IconCMO Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
IconCMO is a cloud-based church management software that helps you organize your members, track donations, and create dedicated fund reports. Its features include banking, checkbook management, and accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R) tracking. Prices for its base package start at $35 per month or $385 per year, and you can try IconCMO for free for 30 days with no credit card required.
Overall Score:
4.10 / 5
What We Like
- Supports unlimited users
- Affordable for small to medium-sized churches
- Includes an inexpensive integrated payroll add-on
- Includes a child check-in security add-on
- Assisted bookkeeping option available
What's Missing
- Expensive for large churches with many families
- Not user-friendly for inexperienced bookkeepers
Is this not what you’re looking for? See additional recommendations in our guide to the best church accounting software.
IconCMO Deciding Factors
Supported Entity | Churches wanting all-in-one accounting, payroll, and church management software, especially churches with large funds from donations and pledges |
Pricing | Starts at $35 per month or $385 per year. Pricing varies depending on the number of families enrolled in the system. |
Free Trial | 30 days |
Payroll | Integrated within the software |
Standout Features |
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Customer Support | Email, phone, and knowledge base |
IconCMO Accounting Features Video
If you’re looking for basic bookkeeping features and don’t need church management tools, check out our guide to the best small business accounting software.
IconCMO New Features 2023
- Smart Search Grid: This is the biggest new feature. It allows users to search multiple transactions based on specific filters and gives users the ability to modify how IconCMO presents certain features in the way they like.
- Overhauled Donation Module: The new donation module enables users to enter donations by batches, duplicate similar donations, create customer reports, and edit batch transactions by batch instead of editing each transaction individually.
- Audit logs: When users edit transactions entered individually or by batch, IconCMO’s audit logs will document the changes.
IconCMO Alternatives
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
Best for: Churches looking for affordable accounting software specifically designed for churches | Best for: Churches needing a website | Best for: Churches looking for easy-to-use accounting software |
Starts at: $295 for unlimited installations per licensed religious organization | Software from: $79 per month | Software from: $90 per month for QuickBooks Online Plus with class and location tracking |
IconCMO vs Competitors Comparison
Our IconCMO review compares this software to two of its toughest competitors in church accounting, Aplos and PowerChurch Plus.
IconCMO vs Competitors FSB Case Study
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PowerChurch Plus Starting at $295 one-time purchase
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Aplos Starting at $79 per month
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IcoCMO Starting at $35
IconCMO and Aplos are both online church accounting software, and they didn’t disappoint in church features. They’re also similar in accounting features as both are capable of performing church accounting, but we recommend IconCMO for tracking large funds and pledges. IconCMO has FASB-compliant reports that apply the accounting standard for nonprofit entities and religious organizations. Meanwhile, you should choose Aplos if you need website building features.
We included PowerChurch Plus as a desktop alternative. It leads at a price advantage because users need only to pay once, and they can install it on multiple computers. However, ease of use is a concern for PowerChurch Plus as using the software can be complicated for some users, especially those without a background in accounting.
IconCMO’s prices depend on the number of families your organization has. Its base package costs $35 per month or $385 per year for up to 50 families. You can also choose from several add-ons to your package, such as check-in, payroll, event management, and short message service (SMS) messaging.
Number of Families | Monthly Pricing | Annual Pricing |
|---|---|---|
1 to 50 | $35 | $385 |
51 to 100 | $49 | $539 |
101 to 250 | $59 | $649 |
251 to 500 | $72 | $792 |
501 to 750 | $89 | $979 |
751 to 1,000 | $101 | $1,111 |
1,001 to 3,000 | $113 | $1,243 |
Over 3,000 | $149 | $1,639 |
Add-Ons | Monthly Pricing | Annual Pricing |
|---|---|---|
Icon Payroll | $25 | $275 |
SMS Messaging (250–25,000 messages monthly) | $5 to $500 | $60 to $6,000 |
IconCMO has a wide array of features that make it easy for churches to simplify and manage their financial information. You can read our in-depth analysis of IconCMO’s accounting features to learn about the interface and flow of the program.
One of IconCMO’s most notable features is its accounting module, which supports both cash and accrual-based accounting using true fund accounting. It’s a FASB-compliant program, which is important for larger churches and nonprofit organizations. Also, you won’t need multiple spreadsheets or checking accounts to know the balance in each fund. The system can extract data specific to a fund, which is helpful for churches that manage multiple funds.
Funds & Pledges module
The program includes a single chart of accounts where every fund has access to every account. This allows you to keep your chart of accounts short and simple. You can also add new accounts with specific classifications as to account type, nature of account, account detail, subaccount (if any), account name, and description.
IconCMO default Chart of Accounts
You can track checks and deposits, whether it’s money market, savings, or other types of bank accounts, by using the checkbooks feature. The system allows you to deposit money into your revenue accounts for a specific fund, such as mission, building, or youth. It can also print checks after posting payments.
The banking module is basic, and it doesn’t allow bank feed connections. However, we don’t see this as a big deal since church accounting requires proper classification of inflows and outflows as they occur, not when they clear the bank.
Banking module of IconCMO
When your church receives a bill from your vendors, IconCMO lets you enter them into the system and track them until they’re paid. You can also enter and track credit card activity and balances. In entering invoices and credit memos, you must indicate the fund where payment will be taken from, account type, the account, and the amount to be debited or credited. For nonaccountants, the debit-credit part may be confusing at first. Within the A/P module, you can also post full or partial payments. Overall, the A/P module is solid for managing church bills.
Creating a Bill in the A/P Module
You can enter and track invoices issued in the A/R system. Before you create invoices, you’ll need to add items and customers in the A/R Setup section under the A/R page. Items refer to the products or services you sell, while customers are those who purchase items from you.
In creating invoices, everything is straightforward. First, you have to supply invoice details like customer name, terms, purchase order number, relevant invoicing dates, and others. Then, you need to indicate which fund the payment will go to, the specific item, and a short line item description. You can also add a sales tax rate to apply to the total invoice price. IconCMO can print the invoice as a PDF, and in receiving payments, it also allows partial payments.
Creating Invoices
The invoice design of IconCMO is generic, but we see no problem in the design for church accounting. However, for churches that like to customize invoices, we recommend subscribing to stand-alone invoicing software. Check out our list of the best invoicing software for recommendations.
IconCMO Invoice in PDF
The system has a built-in payroll program, Icon Payroll, which supports an unlimited number of employees. It provides automatic tax calculations for federal and state taxes to eliminate manual work in spreadsheets. You can electronically file W-2s for your employees, and you’ll receive special tax payment forms where checks can be printed to your government agency. A separate fee of $25 per month is required to use Icon Payroll, which is incredibly affordable compared to stand-alone payroll software.
Payroll Module
You can generate various financial statements, such as the statement of financial position, statement of activities, and statement of cash flows. You can also pull reports on donors, donations, dedicated funds, and events. There are also specialized reports, like changes in net assets and fund list reports.
However, we didn’t see any receivables aging report, which could be useful for reviewing past-due accounts. Nonetheless, the absence of the aging reports isn’t a big deal because nonprofits and churches won’t have significant A/R transactions, unlike for-profit businesses.
Report Generation
Aside from accounting, IconCMO showcases church management features that can help you grow your ministry and keep your congregation organized. IconCMO received a perfect score in this area because it contains the vital church management features we want to see in church accounting software.
IconCMO integrates with two online giving programs, Vanco Payment Solutions and Worldline (formerly Bambora), to allow donors to post their gifts online. Your church can receive donations in different forms, such as credit and debit cards and automated clearing house (ACH) payments. If your donors prefer, you can set up recurring donations. You can import batch donations into IconCMO as comma-separated values (CSV) or TXT files.
Entering Contributions in IconCMO
This module helps you record and manage member information, archive records, and schedule pastoral visits. The church software mobile app serves as a portal where your members can browse your online church directory, see and edit their personal information, review their contributions history, and print statements. As an administrator, you can communicate with your group through email or text messages.
The check-in features of IconCMO enable you to track individuals who are attending church activities. The best use of the check-in features is for youth activities in your church. Parents can use the check-in program to enlist their children who are participating in a church activity.
When doing check-ins, the childcare worker chooses a group and will see the names and pictures of the children assigned to that group instantly. With Icon Check-in, you can create as many user IDs as you need, and it also prints a child’s guardian info, including contact information, photo identification, and allergies and other special conditions.
IconCMO has a budget builder that helps you manage your church’s income and expenditures. You can compare your budgeted numbers to your church’s actual spending to generate a more accurate forecast and see where your finances stand.
Budgeting module
The IconCMO church mobile app has the same features as the desktop site, including organization setup, banking, a general ledger, A/R and A/P, and payroll. You can also manage your members, donors, and donations, register an event, and process check-ins using the mobile app. It is available on Google Play and App Store.
Getting started with IconCMO isn’t too difficult because there are support videos and articles available from within the software. We like that users can learn directly within the software and not have to visit another web page to access the tutorial videos. There are also setup guides to read under “Getting Started” for additional information about IconCMO’s functions.
IconCMO tutorial videos
While using IconCMO, we noticed some lag time when opening modules. When you click a module, it takes two to three seconds before it loads. We aren’t aware if this is a browser-related or software-related issue—but during testing, we used the latest Google Chrome version.
Otherwise, we like IconCMO’s interface. It’s clean and manageable. You can also choose if you’d prefer viewing entire screens one at a time or viewing multiple screens that overlap. IconCMO has a technical support line in case you need assistance with using the app. You can also send an email to their support team if that’s what you prefer.
Assisted Bookkeeping Options
IconCMO offers an assisted bookkeeping option at $250 per month with IconCMO software included. With this option, an Icon Systems Bookkeeper will be assigned to your organization to handle bookkeeping, income and expense classification, bank reconciliation, and FASB 958-compliant financial reports.
IconCMO User Reviews
IconCMO reviews are mostly positive—users find its features to be extensive and comprehensive for church accounting. However, some left a negative review because they found it to be too much for their needs and said that they would prefer a simpler solution with fewer features.
- GetApp: 4.5 out of 5 stars based on around 360 reviews
- Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 stars based on around 80 reviews
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the pricing by families work in IconCMO?
In IconCMO, a family can be an individual or group of individuals. Regardless of the number of individuals per family, IconCMO will still charge based on the number of families. Families need not be actual families—you can set up a family for a group of individuals so that it’ll be organized in the membership records.
Is there paid support in IconCMO?
No, there’s no paid technical support. All users can contact technical support within office hours. There’s a paid option for bookkeeping assistance with IconCMO.
Bottom Line
IconCMO works great for medium-sized churches needing to support unlimited users. It has a useful child check-in system, so parents will feel confident that their kids are safe in your care. It offers an extensive list of handy features and uses modern data transmission and storage methods to protect personal and financial information better. Sign up for the free 30-day trial to see if IconCMO is a good fit for you.
