Church Accounting & Bookkeeping Software
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There are a wide variety of
church accounting software programs and multi-purpose
programs available to the church to help provide a good
accounting of the management of its finances.
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.
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Church Membership Tracking
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Three things that most churches
say they do not have enough of are: time, people and money.
Pastor and staff can be quite busy with many things, but one
of the most important is the church's members. Membership
tracking software can be a real asset.
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.
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Church Video
Presentation Software
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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!
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Free Church Office Software
Open Office is a free software package that will
easily replace the expensive Microsoft Office Suite.
WRITER is OpenOffice.org’s word processor: use it for anything
from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book with
embedded illustrations, cross-references, tables of contents,
indexes, bibliographies. Fully compatible with MSWord, it can read
and write MSWord Files and create PDF files.
CALC is a powerful spreadsheet has all the tools you need to
calculate, analyze, summaries, and present your data in numerical
reports or sizzling graphics. Reads & writes Excel files for
compatibility with people paying too much money for their software.
Also creates PDF files.
IMPRESS is the fastest, most powerful way to create effective
multimedia presentations. Your presentations will truly stand out
with special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools. You
can create PowerPoint presentations or output your presentation to
Flash (.swf) for display on your web site.
DRAW will produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D
illustrations and special effects.

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