Top 10 Church Accounting Software and Accounting Services

PowerChurch Plus is peculiar because of its strict functionality approach, which first elevates only the essential features for church needs. PowerChurch Plus is intended exclusively for churches and non-profit organizations. The church management feature also allows you to know your members more and provides specific attention to those who need it. FlockBase is built with true fund accounting, allowing you to easily track your fund balances. However, the cloud option is your best bet if you want to access your funds, member information, campaigns and more from mobile devices. Most vendors provide you with diverse security tactics such as two-step or multi-factor authentication, user controls and restrictions, data encryption and more.

• Some churches, especially smaller churches, may have many unpaid staff members who will need to utilize the software, and training them on their own schedule can prove to be time-consuming and costly.
• The desktop software a church purchases today may not be able to handle what the church needs in a few years time.
• You can categorize costs, and compare fundraising numbers, yearly donations, and services provided so you can find opportunities to do even more good work.
• While you can read an in-depth analysis of our top 11 picks below, here’s a quick overview of the top 10 church accounting software, what makes them stand out, and their base prices.
• The software, with its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface, provides a solid platform that simplifies financial management responsibilities, increases transparency, and helps religious institutions simplify operations.

In scoring, we considered the price point, number of users, limitations on transactions, and overall affordability of the software for churches. QuickBooks Premier Plus made it to this list as a great alternative to PowerChurch Plus in desktop accounting. Church and nonprofit accounting are similar, and getting the Nonprofit edition of QuickBooks Premier Plus is a good solution. It already includes nonprofit-specific features, so you don’t need to modify the system.

Why We Choose QuickBooks Premier Plus Nonprofit

Invoicing and accounting features are free to use, but more high-end features or custom features attract varying prices from $20 to $149 per month or a one-time fee of $379. If you’re a small church with a thin budget, then wave accounting is an option worth considering. Whether a small church or a large one, running the church without financial help is nearly impossible. Churches collect offerings and donations and have other funding sources.

Get matched with a QuickBooks-certified bookkeeper who understands nonprofits and keeps your books up to date. Connect your bank to QuickBooks to auto-sync transaction and see all your finances in one place. Since she began leading worship at the age of 15, Ashley has always been passionate about supporting the local church and leading others into worship. For the past 10 years she has been leading worship teams and finds much joy and fulfillment in empowering and raising up other leaders. Ashley is a song writer with Worship Central Canada and has had the incredible opportunity to travel and lead worship, while collaborating with other worship leaders. We may earn a commission when you click through links on our site — learn more about how we aim to stay transparent.

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We also considered payroll and online payment integration, as long as it was not through a third-party app. Overall, we also gave a score for subjective ease of use based on the overall experience when navigating and using the software. «Our church accounting is much more efficient with Aplos. It is easy to set up and use. I’m able to keep track of multiple accounts with ease.» Finally, decide whether this software is the right fit for your church long term. Look at higher-tiered plans and the financial actions your church needs over the long term.

Being able to stay on top is priceless, especially if it costs almost nothing and reliefs a lot off of your duty. Being able to manage and check your accounting from anywhere, like from your office, from your aunt’s house in New Jersey, or from a trip to Belgium is one of most powerful features of cloud-based levered free cash accounting solutions. That being said, churches should evaluate what their needs are for the software and set a realistic monthly budget to accommodate the expense. Many software options base their pricing on how many users need access to the software along with what features are available.

Track expenses by funds

Software exists to help with almost every aspect of running a business, so it’s no surprise that there are an equal amount of tools available for nonprofits, and thus, faith-based organizations such as churches. All of these features can make the church’s bookkeeping much more simplistic and streamlined, which will save time and money. The easier the bookkeeping is, the more time it frees up for other activities to help progress the church’s mission. Churches are places to gather and come together to achieve a purpose and help their surrounding community. While it may be the last thing on their mind, a church’s accounting software can create an impact on the organization.

However, you can delete a client to make room for more, then easily undelete recurring clients as you need to invoice them. While a solution that was developed specifically for the church is recommended, you may find success using solutions found in these related software categories. The free version of CahabaWorks is intended for use by small churches and does have a limited feature set, as well as only giving access to 1 computer. Bitrix24 provides social tools for engaging your congregation, like social network, user groups, polling, media gallery, shared calendars, video conferencing and more.

IconCMO – Best fund accounting for churches

Realm offers 30 customizable church- and ministry-specific report templates. You can save predefined church reports in the Realm ministry management software, then customize them and save them for reuse. Finally, Realm’s church accounting and payroll reporting software allows churches to select standard accounting reports, then customize them based on time periods, funds, core accounts and departments. ACS Technologies provides a general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash management capabilities, which enable churches to manage their financial information and produce financial statements. It also allows churches to easily track donations and pledge payments, including automatic deposit of electronic funds, and generation of donation statements for tax purposes.

Churches that need to track expenses around projects for which parishioners or donors have earmarked their donations should consider Xero for their accounting software. Bitrix24 is a business management software that provides a number of functionalities that surround around communications, tasks and projects, CRM, contact management, and website creation. Keep in mind that this solution is an industry-neutral solution and was not developed with churches in mind. However, that does not stop plenty of churches and congregation from using it as their top free church acounting software solution.

Although a church is not run as a profit-making business, you still need to balance expenses with income from donations and other sources of revenue to keep the doors open. This accounting software is designed especially for churches and can be easily customized for your church size and the community services you provide. If you’re looking for church accounting software with payroll, Aplos Church Software does not include payroll services in their own software, but they do integrate with Gusto for seamless and stress-free payroll management. QuickBooks Premier Plus requires a $549.99 annual subscription, but nonprofit organizations can typically receive a discount if they purchase through TechSoup.

Before joining FSB, Eric has worked as a freelance content writer with various digital marketing agencies in Australia, the United States, and the Philippines. Eric is a staff writer at Fit Small Business and CPA focusing on accounting content. He spends most of his time researching and studying to give the best answer to everyone. «An IT person picked this software for our church but it is an accountant’s dream! I am so impressed.»

More features for churches

Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is an accounting software specifically designed for non-profit organizations, providing tools for financial management, donor management, grant management, and reporting. Botkeeper also offers a great customer support, which ensures that any issues or concerns are addressed quickly. The software is user-friendly and easy to navigate even for those with little or no accounting experience. Furthermore, Botkeeper is cloud-based, which means that churches can access their financial information and data from anywhere at any time.

If you’re looking for a 100% cloud-based church accounting software option that will grow with your church, look no further than Aplos Church Software. Aplos Church Software is a cloud-based, all-in-one church management and accounting system that grows as your church does. Software integrations are important when selecting church accounting software because they allow the software to connect and share data with other software programs that the church may be using.

AccountEdge Pro has inventory tracking and sales tax calculations if you sell anything through the church, like Bibles, t-shirts, or event tickets. Answer a few simple questions to see the software we recommend for your church. Afterward, continue reading for more information about each program. «The Fund Accounting is most helpful for the churches I help. The monthly reports are great to send to my clients so they can see where their money goes and how much they take in.» «After looking at several other church financial software products, we decided on Aplos Software and are very satisfied with the product. It meets all of our needs.»