on mobile approval workflows, and a first full month of managed service with parallel review.
What happens to my current bookkeeper?
That's a pastoral decision. Some parishes transition their existing staff into the Hybrid model (retaining them for parishioner-facing work). Others phase out the role entirely. We'll walk you through both paths.
Is this just for small parishes?
No. SETON scales from small parishes through large, multi-ministry parishes with attached schools. The Premium School Bundle specifically handles the complexity of AR and tuition management that larger parishes and schools require.
What about my Finance Council?
Your Finance Council stays intact and in your hands. SETON provides the monthly reporting, budget-to-actual analysis, and documentation your Council needs — we make their work easier, not replace it.
How is SETON different from hiring an outside CPA firm?
A CPA firm does annual audits and taxes. SETON is your ongoing, day-to-day back office — AP, payroll, GL, reporting, the works. We're diocesan-native, not a vendor. And our pricing is transparent cost-plus, not billable hours.