Keep one clear record of your housing allowance, all year long.
Housing Allowance Helper is a simple app for clergy to track housing expenses, document a fair rental value estimate, and export a tidy report for your records or your CPA.
Built by Nick Winnard, a bivocational Baptist pastor with over 15 years in ministry.An organizing and recordkeeping tool — not tax, legal, or financial advice.
Most pastors handle the housing allowance the same way: a folder of receipts, a spreadsheet that got started with good intentions, and a fair rental value number that's more or less a guess. It usually works out. But every year starts from scratch, and every conversation with the accountant means digging through memory.
There's a calmer way to do it: keep the record as you go, and write down your reasoning while it's fresh.
- Receipts in a drawer, a bag, and three email inboxes
- A spreadsheet last updated in March
- "I think the fair rental value is about right"
- Tax time: reconstruct the whole year from bank statements
- Every expense entered in a minute, receipt attached
- Categories that match how the allowance works
- A fair rental value estimate that shows its work
- Year-end: export the year's report and send it
What you get
A real record, kept all year
One place for every housing expense — mortgage or rent, utilities, repairs, furnishings — categorized and with the receipt attached.
Fair rental value, reasoning included
An estimate from local rental listings with the comparables and adjustments laid out, so you and your advisor can look at it together.
A clean hand-off
Export a CSV or a printable report for your own files, your CPA, or your church treasurer.
Made by someone who's been in ministry
A one-person project by a working pastor. Your data stays yours to export or delete.
How it works, in three steps
Track expenses as they happen
Add an expense in a few taps. Snap a photo of a receipt and check the details the app fills in.
Document your fair rental value
Answer a few questions about your home. The app pulls local rental data and drafts a written estimate you review and adjust.
Hand it off at year-end
See your designated allowance, actual expenses, and fair rental value side by side. Export the report.
Fair rental value, explained
Fair rental value is the part most people are unsure about. It's an estimate of what your home would rent for, furnished, plus utilities — one of the three numbers that sets the limit on your housing allowance. Housing Allowance Helper builds that estimate from local rental listings and a property valuation, picks the closest comparable homes, adjusts for the obvious differences, and writes out a plain-English explanation of the result.
It's a documented estimate for you and your advisor to review together. It isn't tax advice.
Who made this
I'm Nick Winnard, a bivocational Baptist pastor with over fifteen years in ministry, serving in administration and worship. I built Housing Allowance Helper because the housing allowance is worth stewarding well, and most of us only think about it at tax time. I wanted a tool that just kept a good record through the year and showed its work.
It's a one-person project, so I read the fair rental value methodology and the AI prompts myself.
More about me and why I built this →Honest about what this isn't
Not tax or legal advice. It doesn't tell you what to claim or what the IRS will accept.
Doesn't file anything. You or your preparer still do that.
You review every AI draft. Receipt details and the fair rental value write-up are drafts you check and edit before anything is saved.
Your data is yours. Export everything as a file, or delete your account, anytime.
Setting next year's designation?
Churches usually set the housing allowance for the coming year in the fall. Here's a plain-language guide to the steps, and a sample designation resolution you can edit and take to your board.
Frequently asked
Isn't this just a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet won't hold your receipts, build a fair rental value rationale, or export a report your CPA can read — and you have to remember to keep it current. This does those things in one place.
Is this tax advice?
No. It's an organizing and recordkeeping tool. It shows its work so you and a qualified professional can review it.
Can I trust the fair rental value number?
Treat it as a documented estimate, not a verdict. The app shows every comparable and adjustment it used so you and your advisor can check it and change it.
Is my financial information safe?
Your data is stored with Google Firebase, encrypted in transit and at rest. It isn't sold or shared for marketing. You can export or delete it whenever you want.
Do I need to be technical?
If you can use email, you can use this. You can also install it on your phone.
What if I already have a CPA?
Even better. This makes your year-end hand-off faster and gives them a cleaner starting point.
What does it cost?
Free to start. There's one paid plan, billed once a year, for the extra features. No monthly billing.