Church Accounting Software Guide » Church Software

Church Management Software

doups3 — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:09:28 +0000

One common problem that church leaders face is how to spend their time most effectively. Although these leaders seem to have an unlimited amount of energy, they are only human. Often they divide their work up into two categories: housekeeping items and spirituality. The housekeeping items involve tasks like updating the church records and taking care of the accounting. The spiritual tasks include preparing for sermons and serving the members in any way. Unfortunately these housekeeping items often take up a lot of time leaving it hard to focus on what’s most important.

Fortunately, there is technology to help these leaders with their housekeeping items. Church management software has several features that make it easier to run the day-to-day operations of the church: (1) Accounting and payroll. Handling all of the contributions can be a real head-ache and it is very time consuming. Church staff members have to make sure that all of the donations are categorized properly according to the FASB nonprofit standards. In addition, at the end of the year members should receive a contribution statement that lists how much they contributed during the year for tax purposes. Fortunately there is church accounting software to help you with all of this. (2) Tracking membership information. A good church software package will also be able to help with tracking important member information such as contact information, current callings, and conversion date. Managing all of this would be a nightmare without a good management program. (3) Scheduling and managing activities. A good church membership software program will help you keep track of all the service opportunities and other activities going on within the church.

Non-sponsored List of Church Management Software Providers:

Click on any of the links below to read a review about the software (you’ll also find links to each companies’ website).

Church Windows

This company has been making church software since software started being developed. Okay, maybe not that long, but they have been in the business since 1987. They have the friendliest staff and the best customer service (I’ve dealt with quite a few church software companies and have been really impressed by how I was treated at ChurchWindows). Their software is broken up into 6 modules: Membership, Scheduling, Payroll, Accounting, Contribution, and Accounts Receivable. Initially the separate module idea bothered me, but as I deal with more church leaders I find that they all have different needs.

ACS Technologies

ACS has been in this business for a long time. They provide some very high-quality and flashy software. Probably the thing I like best about ACS is how they cater to different sized churches. They have an option for small churches, medium/large churches, and mega churches. This is very good software. This is a larger company so expect to receive all that comes with dealing with a big company: tried and tested software, but occasionally a small customer might fall between the cracks.

Power Church

PowerChurch is another company that has been providing church management software for a long time. They provide a solid program at a great price. As they like to say they “provide the biggest bang for your buck.”

Servant Keeper

This is an interesting church management system solution. One feature that is particularly intriguing is the option to integrate the management software with QuickBooks. Many people prefer to do their accounting on QuickBooks (because that’s how they’ve always done it). This software allows you to manage your church and contributions using QuickBooks as an extension.

Icon Systems

The people at Icon Systems take church management very seriously. They have a licensed CPA on staff that can answer all of your church accounting questions (accounting is where most church leaders run into problems, usually membership management doesn’t cause as much stress because you don’t have standards and regulations that you are required to follow). IconCMO (the software provided by Icon Systems) is based online. The new trend in technology is to move the software online. This makes it so church volunteers can access the information from anywhere they have Internet access. It also means that your church doesn’t have to worry about the technology headaches that comes with upgrading (the tech experts at Icon Systems take care of all this for you).

ChurchTrac

The idea behind ChurchTrac is to provide a low-cost solution for managing your church. The ChurchTrac software is free for your first 100 members. This is great new for those churches that are just starting out and are on extremely tight budgets.

ChurchTrac has also branded itself as the “easy-to-use” church management system. This means that your church will save money in support costs. Many software companies make their living off of providing difficult software programs and then charging a lot of money for support. ChurchTrac goes the other way; they try to make their software as user-friendly as possible so that you’ll never have to bug them. You can read my full review by clicking on the link above.

More church management software reviews to come…

I would be very grateful if others could provide their experience with these church management software programs. If you have experience with any church management program please write about it below (in the comments section). This will really help out people looking to find programs for their church. You would be surprised at the number of people looking for help. Take a few minutes to serve your fellow man. You’ll be blessed for it!

Please include the following information.

Name of program used:

Years using it:

Approximate size of your church:

Your experience with the software (Did it save you time?) (Was it hard to get up and running?) (Would you recommend it to a friend?) (How user friendly is it?):

Anything else you think will help others who are searching for software to manage their church:

Note: If you work for one of these companies and would like to get your logo placed next to your review, then please contact me.

A Review of Church Windows

doups3 — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:42:31 +0000

In our quest to provide you the best information on church accounting software, we are taking a look today at Church Windows. First of all, you have to love these guys just based on the sheer cleverness they have put into

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.