Top 5 Features of Church Software You Need

Churches need church software to thrive. Because it’s so important, we’ve outlined the top five features that should be in your system.

Online Donations

One thing we often see in our line of work is the loss of old-fashioned give-and-take. In 2018, online donations accounted for nearly half (49%) of all giving, which is more than five times what they used to account for seven years ago. Online giving continues to grow with new advancements being made every year to make its legitimacy irreversible.

There are a few reasons that online donations might contribute to the lost connection between our spiritual lives and our society. With the internet, it’s easier for people to make monetary contributions because they can do so from the comfort of their own homes. Money raised online provides small organizations with large financial problems, just like PACs that are bought by larger organizations. There is also a vagueness and impersonality involved in giving money online, which could make giving an uncomfortable or unappealing experience after the momentary excitement has died down.

The donations may not be given on the day of services when presumably, this is their most connected to God.

Donors may set up recurring donations to keep the act of giving from recurring every week. They’ll have more time to focus on the things that matter most, rather than having to think about giving time each Sunday.

God is an intimate relationship with no boundaries between the believer and God which can lead to a loss of intimacy.

How do churches survive in this ever-changing world?

Churches face the challenge of managing online donations. It’s important to keep in touch with your donors so that they’re still connected to the church, as well as God. How do churches adapt and leverage technology to meet this need?

It’s important to have a reliable and intuitive online donation module, especially one that allows you or your church to immediately reach out to the donor. In some cases, an in-depth conversation with the donor is not prioritized but it’s not because communication isn’t important. It can be reassuring to give a generous donation and hear back from the church quickly, thanking them for their generosity.

Thank your donors!

Most charitable organizations struggle with donation solicitation, with less than 25% of total donations coming from physical mailed requests. Kivi Leroux Miller did an experiment where she sent $20 to 10 different organizations. She received three thank you messages resulting in a 30% response rate.

Attending to thank-you notes is an absolutely necessary task. Sending thank-you notes shouldn’t be based on the amount a person donated, but instead how much the person matters. With that said, it’s likely that ignoring those that give less than $250 isn’t the right approach. It’s too easy for members to perceive tokenism with lackluster recognition. Creating successful organizations requires leaders and members to appreciate one another and constantly demonstrate their gratitude.

There are many features to consider when choosing an online donation module. One of them is a follow-up thank-you email process that automatically sends a thank you note after the donation is received. If you really want your donation pages to impress, always send a personal note with the follow-up email. The organization should also include at least a summary of the goals their donations will help accomplish. We understand some tasks take time, so don’t be afraid to send multiple emails with updates on progress!

One time I heard someone say, “Thank you before you bank.” It’s a good rule to remember when processing donations.

Church Accounting

Accounting often gets church leaders into trouble because they traditionally use a bookkeeping system like QuickBooks or spreadsheets. However, these systems fail to satisfy the requirements of fund accounting which are needed to avoid legal offenses in the first place. The only way to ensure the church keeps their money out of the hands of unfortunate individuals is using a fund accounting system.

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Fund accounting is a double-entry system that helps you follow the rules set by the Internal Revenue Service, which is required for for-profit companies to submit financial statements. The main difference between standard accounting systems and fund accounting is that each transaction has a separate fund. This allows it to follow IRS guidelines as well as other principles set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Why your church accounting software should be discussed first

Accounting software should be high on the list for church leaders to review, in order to avoid legal problems that could ruin their entire business. Church leadership should make sure they’re following legal guidelines and standards to avoid having their doors bolted shut by mistake later on.

Why should a church be using a for-profit accounting system instead of utilizing fund accounting? Fund accounting allows them to run financial statements for each fund that they control. The main difference between a for-profit and a traditional nonprofit is the ability to break down each financial statement into individual separate expenses. For instance, in a for-profit balance sheet, you would see the entire company, including all expenses. In a traditional nonprofit, however, because they’ve only broken out their fund accounts, they’d see just their expenses and not include the rest of their accruals such as other income or sales.

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What’s the reason for not having church accounting discussed more in churches?

Accounting not only impacts your business, it also affects your bottom line. That’s why most companies try to avoid discussing accounting until something goes wrong. It’s like the 800-pound elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss — at least until it’s too late.

In some churches, leaders may not be willing to discuss topics involving accounting because they might find that they don’t have anyone on their team that’s familiar with it. This is an especially significant issue for churches as there can be a huge difference between managing your checkbook and the underlying business operations.

Ideally, you should seek out people with experience in accounting for nonprofits. It’s tougher to ensure your methods and processes are following guidelines for fund accounting when somebody has a for-profit accounting background.

Let’s say your company is thriving. What should you be looking at to help make it even better? Those with accounting software know they’re only part of the equation. That’s why they examine their own finances, consider investment strategies to increase financial standing, and work on managing cash flow effectively with an eye on the current financial status.

Church Personnel

For the most part, church accounting doesn’t get taken seriously. If you want to increase your bottom line, who better to help than a company that understands your industry? Thankfully, we don’t shy away from it, and we’re here for you. If what you need is specialized payroll processing expertise or assistance, let’s talk! You’ll see our personal and no-nonsense approach when it comes to our work ethic and ensuring confidentiality, which will protect you from IRS audits.

As with many tasks, payroll can be difficult. There are multiple reasons why payroll is so hard, such as filing W2’s and quarterly taxes with the government, figuring out what to take out of an employee’s paycheck, finding tax information for different types of staff members, and so on. This burden pales in comparison when you’re able to automate these complex tasks with church software that has been strategically developed to meet your particular needs.

What is the church payroll software used for?

One of the biggest tasks that a church has to manage is payroll. They have a host of tax liabilities and deductions for records, such as tax liabilities which are paid quarterly to government entities. A church then must cut checks every pay period and send them to employees who have W-2 forms, or other deductions that need tracking. Using a dedicated payroll solution, like IconCMO, is the only way they can keep their annual reports.

As you can see, payroll software has a lot of moving pieces. One additional complex element that is unique to church payroll is fund accounting. Church payroll must follow fund accounting principles like other transactions in the system such as vendor checks, deposits, and journal entries. Church software that uses fund accounting principles gives churches the option to set up salaries for various staff and tag their income to a particular fund. A good system like IconCMO can even tag an employee’s salary out of two different funds. For example, someone who also works in the children’s ministry could have two rate cards where each one uses a different accounting fund. In this case, the salary paid to the employee for the children’s ministry could come out of the Youth fund and the employee’s salary for musicians could come out of the General fund.

Researcher

Churches are a really important part of many people’s lives and help keep us connected to our religious community. They have evolved in recent years, and now provide such a niche kind of service that it provides an opportunity for modern software to be created. Church membership software must be able to track information such as the members’ names, addresses, church address, and general personal backgrounds.

• which group any member is a part of
• memorable events such as a child’s birthday, the new baby’s baptism, a wedding, or a parent’s confirmation
• phone and email addresses
• attendances at church or events.
• And so on.

Knowing this information about your members of worship can be very beneficial. Just a few examples are wishing happy birthdays, sending out last-minute cancellations for Sunday services, and knowing who was baptized. That’s why churches have traditionally kept paper records- until the monsters came along!

As society changes, communication needs have increased

Communication has become a vital part of society. In fact, church communication has increased in recent decades due to advancements in technology and busy lifestyles. And yes, people are working much less per week now than they used to because of helpful devices that simplify many tasks. However, there are also a lot of assumptions in that statement that must be vindicated before solid conclusions can be made on the significant change taking place with how our society thinks and projects its information.

Tony Crabbe had this to say:

It’s time to be more productive – we just need to do less and be more efficient.

If a person has a lot going on, they may think they are busier than they really are. Tony Crabbe lists five reasons why people seem busier and why this is the case in his article. One reason is humans don’t like making tough choices that will help them; then there’s always an fear that picking easy tasks will keep you stuck in the same daily grind.

One of the most challenging aspects of being a church communication director is keeping track of each individual family’s preferences at every connection point. Text messages are a popular means to reach people, but some families just can’t wait for a mailed letter with their list of messages. Some people prefer phone calls, and others may have trouble responding to texts. This is why many churches keep track of each individual’s preference in order to meet them where they need to be best served.

Church Member Portal

Regardless of your mission and what you do, there are always piles of things to be done. Even if you have a lot of volunteers on staff, that still doesn’t make it easy for everyone to keep up with everything. The solution isn’t sending employees around to handle everything; we know real life doesn’t work that way. The key is going through each task item by item and letting each person assign their top priorities. You can stress less by keeping tasks in check while still doing plenty of good! Think about letting your church members update their own family profiles–that removes some of the burden off the church secretary and allows them to focus more on other things.

Church members with access to the church member portal can update their profiles. It allows them to do more work and spreads the work around.

It’s time you take your church to the next level. Our member portal solutions can help your church get more members and also spread the word. They’ll also help make sure families know what they are donating to. You’ll also save yourself some work by printing them now and without having to do tons of unnecessary work!

The top 5 features of church software are as follows:

The features of church software are quite important to keep the church on the straight and narrow as well as save it time and money. This is the bare minimum a church should have in order to run smoothly, as well as make sure everything happens properly. Online donations not only save time for processing, but also offer convenience to members. It also helps to increase donations for churches which can lead them down a legal path. QuickBooks may not be an option when it comes to following IRS and FASB rules, and church membership and its member portal will help the church stay updated with the profile of each family member while at the same time decreasing costs for accounting purposes.