Church bookkeeping should be a top priority for every congregation, especially considering the implications effective bookkeeping has on your church’s financial management and legal compliance. To ensure your books are accurate and compliant, outsource the task to a professional who can navigate the complexities of your finances. Most church leaders are concerned with ministry, not financial management. This means you’ll need to find time and gain the expertise necessary to keep accurate and compliant books.
Overviews Of The 13 Best Church Accounting Software
Also, list extra financial capabilities your church needs, such as the ability to process payroll, maintain a CRM or categorize restricted funds. Then, check to ensure your software offers a plan that is both within your budget and enables you to perform essential actions. QuickBooks Online helps keep your church finances organized in one place, no matter the size of your organization. Whether you’re tracking the expenses of your youth group or monitoring donations from your congregation, you can customize your QuickBooks church accounting software to work for you. Especially when using the fund accounting method to organize your finances, your church’s bookkeeping is likely too complex to simply input data into a spreadsheet. Dedicated accounting software can streamline bookkeeping and might even offer budgeting tools to help you plan for the future based on your bookkeeping insights.
One more notable feature is FreshBooks’ highly customizable invoices. Churches can use these invoices to earn added revenue for weddings, funerals and other events. The only downfall here is the limitations on the number of clients you can invoice at one time. However, you can delete a client to make room for more, then easily undelete recurring clients as you need to invoice them. Whether you’re presenting in a monthly meeting to congregants or delivering financial presentations to the board or committee, it’s easy to create the right report for each audience.
FreshBooks’ award-winning customer support means you never struggle to get assistance. You can expect a live human to answer the phone within two seconds, then zero hold time. Before a human answers, there are no endless runarounds with prerecorded messages and requests to push different buttons. You can also seek support via live chat, webinars and a knowledge base. Find help articles, video tutorials, and connect with other businesses in our online community. Find more of what you need with these tools, resources, and solutions.
Use fund accounting
PowerChurch has been around since the 1980s, and its boxy pop-ups make it look like its interface hasn’t evolved much since then. While sleek graphics matter less than core features, other church-specific accounting software, like Aplos or Realm, might be a better fit if you value a modern user experience. Selecting the right plan depends on your church’s size and specific financial management needs.
- Some platforms offer direct integrations with popular systems or dedicated support for data migration, which helps minimize downtime and ensures data integrity.
- Aplos is the only all-in-one software on this list that offers a free trial period, so consider taking advantage of that.
- Features include account segments for more detailed reporting of transactions as well as tools for administrative tasks, like volunteer management, background checks, event management, and reporting.
- Upgrade for more granular reporting so you can harness the ability to see the exact data you need across your funds, ministries, projects, and locations.
Related Church Software Reviews
We understand the unique challenges of managing church finances because we’ve been there. Founded by a pastor, Simplify Church’s sweet spot is helping small-to-medium-size churches with their financial needs. Wave Accounting is best for very small churches with zero budget to cover accounting software. Churches looking for an all-in-one church-tailored platform for keeping church records, managing church events and membership, and performing all essential church accounting functions should consider PowerChurch. Using Aplos’ CRM tools, you can create a member and donor database with profiles. Profiles house details including household relationships, group or ministry involvement, volunteer preferences, key dates and notes.
The PowerChurch user interface isn’t anything fancy, but the software depreciation calculator includes many features specific to the accounting and membership management needs of a church. At its simplest definition, church accounting software helps churches manage their finances, members, and daily operations more effectively. Also known as church bookkeeping software, or church financial software, this tool can bring order to your financial chaos. These trends highlight the rapid evolution of church accounting software, driven by the need for greater integration, transparency, and ease of use.