Things to Consider in Choosing Church Accounting Software

By Cheryl L. True

Church accounting software programs are growing in popularity due to the desire by many churches for better accountability for the money they receive. With so many different accounting programs on the market, do you really need to buy an accounting program specific to the churches needs, or will any accounting program work?

There are some unique issues that many businesses face that don’t apply necessarily to the church. One of the biggest issues deals with taxes and often times when purchasing a general accounting program like Quicken or Peachtree, you are paying for the updates to the tax code in the program. So, if you don’t need to worry about that, should you consider buying specialize accounting software program just for churches?

One of the biggest considerations that face many churches is that most are tax exempt. Since they are tax exempt, you often times won’t need the tax withholding portions that many of the general accounting programs come with. So does that mean they aren’t worth it? Not necessarily because sometimes specialized programs can be more. However, there are some churches accounting software companies that offer regular updates and support with the price of the software.

With the demand for payroll features, most software programs will now handle this function. It used to be that you had two options for your church, either uses a payroll company or hand writes the payroll checks. Most church accounting software programs now have payroll features built right into them.

The church handles different income sources each week that vary and fluctuate just as much as expenses do. Keeping track of these can be a nuisance at times, especially if you are still using a spreadsheet program to try and organize your churches finances. Church accounting software really helps organize your income and expenses a lot better because of their built in functions for following accounting standards.

Since you are trying to decide which church accounting software is best for you, whether it is one written and tailored to the church or general accounting software knowing what problems you are facing now and what you want to accomplish with the software are key.

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About the Author:

Cheryl L. True is a Manila-based freelance writer who writes on a variety of topics.