Administration, Financing and Construction Resources

to Help Manage the Business of the Church

On the low end, some churches use a simple excel spreadsheet to keep track of income and expenses, while on the high end are several very good programs that integrate not only church accounting, but also giving & attendance in one easy program.

One of the biggest complaints we hear from lenders about churches is the difficulty the bank has getting accurate financial information from the church.  Lenders need your financials in a Generally Accepted Account Practice format.  The information needs to be complete and all transactions need to balance. Further, your church membership is due a fair, clear and accurate accounting of the church finances that good fund accounting software can provide.

There are a number of reasons why the church should invest in dedicated church accounting software.

• First of all, church accounting is not like normal business accounting.  The management of church funds requires a program to do "fund accounting", which is different than businesses use.  While it is possible to make some low-end programs, such as Quickbooks™, function in this manner, it takes a good understanding of both fund accounting and nuances of Quickbooks™ along with good discipline. 
• Another reason is that you need a good audit trail for the accounting process.  Many low-end church accounting programs allow you to move money around and jiggle accounts without balancing the transactions or providing a good audit trail.   This allows an unscrupulous person to easily juggle the books to cover financial misappropriations.
• Thirdly, the church often needs to track other data besides accounting for income and expenses.  Churches need to track of giving against pledges, something that general purpose accounting will not do; they need to track church and Sunday school attendance and keep membership information; and they need to differentiate between designated and non-designated funds. Multi-purpose programs allow you to offer church accounting and membership tracking in one software program.
• Lastly, at some point in time, your church will probably need to go to the bank to borrow money.  The better your church accounting looks and the more accurate it is, the easier it will be to get a loan.

One church accounting product that does all of the above PLUS it does Membership Tracking (see below) is Membership Plus, which seems to be a very comprehensive program at a bargain price.

It is very hard to keep up with the names and contact information for our members and visitors.  Keeping track of the names and contact information for our members, scheduling visitations, and tracking shills and gifting can all be a monumental task in a growing church.

It is also important to track attendance and participation in Sunday School and important meetings, remembering who has received what training, and what ministries they have (or are) serving in.

Good membership and tracking will help build relationships and help make your ministry more effective, maximizing those resources you have, albeit sometimes in short supply.

Here are some reasons why the church should consider church membership tracking software.

• Keep good attendance records for meetings, training, Sunday School, and more.
• Maintain a personal touch by remembering birthdays & anniversaries.
• Help schedule regular visitations.
• Document important events like baptisms.
• Make more efficient use of your time and resources.
• Automate mailings, and email.

As mentioned above, Membership Plus, combines both church membership and church fund accounting into one package at a bargain price.

Your worship video presentation software should be designed to easily display songs, scriptures, videos, and information to your congregation seamlessly - with little or no distractions.

The best way to present a professional appearance is with video presentation software that will allow the operator to perform all of the control functions on their computer screen while displaying only the desired result on video screen for the congregation, only displaying for the video presentation they need to see for effective worship.

Quit trying to make PowerPoint do something it was really not intended to do. Screens that blink obscure messages and annoying delays in changing programs all disappear with the right software.

Good Worship Video Presentation Software Can Present a Professional Look at Budget Prices

• Display native PowerPoint presentations.
• Seamlessly integrate video and song lyrics.
• Make distraction free changes on-the-fly for song order, slide order and much more.
• Your congregation never see your control screen, all they see is a professional presentation.
• Some applications can even import song lyrics, no more typing them in by hand!

Everyone knows the limitations of doing plain PowerPoint video presentations. If you are looking for something that is more flexible, can adapt to changes in the order of service "on-the-fly" and allows the operator to work from one screen while the congregation sees another, look at Presentation Manager.  Available in a standard and pro version (see comparison chart at bottom of their page), this package meets the needs of most churches at a competitive price.  Import song lyrics (even on the fly), change order of service and make changes to the presentation in real-time, no one in the congregation will ever know!