A Conference Finance Committee was created soon after the inception of Conference in 1925. Membership consisted of the Treasurers of the Presbyteries and the Conference Treasurer as well as two others. The committee was charged with administering the payment of the expenses of the Conference annual meeting (the Conference Fund), the expenses of Conference officers and the expenses of Conference Committees (not otherwise provided for). Some Conference Committees such as Religious Education and Home Missions administered their own finances. However, their allocation was moved by the Finance Committee and voted at Conference. The Conference Finance Committee also came to be responsible for administering the expenses of the Conference offices. Other Conference endeavours, such as Home and Institutional Missions, were funded through the Unified Plan of Finance (also called the Unified Budget) and the national Boards of the Church approved projects so funded.

By the 1940s, Conference and Presbyteries had begun to initiate projects without the authorisation of General Council and finance them through direct assessments and appeals to congregations. This was seen to undermine a uniform standard of work across the Church and the Finance Committee moved to exert more control over steadily increasing Conference expenditures. Tension between regional and national control of expenditures continued and in 1968 a Conference Memorial went forward from Northland Presbytery proposing decentralised administration of a portion of the Unified Budget in order that Conference could be more responsive to local concerns. A system of Block Funding, whereby spending priorities were set regionally, was proposed in 1972 and adopted soon after.

In 1972, a Special Committee to Study the Conference Financial Administration recommended that the administrative and financial arrangements of the Conference Executive Secretary, Congregational Life and Work, Home Missions and Stewardship be consolidated. Funds provided for field staff also were received into and paid from consolidated accounts. The Book Store, AV Centre and Regional Director of Broadcasting continued to maintain separate administrative arrangements. Under this new financial structure, the Administrative Work Group of Congregational Life and Work administered a large part of the Conference budget until 1973. The Administration/Finance Arm of the short-lived Congregational Support Committee then assumed this task. In 1974, the decision was made to concentrate all financial policy and administration under a Conference Finance Committee, thereafter to be called the Administrative Support Committee.