Catalyst Baptist Church scales ministry operations with Weel

About Catalyst Baptist Church

Catalyst Baptist Church is a growing, multi-campus faith community serving Werribee and surrounding regions. With a small team of 12 staff, the church runs major community events such as Christmas celebrations, Easter services, Family Fun Days, and Big Step Sunday — all powered by multiple departments across youth, creative, and pastoral ministries

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For Campus Pastor John Taekema, who also oversees finance operations, managing church spend was becoming increasingly complex across their different teams and charitable arm.

The Challenge

Before Weel, Catalyst relied on traditional debit cards from their bank — with no bank feeds or automation. Each cardholder downloaded their own transactions, matched receipts manually, and emailed them to finance at month-end

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“It was clunky and slow. Staff had to chase receipts and manually code everything,” says John.
“We were spending about 30% of 15 hours per week just managing card transactions.”

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The manual reconciliation process drained morale and made it hard to keep real-time visibility on budgets or event spend — especially across multiple campuses.

The Solution

Referred to Weel by a friend in the Not-for-Profit space, John quickly saw the value.

“As for the system, I love it,” he says. “Now everyone has their own Budgets in Weel — some with access to 3–4 budgets, each mapped directly to Xero categories.”

By setting clear spending limits and categories through Budgets and Approvals, John eliminated errors and manual coding entirely.

“I’ve ruled out the possibility of something going into the wrong category, just by definition of what Budget they’ve used.”

In addition to Budgets, the team uses:

• Virtual and physical cards for all departments
  
• Accounts Payable for invoices requiring approval
  
• Reimbursements for incidental staff expenses
  
• Weel AI, Card Blocking, and Decline Comments to automate expense reviews
  
• Subscriptions management to track recurring payments
  

“If someone needs to purchase something larger, I add Accounts Payable to their account and the request comes to me for approval. It’s all automated and traceable.”

With everything feeding straight into Xero, John reconciles accounts in minutes.

“I can pretty much stay on top of everything in 15 minutes a day.”

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The Impact

Switching to Weel has transformed how the church manages money.
Where reconciling used to take hours each week, it’s now 75% faster — freeing time for ministry and community initiatives.

Before Weel

After Weel

Manual debit card process

Fully automated budgets & reconciliation

Staff manually download and email receipts

Real-time expense capture via Weel app

15 hours/week on admin

15 minutes/day

0 visibility into departmental budgets

Live visibility for all budget owners

“Everyone’s loving it compared to what they had,” John shares. “When they have a project or event, they can now see in real time how much they’ve spent.”

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Results
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• Efficiency: 75% time saved per month on financial admin
  
• Savings: $15,000 annual cost reduction
  
• Accuracy: Fewer errors and reimbursements
  
• Engagement: Staff adoption across all departments
  
• Confidence: Real-time visibility on budgets and invoices
  

“Best way to handle debit cards and reimbursements — hands down,” John says. “It’s foolproof and saves so much time and complexity.”

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Final Word

For John, Weel isn’t just a spend management tool — it’s a way to empower every department to spend responsibly while keeping the church’s finances running smoothly.

“Well worth exploring if you want to work smarter, not harder.”

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