Church Accounting Software

There are a number of church accounting software packages that are available to churches. However, as a non-profit organization, you must use church FUND accounting software.

According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, every non-profit organization must account for each category or fund of income and expenditure. Monies must be classified as either restricted or unrestricted funds.

Restricted funds are categories such as the building fund or the mission's fund. Unrestricted funds are donations that aren't assigned to a particular purpose. Churches typically put these donations into a General Fund.

When a church takes an offering, some people designate some or all of their contributions to a particular purpose; for instance, a mission's trip. This is a restricted fund – the money can't be used for anything else without the donor's permission.

Money that is not designated for a specific purpose is unrestricted. That means it can be used for anything.

The accounting software for your church needs to be able to divide donations into separate funds and show these fund's income and expenditures on reports or budgets.

You don't need to open separate bank accounts for each fund. You just need to be able to track income and expenditures for each fund.

There are many software programs that offer an accounting or donations feature. But the list of programs that provide church FUND accounting software is limited.

Here is a list of the accounting software programs that I found that provide fund accounting capabilities.

• Quickbooks is the most-used church financial software package. The best option they offer is one specifically designed for non-profit fund accounting. See full information on QuickBooks Nonprofit 2012 at Amazon.
• ACS Technologies produces the gold standard of church accounting software. See this page for more information.
• CahabaCreek. See the full review of this church accounting software on this page.
• Church Windows. See the full review of this church fund accounting software on this page.
• AplosSoftware. See the full review of this church fund accounting software on this page.
• ChurchPro. See the full review of this church fund accounting software on this page.

Church Accounting Software Conclusion

As you can see, there are a few church software programs that offer fund accounting. I encourage you to fully investigate each one before you choose the one that is right for your church.