QuickBooks has multiple versions of accounting software. They don’t have any software that is specifically named “Church accounting software.” They do however have a QuickBooks Nonprofit Edition. This edition is very popular among churches and non-profits. According to several surveys from The CPA Technology Advisor about 70 percent of non-profits use QuickBooks. At least one CPA I have communicated with thinks that this number is closer to 90 percent for churches. In other words, a majority of churches are using this software for accounting purposes. The premium nonprofit version (as opposed to the normal version) would probably be the best to use for your church’s accounting system, although some churches get away with using normal QuickBooks, known as QuickBooks Pro.

Advantages of Your Church Using QuickBooks

The number one advantage of using QuickBooks NonProfit for your church’s accounting is its ease of use. Many people, even those without much of an accounting background, are able to use QuickBooks effectively. A learning curve does exist, but it isn’t as large a curve as trying to learn a specialized church accounting software system.

Another advantage of using QuickBooks is its customer support. When we mention customer support, we are not necessarily talking about the people at Intuit who designed the software (although they are excellent). Chances are you know someone who is already quite familiar with QuickBooks. Imploring them to help you set up and run QuickBooks as your church accounting software might be the best route for your church.

One final advantage that should be mentioned is the QuickBooks Online Payroll option. This service is well worth the cost for most churches. Let’s face it, most church staff don’t really have a clue how payroll works or how time consuming it can be. If you use this online service, QuickBooks will do the hard work for you (direct deposit, W2 calculations, tax help, and customer support for the questions that you’re bound to have). Intuit Online Payroll Easy to Setup and Use. Try Now FREE for 30 Days. QuickBooks has standard payroll software if you’re interested in that as well.

Disadvantages of QuickBooks

**Update** It appears that Intuit has fixed the audit trail problem mentioned below and it is no longer a disadvantage for nonprofits. Several users have even claimed QuickBooks audit trail is among the best: see comment section for further discussion. ***

In the past QuickBooks didn’t leave much of an audit trail in some situations. If an error was made by your church accountant, then he/she could easily reverse the error without leaving any evidence. This is no longer a problem. Errors can be corrected easily, but the software does a great job of leaving an audit trail documenting what actually occurred.

You may be thinking that being able to easily correct errors is something you want in your church accounting system. The downside of this is that it can be easily manipulated. Most church accounting software requires an adjusting entry when an error is made. This leaves what is called an audit trail so that a church auditor, loan officer, or banker can look back and see any adjustments made throughout the year.

A skilled church accountant could easily cook your church accounting books if proper internal controls are not in place. QuickBooks now has these controls in place and is now very safe to use as church accounting software.

One disadvantage of using QuickBooks Professional instead of QuickBooks Non-Profit is that it was originally designed for businesses, not churches. Intuit’s non-profit software will make it easy to support your church’s reporting requirements, but QuickBooks Pro may not support your church’s reporting requirements or terminology. This is especially true if they are not similar to a normal business’s reporting requirements and terminology.

In Review:

• QuickBooks can be used for your church’s accounting (some estimate that 90% of churches are using this software)
• Advantages include ease of use and great customer support ( a lot of people know how to use this software)
• Disadvantages include the fact that this software was originally designed for businesses. This was a larger problem when Intuit didn’t have a special version for not-for-profits.

Recently, I was very fortunate to come into contact with the great people over at Shelby Systems. Shelby has been a major player in the church management and accounting software field for a long time now (since 1976). They were gracious enough to let me interview them today.

Questions for Shelby Systems

Nate: What separates Shelby Systems’ church management software from the other church software packages out there?

Shelby Systems: The first thing that comes to mind is experience. As the first church management software (ChMS) company in existence, we have both longevity and stability that make us stand out. Our customers appreciate knowing that we’ve been partnering with them in ministry for 35+ years and will continue to do so throughout the future as they grow. Speaking of growth, our software products are scalable to match your ministry as you continue to add members. We serve churches currently from < 300 in average weekend attendance up to 32,000 plus, as well as large nonprofits like The Salvation Army. Another feature that stands out is the built-in reporting capability. You can run a canned report with a click, customize your own using Shelby Query or Microsoft Reporting Services, or export any Shelby fields to Excel for additional customized reporting. Our customer service is well-known for handling any issues quickly and efficiently through a number of different channels. Our Community sites are available for collaborating and networking with peers through forums, or connecting directly with Shelby reps. Lastly, having ongoing releases via the web is priceless – no waiting for an annual or bi-annual release. As tax laws and tables change, you are ensured that your records are always compliant.

Nate: Would you be willing to send me a screenshot of what you consider to be one of the most useful features of Shelby Software? Why is this feature so useful?

Shelby Systems: Absolutely. Below, you’ll see a screenshot of a Budgeted Financial Statement. I chose this feature because of the simplicity that it provides with budgeting management. This is a detailed snapshot of your budget that you can run real-time for any number of periods (or annually). The data can also be exported to Excel for additional customized reporting. It’s your data and it’s immediately available in your preferred format so that you can create reports to meet your ministry’s needs. You can choose any number of columns of data to include, making it a key tool for church leadership.

Nate: It looks like you offer two different products for church management purposes: Shelby Arena and Shelby Church. Can you explain some of the major differences between these two packages?

Shelby Systems: Both Shelby Arena and Shelby Church are people (“non-financial”) management products and both integrate directly with Shelby Financials. However, there are some fundamental differences between Shelby Arena and Shelby Church, including technology, implementation and feature sets. On the technology side, Shelby Church is written in Visual Basic and Shelby Arena is written using the .NET platform. As it relates to implementation, Shelby Church is our legacy, client/server product and Shelby Arena is browser-based and available for you to host on your servers or as a SaaS model, with Shelby hosting your data for you. Concerning feature strengths, both products are full ChMS packages for people management, and with Shelby Arena, you also have a powerful Content Management System (CMS) to publish and power your ministry’s website. Shelby Church has online tools such as online giving & registration that you can publish to your website, but not a full CMS.

Nate: Under what circumstances should my church choose Shelby Arena? Under what circumstances should my church choose Shelby Church?

Shelby Systems: The key to choosing the Shelby software that’s right for your ministry is to take a full look at what you need with features, technology and your staff’s needs. Traditionally, Shelby Arena was used by large & mega churches as an enterprise-level product, but with the launch of Arena in the cloud, it’s now a viable option for any-sized congregation for people management.

Nate: Shelby Systems also offers Shelby HQ for headquarters management. Is this software only necessary for large multi-site churches?

Shelby Systems: No, actually multi-site and multi-tenant capabilities are available through any of our software products. Shelby HQ offers the same features that are built into our other products designed specifically for denominational headquarters offices, regional offices, and faith-based nonprofits.

Nate: It looks like there are two offerings for the HQ market: Shelby Arena and Shelby v.5. Is this the same Shelby Arena mentioned above? What are the main differences between Shelby Arena and Shelby v.5?

Shelby Systems: Yes, it is the same Shelby Arena we discussed before, however, with the addition of a large feature set designed for and with headquarters offices and nonprofit needs in mind. HQ feature sets are available in both Shelby Arena and Shelby v.5. The key differences are the same as we listed before with Shelby Arena and Shelby Church. When a headquarters, district, regional office, or nonprofit chooses Shelby, the features delivered within either product are specific to their needs.

Nate: What types of support are available?

Shelby Systems: Support with all Shelby software is bundled with maintenance & updates and varies based on a ministry’s Shelby package. It is an annual cost. There are a multitude of support options available to Shelby churches, including: phone, email, live chat, and live assist. Also, our Community sites provide you with forums, knowledge base, documentation, and training videos.

Nate: Does the Shelby Financial Suite come prepared to make financial statements that are in compliance with the FASB? What steps have you taken at Shelby to ensure accounting compliance?

Shelby Systems: Yes, we have the standard reports that comply with the FASB and GAAP principles. We take many steps to ensure our accounting compliance. We have a CPA on staff and a CPA certified in not for profit accounting that consults with us on a regular basis for future and current financial products.

Nate: What else would you like my readers to know?

Shelby Systems: I’m excited to announce to your readers that Shelby will be releasing an online financials product in 2012! We will be leading the way with this technology and we believe this will make our software accessible to an even wider array of ministries. As we mentioned earlier, Shelby Arena will also be available now as Hosted software (SaaS), which is a huge benefit to churches without paid IT staff or those who prefer to outsource their server maintenance and updates to Shelby. We’d also love to connect with your readers through social media. They can find us on Twitter (@shelbysystems), Facebook (fb.com/shelbysystems), Google+ (gplus.to/shelbysystems), and LinkedIn. Lastly, our annual conference occurs every June and we love to host anyone with questions about our software who would like to see it in action. You can find more info about the International Shelby Conference (ISC) at shelbysystems.com/isc. We’re also running regional demos, so be sure to ask us when we’ll be coming to a city near you. If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact us (shelbysystems.com/contactus) any time or if you prefer us to follow up with you, please go to shelbysystems.com/moreinfo.

Thank you so much to Nate for taking the time to chat with us and review our software. We can’t wait to connect with your readers. Be sure to tell us that Nate sent you!

Background Information

Cost of QuickBooks Premier Non-Profit Edition 2012 (if you purchase it through a link on my website): $320

Cost of QuickBooks Monthly Payroll Program

• Basic: $108 a year
• Enhanced:  $236 a year

Let’s do some math.

*It is usually considered best practice to upgrade QuickBooks every three years, so we’ll look at this from a three year perspective.

Cost of QuickBooks Nonprofit ($320) divided by 36 months = $8.89 a month

Cost of Basic Payroll ($108 * 3years) divided by 36 months = $9 a month

Cost of Enhanced Payroll ($236 * 3years) divided by 36 months = $19.67 a month

If you want to go really cheap, you can do the payroll yourself without the extra software. That means you can get your church accounting done for $9 a month! That’s pretty hard to beat, especially considering the quality of the QuickBooks software.

Add the basic payroll and you’re looking at about $18 a month (with the enhanced payroll you’re looking at about $29 a month).

$30 a month to get the most popular accounting software in the world (along with payroll) is a pretty deadly combination.

Click Here to Save 20% Off QuickBooks Premier Accounting Software + Free Shipping

 
 
 
QuickBooks will take care of all of your accounting needs, but what about managing your members? Some churches operate without church management software, but many churches like having some software that will keep all of their member information organized.

Most of the church management packages out there nowadays will interact quite well with QuickBooks, but the one that seems to work best with QuickBooks is Servant Keeper by Servant PC.

Servant Keeper Costs $499. According to a frequently asked question on their website, you have to upgrade about every 3-5 years. We’ll use three years just to keep things simple.

The cost of Servant Keeper $499 divided by 36 months = $13.86 a month

This means that if you were going with the most expensive QuickBooks package and Servant Keeper you would be looking at $43 a month. Note that this doesn’t include any extras (which you may or may not need).

If you wanted to go really cheap and drop payroll, you could do your church management and accounting for $24 a month. This is for the top of the line accounting software that over 80 percent of all churches are using. Not a bad deal in my opinion.

Hopefully this helps shed some light into what the costs of QuickBooks are. Remember that you get 20 percent off any QuickBooks purchases if you click through to QuickBooks on one of the links on my site.

Happy Accounting!

Here are my bullet points from the interview:

• ChurchTrac allows you to enter up to 100 names for free. This is a great way to ensure that this is the right software for your church (without having to spend a dime).
• ChurchTrac is meant to be easy and intuitive. It’s a great low-cost option for churches who are on a tight budget. Support costs are generally low.
• Very cool feature that lets you send out a mass reminder phone call to members of the church. This can be a great way to remind members about an event (huge time saver).

Read below for the full interview with Byron, an employee of ChurchTrac.

How can ChurchTrac help smaller churches that are just starting up?

Byron (ChurchTrac Employee): ChurchTrac is the perfect software solution for new church starts and for smaller churches. That’s because smaller churches can use ChurchTrac for free. It is our ministry to the churches who might not otherwise be able to afford a quality church software program—helping churches to more effectively minister is the heart behind what we do. The program allows you to enter up to 100 names and there’s no cost until you need to enter more. There are no hoops to jump through—just download, install and start using ChurchTrac. Additionally, the free users don’t get a watered-down version—everything in the program is accessible.

But free software that doesn’t deliver is no benefit to anyone. That’s why ChurchTrac does everything from membership management to Sunday school, attendance tracking to absentee follow-up, contributions, accounting, and everything in between.

Many times new church startups don’t have a central office, which can make sharing information challenging. ChurchTrac is able to bridge this gap with our data sharing feature. This allows multiple computers in different locations to share ChurchTrac data and stay in sync with each other. (This feature is one of two optional add-ons we offer, but it only costs about 5 dollars a month to add the data sharing). The data sharing feature also works great for pastors and staff who have laptops or for churches that have volunteers who work from home. Unlike web-based programs, this means that your data is always accessible, even when you’re not connected to the internet.

What sets ChurchTrac apart from all the other major church management software programs available?

Byron: ChurchTrac is a software program that was created to be a blessing and help to Christian-based churches and ministries. The fact that we give it to smaller churches for free is unique in the industry. We also have a tiered pricing structure for churches that need to enter more than 100 names, which is pretty unique. With our tiered pricing, the fewer the names you need to enter, the less it costs. Regardless of which level your church needs, ChurchTrac is perhaps the most reasonably priced church software product on the market, in most cases costing hundreds of dollars less than others.

One of the things that we hear frequently from our customers is how easy ChurchTrac is to use compared to other church software programs. ChurchTrac was designed from the beginning to be easy to learn and use, and that is reflected on every screen in the program. And as we get feedback from our customers, we do our best to make ChurchTrac even better by listening to their suggestions.

Because ChurchTrac is easy to use, our technical support system is also different from most software companies. Many software companies have expensive support packages that you must buy, or offer expensive training seminars that you almost have to attend if you want to learn how to use their package. In fact, selling “support” is a huge source of profit for most companies, so there is no incentive for them to make their programs easier to use. Our philosophy is to make the software as easy to use as possible. When you do need help, we offer a large selection of free help resources on our website, including tutorials, videos, and answers to frequently asked questions. Email support is also free. And if you do need to call us, you only pay a small fee per incident—which can save you hundreds of dollars compared to the annual support subscriptions other companies charge.

If you could show everyone interested in purchasing church management software just one screenshot from ChurchTrac, what screenshot would it be? (Please attach the screenshot). Would you be willing to explain the screenshot and tell us why it is important?

Byron: ChurchTrac is organized into a series of logical screens that give you quick access to areas of the program. For example, when you click on the People tab, the People screen is displayed, as shown here:

Like the People screen, each screen in ChurchTrac is intuitively laid out in two or more sections. Here, when you click a name in the list on the left, the information about that name is displayed on the right side of the screen. (The Contributions screen, for example, works in a similar fashion: When you click on a date on the left, the contributions from that date are displayed on the right).

Here we see a quick glance at the selected person’s contact and family information. You can also customize the user-defined fields, which allow you some flexibility in what information you want displayed on this tab. The People screen tabs give you quick access to other information about the selected individual, including their SHAPE ministry profile, pictures, notes, and more.

The People screen also gives you quick access to a large number of reports and communication options. You can quickly print birthday lists, mailing labels, maps, letters, send emails, and create custom reports, just to name a few.

ChurchTrac is also highly customizable. Any blue text box can be double-clicked to customize the contents of that field (and there are dozens of customizable fields in ChurchTrac). For example, the Member Status and Age Category fields are blue, so you can create your own categories for these fields. The User-Defined tab on the People screen gives you the added ability to create and customize your own fields for tracking information that isn’t already built into the program.

Your website mentions that ChurchTrac can be used for any size of church. What is the largest church, in terms of number of members, that is using your software? How many members do they have? (If you can’t divulge the name of the church, just give us the number of members: estimates are okay).

Byron: We don’t actually ask how large a church is when someone purchases our software, but we have a good idea based on which unlock code tier they purchase. Our most popular option is the 250 name unlock code—perhaps half of our paying customers are in churches running between 100 and 250 people. We do sell quite a few of the unlimited name packages too (I’d estimate that 1 in 5 purchases is an unlimited name unlock code).

My church uses ChurchTrac and we have over 1500 names in our database—so it can definitely handle that capacity with ease. With the data sharing add-on, ChurchTrac can easily accommodate churches with a couple thousand names and a dozen or more users and computers.

A lot of people are worried about being in compliance with the IRS and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). What is ChurchTrac doing to help ensure churches are in compliance?

Byron: ChurchTrac’s contribution and pledge reporting statements meet current IRS requirements as listed in IRS Publication 1771. The contribution statements also allow you to customize the messages that are displayed, so it is easy to change or update as necessary to meet your specific needs. ChurchTrac also has the ability to distinguish between a tax-deductible and non-tax-deductible contribution, and we offer some tips and a summary of some of these IRS guidelines in the knowledgebase on our website.

ChurchTrac’s accounting features are designed with simplicity in mind. Users who are familiar with the Quicken line of products will find that ChurchTrac’s accounting system is very similar. Based on a church’s accounting needs, we sometimes recommend that they supplement ChurchTrac with a professional-level accounting program. In fact, many churches use ChurchTrac’s excellent membership, attendance and contribution tracking alongside a dedicated accounting program like QuickBooks.

Anything else you would like to tell my readers about ChurchTrac? This is your chance to put in a plug for your product.

Byron: Having the right tools for the job makes a huge difference. And that’s what ChurchTrac is—a tool to help you stay organized, keep up with the people in your ministry, and perform the tasks you need to do to get the job done. Our mission is to equip churches and church leaders to more effectively fulfill their calling.

As such, we’re always striving to make ChurchTrac even better. We recently added a messaging feature that works like a phone tree. ChurchTrac can use your internet connection to call a list of numbers and deliver a pre-recorded message or text message. This enables you to deliver important messages to a lot of people in a short amount of time without having to purchase expensive equipment or extra phone lines.

Another new feature that we’ve recently added is our barcode check-in and child security screen. This allows you to use a barcode scanner to check in people as they arrive. It also allows you to print information tags for children, allergy information, security pick-up tags, and more. This feature helps to ensure that the children’s workers have accurate instructions from the parents, it guards the church against negligence, and it gives peace of mind to the parents who leave their children in your care.

Only a few of ChurchTrac’s features have been mentioned here. Perhaps the best way to learn more about ChurchTrac is to download it and give it a test run, or to read more about the features on the website. To download, just visit our website, www.churchtrac.com and click on the Download Now button.

I had a very pleasant experience recently with the great people over at Icon Systems (the creators of IconCMO church management software). I had the opportunity to interview, through Email, some prominent members of their staff as well as the company president, Bill Gifford.

 
Why this Interview is a Must Read for Anyone Dealing with Church Management and Accounting

• It gives you a great overview of one of the most popular church management software programs available: IconCMO.
• It introduces you to the idea of online church management (which is a great way to save money and time).
• It answers (from a licensed Certified Public Accountant) some of the most common questions I get about church accounting: Are there any special accounting standards our church needs to be following? Can my church lose its tax-exempt status? Are my current accounting reports in compliance with non-profit regulations and standards? Is there a church accounting software program that can help me be in compliance with non-profit standards? My church is small, do I need to worry about the accounting standards?

Sit back, relax, and take the time to read this whole interview. It provides the answers to some of the tough questions church leaders and staff face.

What would you tell those who are just starting out a new church, are on a tight budget, and are feeling overwhelmed by all of the administration and accounting tasks that are required for a church to run?

Leverage Volunteers via Technology

Ensure a Return on Investment is Realized

Any Size Church

What is it that separates IconCMO from the other popular packages out there?

Could you send us a screenshot of what you consider to be some of the most useful features in IconCMO? Why is this feature so helpful?

Bill

IconCMO doesn’t require creativity to tell you instantly how much money is in any accounting fund. It has all the required reports for FASB guidelines (and more) to help you make decisions based on your allocated resources.    Balance Sheet for The Building Fund   Change in Net Asset Report, Including All Funds

Gene

To help keep these accounting fund balances accurate, IconCMO has a seamless link between contributions and fund accounting. When donations are posted, IconCMO will map the money directly into the appropriate accounting funds, checkbook, and revenue accounts, completely eliminating the need for double entry by the accounting bookkeeper. This link is kept intact even after making corrections to the donation records.

Jay

One big time- and money-saver for many churches is the ability to email donation statements. Rather than printing out paper copies, stuffing and addressing envelopes, and spending money on postage, you can send out donation statements with a few clicks of the mouse, as many times a year as you want!  With our member self-service feature, your congregation can even access their current giving records at any time during the year and email themselves a statement! Churches have reported when implementing this module their donations increased because their members knew exactly how far ahead or behind they are on their pledges.

One feature that I find particularly impressive about Icon’s software is its ability to help churches be in compliance with necessary accounting standards for nonprofit organizations (FASB 95 and 117). Many of the church leaders and staff I have talked with are very confused about these standards. Could you help shed some light on the matter for those of us who are in the dark? Do all churches need to be in compliance with these standards? Are smaller churches exempt? Could you give us a brief summary of the standards? Finally, could you explain to us how IconCMO will help churches be fully compliant with the standards? Church leaders realize it is their own responsibility to be in compliance, but the more information you can share with us here, the better.

A lot of people are considering QuickBooks for the accounting portion of their church technology. From what I’ve read IconCMO can integrate with QuickBooks, is this still correct? What are your thoughts about using QuickBooks for church accounting? IconCMO has an accounting module as well, do you think it’s a good idea for people to integrate with QuickBooks or to simply use IconCMO’s accounting module?

Finally, for those considering switching over to IconCMO, when is the best time of year to make the switch (is there a best time)? How difficult is it to transition from their current church management package to IconCMO?

PowerChurch Online

As church leaders we are usually a bit slower to embrace new technology. This isn’t necessarily because we think change is always a bad thing, it’s more a function of the tight budgets we operate on. One change that is drastically sweeping all over the software technology world is the move to online software or Software as a Service (SaaS). PowerChurch is one of the first church software companies to provide this option.

So what’s all the hype about with online software? Well, I see two key advantages: (1). You can access your church’s information from anywhere in the world as long as you have an Internet connection. This means that if you’re at home and you receive an important call from a member, you can quickly use your home computer to look up church information. You see, under this type of software setup, PowerChurch stores all your church’s information on their servers (online). You can access it the same way you would access your email. This is a really big advantage of PowerChurch and extremely cool in your humble author’s opinion. There used to be some concern about the safety of information when it is stored online, but that concern is a thing of the past.

The (2) second defining characteristic of PowerChurch is its comprehensive package. Most other church management software packages come in separate modules (i.e. one section for membership management, one section for contributions, another section for accounting, etc.). PowerChurch has an all in one package that costs around $300. Note that they have two different versions of their software. The online version costs $30 a month. This could be an advantage or a disadvantage depending at how you look at it. Some people don’t mind monthly fees while others hate them.

A Quick Look at the PowerChurch Program

One potential disadvantage of PowerChurch is the accounting section of its software. It is extremely difficult to make something user-friendly enough for your average church clerk (who doesn’t have any real accounting experience) and comprehensive enough to meet all of the accounting standards. There is some concern that their accounting section isn’t as comprehensive in the accounting department as say the QuickBooks for Churches modules.

Overall PowerChurch is a great piece of software. Its online capabilities and its all-in-one features make it different than its competitors. If you have had any experience using PowerChurch (either positive or negative) please add it below. You’ll be helping out those who are looking for their own church management software.

Find out more information at PowerChurch’s Website.

**Update 4/21/2011**
I had a very pleasant conversation on the phone today with the people at Servant PC today (they have a very friendly staff which is always a bonus). Anyways, I learned that Servant Keeper will hook up with both QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier/NonProfit. The person I spoke with mentioned that churches have been very successful using both. She did mention that integration with QuickBooks Online is currently unavailable.

Why Linking to QuickBooks is Helpful?

The short answer is that your accountant will likely want to work with a well-known package like Quickbooks. The longer answer is below.

It is true that there are several church accounting/management packages out there that have their own accounting components. These packages claim there is no need to link up with a popular program like QuickBooks because they have their own accounting modules.  What they are saying is true in some situations. However, most of the companies that set out to make church software (like Servant Keeper) focused on church management. They built excellent software for keeping track of members’ personal information and donations. In short, this type of software is focused on making sure members don’t fall between the cracks. The software was not built with accounting in mind.

On the other hand QuickBooks only really does one thing: accounting software. They have specialized in accounting for years. What companies specialize in, they tend to be the best at. So those companies that specialize in creating church management software have created the best member management software. Those companies that focused on accounting have created the best accounting software. The truth is your church probably needs both.

There will probably be some people out there that disagree with my assessment here. Perhaps one more example will help. Let’s pretend the tables were turned and QuickBooks decided to build church management software instead of accounting software. Their management package just wouldn’t be as good as the management packages that have been developed by companies who have been working on church management for years.

Servant Keeper Features

A Quick Look at Servant Keeper

Servant Keeper is a great package for keeping track of your members. It is easy to use. When you log in to the program it has a list of the families within your church on the left side. When you click on the family name, the right side of the screen will populate with the individuals. This makes it easy to see valuable information about any of your members within seconds. Another interesting little tool that this software has is the “group feature.” Basically it allows you to make groups out of families and individuals. This can be a very handy tool for church leaders to keep their members organized in their heads. For example, you could have a “choir group” or a “regularly attends group.”

One other extremely nice feature that comes with Servant Keeper is the contribution management tools. Basically the software makes it extremely easy to enter in new donors and contributions. It also has the ability to automatically create donor statements at any time of the year. This is a really nice feature because in the past QuickBooks wouldn’t do this for you.

Any of you who have used Servant Keeper, please write your comments about it below. You would be surprised at how much these comments can help someone that was in your position a few years ago.

For more information you can visit the actual Servant Keeper Website.

QuickBooks has a nonprofit version. Unfortunately there site doesn’t advertise it well in my opinion. You go to the premier version and then you have to toggle an option to nonprofit. This nonprofit version has certain features that make it easier to use than QuickBooks Pro.

Can I use QuickBooks Pro for my church or nonprofit or do I need the Premier Nonprofit Version?

The answer to this question depends on your current expertise in accounting. The Premier version costs about $150 more than the pro version for a single user edition. Note that most small churches will only need a single user edition (it doesn’t mean that only one person can use it, it means that only one person can access the data at a time).

The main advantage of the nonprofit version is that it comes preprogrammed for nonprofits. This leaves a lot less room for your church clerks to make mistakes. Now, if you are already have a deep understanding of QuickBooks and you don’t mind customizing it a bit, then QuickBooks Pro may be the better option for you.

Some critics of the nonprofit version have said that the pro version simply changed “customers” to “donors” and “invoices” to “pledges.” While this is partially true there are some other advantages to the Non-Profit version.

• The Non-Profit version has a chart of accounts is preinstalled that is based on the Form 990 for nonprofits.
• The Non-Profit version comes with a sample nonprofit organization already set up and running. You can use this sample to understand how fund accounting works. This can be a real lifesaver to people who are new to fund accounting or QuickBooks.
• The Non-Profit version allows for more intuitive donation and contribution tracking
• Finally, the Non-Profit version comes ready to provide reports and letters specifically for non-profits. Remember that financial statements for nonprofits are quite different than their for-profit counterparts.

One advantage of QuickBooks over other types of church accounting software is that a lot of people are familiar with it. Even if your congregation is small, you might be surprised that someone has had at least a little experience using it. QuickBooks is fairly user friendly.

If you are looking to save your church some money note that if you follow any of the QuickBooks links on my website you will get 20% off.

QuickBooks is Customizable and Easy to Use. Save up to 20% + Free Shipping Now.

One resource that I would highly recommend for those churches that are new to QuickBooks or new to NonProfits is “Running QuickBooks in NonProfits” by Kathy Ivens. You can find the book at Amazon for around $20. This book is a great resource on using both the NonProfit and Pro version for churches.

Still have more questions about using QuickBooks for churches? Place a comment below so I can answer it and other people will benefit from reading it as well.

their name. I’ve looked at some of their creations first-hand and have been very impressed. However, what follows will attempt to be an unbiased review of Church Windows.

The Good

Experience. This group has been doing accounting software for churches for a long time, since 1987. That is before the Internet was even being used on a mass-level. This means that their product has had the time necessary to work out any quirks that so often come with new software. It also means that a lot of people know how to use it and there will be good forums and self-help guides available.

Another great thing about Church Windows is that it comes as a complete package or as individual modules. Buying individual modules can be extremely difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. A lot of church accountants have no idea what it is they need for their accounting system. For these people it is nice to buy a complete package and know they are getting everything they will need.

On the other hand it is nice for those people who are only looking for a specific feature such as membership tracking, payroll, or accounting to be able to just buy the individual module they need. These people can save a lot of money and confusion by not going with the whole package.

Pricing: This is probably not Church Window’s greatest strength, but it is a strength nonetheless. Depending on exactly what you need, you might be able to find a cheaper option. However, usually when you pay a little more, you get a little better quality. Overall this software is priced very competitively.

Classes: Church windows is a pretty intuitive program; however, to get its full use you may want to take some of the classes they offer online. The fact that they even offer these classes is a huge bonus. A lot of people end up buying expensive accounting software for their church and end up not really knowing how to use it.

The Not So Good

I should probably qualify this with the fact that I’m easily bothered by website checkout processes. A lot of the time I wondering what products I’m getting and at what price. I’m also often left wondering what I’ll be paying for shipping. Some people say that if you have questions you should call them; well, I for one don’t want to call them. If I wanted to chat with someone then I wouldn’t be shopping for the church accounting software on the Internet.

With that introduction, I must admit I was confused by the Church Windows check-out process. Take a look at it below.

Church Windows

I’m not sure how much you can see from this picture, but let me explain why it bothered me. First of all at the top it says “Standard Integrated Packages” $695. At this point, I’m wondering what I’m getting for the $700. After thinking about it a while, it looks like I’m getting the membership and contribution software, but that wasn’t readily apparent to me.

Now, at the bottom of the picture you will notice they are offering additional options. These always make me nervous because I have no idea if I need this stuff. This one made me especially nervous because it has Accounts Receivable (add $150). At this point I’m thinking, “Wait a minute, isn’t accounts receivable part of Accounting?”. Then I really start wondering what comes in the accounting package. Is it missing something else that I might really need?

One thing that rubbed me a little the wrong with with Church Windows was the fact that they make you pay for the online classes. I realize that customer support isn’t cheap, but a lot of companies these days will offer free pre-recorded classes for people who buy their products.

Church Windows also charges what is called a support fee. This is pretty standard amongst software providers, but it is something you should really know about before purchasing your church accounting software. Basically you have to pay $100-400 a year in order to get all of the latest updates and be able to call them when you have questions. Again, I realize that customer service isn’t cheap, but some customers may be annoyed having to pay $400 a year just to keep the software working correctly.

In review, Church Windows is a reliable software that has been around for quite a while. Like most quality products, they have lots of customer support. They also have a great option that will allow you to buy one module or a complete package. Their check-out process is a tad confusing and they will try to hit you up with customer service fees (gotta stay in business somehow). Overall a product that you can’t go wrong with, if you have the money.

software (if you read my blog at all then you would know there is a difference).

The sheer amount of technology offered by ACS can be overwhelming. Although they used to be completely focused on church software, they are now expanding into schools and daycares. They also have a pretty nifty tool called “The Extend Platform” for creating a website and an online community for your church.

In order to give a focused review of ACS’s software as used for church accounting, I had to push aside all of the extras and look how it holds up for accounting purposes. Without further adieu:

Usability

This software has a lot of features that I really like. One of its best features is the ability to generate reports. If you have been consistently entering in your church’s financial information, then you can select the period of time you are interested in and ACS will automatically generate the report for you. You can customize the reports so that they have the information you need.

Another feature that comes in handy is the ability to export your information to excel. While this feature will not benefit everyone, it should help appease the multitude of excel lovers in the world.
ACS’s user interface shows both the name and the number of the chart of accounts. This comes in handy if you are like me, and don’t want to memorize a massive list of numbers. Let me show an example for clarity:

ACS Church Accounting Software

This example also shows you what the software looks like. If I had one complaint about the usability, it would be the visual appearance of the user interface. As you can see from the image above, the grey and white color scheme is reminiscent of the early 90’s when computers were just taking off. I guess I just have to remind myself that I’m an accountant and I’m supposed to be boring.

Compliance

A lot of churches, especially newer churches, are concerned about being in compliance with the IRS and in some situations the FASB. ACS accounting software will help you to be compliant with both of these government organizations. That being said, software alone, can never guarantee compliance. Making sure you are in touch with a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) is very important as you work to become compliant with governmental organizations.

Price

No review would be complete without talking about price. And you won’t find a price tag easily on ACS’s web page. This is a strategic move by the company. Some people prefer to see the price up front so that they can make a quick decision about whether or not the software is even feasible (I fall into this category and was slightly annoyed that ACS didn’t offer any pricing for their church accounting software on their website). When websites don’t disclose the price, I automatically think that the product is going to be very expensive, though I realize this is not always the case.

To ACS’s defense, they offer a wide variety of customized church software. You can’t put a single price tag on a customizable product; that doesn’t mean they can’t give you a range though! It appears that for now, you’ll simply have to call them or meet with a local sales representative to see how much their software would be for your church.

Customer Support

Most people seem fairly happy with ACS’s customer support. Like most businesses, they have an online “Knowledge Base” where you can go for help. These knowledge bases have FAQ’s and a Problem/Solution format that can be helpful. Although the company would probably prefer you spend some time browsing their knowledge base before contacting them directly, you can always call them if you need help.
ACS does not have a 24 hour a day phone service, but their hours are respectable:

Monday –Thursday 9am – 8pm Eastern Time
Friday 9am – 6pm Eastern Time

You can’t really blame them for wanting to leave work at 6pm on a Friday; and many Christians don’t believe in working on Sunday (their Sabbath Day).

If a knowledge base or a phone call isn’t your preferred method, you can also contact the ACS support people through email.

Conversion

I’m not talking about spiritual conversion here, but conversion from your old accounting system to the ACS Church Accounting System. The ACS team will help you convert from your old software to theirs. To my knowledge they do have a setup fee. It has been my experience, that anytime you have to convert to a new accounting software system you are in for a real headache. That being said, ACS does as much as any other company to get you up and running with their new system.

Other Considerations:

I’m not actually a MAC user, but some MAC users have mentioned that they avoid ACS church accounting software because it is not compatible with the MAC. However, ACS does have something called “ACS OnDemand.” Supposedly using this product you will be able to access your financial information using a MAC. Note: You can always try running your MAC on Windows mode while using their Financial Suite software.

This software can be as complex or as simple as you want it. If you only want the software to track your church’s finances, it can do that. If you want it to track membership, attendance, baptisms, etc., it can do that. Keep in mind that the more features you add, the higher the price you will have to pay.

Review/Overall Recommendation

Because my site is not affiliated with any other church accounting software site, I will try to never promote one option over the other. I have tried to give the software as unbiased a review as possible.

Quick Look:
• The Software is user friendly and has been around for a long time
• The Software will help you be compliant with government agencies
• Pricing is a huge question mark as they don’t provide pricing on their webpage (they want to talk with you directly)
• ACS customer support is above average
• Potential problems for MAC Users
• Software is highly customizable, depending on what your church needs

On all my reviews I hope that interested/experienced parties will comment. The comments add a lot to the value of the review and I will update my reviews when needed.