Back in the 80s, Meineke ran a memorable advertising campaign based around the slogan, “I’m not gonna pay a lot for this muffler!”
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The ads played on the fear that when you’re in a jam, some opportunistic company is going to take advantage of your situation and shake you down for everything you have.
You may be feeling that way if your church has grown to the point that spreadsheets aren’t cutting it anymore, and you need a church accounting software solution.
We’re here to help!
A word of warning: you know the old saying, “you get what you pay for?” That rings true when it comes to church accounting software. When you’re paying zero dollars and zero cents for something that typically costs hundreds of dollars, you are sacrificing things like added features, updates, customer service, and sometimes even user interface.
But if all you need is something basic and it must be free, there are options.
After scouring the web, here are the three best free church accounting software solutions available.
What church accounting software does
In its most basic form, church accounting software manages payroll, tracks budget, and records donations.
If you have stacks of fading receipts wrapped in rubber bands if you find yourself “guesstimating” your budget for the rest of the year, and if you keep track of donations on sticky notes, you most certainly need church accounting software.
And if you think the French Riviera is a foreign car, you might be a redneck!
That was a lot of fun, but let’s back to the business at hand.
While there are lots of general free accounting software options available, and even some specifically catered toward non-profit organizations, we all know that churches have unique accounting needs that must be addressed in any church financial software.
For instance, the best church accounting software incorporates membership data to make donation accounting easier at tax time, and uses specific church terminology.
As Jeff Campbell, General Manager at PowerChurch Software, pointed out: “Churches struggle to keep track of donor restriction and track those balances … for example, a college will have a huge donor restriction fund, while a church will have lots of little ones.”
But we’re not just looking for accounting software tailored to the needs of churches. No, that would be too easy. We also need it to be free, because Millennials.
Here is our list of the best FREE and/or open source church accounting software.
GnuCash
GnuCash is a free, open-source double-entry bookkeeping system created with the goal of providing capabilities similar to Quicken.
GnuCash has been around since 1998, so it has almost two decades of development and refinement on its side.
While GnuCash isn’t specifically designed for churches, it does have features tailored for small businesses.
Even more helpful, Jacob Oommen of Finance and Accounting for Churches created a comprehensive, 14-part guide on using GnuCash for church accounting.
Oommen stumbled upon GnuCash when he was tasked with taking charge of the accounting at St. Stephens Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Bangalore.
“On taking over my duties, I discovered that the accounts in our church were maintained using the old method of Physical Ledgers,” he wrote. “We decided at the outset to migrate to a software system to maintain the accounts.”
“I decided to do a prototype bookkeeping implementation using (GnuCash), to evaluate how it could be used for our purposes,” he added. “If it worked, it could potentially save, our church, and possibly other churches, a lot of money.”
Oommen documented the process on his blog, which provides detailed instructions on everything from the basics through advanced features like year-end reports.
Although Oommen originally implemented GnuCash at his church in 2013, he updated the guide in February of 2017 to reflect several new features including auctions and split transactions.
If you have enough free time and computer expertise, you can follow Oommen’s plan to download GnuCash and customize it for your church, all for the bargain price of $0 (minus your own labor).
ChurchTrac 9
ChurchTrac Online is one of the most affordable and user-friendly church management solutions according to Capterra.
Starting at less than $10 per month, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more affordable church management package.
But it’s not free, and that’s where ChurchTrac 9 comes in.
Retired in 2012 due to compatibility issues after 10 years of service, the desktop based ChurchTrac 9 is still available for free download for churches with less than 100 names, though you may need an older operating system to successfully run the program.
ChurchTrac says that it will still provide basic tech support on ChurchTrac 9 through the end of this year, and ChurchTrac 9 users can easily be migrated to the fully supported ChurchTrac Online product.
While ChurchTrac 9 provides basic accounting features, it lacks some advanced features like online giving, volunteer management, name archiving, family check-in, congregation access, and fund-based accounting.
But if your church’s computer is still running on a Pentium 4 chip and you have a small congregation, ChurchTrac 9 could be all you need.
ACTS
ACTS is a free, open source church management system that has been in development in China for more than 10 years. In 2015, the OpenOffice-based program was translated into English.
Because ACTS is native to China, some of the instructions may be a little difficult to understand for English speakers. But the development team does offer support in the form of a comprehensive manual, a Facebook developer community, and even email support.
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The developers report that the program has been downloaded more than 13,000 times as of February of 2017.
ACTS has an impressive list of features—including membership data management, facility management, donation management, and accounting functionality like vouchers, profit and loss and balance sheets, and unlimited account codes—and is completely free.
It is available for download via SourceForge.
For a few dollars more…
It’s probably dawning on you by now that the pickings are slim when it comes to fully functional church accounting software that is also completely free.
Remember that the additional time you spend customizing a catch-all accounting program or wrestling with an outdated, unsupported piece of abandonware could be worth more to you than a few dollars per month.
As this Elexio article argues, the money you save up front could be lost over time in man-hours.
If you come to the conclusion that paying a reasonable price for your church accounting software isn’t the end of the world, check out our Top 20 Most Affordable Church Management Software research.
Also, if we missed an awesome, totally free church accounting software solution, let us know about it in the comments!
Looking for Church Management software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Church Management software solutions.
What do you do when you can’t run payroll on time, can’t keep track of your budget, and are losing donations because you can’t remember who donated what to where?
Other than tearing out your hair, there is another solution—software! You can find alternatives to using pen and paper—some accounting software packages are designed with the accounting needs of churches and nonprofit organizations in mind.
One benefit of having accounting software that is geared specifically towards churches is that the system is integrated with membership data. This means that contributions are rolled into the accounting side of things, it has church specific terminology, and more. As Jeff Campbell of PowerChurch Software says, “Churches struggle to keep track of donor restriction and track those balances—this is a big difference between for-profit and nonprofit [accounting] systems—for example, a college will have a huge donor restriction fund, while a church will have lots of little ones.”
Most Reviewed Church Accounting Software
These are the top six most reviewed accounting software solutions for churches in Capterra’s church accounting software directory.
1. FlockBase
Reviews: 80+
FlockBase, the most reviewed church accounting tool in our directory, has been operating out of Fort Worth, Texas since 2006. It is essentially two core modules: a membership and contributions module, and a True Fund accounting module. FlockBase is designed to be simple enough that even volunteers at smaller churches can use it without extensive training.
Pricing: Each module costs $99 (a one-time price) and they are meant to be used individually—for churches that need only one—or in conjunction. You can save $19 by bundling the packages ($179). The one-time fee includes two months of support and updates, but that can be extended by a year for $30 more ($50 more for the bundle). Existing members can renew the support and updates for $49.95/year per module.
Pros: Reviewers almost unanimously agree that FlockBase is very easy to use and is a great value. In fact, it made the top 10 on our Top 20 Most Affordable Church Management Software research findings. Customers also find FlockBase’s customer support (phone, email, or online user guides) to be very responsive and helpful.
Cons: FlockBase is meant for smaller churches, so don’t expect a bunch of fancy accounting features like advanced reporting or analytics. The trade-off for FlockBase’s simplicity is that the interface has an outdated appearance. For someone who just wants to get their accounting done quickly and painlessly, though, this might not matter. FlockBase cannot export to Excel, though reports can be printed off as PDFs.
Have you tried FlockBase? Please leave a review!
2. Aplos Church Accounting
Reviews: 70+
The Fresno-based Aplos is a web-based, low-cost accounting software for churches to help track donations and expenses. It is designed for small and startup nonprofit organizations and churches.
The Fresno-based Aplos is a web-based, low-cost accounting software for churches to help track donations and expenses. It is designed for small and startup nonprofit organizations and churches.
Pricing: The basic plan, which includes accounting and online donations, starts at $25 per month for one user. The standard plan, at $40 per month, adds contribution statements. The advanced plan, for $120 per month, adds features such as recurring transactions and multi-site church accounting along with advanced reports. All plans include unlimited phone and email support, 1 GB of file storage, free updates, and free access to an accountant. Donor management starts at $35 per month. Aplos also offers discounts for small or new churches.
Aplos Church Accounting
Pros: Aplos has the ability to add custom accounts, create reports, track contacts with custom fields, and set up funds for different ministries. Additional features include check printing, budgeting, reconciliation, and contributions management. According to many customer reviews, Aplos is user friendly and requires no accounting experience to use it, is affordable, requires little training to set up, includes free support in the purchase price, and has excellent customer service.
Cons: Some users had difficulty getting what they wanted from the reports, and the interface—though sleek and modern looking—is sometimes buggy. Longtime users also note that the prices have gone up in recent years, bank integration is limited, and Aplos lacks its own payroll features, instead relying on outside integrations.
Have you tried Aplos Church Accounting? Please leave a review!
3. FellowshipOne
Reviews: 50+
FellowshipOne is a Dallas-based church management solution with more than a decade of experience. As a complete church management system, accounting is just one piece of the FellowshipOne arsenal of tools. Their newest product, FellowshipOne GO Complete, features accounting, member management, online giving, and even advanced features like background checks and website management.
Their True Fund Accounting system is powered by Shelby Systems, and includes everything that a church accounting department would need, along with advanced features like fixed assets and purchasing management. FellowshipOne is one of the most popular and user-friendly church management solutions, according to our research.
Pricing: GO Complete starts at $179 per month, and customers can customize their pricing based on the number of members and level of support they need. They offer an online pricing calculator so you can get a better idea of what GO Complete could cost for your church.
Pros: FellowshipOne GO Complete comes bundled with extra features, such as website management, and is a robust system with many reports. Their scaled pricing allows churches to pay a fair amount based on their size and needs.
Cons:Reviewers say that FellowshipOne’s core interface still appears outdated and unintuitive, with one reviewer suggesting that it resembles Windows 98. Some users had trouble accessing the reports that they wanted. With the scaled pricing, growing churches or those without an experienced tech staff could find themselves paying more than they originally anticipated. Users who don’t want or need the extra features that come bundled with the system might see them as a distraction.
Have you tried FellowshipOne? Please leave a review!
4. ACS Church Accounting
Reviews: 45+
Used by more than 50,000 churches, ACS Technologies is the most popular church management solution on the market, according to our research. The company, based out of South Carolina, has been around for almost 40 years. ACS Church Accounting software is a product of ACS Technologies that is a flexible double-entry accounting system that allows accounting on either a cash or accrual basis. It is geared towards larger churches with an average attendance of over 2,000.
Pricing: ACS does not list any pricing and requests that potential customers contact them for a quote. Customers say there are upfront fees ($2,000-$10,000) followed by monthly maintenance fees (on average apparently around $350/month) and SaaS rental fees (could be thousands annually).
ACS Technologies
Pros: ACS Church Accounting has the capability to track budgets and spending by fund, department, committee, project, and much more. ACS is a robust system that contains most of the tools you will need and has a complete help center for support.
Cons: ACS is expensive compared to some of the other tools on this list, and can also be complicated to use, according to reviews. It will require training for someone who is not very tech savvy—due to this complexity, it is more suited for larger churches with a capable IT staff.
Have you tried ACS Technologies? Please leave a review!
5. PowerChurch Plus
Reviews: 35+
Church Financial Software For Mac Windows 10
Founded in 1984 in Asheville, NC, PowerChurch is one of the oldest and most popular church management system in operation. It holds the no. 4 spot on our Top 20 Most Popular Church Management Software research findings. PowerChurch Plus has both desktop and web-based versions. In addition to accounting, it also has membership, contributions, and events features which make it easier for churches to keep track of everything all in one place. Although they serve churches of all sizes, their typical customers are smaller churches, with under 300 members.
Pricing: PowerChurch Plus costs $395 to download from their website, or $410 to have the physical media delivered. Upgrades to new versions are extra, but users can also opt for PowerChurch Plus Online—a cloud-hosted version—starting at $39.95 per month including all upgrades.
Pros: PowerChurch Plus stands out from other solutions because it is an all-in-one system that includes accounting, donations, events, payroll, and membership management. It is inexpensive, provides different types of support, and has both web-based and installed options.
Cons: The average church staff, which may not have a lot of accounting knowledge, could find the software difficult to understand as it assumes a base level of accounting know-how (such as understanding assets, liabilities, equity, and other such accounting knowledge), according to some reviews. Also, if you use another system for overall church management (and you would like to continue to use that system), then you will lose the benefit of an integrated approach. PowerChurch Plus is only available for Windows-based PCs.
Have you tried PowerChurch Plus? Please leave a review!
6. CDM+
Reviews: 15+
CDM+, part of Kentucky-based Suran Systems, dates back to 1986 when former Rev. Randy Clay began working on software solutions for his own congregation. The current iteration of the CDM+ accounting tool serves more than 2 million users according to our research. Its focus is on generating useful reports and making them easy to share. CDM+ is available on desktop, mobile, and via the cloud. In addition to accounting, the core suite includes attendance, contributions, events, check-in, and facilities management. Premium options include online giving, mobile apps, and website integration.
Pricing: CDM+ cloud-based pricing begins at $45 per month.
CDM+
Pros: CDM+’s cloud-based option makes updates a breeze. The extra features are a worthwhile bonus, and reviewers are impressed by CDM+’s customer support and said that the pricing is very competitive.
Cons: There does seem to be a learning curve to the product, even after new feature roll-outs, though the excellent customer support makes that less of an issue. Without detailed pricing information or an online calculator, it’s difficult to tell what kind of value you can get for your money, so it is recommended that potential customers contact the CDM+ sales team.
Have you tried CDM+? Please leave a review!
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Other church accounting software options?
What church accounting software do you use? Let us know what you like about it and what problems you’ve had in the comments below.
If you’re still looking for help in your search for the right church accounting software, check out these other articles:
Looking for Accounting software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Accounting software solutions.