PowerChurch is another good option in the church management software arena. This program has been around for a while and it offers all the normal goodies that are available in other church management programs. Perhaps the two characteristics that set PowerChurch apart are its online capabilities and its comprehensive package.
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.
We use PowerChurch as our church software. I have an accounting degree and have found their functionality to be adequate in regard to the financial aspects. You can create repeating entries for things that you enter every month (e.g. depreciation, bank interest), and you can also auto-generate entries based on the vendor ID (one limitation is that you can only auto post to one GL account per vendor). We use the contribution functionality as well, and it allows you to post income to multiple funds. Overall, we are satisfied with the product (we are using version 10, which is several years old).
In this review, you mention Power Church’s accounting is not as comprehensive as other software. Please explain what Power Church is missing. We are in the process of searching for Church Management software complete with fund accounting, payroll and contributions.
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