Accounting Software vs. Church Software

Should you find some accounting software (or an Excel spreadsheet) where you have to key in contributions separately from all the other information you track in your ministry?

Should you find an “all-in-one” church software that has attempted to build out its accounting features to rival the features and functionalities of the leading accounting programs?

Or is there another option that doesn’t require you to compromise on either accounting functionality, or on the advantages of entering contribution info into the same place you enter the rest of your information?

The answer to the last question is yes. And in our opinion, after working with tens of thousands of ministries, we’ve found the best approach is to integrate award winning accounting software with a leading church software for a winning accounting equation.

In their recent report, Church Accounting Software Buyer Trends – 2018 Report, Software Connect presents some interesting findings on churches’ preferences when it comes to accounting software, including functionality, purchasing motives, deployment choices, and demographics.

But the report doesn’t draw a distinction between church software that has some features for tracking contributions, “all-in-one” church software solutions that attempt to offer the features of an accounting software, and accounting software (such as QuickBooks).

We found the report to be a valuable jumping off point for discussing why churches should consider choosing church software that integrates with accounting software as their solution, as opposed to an “all-in-one” church software that functions as a kind of accounting software. Especially considering that according to their report, over 30% of those looking to switch their accounting software are currently using church software that considers itself to be an “all-in-one” approach.

There’s another point in the report we feel needs clarified.

The report also includes Servant Keeper on a chart of software being used by churches looking for accounting software. The title of the chart is “What products are church software buyers replacing?” It shows that 3 percent of those looking for new accounting software have Servant Keeper.

But because Servant Keeper isn’t accounting software or an all-in-one approach, this doesn’t mean that they are necessarily looking to replace Servant Keeper. Instead, this number could include anyone who has Servant Keeper and is looking to replace another accounting software that they use alongside Servant Keeper.

What is Servant Keeper’s Approach to Accounting?

Servant Keeper provides functionality and tools to help secretaries and treasurers to track donations, run pledge campaigns, produce contribution statements as well as allowing members to download their own statements, create financial reports, more easily make deposits at the bank, integrate with online giving and more.

Servant Keeper also allows churches to send batch totals to their accounting software with built-in tools. When you switch to Servant Keeper for tracking donations and pledges, you will be able to keep enjoying Quickbooks or whatever accounting program you use and there will not have to be any disruption to how your accountant does your books! It’s just another one of the many reasons thousands of churches per year are switching to Servant Keeper for their church contribution software.

Our conversations with new customers continues to affirm our decision to approach church accounting as a separate but integrated solution. In fact, churches continue to switch to Servant Keeper because their “all-in-one” program from another vendor ended up being a combination of poor solutions. Or it did have sufficient accounting functionality but wasn’t user friendly enough for anyone other than the full time IT staff to use it.

We feel there is no reason to reinvent the wheel and try to outperform all the available accounting software programs who invest in and improve their programs each year in accordance with ever changing accounting best practices and tax laws. Instead, we focus on continually improving our software and the integrations with your favorite accounting software.

What do the accounting experts say?

What’s possibly most important is that the accounting experts agree with this approach. Most CPA’s we’ve talked to agree that, for security purposes, accounting information, bank information, and general ledger data should be managed separately from donor’s giving information.

Should we choose an integrated or an all-in-one approach?

If any of the following apply to your ministry, you should choose church software that integrates with accounting software instead of an “all-in-one solution that offers built-in accounting functions.

• You want to follow the recommendations of a majority of CPAs to manage donor’s giving information separately from bank information, general ledger data, and bank information.
• You want industry leading accounting software rather than a church software solution that is seeking to keep up with the leaders.
• You want to allow your treasurer and finance team to have the choice to change their accounting software in the future without having to go through the process of re-evaluating your church database software.
• Alternatively, you don’t want to be locked into a church database software just because the finance team is happy with the accounting software.
• You don’t want to run the risk of forcing your treasurer or finance team into an all-in-one church software and accounting solution that is either a combination of poor solutions, or that some have found only their IT staff can effectively use.
• You want to be able to use more cost-effective church software. (Some all-in-one solutions come with a much higher price tag. This makes sense, as they have to devote more time and resources to continue to develop and support a built-in accounting tool. See our pricing here.)

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