What Is the Best Software for Church Accounting

Brief about the best software for Church Accounting, it’s a program for Church accounting without having to do bookkeeping. Now that the existence of this Church Accounting Software not everyone has their own church accounting system so this software like what is the best software for church accounting really can be very beneficial for the church.

If you are a pastor or church leader and you need to know what the best church accounting software is, then this guide will answer the question. We are updating the article frequently, so you can always find the latest information here.

QuickBooks Premier: Best desktop church accounting software for small churches

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.

QuickBooks Desktop PremierREAD REVIEW

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QuickBooks Premier add-on: Breeze

As your church grows, you might find you need more functionality than QuickBooks Premier offers alone. In particular, your growing church will need to manage volunteers and events, enable online giving, and possibly even run email campaigns.

Enter Breeze, a web-based church management software for small and medium-sized churches. Breeze is not a full accounting software, but it does produce most of the reports your church leadership will want. If you want a full church accounting software solution — and we do recommend using one — Breeze bridges the gap between QuickBooks Premier alone and more robust (and costly) church-specific accounting and management software.

You can integrate Breeze with QuickBooks Premier, or as this article on Breeze’s website explains, you can also make manual entries into QuickBooks — or any other church accounting software.

Breeze costs a flat fee of $50 per month for unlimited users, unlimited members, and all their features, including support, the Breeze smartphone app, and all upgrades — making it one of the most affordable church management options on this list.

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.

Power Church Plus

PowerChurch Plus’s name says it all. This program provides a powerful accounting system for small to mid-size churches that just need the basics, all at a reasonable, budget-conscious price. 

In addition to staple accounting features, PowerChurch Plus allows users to maintain a membership database and schedule events. Its strength is in its no-frills approach designed for churches. Rather than filling the program with add-ons that most churches don’t need, PowerChurch Plus keeps things simple. In an industry known for “feature creep,” this is indeed a blessing for busy pastors!

CahabaWorks

 4.5/5.0
25+ reviewsA screenshot of the fund accounting overview screen in CahabaWorks
Fund accounting in CahabaWorks (Source)

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).

 

ChurchTrac logo

ChurchTrac

 4.7/5.0
430+ reviewsA screenshot of the transactions import screen in ChurchTrac accounting
Importing transactions in ChurchTrac accounting (Source)

ChurchTrac, founded in 2002 in a Florida church, includes features for membership management, donations, check-in, worship planning, event planning, website management, and of course, fund-based church accounting. In addition to all of the standard church accounting features, ChurchTrac also offers check printing, recurring transactions, advanced search, and more.

Pricing:

  • ChurchTrac offers a free plan for up to 75 members, which includes membership management, imports and backups, and free tech support
  • The Standard plan includes everything in the free plan plus track giving and pledges, online donations, child check-in, and more for $5/month
  • The Plus plan, which starts at $15/month, includes advanced scheduling, worship planning, song library, and more

Prices increase based on the number of members, and churches can get two months free with an annual commitment.

Conclusion

Church financial software can help small churches get accurate and timely information from donations to expenses. The most versatile church accounting software is capable of interfacing with an accounting software as well as point of sale and third party products. Tags : church finance software, church accounting software. Accounting software can either be used by single pastors or large churches with hundreds of employees.

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