Like any other organization, churches must manage revenue and spending to meet the requirements of the management team, donors, regulators, and authority requirements.
Therefore, selecting accounting and bookkeeping software that could accommodate all of these requirements is important for the successful running of churches.
Also, another critical factor to the effectiveness and integrity of a church’s accounting system is maintaining complete and accurate data on which church projects are supported, as well as how that money is spent.
Why Is It Important to Keep Track of Accounting For Churches?
Church accounting software is simpler to use than other comprehensive and professional alternatives since church members are not generally accountants.
The greatest option for your church is one that is easy to comprehend and use while also providing enough functions to maximize efficiency and productivity.
Church accounting software assists religious organizations in managing, automating, and organizing their day-to-day financial activities.
In addition, it aids in the timely payment of employees and the maintenance of accurate and reliable financial records for these organizations.
There is a growing market for specialized software for churches because of their particular financial demands and obligations.
If looking for the best accounting software for churches, consider these 15 options.
1. FreshBooks ($15 – $50 Per Month & Quotation Based)
FreshBooks is the ideal accounting solution for churches of today. Customizing invoices for christenings, weddings, and funerals, registering contributions, and monitoring volunteers and staff are just features of this exclusive cloud-based accounting system.
With FreshBooks, you can compile comprehensive financial reports for your church now. Meanwhile, your accounting assistance is always just a short email or phone call away with premium customer service.
Let FreshBooks take care of your church’s finances so you can devote your resources to helping your community instead.
Key Features:
FreshBooks is a valuable asset for churches, providing a range of critical features tailored to meet their unique financial management needs.
Let’s explore these features and understand the benefits they bring to churches.
- Easy-to-use: FreshBooks is designed to be user-friendly, catering to individuals without accounting experience.
- This simplicity empowers church staff, volunteers, and leaders to manage their finances without a steep learning curve confidently.
- Comprehensive: FreshBooks offers a complete suite of features, making it a one-stop solution for all your church’s financial requirements. It covers every aspect of financial management, from invoicing and expense tracking to payroll and reporting.
- This comprehensive approach ensures that your church has the tools to maintain financial transparency and accuracy.
- Affordable: FreshBooks stands out as a reasonable choice in an era where every penny counts, particularly compared to other accounting software options. This cost-effectiveness allows churches to allocate more resources to their core mission and programs.
- Cloud-based: FreshBooks operates in the cloud, meaning it’s accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. This feature is particularly advantageous for churches with multiple staff members or different locations. It fosters collaboration and ensures that financial data is readily available, even when team members work remotely or at other sites.
- Mobile App: Including a mobile app further enhances the flexibility and accessibility of FreshBooks. Church leaders and administrators can manage their finances on the go, whether attending meetings, events, or community events. This mobility ensures that financial tasks are not tied to a specific location, enabling more efficient and timely financial management.
- Non-profit Features: FreshBooks acknowledges the unique needs of non-profit organizations, and churches fall into this category. It offers specialized features like donation tracking and grant management. These tools simplify recording and managing contributions and grants, crucial aspects of a church’s financial stewardship.
Pros:
- Church invoice management software and time and expense tracking
- All-in-one employee payroll management
- Sophisticated invoices templates
- Insightful reports with safe online payments
- Bank integration will be highlighted when contributions arrive.
Cons:
- Automatic payments tend to be confusing for new users
- The smartphone app needs some advancements
2. Xero ($12 – $65 Per Month)
Using Xero’s cloud-based accounting software, you can maintain your bookkeeping up-to-date, although you don’t have an in-house CPA, which is perfect for small churches.
It is possible to link your church’s bank system to Xero, ensuring that all transactions are recorded safely and efficiently.
It provides customers with a rapid overview of their financial situation, showing the money volumes they are attaining, spending, and saving.
Key Features:
- Compatible with third-party applications such as PayPal, HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Outlook, etc.
- Automated Bank Feeds enhance your data-entering time
- Unlimited number of users from your church organization
- Reconcile bank transactions
- Have a mobile app.
Pros:
- Consolidate your church’s financial records with Xero by associating your bank account.
- Security powered by Bank Level Data Encryption
- Track your financial situation with up-to-date accounting records.
- Handy dashboard to keep tabs on your finances.
Cons:
- Lacks the ability to customize freely
- The bank’s batch payment file cannot be generated.
- Desktop apps cannot be downloaded.
3. ACS Technologies ($279.95 Per Month)
Churches may handle donations, working capital, and financial documents with the assistance of ACS, a cloud-based fund accounting system integrated with the church management system (CMS). For those seeking church accounting software, ACS complies with relevant accounting requirements.
For your church’s projects and everyday financial requirements, you may use it to handle outgoing monies, print checks, and maintain vendor information.
Key Features:
- Reliable double-entry accounting that corresponds to daily operating criteria
- Churches and pastors may rely on ACS Payroll to settle their workers consistently and accurately.
- Batch invoicing
- Federal and State Tax E-Filing
- Cross-check purchases
- Contains both mobile and desktop apps.
Pros:
- Your church’s finances can be easily monitored with a general ledger.
- Spending may be subdivided into various categories, such as funds, committees, and projects.
- The invoicing feature makes it much easier to automate tasks associated with invoicing.
- Efficiently handle both the people and financial aspects of the project.
Cons:
- No API Access
- Processing time is a concern when dealing with bulky report outputs.
- It does not have an attractive interface design.
4. Wave (Free)
Smaller firms may use Wave’s free and authentic double-entry accounting to keep track of their finances. Hosted in the cloud, it allows users to view their data from any location, insert unlimited collaborators, and take a job from a single login.
Wave is an excellent tool for keeping track of simple financial transactions and invoices. But no reports are just for churches, so you’ll have to make them manually.
Key Features:
- Completely free for accounting and invoicing services
- ProAdvisors at Wave can assist you with bookkeeping, accounting, and tax preparation.
- Import and Export of Financial Data in church day-to-day activities
- Fund Accounting
- Mobile apps are supported.
Pros:
- The free accounting, billing, and receipt scanning services are ideal for small churches without extensive fund administration.
- Full and self-service payroll options are available at reasonable prices.
- Connect to your credit card and bank accounts.
- Excellent bookkeeping assistance with Wave Advisors.
Cons:
- Inability to set a budget
- No way to keep track of more than one fund
- No desktop app is available.
5. Sage Intacct (Quotation-Based)
The Sage Intacct cloud architecture provides a world-class accounting and financial basis for faith-based enterprises. Its feature allows you to produce financial reports extracted from your church’s accounts’ most recent financial data.
To address the issue that larger churches need to deal with numerous transactions, Sage Intacct helps reduce bank reconciliations, making it easier to handle many transactions quickly and efficiently.
Key Features:
- AI that streamlines the preparation of your Church-related account charts
- Can overview all of your transactions, contributions, and tithes in one place
- Works with a variety of applications, such as Baker Tilly SaaS Intelligence
- Asset Lifecycle Management
- The ability to manage orders and make purchases.
Pros:
- Gives users a clear view of the church’s finances
- Integrate industry-leading technologies to streamline operations.
- Absolute safety and dependability
- Real-time reporting.
Cons:
- Standard reports cannot be customized.
- Working with a high number of invoices at a time might cause delays in processing.
- No mobile and desktop versions of apps.
6. PowerChurch Plus ($395 – $415 Per One-off)
PowerChurch Plus is an all-in-one accounting and membership management solution for your expanding religious congregation. This cloud system controls your church’s cash flow, pledges, and conducts limitless payroll transactions.
You can buy add-on functions, such as check-ins or mass mailings if you demand more flexibility than the main application provides.
Key Features:
- True fund accounting for churches
- Attendance tracking of members in worship services
- Budgeting, asset tracking & bank reconciliation
- Membership, donation & event management
- Online church calendar to alert members of upcoming events
- Have a desktop app.
Pros:
- Fixed-asset administration
- Payroll integration without extra charges
- The desktop software allows unlimited users and deployments
- Many add-ons make it possible for a trustworthy organization
- Excellent value for money when compared to alternative software.
Cons:
- The online version only allows for two simultaneous users
- Need a high learning curve while the design is outdated
- No mobile app.
- Customer support must be improved.
7. Aplos ($79 – $189 Per Month & Quotation Based)
Aplos is a cloud-based church administration and accounting solution that expands with your community. It’s ideal for small churches that are on the rise.
Aplos provides sophisticated packages with greater features for bigger organizations, so you may tailor the program to match your church’s specific accounting requirements.
Also, the software doesn’t contain payroll; however, they do link with Gusto to handle payroll.
Key Features:
- Fundraising and contribution efforts will be gathered through online donations.
- Safe environment for the use of credit and debit cards for transactions
- Event registration to make the registration procedure easier
- Even non-CPAs may benefit from this accounting strategy.
- Desktop apps are available.
Pros:
- Developed by a CPA who has a solid accounting foundation.
- Access to financial accounting, gift monitoring, digital giving forms, and delivering reports in church operation
- Internally accessible with a user-friendly interface
- Integrates with Gusto Payroll.
Cons:
- A number of other features need an additional fee.
- Finding an external accountant who is acquainted with the software might be difficult.
- No mobile app to use.
8. IconCMO ($35 Per Month)
IconCMO is a cloud contribution management system that church administrators can use to create a solid budget proposal for their initiatives on the website. Complete fund planning, FASB compliance, banking, and accounts payable are just some functions included in this software suite.
You can use IconCMO to inform members about upcoming church events, services, and activities. There are additional tools for keeping up with finances and ensuring that every transaction is properly accounted for.
Key Features:
- Built-in fund accounting accepts various types of funds for your church
- Donation & event management for religious organizations
- Church member directory & communication
- Can donate via credit cards, debit cards, ACH, Bambora & Vanco payment solutions
- Payroll for unlimited employees
- Child check-in for parents to see if their children still join the group
- Have a mobile app.
Pros:
- Infinite software users
- The payroll add-on is for unlimited employees
- Childcare security provision but comes with a fee
- Tools for detailed church management
- Small and medium-sized institutions can afford it.
Cons:
- No fixed-asset reporting while extra cost is required for the event registration
- Icon Check-in cannot be used without a Rubix account & internet connection
- No desktop app.
9. MIP Fund Accounting (Quotation Based)
MIP Fund Accounting is cloud software that takes the church’s financial management to the next level. This True Fund Accounting System has a built-in audit trail that makes fraud detection and prevention easier.
The application’s openness to multiple stakeholders, integration with other mission-critical systems, and IP Fund Accounting’s multidimensional logic govern the funds transparently.
Any church metrics can be tracked with this program, whether you want to look at the entire organization or just a certain department or grant.
Key Features:
- Accounts payable and receivable for churches
- Activity dashboard, budgeting & bank reconciliation
- Grant, donation, compliance tracking & management
- General ledger for funds accounting
- Specific financial reporting for the religious organization
- Unlimited budgeting and forecasting
- Have a desktop app.
Pros:
- Chart of accounts for church configuration
- Data import & export functions
- Account code combinations provide control over account code usage
- Administrators have complete control over what a user sees
- Responsive customer service
- Accounts payable EFT alerts, delivering details to vendors when the payment is made.
Cons:
- Slow loading for larger data entries
- Complex design while reports and queries are difficult to use
- No mobile app.
10. Church360 Ledger ( From $20 Per Month)
Church360 Ledger is a cloud-based fund management system for large churches with many employees and volunteers. Its major advantage is the ability to give your members a role in managing your organization’s finances and budgets.
This application is one of the finest solutions from top-notch developers that allow your data to integrate with other systems faultlessly.
Key Features:
- Online attendance & calendar tracking
- Church’s built-in accounting system
- Funds & event management
- Religious member portal, directory, & communication
- Website, pledge, member & volunteer management.
Pros:
- Your church’s employees can access the database anytime and from any location
- Straightforward general ledger, chart of accounts, & balance sheets reports
- Safe audit trail with event log to monitor all actions to your church’s accounts for transparent disclosure
- Create unlimited user roles, each with its own set of authorizations.
Cons:
- Cannot store customized reports for a future month’s usage
- DIT/O-S checks are not shown in the bank reconciliation report
- No mobile and desktop apps.
11. AccountEdge Pro ($499 Per One-off)
AccountEdge Pro is a cloud accounting system that allows users to manage the day-to-day financial operations of their church, such as payments, checks, and purchase management, in one place.
This accounting software makes it easy for churches to oversee their finances and inspect their account numbers and budgets. Assets, liabilities, equity, earnings, and costs may be tracked using many accounting templates.
Use the program to log employee hours and generate billable and non-billed activity and timesheets for payroll purposes.
Key Features:
- Built-in CPA software
- Pre-made accounting setup for church
- Customizable invoices
- Client Portal & contact database tracking
- Automatic billing, forecasting, & bank reconciliation
- Donation & document management system
- Support desktop apps.
Pros:
- On-brief & on-point dashboard
- Seamless UX/UI, installation, routing, and transactions
- A new way to pay for stringent reporting mobile connections
- Complete protection system.
Cons:
- Likely confused functions, particularly the reporting options
- Customer service is no longer available
- Mobile apps are not available yet.
12. QuickBooks ($25 – $180 Per Month)
QuickBooks is cloud-based accounting software specifically designed for churches and nonprofits. The donor feature is one you would like to make use of. It enables churches to recognize money from contributors and prepare year-end statements based only on this information.
With that said, this software is built for small churches and nonprofits. Therefore, the more considerable organizations would experience limited utility.
However, it still provides top-notch accounting services, offering professional report generation, billing, invoicing, and tax preparation. Plus, users can track real-time inventory and expenses to optimize the operation of the church.
Key Features:
- Can create donors in financial sheets
- Keep track of donating funds and collections
- Comes with unique user IDs
- Enables bank integration for management church’s finance
- Manage account payables, receivables, and assets
- Offers payroll, scheduling, inventory, and other accounting tools
Pros:
- Bookkeeping for an uncountable number of institutions and businesses
- Enables a lot of integrations
- Ideal for charitable organizations such as churches
- Customizable features with add-on functions
- Automated software that will save a lot of time
- Monitor accurate APs and ARs.
Cons:
- Require training as the system is complicated
- Limited management functions
- Both mobile and desktop apps are available for download.
13. Zoho Books ($10 – $200 Per Month)
Zoho Books is another accounting solution that helps churches automate operations, monitor their finances, and collaborate cross-functionally with other areas of the organization using cloud-based technology. In addition, the software enables users to manage the church inventory with higher precision and accuracy.
Moreover, this software offers numerous functions that are available, from timesheets to inventory control. Because of its diverse set of capabilities, it is well suited to a variety of different types of businesses, especially churches.
Key Features:
- Customizable invoices and reports
- Enable bank integrations to make it easy for donors
- Able to integrate with other accounting software
- Manage expenses, schedules, and recurring billing
- Track account receivables and payables
- Able to identify inventory for better stocks
- Obtain and schedule reporting
- Mobile and desktop apps are available for download.
Pros:
- Enable improved workflows with automated systems
- Generate up to 50 customizable reports
- Allow specific tasks assigned to staff
- Fast invoicing automation
- Offer integration with a number of accounting tools
- Monitor expenditures and real-time data access.
Cons:
- Require extra fees for more functionalities
- Provide limited access for users.
14. Flockbase ($16 – $59 Per Month)
Flockbase is a one-for-all, cloud-based accounting software for churches. It enables users to handle all church activities with automated functions, so it saves a lot of time for management. Besides, this software builds in an automated system for accounting and data recording of donors.
Other than that, Flockbase is fully-featured and economical, which is great for both small and midsize churches. In addition, users can simply control finances, budgets, details of donors, contacts, and many other things on the platform.
Key Features:
- Record all donor’s information
- Manage contributions history
- Organize payroll and benefits for the church’s staff
- Enable professional and customizable reports
- Ensure accurate and efficient bank transactions
- It can be used on cloud and desktop apps.
Pros:
- Provide simple user-interface
- Positive and responsive customer support
- Authorized accessibility
- Build in automated tools that are time-saving
- Allow budget forecasting
- Real-time data access.
Cons:
- A member directory feature should be added
- Mobile apps are not available.
15. Realm ($29 Per Month)
If you compare Realm to other accounting tools we have already discussed, it is the most attractive cloud-based platform for churches. This software might have fewer accounting tools; however, it is the most suitable software for churches by providing simple accounting solutions.
Since most churches acquire less-experienced staff in accounting, Realm’s customer service team feature will greatly impact and benefit churches. Acquiring a proper tool enables the church and staff to monitor bookkeeping efficiently and adequately. Thus, the team will have some time to do more important things.
Key Features:
- Manage all employee’s benefits, salaries, and time accurately and efficiently
- Enables batch donation posting
- Automate and organize accounting activities
- Authorize separate accounts
- Track transactions with more accuracy
- Accessible via the cloud and mobile apps.
Pros:
- A top-notch customer service feature
- Track donating funds
- Manage donors detail
- Monitor accounting payables and receivables
- Intuitive and user-friendly with little training
- The starter package’s price is rather reasonable
- Produces analytic reports on account performances.
Cons:
- Limited functions for other organizations
- Desktop apps are not available.
Buying Guides To Choose The Best Accounting Software For Churches
Several factors must be taken into account when selecting accounting software for churches:
- It is always necessary to offer as many accounting solutions as possible based on how complicated your church’s operations are. Nevertheless, some tools require additional charges for extra features.
- The platform’s end-user is also a key feature to consider before selecting any software. Be aware of getting software that can accommodate the required number of users before moving on!
- Every business or church that uses this accounting software will want to save time and money. Therefore, complicated tools should not be the right option for choosing as it requires more time for the staff to train and learn to use.
- In the subsequent five to ten years, the strategy is as follows: Although it might be appealing to buy what is currently needed, it is important to prepare and forecast the future at all times.
To help you out, we put up a list of the best accounting software for churches, yet there should be no single answer that will work for everyone.
As a result, you must conduct your own research to determine the most suitable options that would best serve your church’s requirements.
