Financial accountability and transparency are crucial to secure the future of your church.

Church finance software will help you steward the finances God has given your church more efficiently, allowing you to do more effective ministry.

Dive in to learn the 7 key features to look for when searching for the best church accounting software of 2024 for your church.

Why Use Church Finance Software?

Churches and ministries face a unique challenge when managing finances: Donors often give with a specific goal in mind.

The unique challenge churches face

Donors do more than just hand their money to your organization. They also want to see it used for a specific purpose. This can include supporting a missionary, raising money for the church to buy a new building, or adding to the Love Offering fund. Churches are expected to comply with those wishes and use that money for only that purpose.

Church financial software makes recording donations and sorting money into restricted funds easy.

Why use software just for churches?

Most financial software isn't built with churches and nonprofits in mind. For instance, even though Quickbooks is the watermark of accounting software, it is made for businesses, not churches. Your church likely doesn't need a double-entry system, just a Fund-based accounting system.

Church financial software empowers your church to manage your finances efficiently, accurately, and transparently, demonstrating responsible stewardship.

Key Features to Look For in Church Finance Software

Below are 7 must-have features you need in a church accounting program:

1. Fund Accounting

Fund accounting is an accounting system that prioritizes accountability over profitability, which makes it perfect for churches and nonprofits.

In Fund accounting, churches create restricted funds and place money into those funds according to the donors' wishes.

This is perfect for accountability and transparency. Church finance software will let you know exactly how much money you have set aside for specific ministry purposes and how much you've been spending in those areas.

2. Donation Management & Online Giving

After fund accounting, donation tracking is an extremely important feature in church finance software.

Churches need software that lets them easily record donations, track pledges and fundraisers, and create contribution statements with the click of the mouse. This will save you so much time compared to doing all of this by hand.

It's even better when the donation tracking software and online giving platform are the same as the accounting software so that your donations automatically get sorted into their proper funds as they come in.

3. Budgeting & Planning

Why do all the work of managing your funds and recording donations, just to repeat that effort in a separate budgeting software?

A church finance software needs to have a budget feature. Ideally, this feature would build on the church accounting work you're doing. If the program lets your donations and expenses feed into the budget in real-time, that's a big bonus.

4. Financial Reporting

What's the use of inputting data if you can't use it?

Your church finance software must give you built-in reports that make it easy to see your net position, understand your expenses, and balance the budget every month.

This is especially helpful when reporting your finances to the congregation, board, or denomination.

5. Top-Rated Support

Your church's finances are the most urgent need your church has. So any software you use to manage them needs to have fast, helpful support when you need it.

Check user reviews before subscribing to any church finance software. This will tell you whether or not the program is worth the time and money.

Look for reviews like this one below:

6. Affordable

It would be ironic if the software you used to steward your church's finances was a financial burden. When choosing a church accounting system to help you balance the church budget, that software needs to also fit that budget.

Affordability is critical for accounting software for churches. Not only will that open up money for other ministries at your church, but it will allow you to comfortably establish a long-term relationship with that program.

7. Church Management Features

If you're recording donations, you need software that also lets you assign those donations to a person at your church.

That way, members can review their donations and your church can keep tabs on how much each person has given throughout the year. This really comes in handy during fundraisers and pledge drives, so that you can track progress toward the fundraising goal.

BONUS - Event Planning

Yes, event management!

Your church's finances are tied to your church events. Since most donations are made in person, it makes sense that the program you choose to manage the church finances should also make it easy to plan event, track attendance, process payments and registrations for events, and more!

The Bottom Line of Church Finances

Finding the right church accounting software for your church can feel like a tall order. Your church finance software needs to give your church an easy and affordable fund accounting solution so that you can balance your budget and manage your finances well.

Check out ChurchTrac Accounting today and see how it's the best fit for your church's financial needs!

Matt Church Engagement