6 Best Church Accounting Software 2018

As a nonprofit organization, churches must adhere to strict rules to maintain their nonprofit status. As a result, church financial software must have detailed tracking capabilities to produce the reports required by key stakeholders, such as donors and the board of directors. We looked at several options and narrowed it down to six.

Top 6 Best Church Accounting Software 2018

How We Evaluated Church Accounting Software

We evaluated accounting software for churches by looking at factors such as how long they have been around, if the software is customized to meet the needs of a church, and how often new features and improvements are made. We also identified five key features each church accounting software should include.

We assessed our top six picks on the following key features:

• Ability to track contributions/donations – Software is able to keep track of donations made by donor and fund in order to provide end-of-year statements to donors and financials to key stakeholders.
• Keep track of money owed to church (accounts receivable) – Ability to track outstanding pledges made by donors in order to follow-up and collect before the deadline.
• Manage & pay bills (accounts payable) – Stay on top of vendor bills for expenses incurred by the church.
• Create budgets – Ability to create budgets so that you can compare it to actuals and stay abreast of how actual contributions and church expenses are doing compared to the original budget.
• Run detailed financial reports – Ability to run detailed financial statements to provide annual contribution statements to donors and information required in order to complete the annual tax Form 990.

Out of our top six picks, Aplos Accounting is the only church financial software that goes beyond managing the books to filing the nonprofit tax return. This can help you to save money that you would have normally spent by hiring a CPA to review your data and file your tax return for you. As our top pick, Aplos Accounting exceeded our expectations and overall customer reviews are positive.

Best [Overall] Church Accounting Software: Aplos Accounting

Aplos Accounting has a plan for churches just starting out as well as those whose congregations are in the thousands. It is the only church accounting software that includes the ability to e-file Form 990, the nonprofit tax return, so that you don’t have to pay an outside CPA to file your tax return for you every year.

Aplos Accounting Features & Pricing

Aplos Accounting has three pricing plans that range in price between $25 and $150 per month. All three plans include the basics like managing bills, pledge receivables and bank reconciliations. However, the middle and top tier plans include the ability to issue contribution statements and create recurring donations, whereas the Starter plan does not.

Aplos Accounting Tiered Pricing & Features

Aplos Accounting Starter Plan

The Aplos Accounting Starter plan is the most budget-friendly at $25 per month ($300 annually). You can manage all income and expenses for your church with this plan. In addition, it includes the ability to create budgets and accept online contributions from members. Unfortunately, you cannot create contribution statements, a budget by fund (e.g., Building Fund), nor can you track income and expenses for multi-site churches.

The Starter plan is ideal for a small church that just needs a way to keep track of the day-to-day income and expenses. If you have an accountant who will prepare contribution statements and complete Form 990 at the end of the year, then this will work for you.

Aplos Accounting Standard Plan

Aplos Accounting Standard plan is the middle tier plan at $40 per month ($480 annually). In addition to handling the basics, you can create recurring donations for those members who want to have their contributions automatically deducted on a certain day. In addition, you can create contribution statements to give to your congregation at the end of the year for tax filing purposes.

The Standard plan is right for a small to medium-sized church that does not have any fixed assets and only needs to manage income and expenses for one church site. This plan will work for you as long as you have an accountant who can prepare and file Form 990 for you. If you don’t want to hire an accountant to do this, sign up for the Advanced plan and Aplos will auto-populate this form so that you can file it yourself.

Aplos Accounting Advanced Plan

Advanced is the elite Aplos Accounting plan at a hefty price tag of $150 per month; this is six times the cost of the Starter plan ($25/month) and almost four times the cost of the Standard plan ($40/month)! However, you do get some really great features that neither the Starter nor the Standard plan include. For example, you can track fixed assets and create budgets for each fund. Best of all, you can generate a completed non-profit tax return, Form 990.

The Advanced plan is ideal for a mid-sized to large church looking for an all-in-one church financial software solution. If you want to keep income and expenses and tax filing in-house, this plan will allow you to do just that. While you don’t have to be a CPA to use this software, I do recommend that you hire a certified bookkeeper with some knowledge of nonprofit accounting.

What Aplos Accounting Is Missing

Aplos does not offer any of the church management features that some of its competitors offer, like attendance tracking, events management and group communications via email or text messaging. However, it does have partners that offer this type of functionality, and they all integrate seamlessly with Aplos Accounting; Continue To Give, bloomerang and Donor Elf are just a few of their partners. Check out the complete list for more details.

Aplos Accounting Reviews

Overall, customers who use Aplos Accounting are quite pleased with the product. Customers like how affordable the product is and they say it is very user-friendly. One customer stated, “One of the best fund accounting programs on the market.” However, we did find one customer review that said there is more focus on developing new modules instead of clearing up the existing bugs in the current modules.

Where to Find Aplos Accounting

To experience some of the great features that we have shared with you firsthand, take Aplos Accounting for a free test drive. Visit the Aplos website and sign up for a free 15-day trial of the Starter or Standard plans. No credit card is required to sign up; at the end of the trial period, you must sign up for a paid plan to continue to use the software.

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Best Church Accounting Software for Existing QuickBooks Users: QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofits

QuickBooks is the #1 accounting software for small businesses, so it should come as no surprise that they have an accounting software that was designed specifically for nonprofit organizations like churches. QuickBooks can handle any accounting task and best of all, you don’t have to worry about whether or not your accountant is familiar with the program!

QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofits Features & Pricing

In addition to being a robust accounting software, QuickBooks Desktop Nonprofit allows you to do budgeting/forecasting, track income and expenses for multiple church campuses, and includes custom-built reports that include contact information for members and contributions by member and overall congregation.

Both QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise must be installed on your computer and they include one user license. Additional licenses can be purchased for an additional fee. You can learn more about the features, benefits and cost in our QuickBooks Desktop guide.

QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofits Tiered Pricing & Features

QuickBooks Desktop Premier for Non-Profit

QuickBooks Desktop Premier includes all of the features that QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise has, like budgeting/forecasting, donation/contribution tracking and advanced reporting and filtering. Where the two products differ is in the maximum number of users you can add (five for Premier vs. 30 for Enterprise). In addition, you can set up a maximum of 14,500 customers (donors), vendor suppliers and employees in Premier vs. 1,000,000 in Enterprise.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier is ideal for a small to medium-sized churches that generates $1 million or less in contributions and do not need to give more than five users access to QuickBooks. If you need to give more than five users access to your data or if your congregation is growing so fast that you are going to easily surpass the 14,500 maximum, it’s time to upgrade to QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for Non-Profit.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for Non-Profit

When it comes to features, QuickBooks Desktop and Enterprise are identical. However, you can give six times more users access to Enterprise than you can Premier (five vs. 30)—additional fees will apply. The capacity to hold member information, vendor suppliers that you pay and employees is far greater—1,000,00 vs. 14,500 for Premier.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is ideal for a medium to large church that generates more than $1 million in contributions annually, needs to give more than five users access to the QuickBooks data file, or has more than 20 employees that they need to process payroll for.

What QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofits Is Missing

QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofits is missing church management tools that are offered by some of its competitors. For example, it does not offer a way to email church members about special events or volunteer opportunities, and there is no portal for members to manage their contact information or print their contribution statements.

QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofit Reviews

QuickBooks Desktop Premier customers like how easy it is to customize the program to fit their needs. Another popular feature is the ability to add on payroll (which integrates seamlessly); keep in mind that additional fees do apply to use the payroll service.

On the negative side, customers feel that the program can get expensive if you upgrade to the new version each year. In addition, some users have experienced long wait times when they have contacted customer support. For more reviews, head over to our customer reviews page.

Where to Find QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofit

Download QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise and take it for a free test drive for 30 days. During the trial period, you have access to all of the features, such as setting up members, managing expenses and running reports. If you get stuck, customer support is also free for the 30-day trial period, so make sure you take advantage of it.

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Best Church Accounting Software with Church Management Features: Icon Systems

Icon Systems has a basic plan, and you can add services as your church grows. The basic plan is Icon Rubix, and it is ideal for small congregations with few expenses. The IconCMO plan is for a fast-growing church, and it includes full accounting features to manage every aspect of your church finances.

Icon Systems Features & Pricing

Icon Systems offers two pricing plans: Icon Rubix and IconCMO. Both plans include unlimited users, membership tracking, contributions and email communications with various groups within the church. Full cycle accounting can be added to IconCMO at no additional charge; you will pay $15 a month to add it to the Icon Rubix plan. IconCMO also includes a number of church management features that Icon Rubix does not, such as the ability to keep track of multiple campuses and a portal for members to access their membership and contribution information.

Icon Systems Tiered Pricing & Features

Icon Rubix

Icon Rubix is the lower priced tier at $25 per month. This plan includes unlimited users, membership and contributions tracking, and the ability to communicate with groups within the church via email. Unfortunately, what is not included is the accounting functionality. However, you can add these features for an additional $15/month, whereas you can add accounting for free to the IconCMO plan.

This plan is ideal for a church that already has an accounting solution but wants to take advantage of the church management features like membership tracking and the secure check-in features that give you the tools you need to keep track of children in your care during church services or events. Icon Check-In does cost an additional $15 per month.

IconCMO

IconCMO is the top tier plan that runs $35 per month to manage up to 100 families. In addition to the features included in Icon Rubix, it includes the full accounting functionality like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and bank reconciliations at no additional cost. In addition, you can communicate via text message with various church groups. There is a member portal and you can track talents for each member.

This plan is ideal for a small to medium-sized church looking for both an accounting and church management solution all wrapped in one. Similar to Icon Rubix, you can always add on payroll and the check-in modules as your church grows and expands; additional fees will apply.

What Icon Systems Is Missing

At this time, we could not identify any key features that Icon Systems is missing.

Icon Systems Reviews

While we could not locate any reviews for Icon Rubix, we found more than 150 customer reviews on IconCMO—and they are mostly positive. The ratings are grouped in three categories: customers gave IconCMO a 4.5 out of 5.0 Overall, 4 out of 5 for Ease of Use, and 5 out of 5 for customer service. On the negative side, customers say that the user interface is sometimes a little clunky or confusing.

Where to Find Icon Systems

You can take Icon Rubix or IconCMO for a test drive for 14 days, no credit card required. During the trial period, be sure to try out all of the cool features that we have shared with you. At the end of the 14-day trial, you must sign up for a paid plan to continue to use the product.

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Best Church Accounting Software as Another Good Church Accounting Software Option: CDM+Fund Accounting/Payroll

CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll is one of six church management modules by CDM+. With this module, you can bill payments, track money owed to the church and generate detailed reports for multiple church sites. CDM+ is ideal for a church with members who are on the payroll, so that paychecks and payroll taxes are automatically calculated.

CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll Pricing

The pricing is pretty straight forward for CDM+. They charge a monthly fee of $35 for the first module and an additional $20 per month for each additional module. This pricing only includes one license, which means that only one person can access the software at a time. However, you can purchase additional licenses for $10 per month, per license. In addition to the Fund Accounting/Payroll module, there are five other modules you can purchase:

• Membership/Attendance
• Contributions
• Check In/Check Out
• Event Registrations
• Roommate Calendar/Facilities Manager

CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll Features

CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll includes all of the basic features that you need to track member contributions and church expenses. In addition, you can also keep track of multiple locations and run detailed reports by location or consolidated reports for all church locations.

Manage Accounts Receivable

CDM+ allows you to track pledges made by members of your congregation as well as payments received for daycare, school tuition (if applicable) and facilities rental.

Manage Accounts Payable

CDM+ allows you to create purchase orders and manage bill payments to vendor suppliers. You can create recurring invoices for those weekly, monthly or quarterly payments. Bills can be paid via check, electronic transfer or credit card.

Bank Reconciliations

Stay on top of your bank/credit card accounts by reconciling them each month to ensure that your bank statements match the balances in CDM+. Stay on top of bank charges and credit card fees and interest.

Budgeting/Forecasting

Create and manage budgets and forecasts for 12 months or longer in CDM+. This will allow you to run budget vs. actual reports that will give you insight into whether or not you are on track to meeting your overall contribution goals.

Fixed Asset Management

CDM+ lets you keep track of the assets owned by the church, including furniture, office equipment and buildings. Keep track of the date of purchase, asset purchased, make/model (if applicable), serial number and amount paid. Having this information organized in one place will ensure that you don’t miss out on any tax deductions you are eligible for, like Section 179.

Payroll

Unlike its competitors, payroll is included in CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll. Keep track of all employee contact information and W-4 tax preferences; stay on top of vacation and sick pay, automatically calculate payroll taxes and print payroll checks or submit direct deposit to pay employees. All state and federal payroll tax forms are automatically filled out for you. You can print the forms or e-file them directly in CDM+.

Manage Multiple Campuses

Similar to its competitors, CDM+ allows you to keep track of more than one church location. This allows you to separate income and expenses by location so that you can run detailed profit and loss reports to see how each campus is doing individually as well as consolidated reports for all campuses.

What CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll Is Missing

The CMD+ Fund Accounting/Payroll module does not include any church management features like membership, contributions or event registrations. To access these features, you can purchase one or more of the following CDM+ modules for an additional $20 per month:

• Membership/Attendance
• Contributions
• Check In/Check Out
• Event Registrations
• Roommate Calendar/Facilities Manager

CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll Reviews

It was not easy to find reviews online for CDM+. However, the reviews we were able to find on featuredcustomers.com were all positive. What customers like most about CDM+ is the ability to keep track of membership, contributions and church events all in one fully integrated system. Customers also like how easy it is to use CDM+. Read all of the customer testimonials on featuredcustomers.com for more details.

Where to Find CDM+ Fund Accounting/Payroll

When it comes to taking CDM+ Fund Accounting for a test drive, you have three options. First, you can sign up for access to a demo company that will allow you to get familiar with the software using sample data; second, you can schedule a guided tour with a sales rep, or third, you could sign up for a 60-day trial and enter your own church data—no credit card required.

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Best Church Accounting Software for Integration to Other Church Management Apps: QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online (QBO) is a great solution if you currently use an app for church management tasks like attendance, group communications and event planning but you need an accounting software to manage the books. Since QBO is a cloud-based accounting software solution, there are several apps it integrates seamlessly with to give you an all-in-one solution. DonorPath, Church Office Online, and Breeze are church management apps that integrate with QuickBooks Online. Head over to our Breeze review section to learn more about the features and benefits it has to offer.

QuickBooks Online Features & Pricing

QuickBooks Online has two plans that are ideal for churches: Essentials and Plus. The plans differ in price, number of users included and a few other features. Both plans include the basic accounting features like paying bills and managing accounts receivable (e.g., pledges for a building fund). If you have employees to pay, you can also add payroll service to either plan for an additional cost. You can also give your members the option to make their contributions online by adding Intuit Payments to either plan.

QuickBooks Online Tiered Pricing & Features

QuickBooks Online Essentials

QBO Essentials is the most affordable out of the two plans at $35 per month ($420 annually). With this plan, you can manage all income and expenses for the church by connecting your bank/credit card accounts or scanning receipts into QuickBooks using the mobile app. You can give up to three users plus two accountants access to your data, and you can track unlimited members and contributions with this robust church accounting software.

QBO Essentials is ideal for any sized church that already has an app like Breeze, which allows you to perform church management tasks like email/text announcements to the congregation and track membership status (e.g., visitor, guest, member).

QuickBooks Online Plus

QBO Plus is the higher end plan at a steep $60 per month ($720 annually). This plan includes all of the features that QBO Essentials offers as well as budgeting and forecasting tools so that you can run detailed budget vs. actual reports by member, fund, or all members and church funds. You get two additional users on top of what Essentials comes with, for a total of five plus two accountants.

QBO Plus is ideal for a church that has an existing app or software to track church management functions but needs a full-cycle accounting software to handle the day-to-day accounting functions and produce compliant financial reports that can be presented to their Board of Directors.

What QuickBooks Online Is Missing

Unlike its competitors, QuickBooks Online is not customized for a nonprofit organization like a church. This is one of the reasons why it does not have a lot of the church management features that other competitors do have. However, if you use QuickBooks Online with an app like Breeze, it will give you the missing church management features that QuickBooks Online does not have.

QuickBooks Online Reviews

QuickBooks Online customers like how easy it is to set up and use the program; the app is a customer favorite because it allows you to access your data from any mobile device with an internet connection. Users who gave QBO a negative review said that the online version is not as powerful nor as reliable as the desktop version. Check out our QuickBooks customer reviews page to learn more about what customers are saying.

Where to Find QuickBooks Online

Similar to its competitors, you can try QuickBooks Online before you buy it. Visit their website to sign up for a free 30-day trial. Be sure to check out all of the terrific features that we have introduced to you in this article. At the end of the trial, you will need to sign up for a paid subscription to continue using QuickBooks Online.

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Best Church Accounting Software for Simple Tracking & Engagement Features: Breeze

If you don’t need a full-blown church financial software, then Breeze just might work for you. Breeze is affordable and offers many features that some of its competitors (who charge much more) do not offer, such as slick volunteer management and events management/registration systems. If you don’t need a system to track your expenses or you currently use QuickBooks to manage your books, Breeze is ideal for you.

Breeze Pricing

Breeze has one simple pricing plan that costs $50 per month ($600 a year). You really get a lot of bang for your buck with Breeze. Unlike some of its competitors, you can track unlimited church members and give unlimited users access to your data. Free tech support is included and if you need to transfer data from another software, they will help you take care of that at no additional charge!

Breeze Features

There are a TON of features included in Breeze; the integration with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop is one of my favorite. It also has a lot of tools to help you schedule and manage church events and manage volunteers, and it allows you to accept donations online or via text message.

Track Giving

Easily track contributions, donations and pledges made by donors in Breeze. This will allow you to generate detailed reports by donor, designated fund (e.g., building, homeless, etc.), or keep an eye on giving trends for the entire congregation.

Email/Text People & Groups

Breeze allows you to communicate with your congregation via email and text messages. You can utilize this neat tool to notify members of upcoming events, inform members that volunteers are needed for an event, or request donations to support a specific cause.

Print Name Tags

Since all of your member information is stored in Breeze, you can easily print name tags for members when they attend a workshop or other church event.

Online/Text Giving

Give your members an alternative to cash/check donations. Breeze can be setup to allow your congregants to give online or via a text message to a number that you choose. All of these donations are automatically stored and included on contribution and year-end giving statements.

QuickBooks Integration

Breeze integrates with both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. If you’re already using one of these accounting solutions, then you can easily import the contribution data from Breeze into QuickBooks so that your financial statements are kept up-to-date; no double entry required!

Contribution Reports

Detailed contribution reports for individual congregants as well as the overall congregation can be generated for a particular time period to look at trends and gain insights into the contributions you receive.

Year-End Giving Statements

Giving statements can be generated on a quarterly or annual basis. You can email the statements to members whose email address you have on file or mail them to those who have not supplied you with an email address.

Volunteer Management

Easily manage volunteers for events by scheduling them for an event and setting up automatic reminders as well as RSVP notifications that will go out on a date that you specify.

Event Management

Breeze includes a calendar where you can organize all church events such as luncheons or church picnics. You can create invites and email them to members, which will allow you to keep tabs on who plans to attend what events.

Event Registration

You can create online event registration forms for workshops or other church events that require people to sign up and pay for events. This makes it easy to keep track of how many people to expect so that adequate volunteers and space can be secured.

Member Access

Unlike many of its competitors, you can give members access to their data. They can update their basic contact information such as address, telephone number, and family information such as spouse and children. In addition, they can also view and print their giving statement.

Printable Directories

Breeze allows you go generate printable and customizable directories with member photos and contact information. These are ideal to use for ministry groups or classrooms.

MailChimp Integration

If you prefer to use MailChimp for email communications, you’re in luck. Breeze integrates with MailChimp so that you can use the email information stored in Breeze to send group or individual emails from MailChimp.

Create Forms

Breeze has a neat tool that will allow you to create customized forms such as registration forms, employee applications and giving forms. You can brand these forms with your church logo and colors.

Breeze API

If you’ve got a programmer on staff, you can create your own custom apps that will integrate with your Breeze database. Check out the Breeze API Guide for more details.

What Breeze Is Missing

One of the downsides to Breeze is that it is not a complete accounting solution like the other five competitors in this guide. However, because Breeze integrates with QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online and many other accounting solutions that don’t have any of the church management features, we feel it is a very good product for a church not quite ready for a robust church accounting software.

Breeze Reviews

It was a bit of a challenge, but we were able to locate a few customer reviews. Overall, Breeze customers like how user friendly the software is and the ability to filter members using various criteria. What customers don’t like about Breeze is that the volunteer management system is not easy to manipulate if you have to make changes to or revise a volunteer’s schedule.

Where to Find Breeze

To check out the features we have discussed, you can visit the Breeze website, where you can sign up to gain access to a free demo company. The demo company includes a library of how-to videos and allows you to practice entering your church data. Once you’re ready, you can sign up for a paid account so that you can start using Breeze to manage your congregation!

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Alternatives to the Best Church Accounting Software

While all of the options in the table above are great alternative options specific to churches, many non-profit organizations, including churches, just want a free accounting software that they can tailor to their own needs. While these solutions aren’t specific to churches, they do offer plenty of features which you could use to track donations and expenses.

Free Church Accounting Software Alternatives

Bottom Line

By now, you know that church accounting software comes in many forms and spans from the very basic bookkeeping tasks to integrated apps that allow you to also manage church operations. If you’re looking for a simple solution that will allow you to stay on top of your income and expenses throughout the year and file your tax returns, Aplos Accounting is the clear choice.

Aplos Accounting makes it easy to keep track of the income and expenses for your church and adhere to the rules and regulations that nonprofit organizations must follow. Best of all, you don’t have to spend a lot of money hiring a CPA at the end of the year to file your tax return—you can do it yourself directly within Aplos Accounting.

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