Financial Software for Churches
Churches and other religious organizations are typically nonprofit entities. It is vital for any nonprofit organization to maintain proper finances, not only for budgeting, but for taxes as well. While many churches hire professional accountants to maintain finances for them, it is just as simple, if not cost effective, to purchase special accounting software so the church can maintain finances them. It is also important to note that churches generally offer charitable contributions to missionaries who are located inside the country as well as those located in other countries. In addition, they usually also offer assistance to those in need throughout the community, some offer community dinners, health clinics and food drives. In addition to charitable costs, they also sustain all finances related to the day to day expenses of the church itself, including minister salaries and church upkeep. In addition to the expenses that go to charity, churches also have to be able to maintain themselves. Many churches have members who come clean the facilities for them, while others must hire an outside company to do the work. Also, while some ministers choose to receive no salary, other churches require the ministers to be on duty full time, and offer them a generous pay package, which also comes out of the church budget.
The main mission of the church is to help those in the community. This can be achieved in numerous ways. Many will sponsor church members to go on missions either to places in our country who need help, such as hurricanes or earthquakes, or they can also sponsor missionaries to live for a period of time in another country and share their ministry with those who would not normally be able to receive it. In addition to missionaries, churches can also participate in community dinners to assist those in the community that are unable to purchase food themselves. While most of the funds for these projects are funded through donations, the church must still keep records of how many the members of the congregation donated and how much the church needed to pitch in for the event.
Most churches hold fundraisers and ask the congregation for donations, or tithing. Tithing from the congregation help to offset most of the costs associated with all of the churches finances. These tithes can be tax deductable for the people who are donating them, requiring the church to maintain accurate records for those people and giving receipts at the end of each year, ensuring the member is able to claim this as a tax deduction for that year.
Accountants can be vital to any church organization, however; it can be difficult to find an accountant in the congregation who is able to donate their time and expertise to the church. It is easier for the secretary of the church to add accounting to their list of duties. Crown ministries is a vital asset to the church community, offering budgeting tips and accounting hints, but they do not offer any kind of actual financial software. Quicken and QuickBooks can be adapted to maintain church finances and keep records but they are not specifically for that purpose. Church windows software is the complete package, offering scheduling, accounting, payroll, memberships and contributions, the only downside is that this package will cost over $2000 for the whole package. Church soft is also a good program, this includes all the benefits of church windows but the basic package including member contributions, payroll and expenses start out at only $399. Another useful software package is the church pro software. This software also offers the same benefits as church soft but the price starts out at only $299, this software is easy to use, therefore, even a novice accountant can utilize all the functions included. Included in this package are 200 forms and 800 customizable templates for reports, making managing of the churches finances easy to understand. Fellowship One is a web based church software goes a few steps further and offers online check scanning, mobile access, online payment processing, and pledge management as well as volunteer management, registration management and pledge management. It is also designed so the church can keep track of the members personal needs as well, for instance, if a member loses their job due to the economy, the church can help them with their personal budget and keep track of what their ongoing financial needs are, the church can then budget the needs of the congregation into the budget of the church, making it much easier to assist those in need. This system requires a monthly fee, which ranges from $20 a month, up to $80 a month, however; they do offer a 30 day free trial to ensure this is what they will meet the church’s needs.
Budgeting for a church is much more complex than budgeting for a family or even a business. There are many more factors that come into play dealing with contributions that are made not only by the church itself, but by its members as well. In addition to financial software for churches, there are also resources available to teach leaders of church organizations how to manage church finances. It is imperative that all churches fully research any form of software they are going to attempt to use. Most software that is available on the internet utilizes a 30 day free trial, ensuring that the church is satisfied with their product and services. With the cost of most accounting software ranging from $299-$2000, this is a very important factor when deciding what software fits the needs best. This is a cost effective way to try the product before actually spending the money to purchase it. Each church is different in size and ability to maintain finances which is another great reason to be fully aware of what the specific church’s needs may be.