The Top 7 Benefits of Church Accounting Software

Churches face unique accounting challenges and needs, which is why they often benefit from church accounting software designed for faith-based organizations. Accounting software for churches handles payroll, fund management, donation tracking, and more. It simplifies church financial management and provides more peace of mind for church leaders while better serving their congregation. 

Here are the top seven benefits of church accounting software. 

1. Save time and money. Bookkeeping is an essential part of church financial management. Churches often receive funding from multiple sources, including donations, congregational tithing, grants, fundraising, and more. It can be quite difficult and time-consuming to manage all that information. Accounting software for churches simplifies bookkeeping and financial management by automating manual processes, reducing manual data entry, and more. 

2. Better manage cash flow and expenses. In addition to managing multiple revenue streams, church financial leaders also manage cash flow and expenses. Churches face multiple expenses including items for special events, facility repairs, and more. Our church accounting software provides instant real-time visibility into your church’s financial data, including money coming in, money going out, and more. It makes it easy to see the financial health of your ministry.  

3. Better budgeting. Church management software with accounting functionality helps you make better budgets, including creating a chart of accounts that fits the needs of your ministry. Easily define and track how each core account is used, and automatically send all reports to church leaders. You’ll be able to easily import information from past years when creating a new budget and track areas where your organization is either under- or over-spending relative to allocated funds.  

4. Better payroll management. Churches and other faith-based organizations often have multiple full-time or part-time employees, including ministers, secretaries, and janitorial staff. Having employees requires making payroll. As anyone who has ever worked in accounting can tell you, making payroll can be a time-consuming process. That’s particularly true for ministers and other faith-based leaders who may not have a strong background in accounting. Or even if they do, doing payroll can take away from other more valuable tasks that better serve your ministry and your mission. Church accounting software helps simplify and streamline payroll management so you can focus on more meaningful projects. 

5. Better Regulatory and Legal Compliance. Churches face higher regulatory and legal hurtles than a typical for-profit organization, including managing grants and handling donor restricted gifts. Church financial software ensures that churches correctly handle funds, including providing an audit trail and accounting for how every dollar was spent.  

6. Better risk management and reduced risk of fraud. Better accounting for churches can help improve risk management and reduce the risk of fraud and data entry errors. In addition, churches are at an increased risk of fraud if one person handles all accounting tasks like paying bills and making deposits. Our church accounting software provides better visibility into and control over church financials for the entire church leadership team. 

7. Better serve your congregation and ministry. All these other benefits, of course, are really about better serving your congregation and ministry. Increase your impact with better visibility into financials and giving, including measuring the impact of your church’s programs and donations. You’ll also be able to manage your resources more effectively to maximize your impact in the wider community. 

Better Serve Your Ministry 

The bottom line is that church accounting software can help you better serve your ministry. While the cost of investing in church management software may seem prohibitive, the benefits help keep you and your congregants engaged and create new outreach opportunities. We’re proud to provide Sage Intacct, the best church accounting software, to churches so that they can grow and thrive. 

When you choose a church financial management solution, you’re not just choosing software. You’re choosing a partner. Someone who understands your needs and can customize your software to fit your ministry. Contact us today to see what the CertiPro difference can do for you.