6 Best Church Accounting Software Applications for 2022

Along with the current economic conditions, churches will also have to take into account new regulations and accounting standards. Churches are constantly looking for ways in which they can save time and money while maintaining a high level of service quality. Here are six church accounting software applications that could be worth considering as you plan your budget during the next few years.

The “best free church accounting software” is a list of the top 6 applications that are best suited for churches. These apps will allow your church to keep track of finances, donations, and more.

Strong accounting systems are required for churches to provide detailed transaction information and reports to key stakeholders like donors and the board of directors. Furthermore, church administration software that is coupled with strong accounting software might be beneficial to many congregations. We looked at a number of possibilities and came up with the following list of the best church accounting software:

• Aplos is the best all-around church accounting software.
• Wave is the best free accounting software for small churches that want to keep track of their revenue and spending.
• PlusPowerChurch is the most affordable church accounting software that includes genuine fund accounting.
• IconCMO: Best for church management and payroll integration
• QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to: The best, most user-friendly accounting software that can be tailored to churches’ accounting requirements.
• For churches with an experienced bookkeeper, QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier Edition is the most configurable accounting software.

When it comes to church accounting software, there are a few options to consider.

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To see the software we propose for your church, just answer a few easy questions. After that, keep reading to learn more about each program.

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Aplos is the best all-around church accounting software.

Aplos

4.08 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• Software for church administration is included.
• Accounting activities and reports in their entirety
• Keep track of your donations and make statements.
• Gusto Payroll is integrated (separate fee required)

What Isn’t There

• Only two users are included in the base pricing.
• Text contributions are not included in the base price.
• Finding an external accountant who is knowledgeable with the software to help you may be tough.
• Invoices aren’t editable.

Pricing for Aplos

• Aplos Lite costs $59 a month.
• Aplos Core costs $79 a month.
• $179 per month for Aplos Core + Advanced Accounting

Features

• Aplos has an online contribution tool that assists churches in organizing fundraisers and fundraising campaigns using online payment methods. Aplos also provides a dedicated safe site for credit or debit card payments, as well as a tithe recurring giving tool. Users may edit the form’s appearance, contribution amounts, language, and URL using the donation form designer.
• If your church has activities or events, you may develop an event registration form to make the registration process go more smoothly. You may also share the registration link through social media, email, or by embedding it on your website.
• Outstanding accounting design: When we tested Aplos’ accounting functions, we liked how easy and understandable it was to use, even for non-CPAs. The interfaces of the invoice and bill creation modules are understood easily and very convenient to fill out. Visit our review of Aplos to view our in-depth Features of Accounting video.

Expert Recommendation

Aplos’ simple and economical accounting software has helped thousands of NGOs. It’s a great substitute for IconCMO, particularly for churches with novice bookkeepers. You may execute a broad variety of church accounting and administration tasks for just $59 per month, including monitoring contributors, managing contributions, and allocating revenue and spending. Its website builder is a standout feature. Aplos is for you if your church doesn’t want infinite users or personalized invoices. We advocate combining Gusto with Aplos to make your payroll tasks easier.

Wave: The Best Free Accounting Software for Tracking Income and Expenses for Small Churches

Wave

3.01 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• The functions of accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning are all free.
• Provides low-cost self-service and full-service payroll solutions.
• Obtain access to your bank and credit card accounts.
• Provides an accounting assistance service (Wave Advisors)

What Isn’t There

• It is missing functionality for church administration.
• There are no budgeting features.
• There’s no way to keep track of several monies.
• It’s impossible to keep track of revenue and costs by program service.

Pricing in Waves

Wave’s accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning services are all available for free. You only have to pay when you handle financial operations like payroll and bank transfers.

Features

• Wave provides free accounting and invoicing services with no hidden fees or advertisements. This free edition is appropriate for small churches without a lot of fund accounting needs. If your church has modest fundraisers, Wave is also a wonderful accounting program.
• Wave ProAdvisors are accounting experts that have been certified by Wave. These professionals can assist you with bookkeeping, accounting, and tax preparation.

Expert Recommendation

Wave offers a simple way to track income and expenses for free. It has no church management and Features of Accounting, so we don’t recommend it if you need to account for multiple or restricted funds. For easy fund accounting, try our best overall pick, Aplos. Wave is great for minimal bookkeeping and basic invoice tracking. However, there are no church-specific reports, so you’ll have to manually prepare them.

PlusPowerChurch: Best Church Accounting Software With True Fund Accounting at a Low Cost

PlusPowerChurch

3.58 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• You have the option of using desktop software or an internet application.
• Payroll integration with no hidden costs
• Management and monitoring of fixed assets are included.
• Users and installations are infinite with desktop software.

What Isn’t There

• Users are responsible for keeping track of payroll tax schedules.
• Only two people may utilize the online version at the same time.
• Cannot create income and expenditure budgets
• The reports are exclusively on a monetary basis.

Read our PlusPowerChurch Review

PlusPowerChurch Pricing

New Users

• $295 (downloadable)
• $315 for a physical CD

Users who have already signed up (Upgrades)

• Over-the-air download: $159
• $179 for a physical CD

Version available online (PowerChurch Online)

• $39.95 per month
• $455 per year
• Additional permits are available for $25 per person.

Features

• True fund accounting: PlusPowerChurch lets you create different funds to keep track of donations. These funds can help you manage how donations are used in your organization, especially if there are donor-imposed restrictions in the usage of the funds.
• Attendance tracking: Through PlusPowerChurch, you can manage the activities of your members and their participation in your congregation. You can track the attendance of your members in worship services, Sunday school, outreach activities, and much more.
• Church calendar: PlusPowerChurch has an event scheduler that can connect with Google Calendar to remind congregation members of upcoming events, and you can email your members about upcoming church events and activities directly from the app.

Expert Recommendation

For churches with only a few employees, we recommend PlusPowerChurch as your next church accounting software. If you feel stuck between online or offline accounting, PlusPowerChurch lets you choose between its desktop or cloud-based program. This software tracks donations and pledges, processes unlimited payroll transactions, and manages your church’s restricted and unrestricted funds. As a low-cost accounting system, it comes with several trade-offs, such as the lack of telephone customer support and no assisted bookkeeping service. We instead recommend Aplos because you can hire Aplos Advisors who can help you with bookkeeping and creating financial reports.

IconCMO: Best for church management and payroll integration

IconCMO

4.08 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• The payroll add-on is for an infinite number of workers.
• Features for comprehensive church management
• Add-on for childcare security (separate fee required)
• Small and midsize churches can afford it.
• Includes an unlimited number of users

What Isn’t There

• There is no fixed-asset tracking.
• For bigger churches, it is too expensive.
• An extra cost is required for the event registration function.
• Without an internet connection and a Rubix account, you won’t be able to utilize Icon Check-in.

CMO Pricing Icon

The price increases as the number of households increases:

• 1 to 100 families: $35 per month, $385 per year
• From 101 to 250 households, the cost is $49 per month and $539 per year.
• From 251 to 500 households, the cost is $49 per month and $539 per year.
• Families with 501 to 750 members pay $74 per month and $814 per year.
• From 51 to 1,000 households, the monthly cost is $84 and the yearly cost is $924.
• Families with 1,001 to 3,000 members pay $94 per month and $1,034 per year.
• 3,000+ families: $124 per month and $1,364 per year

The following add-ons are available:

• Add-on for Icon Check-in: $15 per month or $180 per year
• Add-on for Icon Payroll: $25 per month or $275 per year
• Add-on for event registration: $15 per month or $180 per year.
• SMS Messaging costs $5 to $500 per month or $60 to $6,000 per year for 250 to 25,000 monthly messages.

Features

• Online contributions: Through Vanco Payment Solutions and Bambora, IconCMO provides an online option for accepting donations. Donations may be made using credit cards, debit cards, and ACH payments.
• Infinite payroll: With the payroll add-on, you may handle payroll for an unlimited number of workers, calculate taxes, and assist with W-2 filing. If you have a lot of workers, you should purchase the payroll tool. When it comes to payroll processing, the payroll add-on may save you a lot of time.
• Kid check-in: IconCMO offers a child check-in add-on if your church provides religious events for children. This feature is an online monitoring mechanism for parents who send their children to church activities or Sunday school. Parents may check whether their children are still in the group using a portal. You may also enter basic information and extra notes for things like allergies or conditions using the kid check-in add-on.
• IconCMO’s fund accounting feature enables you to set up many sorts of funds for your church. You may use these funds to keep track of the fund’s utilization and verify that all transactions are compliant with the donor’s limitations.

Expert Recommendation

IconCMO has features that church administrators can use to keep everyone in the congregation updated about church events, activities, and services. We also saw Features of Accounting that help churches keep track of funds and ensure that every transaction is accounted for correctly.

Despite the fact that IconCMO has a lot of important features, the most of them are not included in the standard pricing. You’ll need to subscribe to Icon Check-in if you want to use the kid check-in option. As a result, if you don’t obtain service add-ons inside the Icon system, you won’t be able to fully leverage IconCMO’s fullest potential. Regardless, IconCMO is still a fantastic church accounting program. If you desire an orderly accounting system for your church, we believe it is worthwhile.

QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to is the most user-friendly and customizable accounting software available.

QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to

4.03 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• Accounting software for small businesses that works
• For help, share your books with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor on a regular basis.
• Customer service is provided without charge at all times.
• Except for Simple Start, the monthly pricing covers numerous users.

What Isn’t There

• After incorporating third-party church administration software, it becomes prohibitively expensive.
• Classes and subclasses must be used to imitate fund accounting.
• Only one organization’s books are included in the price.

Read our QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to Review

QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to Pricing

If you need to manage various funds for your organization, we suggest using the Plus version’s Class tracking feature:

• Begin with a low-cost plan of $25 per month (one user)
• $50 per month for the essentials (three users)
• Added bonus: $80 per month (five users)
• $180 per month (advanced) (25 users)

Payroll is available at an additional $45 + $4 per employee. For the first three months, QuickBooks is offering a 50% discount or a 30-day free trial.

Features

• Class tracking: One of QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to’s best features is class tracking. You can use this feature to track funds, contributions, or pledges. Classes can be customized based on your needs, so it’s flexible for church accounting.
• Easy accountant access: If your church has a volunteer CPA, you may simply ask them to assist you handle your finances. The user limit is not affected when you invite an accountant. You may invite up to three accountants in QuickBooks Plus and above.
• QuickBooks Live is an unique QuickBooks service that allows you to interact with a QuickBooks Advisor if you need assistance with accounting. You’ll receive an initial cleaning, continuous accounting, and financial statement preparation for a monthly fee of $200. Depending on your typical company costs, the pricing may vary.

Expert Recommendation

QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to is our choice for best small business accounting software and is flexible enough for church accounting. You can use class tracking to track funds or contributions. The only downside of QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to is that it doesn’t have church management features. If you need help in bookkeeping you can outsource QuickBooks ProAdvisors or, better yet, get a QuickBooks Live subscription for monthly bookkeeping assistance and financial statement preparation. We recommend QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to if you already have dedicated church management software or your organization is small enough that you don’t need these features.

QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier: The Most Flexible Accounting Software for Professional Bookkeepers

QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier

3.44 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• Outstanding accounting capabilities from a market leader
• Accounting services for an infinite number of businesses
• Intuit Payroll Integrated (separate fee required)
• For assistance, we have a large network of independent QuickBooks ProAdvisors.

What Isn’t There

• There are no features for church management.
• It’s difficult to use, particularly for those who aren’t accountants.
• It’s difficult to share data with an outside accountant.
• There may only be five users at a time.

Read our QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier review

QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier Pricing

An yearly subscription to QuickBooks Premier Plus 2022 is available. Unlimited software updates, security patches, and customer support are included in the yearly plan:

• $549.99 per user
• $849.99 for two users
• $1,149.99 for three users
• $1,449.99 for four users
• $1,749.99 for 5 users

Features

• Nonprofit chart of accounts: If you choose the QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Edition, your software will come with a default chart of accounts for nonprofits. The chart of accounts does not need to be changed since it is also consistent with church accounting.
• Nonprofit-specific reports: You may build particular reports for organizations and churches, such as year-end donation statements and donor contribution summary reports, in addition to the general financial statements.
• Unlimited customer support and updates: Another benefit of QuickBooks Premier Plus is that it includes unrestricted customer support and updates. To obtain live assistance on the previous version, you had to buy a customer support plan.

Expert Recommendation

QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier is an industry-specific edition of QuickBooks Premier Plus 2022 desktop accounting software. Although it’s specifically for nonprofits and churches, QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier still comes with the outstanding Features of Accounting of QuickBooks Premier.

The only problem with QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier is that it can be difficult for non-accountants to use, and it It is missing functionality for church administration.. So, we recommend choosing another program in this list if you’re looking for church management features like member tracking, church activities tracking, and SMS reminders. We recommend IconCMO or Aplos because they have excellent church management features that are easy to use.

How We Tested Accounting Software for Churches

We compared church financial and accounting software based on cost and how well it met the demands of small and medium-sized churches, such as monitoring contributions. We put a premium on systems designed specifically for churches, as well as the flexibility that general-purpose software may provide an experienced bookkeeper. Finally, we looked at how well a program may work with church administration software.

10% of the overall score

We examined each church accounting app’s price plans and rated them from most inexpensive to least cost. We scored the software for churches based on its price point, number of users, transaction limits, and overall affordability.

20% of the overall score

We evaluated how well each program provided the basic Features of Accounting needed for church accounting. In our evaluation, we considered essential features in accounts payable (A/P), accounts receivable (A/R), banking, inventories, and other minor Features of Accounting. We also took into account the difficulty nonaccountants would have using these features.

20% of the overall score

Church accounting software must have church-specific features that can help administrators manage the day-to-day operations and long-term plans of the church. In evaluating Features of the Church, we considered the following:

• Fund Features of Accounting, such as creating and managing funds
• Members may monitor their donations and pledges.
• Donations that are automatically renewed
• Printing nonprofit financial reports, for example, is one of the reporting functions.
• Member profiles, a church activity tracker, and an event planner are examples of congregation administration tools.

30% of the overall score

Our major focus for User-friendliness was customer support and assisted bookkeeping options. We also considered payroll and online payment integration, as long as it was not through a third-party app. Overall, we also gave a score for subjective User-friendliness based on the overall experience when navigating and using the software.

20% of the overall score

Expert Recommendation score is based on the overall experience of the software, from its general Features of Accounting to specific church management features.

*Percentages based on total score

Conclusion

When it comes to picking the finest church accounting software, there are many aspects to consider, including your church’s budget, size, and special demands. While every software application on our list is worthwhile, we suggest Aplos for church accounting because of its extensive, adaptable, and user-friendly capabilities.

If your church wants to focus more on the accounting side, we recommend QuickBooks Online is a software program that allows you to or QuickBooks Nonprofit Premier. Small churches can start with Wave because it’s free, even if it lacks Features of the Church of Accounting. If your church needs an affordable payroll add-on, IconCMO is the best choice. For robust congregation management features, we recommend PlusPowerChurch because of its outstanding member profiles and church management features.

The “small church bookkeeping” is a software application that will help churches keep track of their finances. These 6 accounting applications are the best for 2022.

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