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.

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.

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 version would probably be the best to use for your church’s accounting system, although I have heard of churches using normal QuickBooks.

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 probably 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.

Disadvantages of QuickBooks

QuickBooks doesn’t leave much of an audit trail in some situations. If an error is made you can easily reverse what has been done without leaving a trail. For example, let’s say your church accountant accidentally books a donation to the tithing fund instead of the missionary fund. He or she can delete the entry to the tithing fund and switch it to the missionary fund without any sort of documentation.

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.

QuickBooks even allows you to change entries made years ago without any documentation or support. A skilled church accountant could easily cook your church accounting books using this software. However, having proper internal controls in place can help limit some of the risk of using QuickBooks as church accounting software.

Update: Another disadvantage of QuickBooks is that it was originally designed for businesses, not churches. Intuit’s non-profit software has some customization features, but it 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
• Advantages include ease of use and great customer support ( a lot of people know how to use this software)
• Disadvantages include it doesn’t leave an audit trail which could jeopardize the trustworthiness of your church accounting system and it may not support your church’s accounting language

Back to the Basics

Before accounting became all about following rules and regulations, accounting was used to track key information. This information could be about anything. A farmer may have used accounting to track how much milk his cows were producing. A banker to track the money going in and out. An army general to track casualties. This was accounting in its most beautiful form. So useful, and so uncomplicated. Unfortunately in order to achieve comparability amongst different companies, accounting has become tainted. The numbers have to be squeezed so that they are in accordance with certain standards. They become useless, and this is when accounting becomes GAAP .

Church accountants would do well to remember that the main reason they are doing accounting is to track the useful information of their church. The good news is that you, the church accountant, get to decide what is useful. It may be church attendance, church donations, number of conversions, etc..

Fund Accounting

Churches require fund accounting. To understand fund accounting, it is helpful to understand what the word “fund” means. Fund = a reserve of money set aside for some purpose. Fund does not mean a separate bank account. In fact you can have one bank account with an unlimited amount of funds.

Why do Churches Require Fund Accounting?

When you give your money to Wal-Mart in exchange for goods you have no say over what Wal-Mart does with that money. However, when you give your money to a Church, you can tell them that your money should go towards missionary work, feeding the homeless, or building new churches. In fact, most churches have a missionary fund, a service fund, and a construction fund.

The Need for Church Accounting Software

Once you understand that Wal-Mart’s accounting is different than a Church’s you realize that special software is needed for church accounting. Church accounting software should make fund accounting simple and easy.

First of all, you might note a few good things right from the get go: (1)the website is an http(s) (that “S” is important and means that the company spent the money to be more secure–a good sign (2) they are secured by Geotrust and (3) the website is professional and easy to navigate. If you see these three things on any online website, it is extremely unlikely that you will be scammed.

Next, Clarity offers free church accounting software for 30 days (a demo version). This is a sign that they are confident in their church accounting software. This is the exact opposite of those “miracle weight loss pages” that are 100 pages long, and keep saying that they will tell you the secret to weight loss once you get to the bottom of the page (in the meantime you have to read all their propaganda, usually in the form of success stories). I’m sorry if I’m getting on a tangent here, but I can’t stress this enough, please avoid sites that are all propaganda and offer quick and easy solutions.

Clarity’s 30-day free church accounting software trial is better than most because they don’t require a credit card number before you can use the trial. Many companies give you a free trial, but ask for your credit card number in hopes that you will forget. Once your trial time is up, they start charging you (very annoying).

Functionality

The Good: Keep in mind we were using the demo version as we tested their online software. The software has all the financial accounting information any church would need. The software is very intuitive. When you tell the software to do something, it does! The layout and reports are very aesthetically pleasing.

The Questionable: When I clicked on the graphical reports, it kept sending me to some random web page that hand nothing to do with Clarity Accounting (a little frustrating, but again, maybe this is the demo version).

Keep in mind that this is online church accounting software which comes with the benefits of being able to use it anywhere, but also the security issues that come with online software.

We advise that you do some of your own research before making any purchase of church accounting software but Clarity Accounting appears to be a good product for a low price of $10 a month.

Feel free to sound off on any Church Accounting Products in the comment box.

Church Management Systems Versus Church Accounting Software

It turns out that some software exists that does just about everything for your church. These software packages are usually entitled “Church Management Software.” These management softwares take care of membership issues (attendance, converts, etc.). They also manage the finances at your church (offerings, taxes, etc.). We’ve even seen some church management software that has features that track upcoming events in your church–choir rehearsals, dinners, and church services.

On the other hand we have seen websites that sell their wares separately. For example they sell what they call a “People Suite” that will keep track of membership or a “Financial Suite” that keeps track of finances. It is important to note that these companies are selling them separately: if you buy the people suite you aren’t getting any financial suite products. This can be compared to buying Microsoft Word separate from Microsoft Excel. They don’t exactly do the same thing.

So our word of caution is to make sure that what your buying performs all of the functions you want it to. We tend to lean towards the One-Package-Does-it-all solutions, but we can see some reasons for buying separately (perhaps better functionality).

Before you make your purchase, make sure to double, nay triple check to verify that your computer(s) meet at least the minimum requirements for the software. There is nothing worse than spending money on software, returning back to your computer, placing the CD in the computer, and then finding out that your computer can’t handle the software. Please make sure you meet the minimum requirements for any software you buy for your church.

Unfortunately many companies that offer church software fail to place the minimum requirements on their websites. If you find yourself in this situation, then you have three options: (1) Gamble and purchase the software anyway hoping that your computers will have what it takes–not recommended (2) Contact the company via phone or email (3) Go to a different website. Gambling is never recommended

After searching the Internet, we’ve found that most church accounting software requires at least 64-256mb of ram. This may not seem like a lot to some people, but many churches don’t have a big budget to buy top end computers.

We hope we have saved you some time in your quest to purchase church software. Feel free to leave any comments about information you may have acquired.

Because money is sometimes a sensitive area within the Church, it is important to assure that your members’ donations are being accounted for. Church accounting software can help you keep better track of where these donations are going.

You can use church accounting software to give annual or semi-annual statements to your members. Giving these statements increases trust with your members and can lead to further donations. You can also use your church management software to track your expenditures. Most software systems will display this information in a way that will allow you to make better decisions…

Decision making is critical when spending members’ contributions!

1. Internet Security Issues

A hacker could maliciously enter your online database that contains all of your important church management information and steal or delete the information. We won’t get into the technical jargon of how they might accomplish this, just know that they can.

2. Your Online Software Company Goes Out of Business

If you have your information stored online through one of the many online software systems, then you run the risk of your online software provider going out of business and trashing your data.

We’re not saying we’re completely against having all of your church management data online, but we recommend caution when this information is online. Always have a physical backup of your church accounting software data.

As with most products, if you spend a little more it is because the product is a little better. The trick is finding out what your church’s needs are. You might ask yourself, “What is it that I need to track?” You may be wanting to track your membership from week to week, or how much offerings are given on a monthly or yearly basis. More complex questions might be, how much taxes have I withheld for the paid clergy or how much will I need to withhold? The bottom line is to find out what exactly you need the software for before buying it.

Many church accounting services provided by companies will want to charge you on a monthly basis. This is becoming more common in almost all businesses. Prices start around $30 a month and go as high as $200 a month. We wouldn’t recommend paying more than that for your church accounting software. If you dislike monthly fees, then you can buy quickbooks online for about $200 over at Microsoft.

The best of luck in your hunt for your church management software. If you have any additional pricing information, feel free to post it in the comments box below.