Accounting Software for Non-Profit Church

Have you tried to learn the best accounting software for churches online? Do you want to know the pros and cons of cloud based accounting software for churches? Are you interested in free accounting software for churches? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this article is for you.

If you are in search of an accounting software for churches, you are on the right page! A church accounting software is used to track multiple features. Regular accounting helps churches in controlling their budget. If you want to boost your church’s financial status, then you need to choose a church software that fits your non-profit accounting requirements. There are several reasons why you should choose a nonprofit accounting software to manage finances of your nonprofit organization.

ShelbyNext Financials

ShelbyNext Financials is a cloud-based solution that includes a full suite of standard accounting features plus key elements created specifically for churches, including payroll and year-end tax reporting.

For example, the purchasing management process allows every church to define its own approval process. You create the parameters, and ShelbyNext will follow along to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Other honorable mentions include:

FlockBase

If none of our top picks seem to fit your specific church accounting needs, be sure to check these out.

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.

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.

Church360 Ledger

Church360 Ledger is a worthy choice for churches with lots of staff and volunteers. One of its primary benefits is the ability to have lots of users in different roles. If your church doesn’t have a dedicated administrator or accountant, Church360 allows you to let everyone on your staff play a unique role in tracking your organization’s finances and budgets.

Want the youth director to be able to add her expenses directly to your accounting system but don’t want her to have access to payroll information? Church360 has you covered.

There are additional products from the same developer that will integrate with Church360 Ledger, so as your tech needs grow, so will your software choices. Just keep in mind, pricing can easily jump depending on your use case.

If you want to check it out for yourself, Church360 offers an oddly-specific 37-day trial period.

Wave

For smaller churches that don’t have an accounting line item in their budget, there’s Wave, a basic dashboard approach to accounting that comes in a free edition, making it the best price option available on the market today.

Wave boasts an intuitive user experience and is a great option for church leaders looking to dip their toe in the world of financial accounting software. There’s even a free edition of Wave’s invoice software to check out.

Of course, if you want to get more out of your platform, there are a host of add-ons and pay-per-use features available too!

IconCMO

For mid-size churches, a great option is IconCMO, a fully-integrated, FASB-compliant church management system that includes accounting, plus other key features like document storage, event registration, membership, check-in, and more.

One thing to be aware of: As your church grows, so does the cost. In addition, most of the features beyond basic church management and accounting come with an extra price tag. But if you’re looking to grow, IconCMO will grow with you.

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.

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).