Aren’t you tired of using the same software for many years to do your job? When it’s time to upgrade, find the latest version and buy expensive software without knowing if it will be useful and usable for your purpose?
So, you’re looking for free church accounting software or maybe free church bookkeeping software? Well, let me stop you right there because chances are you will be disappointed if you are. There simply aren’t that many free church accounting or church bookkeeping software options out there. However, I’ve tested quite a few of them myself to save you some time, and I’m going to share with you my top picks.
PowerChurch Plus
PowerChurch Plus is an on-premise small business solution for churches and nonprofits catered to bookkeepers, treasurers and accountants.
A preview of PowerChurch Plus’ contributions tab.
Unique Benefits
PowerChurch Plus has unique strengths and capabilities that sets itself apart from the competition. These strengths include:
- Security: Leverage password protection to create numerous user accounts with audit logs that showcase important software activity, including transaction postings, backup restorations and operations that include dates, times and the user that carried them out.
- Backup and Restore: Create small zip file backups for program data as well as backups on floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, media cards and more.
- Integrations: You can integrate this program with Vanco Payment Solutions and Protect My Ministry. You may also electronically file W2 and W3 forms with the E-File tool.
Membership
This element enables you to record individual and family information, conduct group and attendance tracking and communication management.
Contributions
Trace giving history, chronicle pledges, import donations and develop reports with this attribute.
Budgeting
This accessory permits you to input budget amounts for individual accounts or share them by account groups. You may copy budgets from one year to another and change inaccurate ones. You may also export information as Access MDB, XLS, CSV, or DBF files for each account.
Reporting
Email reports directly from the screen preview and email them to one email address, selected members from the membership directory or members from a chosen activity thanks to the reporting appliance. There are 34 fund accounting report templates, 11 accounts receivable templates and 16 payroll report templates to pick and choose from.
You may save and recall report profiles, share report profiles with other users, and assign reports to a default profile. The custom report writer allows you to draft reports from each software module including fund accounting, account balances, accounts receivable data and payroll data.
Bank Reconciliation
Payroll
Record infinite payroll transactions for up to 9,999 employees with the payroll function. It comes with adjustable position, department and pay group fields. The fund accounting accessory automatically updates payroll transactions to trace employee contact information including addresses, two phone numbers and email addresses. This component tracks pastor salaries and housing allowances, supports every U.S. Federal and State tax table, installs and tracks pre-tax deductions including retirement and medical insurance and even tracks time off earned and used.
IconCMO
PROS
- Comprehensive church management features
- Childcare security add-on (separate fee required)
- Affordable for small and medium churches
- Includes unlimited users
CONS
- No fixed-asset tracking
- Expensive for larger churches
- Event registration feature requires an additional fee
- Can’t use Icon Check-in without an internet connection
Overall Score4.07OUT OF5
| RATING CRITERIA | PRICING | 3.98 | OUT OF | 5 |
| EASE OF USE | 3.25 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| GENERAL FEATURES | 3.75 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| CHURCH FEATURES | 4.44 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| EXPERT ANALYSIS | 4.38 | OUT OF | 5 |
Our Expert Opinion
We consider IconCMO our top pick because of its extensive list of accounting and church management features, including fund accounting, event registration, and online donation management. For an additional $15 per month, it offers a child check-in system (Icon Check-in), which is extremely helpful if your church runs a child care program. As a feature-rich church accounting software, it’s complicated to use. It requires more than basic bookkeeping training and experience. But once you get comfortable with it, IconCMO becomes a powerful tool for your church. If your church has paid staff, you can add payroll for unlimited employees for only $25 per month.
Pricing
IconCMO’s prices depend on the number of families your organization serves:
- 1 to 100 families: $35 per month
- 101 to 250 families: $49 per month
- 251 to 500 families: $59 month
- 501 to 750 families: $74 month
- 751 to 1,000 families: $84 per month
- 1,001 to 3,000 families: $94 month
- 3,000-plus families: $124 month
Available add-ons include:
- Icon Check-in add-on: $15 per month
- Icon Payroll add-on: $25 per month
- Event registration add-on: $15 per month
You can try IconCMO for free for 30 days with no credit card required.
ChurchTrac
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.
- 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.
Church Windows
Church Windows is the signature product of Columbus, Ohio-based Computer Helper Publishing, which has been publishing church management software since 1987. Church Windows is available as an installed desktop version, or as a cloud based software. The accounting features include fund accounting, recurring transactions, custom check-printing, and automated budgeting.
- Church Windows desktop version starts at $379 per module (accounting, donations, membership/scheduling, or payroll) with six months of updates and customer support
- After the initial purchase, updates and support start at $115/year
- The web version starts at $58/month after initial purchase and a 30-day free trial
There are discounts for multiple modules, and multi-module packages designed for small churches with limited needs.
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.
Aplos
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.
There are a number of pros to choosing Aplos Church Software:
- It was built by a CPA who is also a pastor, so the accounting behind the software is solid.
- It does true fund accounting, making it easy to manage your restricted funds.
- The all-in-one platform helps you manage everything you need as your church grows.
- It’s easy enough to use internally, but an assisted bookkeeping service is also available through Aplos.
Ranging from $24 per month for smaller churches to $199 per month for established congregations, Aplos Church Software’s pricing scales as your church grows, meaning you won’t overpay in your church’s infancy or outgrow the platform as your church matures. An Advanced Accounting option for larger churches is available starting at $179 per month (and requires an annual contract). Aplos Church Software will also work with you to create a custom church accounting software solution, known as their Thriving plan, which is quote-based.
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.
If you don’t have someone on your church’s administrative staff who is comfortable with accounting, Aplos has you covered with their bookkeeping service. Their team of specialized nonprofit bookkeepers will do all the accounting heavy lifting for you, starting at $300 per month without payroll or $400 per month for church accounting software with payroll and bill pay services included.
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.
Conclusion:
Since the church bookkeeper plays such a crucial role in most congregations, the need for software offering best church bookkeeping platforms is essential. The bookkeeper is responsible for collecting data from all the financial records, posting it properly and then generating accounting reports for use by management. If you’re looking for free church bookkeeping software, or free accounting software then we’ve got you covered.