There are a number of financial software programs for churches out there, but not all of them are cut out for you. You need a program that is simple to use and easy to learn. That’s when many people start looking for recommendations from others in their congregation who have already been using a church accounting software.
So, you’re convinced that you need church financial software to help with your church and ministry and there’s a few choices out there. But what should you choose? And where do you start?
Quickbooks Online Software
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QuickBooks Online enables users to download and reconcile credit card transactions that allows businesses to organize weekly timesheets and track bank deposits.
What is Quickbooks Online?
Quickbooks Online is a web-based accounting software that controls all aspects of the financial side of the business. The software can be used in multiple areas such as bookkeeping, payroll, invoice management, bank reconciliation, expense tracking, financial reporting, tax management, and more.
How do you use Quickbooks Online?
Quickbooks is a web-based system, which can be accessed from any web browser. There are no installations or downloads necessary to use the software. Users can take photos of bills and submit them as expense proofs or share with the concerned stakeholders as well as download and reconcile credit card transactions.
Who uses Quickbooks Online?
Quickbooks Online can be used by freelancers, small businesses, and mid-sized businesses in any industry including restaurant, retail, construction, legal, nonprofit, and more.
How much does Quickbooks Online cost?
Quickbooks Online offers 5 pricing plans to cater to business needs. The plans are subscription based and billed on a per-month rate that can be canceled at any time. Each plan comes with free expert setup. The lowest plan begins at $7.50 per month that is intended for freelancers or self-employed individuals. The simple start plan for small businesses is priced at $12.50 per month that includes invoice management and auto generated tax reports while the essentials plan is priced at $25 per month that includes more users, time tracking, and bill payments.
The plus plan is priced at $40 per month and comes with more user seats, inventory tracking and project profitability tracking. The Advanced plan for mid-sized enterprises is priced at $95 per month and comes with 25 seats, on demand training, batch invoices, premium apps, and more.
Does Quickbooks Online have an app?
Quickbooks Online comes with free intuit mobile apps for Android and IOS devices.
Xero Software
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Front Runners 2021
Xero is an accounting system designed for small and growing businesses. Xero connects small businesses with their trusted advisors and provides business owners with instant visibility of their financial position.
As a web-based solution, Xero can be accessed from any device with an active internet connection. With Xero’s robust accounting features, small businesses can view their cash flows, transactions and account details from any location.
Bank transactions are all automatically imported and coded. Online bill pay helps keep track of spending and stay on top of bills due, improving relationships with the vendors that provide critical business materials. With Xero, personal expenses can also be managed with mobile review and approval of each receipt.
Xero offers unlimited user support and integration with a variety of systems, including ADP, Bill.com and Vend. The solution comes with a 30-day free trial period for product testing and feature evaluation.
What is Xero?
Xero is an online accounting system designed to simplify business tasks such as paying bills, managing expense claims, creating invoices, and more.
How do you use Xero? Xero’s main hub is accessible online and used to manage staff and client data. Its Practice Manager tool is used to manage jobs, assign tasks, and track time. Xero can be integrated with external systems and connected to bank accounts to provide automated transaction feeds.
Who uses Xero? Xero is primarily used by small business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers. How much does Xero cost? Xero offers three pricing plans. “Early” is for new businesses, sole traders, and the self-employed and is $5.50 per month. “Growing” is for small/growing businesses and is $16 per month. “Established” is for established businesses and is $31 per month.
Does Xero have an app?
Yes, the Xero Accounting mobile app (for iOS and Android) provides on-the-go access to invoices, contacts, bank account balances, spending, cashflow, and more.
PowerChurch: Best all-in-one church accounting software for small to midsize churches
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.
Church Windows Software
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Church Windows is a hybrid church management solution that helps church administrations manage their day-to-day activities and interactions with followers.
The solution offers various modules to the users that include membership, scheduler, donations, accounting and payroll. It can be deployed either on-premise or hosted in the cloud. Membership features enable church administrators to view and track household and individual records, customize data fields, record interaction notes and create attendance and visitation reports.
Church resources, events, volunteers and rooms are managed and tracked within the scheduling application, while member contributions and giving histories are maintained in the donations module. Church Windows’ accounting module offers fund accounting capabilities with a customizable chart of accounts, recurring transactions, reconciliation and more.
The payroll module helps users to manage payroll processes and generate reports on salary history, taxes, allowances, deductions and more. Support is offered via online videos, workbooks, webinars and customized training sessions.
Aplos: Best cloud-based church accounting software for churches of all sizes
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: Church accounting software honorable mention
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
How you manage the money at your church matters. You have to collect, track, and account for contributions to be a good steward of the gifts that have been committed into your care. In order to do so, you need a software tool that can help you to manage the administrative portion of the process. These tools offer features designed to make your job as treasurer or bookkeeper easier.