By unSeminary: Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. Today we’re chatting with Jannet Morgan, the Executive Assistant (EA) to Lead Pastor, Tim Lucas, at Liquid Church in New Jersey. She’s with us today to talk about the role of the EA supporting leadership in the church and how to make the most out of that partnership.

Be aware of the challenges. // Sometimes it’s difficult to establish a good working relationship between the executive and the executive assistant. In some cases hiring for the EA position is put on hold until budget allows for it, but by then the executive may be overwhelmed and overworked. It can be hard to find someone great to gear up quickly to support the pastor. There’s no manual for this sort of relationship and as a result executives may not know where they need the most help while EAs are trying to learn on the fly, but also struggle to discern what an executive or pastor really wants. Executives may not know how to manage their EA since they are trying to offload what they are doing.Where to begin? // At the beginning of the exec/EA relationship it’s common not to know where to start. People wonder what should the routine and workflow look like, and how should we work together? In the corporate world, the EA is often an entry level position whereas in the church it’s a high level position. Often a pastor’s EA is privy to sensitive information as they help the pastor with various issues such as staff, church finances, contracts, and so on. Jannet recommends having conversations early about priorities, goals, communication, and expectations.Get to know each other. // In the beginning of an EA’s employment, have a few meetings just to get to know each other and invite your EA to ask questions. If you can, try to allow for overlap between your new EA and old EA so your new hire can learn more quickly. Also, arrange for the EA to meet with other members of the team that you work closely with or who your EA will work closely with to understand roles and relationships. It’s helpful for your EA to know what your top goals are so that they have a better understanding of how they can support you well. Communication of expectations between you both should be clear. An EA needs to study the executive, understanding what he likes to do and anticipating what his needs are. Jannet often shadows the lead pastor, attending meetings with him so she can keep abreast of what’s happening on different projects and what problems are surfacing. As their partnership has grown, Jannet can now stand in the gap for the lead pastor when he’s not available and communicate with people who are coming to him for questions or approvals.Empower and grow the assistant. // As a leader, you can approach hiring an EA in two ways: Do you want someone who is purely an assistant—doing your expense reports, calendaring, and correspondence? Or do you want to go beyond that and leverage the skillset which you hired them for, pouring into them because they are so important to your work life? Think of ways you can empower them and grow their leadership skills to be a growing leader in your own organization.Five essential conversations. // Don’t miss the June 23rd workshop designed for executive church leaders and their assistants. This workshop will dive into five conversations that are essential for the executive and the EA to have. These include talking through priorities and goals, rules and filters, personal preferences, discussing the communication rhythm, and expectations for the EA role.

You can reach out to Jannet via email and learn more about Liquid Church at liquidchurch.com.

REGISTER TODAY: Executive & Assistant Live Workshop // HOW TO CREATE GREAT PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR EA

2 HOUR LIVE WORKSHOP // JUNE 23rd // 3pm (ET) or 12noon (PT)

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe

Is your church ready? Are you re-opening? Ready to welcome MORE people to worship and grow with your church? Are you out of space or are your interiors dated and needing improvement?

The architecture and design team at Risepointe want to help you align your facility with the mission and vision that God has given your church. That’s why Risepointe developed The Needs Analysis. The Needs Analysis is a comprehensive look at your site to seat experience through the lens of your first time guests. Learn more by visiting www.theneedsanalysis.com. Let them know you heard about The Needs Analysis on unSeminary for $500 off!

Source: Improving Your Working Partnership with an Executive Assistant with Jannet Morgan

The post Improving Your Working Partnership with an Executive Assistant with Jannet Morgan appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: Filing expense reports used to be a painful, manual process. Thanks to free mobile expense report app options, it’s now a lot faster and easier.

Ever lost a receipt before turning it in for reimbursement? Worse, ever had to tape original receipts three to a page on a blank sheet for submission? I have suffered both.

Now, of course, you can use your smart phone to snap a picture of your receipt before you even leave the checkout.

Better yet, these free mobile expense report app options can take the picture in-app and recognize the characters in the image. And some can even extract the information from the receipt and get it in the right boxes in the expense report automatically!

Submitting an expense report becomes a matter of assigning expense categories and pressing ‘send’. Easy!

There are now dozens of paid and free mobile expense report app options. Here are my 3 top freemium app recommendations:

Honorable Mention

smartreceipts.co
I’d not heard of this one before now. It’s a free, open-source app (like Firefox browser). It has basic functionality and keeps things simple.

Free Version

PRO: unlimited reports, unlimited receipt upload
CON: individual use only, ad-supported, 10¢ per automatic scan (OCR)

Premium Version

$5/user/year
PRO: no ads, automatic backups, very low-cost
CON: no teams, still have to pay for automatic scans

Runner Up

expensify.com
“Expense reports that don’t suck.” Gotta love that tag line. This was my go-to app for a long time, but you don’t get as much on the free version any more.

Free Version

PRO: unlimited reports, unlimited receipt upload, 10 free SmartScans per month, import transactions from your credit card account
CON: individual use only (everyone on your team would have an independent account)

Premium Version

$60/user/year
PRO: teams, approval pathway, next day ACH reimbursement, unlimited SmartScan, QuickBooks integration
CON: not free

Paid Apps

These competitors have what look like great apps. But they have no free version (that I could find):

Certify.com ($8/user/month)
Xpenditure.com ($50-$70/user/year)
Concur.com (no pricing available; if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it)

And the Free Mobile Expense Report App Winner Is…

Zoho Expense

I continue to be impressed by Zoho’s freemium offerings – they have a whole suite of apps. There’s a lot you can get done with their free versions before having to pay. Their free expense app includes almost every feature that their competitors charge for.

Free Version:

PRO: unlimited reports, 5GB receipt storage, 100 Autoscan receipts per month, import transactions from your credit card account, 3 team users, QuickBooks integration, plus more..
CON: limited receipt storage (but it will take you quite some time to use it up)

Premium Version

$150/year for up to 10 users
PRO: approval pathway, ACH reimbursement
CON: not free

Your church plant has to have a reimbursement process to maintain its tax-exempt status. Make it easy for yourself and any staff you may have by using a free mobile expense report app.

The post Use this Free Mobile Expense Report App to Save Time appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: Use this Free Mobile Expense Report App to Save Time

The post Use this Free Mobile Expense Report App to Save Time appeared first on Passion for Planting.