Best Non-Profit amp; Church Accounting Software: 5 Excellent Choices

If you manage the books to get a church or some other sort of non-profit, you'll be able to greatly streamline your projects by choosing accounting software designed with these entities at heart. Here, we'll check out five such programs and just how well they perform.
Many non-profits use popular accounting software items like Quickbooks and Quicken. However, non-profits have some of things they should keep track of including contributions, donations received, and the annual audit. Obtaining accounting software for churches or other non-profit organizations means you may want to look into specialized accounting programs that keep these elements of your business in your mind.
Here, we'll look at some top software picks to help you your accounting software needs if you're a non-profit including:
Quickbooks offers its Premiere accounting software'even engineered to be geared toward nonprofits. At a cost of around $320, this nonprofit software program is essentially the identical to other Premiere products from Quickbooks'but with some useful offerings. In the nonprofit edition, you can track contributions and identify largest donors. It also comes filled with the tools you'll want to create the IRS-required form 990 for nonprofits.
This accounting software for churches also may include a great chart of accounts that follows IRS regulations regarding nonprofits. Many report features including balance sheets, profit & loss statements, and income and expenses are one-click and print. You can import data from Excel to this version of Quickbooks as well. Quickbooks is available for both PC and MAC systems. It also offers donor/member entry and remembers these with a quick keystroke. Quickbooks is easy to set up and also the user interface is nice, but there are some drawbacks.
If you don't understand accounting basics whatsoever, you may want to take a Quickbooks training class. Why? Quickbooks can perform many reports, journal entry areas, as well as other accounting tools. It's often an easy task to post an entry twice causing inaccurate reporting. Another flaw is that if you need payroll software, that's extra with any Quickbooks product. Still, because many community colleges offer Quickbooks training and certification and just about all CPA offices understand the program, I'd say this is the best bet.
With PowerChurch Plus you've two options. You can purchase this system for around $400 or choose the cheaper PowerChurch Plus online that is certainly accessible at any computer without notice in a Software like a Service (SaaS) format. The online offering costs $99 to create up with monthly fees. If you should manage many location, the web version may be your best bet.
What I like about PowerChurch Plus is that it can be used by those less than familiar with accounting procedures, although your tax professional is still equipped with access to the greater complex determined by your journal entries. This accounting software for churches offers an simple to start-up interface whereby you commence entering account balances, members, donations received, revenue and expenses, plus much more. You can print simple accounting reports including a balance sheet or profit and loss. Payroll features usually are not extra and therefore are integrated into this program. Another nice feature of PowerChurch Plus is being able to do other church or nonprofit tasks such as make member lists and distribute newsletters directly from this software.
It's readily available for both PC and MAC computers and comes with an excellent support and forum network'all free with this system. Updates are annual and so are around $150. Because it's geared toward churches, in addition, it restricts itself on the rules with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in terms of restricted gift tracking.
ChurchSoft is the one other option for accounting software for churches. Like various other nonprofit accounting offerings, you've got to send in your nonprofit organization's name by using an e-mail to watch the demo'something what a little annoying'especially for a reviewer. You can get a perception of the kind of reports available here. Their latest software Assist 5.0 costs around $400 (for one user) having a perpetual license. If you need to add school church software, that's one more $150 plus they offer three levels of support, the lowest priced starting at $99 annually.
Assist 5.0 has great accounting reports, member and contributor organization, payroll, budget tracking and snapshots of accounts by type, etc. Data entry is simple at the onset; however, again, a qualified bookkeeper is most likely your best choice if you choose this software. Otherwise, you'll pay support to assist you. It's readily available for Windows only, including Windows qbits megaprofit 7, which is now available in the Spanish version.
Available through ChurchPro is the one other software account program for churches; however, it is usually a total management church software. If offers over 200 forms and 800 financial/member reports you can print out easily. It works with Windows only, including Windows 7. You can maintain all accounts including receivables and payables and also the easy-to-use interface enables you to customize your chart of accounts. One license/one person costs around $400 annually and updates cost nothing; however, support costs around $300 a year and if your church offers a school, additional church school accounting software will cost you $500, although it's worth it with all the record-keeping and tracking features you may need for the school.
The company includes a one-year online data bank to backup your data in the SaaS format; however, the fee is $158 annually, where there are setup fees: Responsible church administrators would do well to skip this fee and simply back-up the system on their own. It is touch-screen capable, a great feature, as well as the colors on the interface make quite sure fun to use.
Accounting is a breeze, simplified and easy to use in this software and it doesn't take an accounting expert, although your CPA or tax preparer has usage of many reports via journal entries. It has remember-type tracking for members, contributors, donors, or a payroll feature. I do similar to this church software for accounting'even if the cost is somewhat higher than some if you choose the support.
From Shelby Inc. comes church management and accounting software, now in Version 5.0. Right off, I don't like the idea of 'module"-based software. Why? This means you've got to get one module for church management, one for accounting, and one if you have a school, etc. There is no all-in-one program'and none from the modules are cheap. Take a look at their .pdf brochure to view what I mean. Based on what you pick up, models start at $900 and go all the way up to $1,800, and support for starters year is also depending on module selection.
Shelby Version 5.0 can do a lot, even import from Excel, plus manage your members, donors and financial outlook and fiscal status, however the accounting side, although easy to create, will require an experienced bookkeeper or someone who has received the right training from Shelby.
I couldn't pick one up screenshot of the features or reports'even the main user interface--although I did look for a list of features. They do have a very place to sign up for free webinars on how this system works and appears. However, when I made itself known yet that option, no webinars were available with the time of the writing.
When you are looking at any sort of accounting software for a church or nonprofit, your best bet is to obtain some demo CDs or watch sample demos before buying. It's also smart to have your bookkeeper or tax professional on hand to watch each demo to look for the right software for your nonprofit or church.
I'd stay away from module-priced offerings'they really can start racking on top of the more features you want once you find out they just don't come while using basic versions. All in all, I'd choose Quickbooks or ChurchPro. Finally, if you will need non-profit or church accounting software, just like auto industry accounting software, I'd ask various other churches or non-profits what they are using as well as the difficulty or simplicity of use level.
Still searching for the right program? Check out Bright Hub's Guide to Buying and Using Accounting Software.
Quickbooks -
PowerChurch Plus -
ChurchSoft -
ChurchPro -
Shelby, Inc.-