Financial Software for Churches
Like regular businesses, churches often have hundreds or even thousands of dollars in revenue and expenses. Financial software designed specifically for churches help keep track of all these funds. These software programs aren't right for all churches, but can be a real financial saving grace for some.
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Churches Versus Businesses
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Churches don't operate quite the same way as regular businesses when it comes to money. For one, churches are nonprofit organizations in most cases. For tax reasons, they have to keep track of every single contribution that goes in or out, in addition to regular expenditures like the church electricity bill. Thus, churches need accounting software that is able to handle basic accounting tasks while also accommodating the special financial needs of the church.
Specialized features of accounting software for churches include service attendance and membership tracking, event tracking and scheduling, personal record keeping (for example, the number of baptisms in a family), picture and email directory databases and talent tracking (useful for finding volunteers).
Functions
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Church staff members use financial church software to plan, track and adjust the organization's budget. They also use the software to generate receipts or letters for donations, as well as payroll spreadsheets and checks. Financial software is useful for creating spreadsheets showing where donations will be going.
Financial software also serves to keep churches accountable for their financial activity. Financial church software makes it easier to track church funds and therefore makes misappropriation of funds and other problems much easier to spot.
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Who Uses the Software
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Most often, using financial church software falls to the church treasurer, who usually is a member of the church board. Sometimes, however, volunteers from within the church step in to handle the church's accounting tasks -- this is more common with smaller churches. These volunteers aren't necessarily board members in the church, but they have the financial and technical skills to work on the church budget.
Many other organizations indirectly are impacted by financial church software. For example, the IRS may rely on data from the software to process taxes.
What to Ask
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When selecting financial church software, ask yourself how much your church can spend on the software. Find out what it will cost to update the software or get technical support. Test drive the software and assess how user-friendly it is. If you have paid employees within the church, ask what payroll features the software has. Lastly, ask if you'll need any additional hardware for the software you want. For example, you may not be able to run all software options depending on how much memory your computer has.
Cost
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Some financial software for churches is completely free and is available for instant download. However, these programs, like all other free software out there, tend to be lacking in features. Some programs that require payment run as high as $500 while others range between $100 and $200. You usually can cut costs by avoiding the "pro," "advanced" or "premium" editions, although these versions offer the most features. Most small churches do not need advanced features, but larger churches might.
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References
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