Wouldn't it be great if there was some free church accounting software out there to help you manage your church's funds and taxes? Well, as always, there are several websites out there claiming to give away church accounting software. To hopefully save you some time, we've put together this list of supposedly free church software. And to save you some money, we have identified what the true cost of the software is.
As is always our policy, we do not endorse one church software system over another. We simply want to provide you information.
- Sunday Software
First of all, if you started the journey for your church's accounting system by typing into google "free church accounting software" then you likely ended up on a sub-domain of sundaysoftware.com. SundaySoftware does not make accounting software; however, they do provide links to other sites that do.
- Churchtrac.com
The good new about churchtrac is that they actually do offer free church accounting software. The bad news is that the software is only for small churches. After some investigation we learned that small churches means less than 100 people.
**** Update July 15, 2010***
- Gnucash.org
Gnucash offers some software that could be used as free church management software. This software was originally built for businesses which may mean that you need to tweak it a bit for it to work for your church. It is open source and is considered by many as the best free accounting package available.
****Update April 26 2010 ****
Vickey over at freechurchaccounting.com has some free spreadsheets that can be an excellent solution for those of you looking for a completely free way to perform your churches' accounting.
Synopsis
If the church that your managing has less than 100 people or if you don't mind having some advertisements floating around the screen then you just may be able to find some free church accounting software. Otherwise, it appears you will have to fork out the cash to get the software.
**** Update June 19, 2009 ****
After thinking more about this topic, I have a few other recommendations if you are looking to save some money. If your church's accounting systems is relatively simple then you could probably get away with using Microsoft Excel. Although most thoroughbred accountants will scoff at you for not using some sort of specialized software. And if you want to go completely free, then why not try Open Office. I know a lot of Non-Profits actually use this software and it does a decent job. Although it might take you a while to get over some of the annoying little quirks.
There’s another option out there. If you are on GoogleDocs, do a search for “general ledger” (https://docs.google.com/templates?q=general+ledger&sort=hottest&view=public)
One of the first templates you will find is called “Template-Accounting”. It’s a good general ledger and reporting workbook, with a chart of accounts and everything you need. You just need to clean up some of the pages (for some reason, some of the accounts have a sum() equation at the bottom of the CR and DR columns, which throws off the numbers on the quarterly reports. You just need to move those sums to the top right of those sheets (“Actual”) and you should be good to go. Of course, you will want to change/add/subtract accounts, so this workbook requires some knowledge of working with spreadsheets and working with formulas. But otherwise, it’s a great solution for really small churches and non-profits.
Hey Jon,
Thanks for the heads up on that option. I appreciate it.
Nate
I have created 2 versions of church software, one for windows at whitsoftware.com and one for linux at churchfunds.googlecode.com. These are open source. I would like someone to look at the code and take over development as open source. It is coded in free pascal/lazarus and uses a firebird database. Is is meant for ease of use, ease of querying and ease of reporting.
PRAISE THE LORD
ONE ELDER OF METHODIST CHURCH OF INDIA, ADVISE ME TO KEEP THE ACCOUNTS OF CHURCH SO I AM INTERESTED TO OBTAIN FREE CHURCH ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IF THE SAME AVAILABLE WITH YOU
WITH REGARDS
PRAKASH MASIH
SURYA NAGAR,LINE PAR
MORADABAD-244001,INDIA
PHONE nO. +919058966118
I believe the site you are trying to suggest is gnucash.org. not .com
Val,
Nice catch! Updated.
Kindly give us a church accounting software for our church.
There is one accounting software from accountingdes.com that is worth trying out. It is ready for use after a quick installation. It has an interesting Cash Book features that let you monitor your cash flow. Best of all, its free!
Katina,
Thanks for the heads up on that. I’ve removed churchradius.com and added another new option that seems pretty exciting.
I really appreciate it.
Nate
I was so excited to see this overview! I appreciate all the work put into this! However, the Churchradius.com site redirects to CrowdSpace.net and they do charge for their web based system: $180 annually, or $18 per month.
Aplos Software has a free trial. If purchased it is only $229 no matter how big your church grows and it includes auto-giving statements and a people database.
Dan
http://www.aplossoftware.com
I believe it will be helpful
Would be very grateful if an Accounting programe could be provided for our church please.
Thank you.
Regards,
Lall
Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jsus.
We are a church in Ghana in West Africa – GLOBAL EVANGELICAL CHURCH, Bubuashie Assembly. Currently, we still keep manual accounting records, which is time consuming with church accounts delaying for almost one year. The Finance committee (of which I am a member)recently agreed we obtain a software and I believe you will be of help to us.
God Bless You
I just started a church and I am looking for an accounting program to assist us in our record keeping.
This site offers free financial software for churches. It is only single entry spreadsheets, but it is great for small and start up churches. The best thing is all the spreadsheets are free!
ChurchTrac’s accounting software is completely free, regardless of your church size. The only cost involved is when entering more than 100 names, otherwise that is completely free too. I’ve found it priced very reasonably compared to others, and the pricing is tiered based on the number of names you need to enter.