Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Church Accounting Software
Like any other organisation, Churches are required to keep up-to-date financial records and put financial accountability at the top of the priority list for their finance and accounting teams.
/However, unlike traditional accounting for more commercial organisations and businesses, churches have unique needs that may not be catered for with ‘one-size-fits-all’ accounting software.
We’ll take you through some of the nuances of non-profit accounting systems, including our very own Access Financials for Not for Profit Organisations, the pros and cons of accounting software for churches, and how a specialist platform can help streamline your accounting processes.
What is a church accounting system?
Churches have some unique requirements that aren’t a consideration for most commercial organisations. Some out-of-the-box accounting software won’t have the capabilities required.
As Not For Profit organisations, churches need to focus on the need for accountability over profitability. Choose tools that enable you to produce a Chart of Accounts structure that supports all of the required reporting requirements:
- Fund management
- Trustee reporting
- SOFA reporting
Why is accounting software for churches important?
Being able to track available funds enables your church to run smoothly and continue to deliver its mission. This level of insight is vital for finance teams.
Such funds can be generated from a variety of different sources. A robust fund accounting platform can help ensure records are kept accurately and efficiently.
By selecting the right software that caters to your needs, as well as some of the basic functionalities such as bookkeeping, you can be confident that you’re set up to meet your financial aims and legal obligations.
Access has saved us more than 200 hours each month, equating to £50,000 per year.
Advantages of church accounting software
What are the key advantages of specialised church accounting software? Below we break down the 5 main benefits of choosing a finance system designed for charities and Not-For-Profit organisations:
1. Visibility and control
Specialised software removes the need for several siloed systems and brings everything together in a single system. You'll get an end-to-end view of your finances and reporting.
Additionally, it gives you control over restricted and unrestricted funds and costs across multiple funds, income types, projects and departments. It also enables you to assign different roles within the software, your project managers can input their own data with e-approval workflows to ensure you remain in control.
2. Accurate reporting
Accuracy can’t be underestimated with any accounting system and the process for churches and non-profits is no different.
With legal obligations to meet and transparency key to your stakeholders, you’ll want a system that enables you to deliver SOFA reporting, restricted and unrestricted fund reporting, partial VAT exemptions and VAT returns.
Platforms like Access Financials include all of this and plenty more with 100s of ready-made reports.
3. Easier auditing
Transparency. Consistency. Accountability. Knowing you have a system capable of providing a clear and precise audit trail for all transactions is of the utmost importance for a non-profit organisation.
Church accounting software should also give you full visibility and tracking of public and donated funds with approval procedures to safeguard the proper use of funds.
4. Cloud-based technology
With your teams, trustees, volunteers and other stakeholders likely to run a busy day-to-day life, a cloud-based solution for your church provides you the additional flexibility you need.
No matter what device they’re on or where they’re based, secure cloud-based software empowers everyone to be able to submit data, complete tasks, action approvals and view relevant reports remotely.
Cloud-based software often boasts stronger security, allowing you to better protect your reputation and corporate social responsibility.
5. Seamless Integrations
Whether your finance team is a one-person operation or you’ve got the luxury of several experts at your disposal you’ll want to know that your accounting system can integrate seamlessly with any other software you’re using to run your organisation.
Two-way communication between these platforms can help increase efficiency – integrations with commonly used software such as Microsoft Excel could save you enormous amounts of time in the long run.
Disadvantages of accounting software for churches
While specialised accounting software can streamline your church's financial processes and offer detailed reporting for improved decision-making, there are potential downsides such as the cost of the solution and the implementation process. Below we break down the two so you can make the right choice for your organisation:
Cost
Of course, equipping yourself with the best possible tools on the market is going to make a bigger dent in your budget. Whilst there are free versions of both standard and dedicated non-profit accounting software, these are likely to have some feature limitations.
A lot of available options are billed on a monthly basis, allowing you to spread the cost rather than pay out a lump annual sum which may soften the blow. However, you’ll need to weigh up your options before deciding whether to invest. Take a look at our charity accounting software prices.
Implementation
If you’ve already got an established platform for your accounting needs, there could be a significant amount of work required to transition to your new software provider.
Most enterprise software companies will take you through a detailed and comprehensive onboarding process to help ensure your new platform is integrated and up and running without much hassle.
With this in mind, it’s worth making sure your teams are prepped and ready to move over to a new system and dedicate the time required for training to ensure you get the most out of the software. Our switching finance software hub can help you through the process.
Switching finance software? Get the answers to questions a Not-For-Profit CFO might ask
How Access Finance software helped Church Mission Society save 200 hours per month
Church Mission Society made the switch from Sage 100 to our charity accounting software. It's saved them 200 hours each month, equating to £50,000 each year. Other benefits they now get:
- Simplifies nominal codes
- Reduces admin for accounts team
- Saves more time after eliminating paper processes
- Stronger fund accounting and reporting
- Better planning for the future
The best cloud based church accounting software for you
So, whether you’re looking to switch from your current accounting solution to a dedicated church accounting software or looking to migrate from a paper-based system to digital, we hope this article has helped answer some of the questions you might have.
If you’ve still got unanswered questions, check out our Access Financials for Non-Profits brochure. You can also drop us a line in the live chat where one of our finance experts will be at hand to help you out or request a call back to discuss your queries over the phone.
