Have you ever wondered What Is The Best Church Accounting Software? Or how to choose the right church financial software? If you’re looking for the ideal small business accounting software, this is the place to go. Here, you can find out which types of software are most popular for organizations like yours. To help you find the best church financial management system for churches, ministry groups, non-profits and other companies with similar financial needs.
We use church management software to run our church’s finances using the best church accounting software. Now that the business basics are settled, which one is the best for churches?
QuickBooks Premier
We typically recommend QuickBooks Online for small businesses, but that is not the case for small churches. If your church is on the smaller side, QuickBooks Premier, with its nonprofit capabilities, may be your best small church accounting software option.
Why do we recommend QuickBooks Premier — a desktop-based product — instead of cloud-based QuickBooks Online? Primarily, it’s because of donor reporting functionality. Although you can employ workarounds to make QuickBooks Online work for your church’s accounting needs, QuickBooks Online doesn’t provide any donor reporting, nor will it print end-of-year donation statements. QuickBooks Premier does both with minimal effort.
Using a desktop product like QuickBooks Premier means you lose the flexibility of anytime, anywhere access to your accounting records, unless you choose to pay for a hosting service like Right Networks. However, the functionality you gain with QuickBooks Premier — and the time you’ll save at year-end makes this inconvenience negligible for most small churches.
QuickBooks Premier requires a one-time purchase of $499.95, but nonprofit organizations can typically receive a significant discount if they purchase through TechSoup. If you need church accounting software with payroll capabilities, QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll is available for $31.50 per month plus $2 per employee per month.
Aplos
Aplos church accounting software was founded in 2009 by the executive pastor of a church in California. While Aplos started as a web-based church accounting system, it has evolved to include event registration, church marketing, fundraising, website builder, and more.
The accounting system offers integrated payroll, tithe tracking, automated donations, and more.
- Aplos starts at $59/month
- For $79/month, churches can add text-to-give
- Customized systems with advanced accounting (project and fund budgeting, fixed asset management, automation) start at $159/month.
Aplos offers a 50% discount for the first six months for new users who subscribe during their 15-day free trial, and a 10% discount for an annual commitment.
PowerChurch
Founded in 1984, PowerChurch Plus is one of the most established church accounting software programs on the market. PowerChurch Plus is a desktop-based church accounting software, but the company also has an online option: PowerChurch Online. Unlike QuickBooks where the desktop and online versions of the software differ considerably, PowerChurch Online is an actual installation of PowerChurch Plus on PowerChurch’s servers.
PowerChurch is a complete church accounting software, membership management, and recordkeeping system for your growing church. If you need more functionality than the core program offers, you can purchase additional add-ons, such as to handle check-ins or mass mailings. Keep in mind though, this will raise the price of your church accounting software — but if you were paying for these things anyway, it can streamline the process to get them all from the same provider.
The PowerChurch user interface isn’t anything fancy — in fact, it harkens back to the accounting software of 20 years ago — but it does what it’s supposed to do, and it does it well. However, one downside to PowerChurch is that it’s not form-based like QuickBooks; instead, it assumes a basic understanding of double-entry accounting–including which accounts are normally increased by credits or debits — making the learning curve a bit steep for someone with no prior accounting knowledge.
PowerChurch Plus is available for a one-time purchase of $395 if you download the software, or $415 if you order a physical disk for installation. Upgrades are an additional $159 for downloads or $179 for physical media. PowerChurch Plus only works on Windows PCs.
PowerChurch Online is $39.95 per month for two users, with the option to pay an extra $25 per month for every two additional users. If you opt for annual billing instead of monthly, you will save a marginal amount and pay $455 for the standard two-person license, or $275 per two additional users. All upgrades are included in this price, and you can use PowerChurch Online on any computer with an internet connection.
Sage Intacct Software
Sage Intacct is a provider of cloud-based financial management and accounting software. Sage Intacct’s software solution is suitable for small to midsize accounting firms and can provide financial reporting and operational insights as well as the ability to automate critical financial processes. Sage Intacct cloud financial management solution manages all core financials and provides professional services to help implement Sage Intacct software. Sage Intacct delivers an array of core accounting applications such as a general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, and order management to any accounting department or finance team. It also supports functionality for built-in dashboards, real time reporting, time and expense management,
Aplos
Aplos is a favorite for churches large and small. Key features include a generous number of tracking options. Churches can also create budgets and ledgers based on individual funds, projects, and ministries.
Aplos also integrates staff payroll, so there’s no need to maintain a separate accounting system for regular (and irregular) paydays.
If you’re leading a larger organization, Aplos offers advanced solutions with even more options so you can customize the software to meet your church’s unique accounting needs.
Realm
With a 4.5 out of 5 star rating on Capterra, Realm deserves an honorable mention on our list of best church accounting software solutions. Users rave about Realm being user friendly and having amazing customer service — both important features for any church accounting software.
Realm can handle basically anything your church needs, from giving, to events, to accounting, and more.
Realm does not post its pricing on its website, but according to Capterra pricing starts at $29 per month. Pricing is based in part on weekly attendance, and you can easily configure your plan on Realm’s website.
CahabaWorks
CahabaWorks launched as an Alabama-based church management system in 2006. Along with standard church management features like membership and small group management and child check-in, CahabaWorks also covers all church accounting needs, from donation management to financial reporting and payroll. CahabaWorks is locally installed, meaning that users can download the software onto their system and use it without an internet connection (though there is an option for off-site backup).
- CahabaWorks offers a free version of their software with limited features and no customer support
- For $350/year, the standard edition adds child check-in, cloud backup, online giving integration, and customer support (30-day onboarding, technical assistance, free updates)
- For $650/year, customers can add payroll and priority support
- For $1,500/year, the premier edition adds multiple administrative users on the local network
Customers can renew for $300/year (standard support) or $600/year (priority support).
Conclusion:
Whether you’re in charge of the office, the church checkbook, or you need to keep track of Sunday School attendance, there is church management software out there that will make your job a lot easier. For instance, you can manage your online fundraising initiatives using Church Management Software.