Every Church Needs Church Accounting Software!
The church officials handle all financial transactions, which are quite transparent in nature; even the members are kept informed of what is going on--where are the funds coming from, how much, and how are they being spent. Transactions would involve properly-maintained budget reports, balance sheets, account statements, records of purchases made, invoices, print checks, and so much more. Now, this can become quite a headache at times, considering the huge amounts involved. Also, it leaves plenty of room for human errors.
Of course, skilled accountants would be more than willing to take over the job, provided they are paid for their services. But this would mean doling out extra money, which a church might be able to afford, or might not. And checking over everything manually would definitely consume a lot of time. Can we therefore, suggest an alternative? Opt for church accounting software.
The name itself suggests that the software has been specially designed for the use of churches, which are least concerned with personal ambitions or financial gains. Businesses use different accounting software, as they have to pay for their necessities as well as taxes to the government. A church owes no money to the government, and its funds are categorized under different account heads-income accounts and expenditure accounts. Bearing this in mind, software engineers have brought out church accounting software that can serve the dual purpose of performing general functions as well as specialized functions (based on each institution's specifications). Most software is quite flexible, and can be customized to meet specific and changing needs over the years (for needs will change).
Before going ahead with any purchase, it would be advisable to get a tech-savvy person to carefully investigate the various features offered by such software and give an opinion about it. Browsing the World Web would present a fair idea of what is available and which sites were offering free trials. First-hand information is available, all at one spot. The buyer would therefore be prevented from traipsing from one physical store to another in search of the product. Online shopping of church accounting software would thus be best.
Now that we have presented all the advantages of buying church accounting software, would your church wish to go in for it?
Published by Keith Dailey
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3 Comments
Post a CommentAfter the three passes you should only have one to maybe three companies left. Then it comes down to price and what you get with that price along with technical support options. For example, 2 companies can have all that you want but one is priced at 500.00 and the other is 1000.00. The one for 1000 includes technical support and training where as the 500.00 one does not. It is extra. Also is training free with the system? Or what kind of training do they offer? Rep - Icon Systems - http://www.iconcmo.com
It appears comments are limited in length. I will post the remaining comments separately.
The "must haves" are the items the church will not do with out.
After the first pass through then you can look at the nice to haves and see which ones have these and do you like the way those features are laid out? Eliminate the ones that have the least number of these or ones that have the feature but the way it works does not satisfy you. Then you do the same with the last remaining category of miscellaneous. Basically you are developing a matrix of the features you want and matching them up to the companies.
The person that is reviewing software needs to be familiar with the fund accounting principles that non profits are suppose to used according to the FASB 95 and 117 guidelines. One thing that I see so many organization do is shop first and ask questions later. It is vital that each organization comes up with a list of "must have", "nice to haves", and possibly a miscellaneous category. Keeping in mind that the organization will narrow it down based on the must haves the first time through the list of companies ensuring they like the way the must haves are laid out in each system. If the must have is available but the church does not like the way it works or it is too cumbersome then that company should be eliminated. Keep in mind that it is possible that the person reviewing just does not understand how the function works so a call to the company may be prudent at this point to ensure you are not short changing the software company because of a learning curve on your end. The "must hav