Aplos is an accounting software designed for small businesses and nonprofit organizations, including churches. It provides features such as invoicing, donation tracking, fund accounting, and budgeting. Aplos also offers integration with popular payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe. Secondly, ACS Technologies provides comprehensive overview of cost of goods manufactured accounting features tailored specifically to the needs of small churches. It enables users to track income, expenses, donations, budgets, payroll, and more. The software also excels in donor management, allowing churches to efficiently record and manage contributions while generating accurate contribution statements for donors.

Donna’s focus and passion have always been for our ministry partners. She has worked in the service part of the organization her entire career. She was trained by her grandfather and worked as an assistant youth pastor in a megachurch in her twenties. Now she runs a peer support group and is the Technical Consultant for her current church, MCC Illiana.

Connect your bank to QuickBooks to auto-sync transaction and see all your finances in one place. We may earn a commission when you click through links on our site — learn more about how we aim to stay transparent. One more notable feature is FreshBooks’ highly customizable invoices. Churches can use these invoices to earn added revenue for weddings, funerals and other events. The only downfall here is the limitations on the number of clients you can invoice at one time.

No Church Bookkeeping System!

This integration will help streamline all your accounting tasks as donation data swiftly flows from Donorbox to your Xero account in near-real time. They offer nonprofits and churches 25% off on any of their already low-cost pricing tiers. Even without the discount, their pricing ranges from $13 a month to $70 a month.

This tool offers an API that facilitates integration with other business tools. She currently serves as a business consultant, operations manager, and content strategist at Doubting Thomas Research Foundations’ Afghan Liberty Project, a small non-profit organization. Churches that want to save money and error-proof their accounting via easy-to-use intelligent automations should consider Zoho Books.

  • Thankfully, there are lots of great church accounting software solutions on the market, any of which can supplement your current digital giving platform, including Tithe.ly Giving.
  • First off, there’s QuickBooks, the gold standard in accounting software.
  • It can also help you manage your church board by organizing your structure, and keeping a church directory.
  • Expense tagging then allows churches to account for where donor dollars are spent.
  • You can also add QuickBooks Payroll for $45 plus $4 per employee and monthly bookkeeping through QuickBooks Live starting at $200 per month.

PowerChurch Plus licenses are per church—meaning you only need to purchase one license for your organization. IconCMO’s pricing scales with the number of families enrolled in the system. However, you can still use IconCMO for zero families at the base price.

Best for Free Accounting Tools for Startup Churches

It is also best for churches that use separate HR and payroll software or that have few employees for whom they must process payroll. Our evaluation reveals that it is more powerful than QuickBooks Online in terms of church accounting features, but it is not as powerful as Aplos in terms of congregation management features. It is also more expensive than PowerChurch Plus but boasts of stronger accounting features than the latter. However, the features mentioned can help your church manage funds and assets. As accounting software intended for for-profit businesses, QuickBooks Online won’t disappoint. Its perfect score in general accounting features reflects its ability to perform all the essential accounting tasks.

Best Church Giving Software In 2024

Overall, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT can help churches to manage their finances and donor relationships more effectively, while also providing tools to help them comply with regulations and find new funding opportunities. Set up a church bookkeeping system that not only tracks expenses and income, but also tracks your assets and liabilities. An alternative scenario is a church that has the means (usually the funding) and the motivation to pursue a new software solution. However, they need to ensure that they have the resources available to train their staff. Some churches, especially smaller churches, may have many unpaid staff members who will need to utilize the software, and training them on their own schedule can prove to be time-consuming and costly. Look for accounting software that is user-friendly and easy to navigate.

The Best Church Accounting Software of 2024

In terms of the advantages of doing so, letting someone else handle your accounting means you have one less thing to worry about. Instead of crunching numbers, you’ll be free to focus on other tasks that are necessary to run or scale your business. An accountant can also ensure greater accuracy and they may be more knowledgeable about the tax code and reporting requirements. Again, you’ll need to keep track of all of these expenses and maintain the proper records for each one. First, it ensures that you’re deducting the right amounts when you file your taxes and second, it allows you to prove your deductions should your business be selected for a tax audit.

Connect to apps that work hard for churches

Aplos also integrates staff payroll, so there’s no need to maintain a separate accounting system for regular (and irregular) paydays. There’s also QuickBooks Online, a slightly simplified version of the desktop program that allows users to log on from anywhere. If you’re working with an external tax professional, QuickBooks Online makes it a lot easier to share your information at tax time. There’s even QuickBooks Online Advanced, which boasts 37% faster invoice processing, according to internal tests by Intuit. Each month you’ll receive data-driven insights and the metrics you need to make better decisions and grow your church. Spend less time trying to figure out the way ahead and more time taking action.

Wave Accounting (Good church accounting software for small churches)

Instantly create and customize key statements for official reporting, such as your Financial Position, Income, or Functional Expenses statements. Assign every dollar to a membership, committee, program, or worship fund, so you always know where your organization stands. Administrators can view and track records by households or individuals. They can also customize data fields, record interaction notes and create attendance reports.

If you find that you have a talent for and enjoy the process, you may consider starting your own bookkeeping business providing this service to others. There’s always a demand for experienced, efficient bookkeepers in nearly every industry. Companies often outsource the organization of their finances to independent professionals, then hire accountants for more complex issues and tax filing. Your accounting method determines how you report income and deduct expenses for the year. We’ve been using church software for 20 years and are completely satisfied with ChurchTrac. Third, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT can help churches manage their grant funding.

Customer service is an important consideration when choosing church bookkeeping software because it provides critical support for users when technical issues or questions arise. A reliable customer support team can help users troubleshoot problems, answer questions, and provide guidance on using the software effectively. This can save time and frustration for staff and volunteers, especially those who are not familiar with bookkeeping or accounting principles. Normal accounting software is not setup in a way to track these donor-specified contributions. That is why many church leaders in charge of contributions use church bookkeeping software.