Last editedSep 20243 min read
From collecting donations to recording and storing member contact details, the best church management software fulfils numerous roles. Running a church involves a great deal of complex admin tasks that cost considerable time and money. Here’s a closer look at church management software that can help you lighten the load.
What is church management software?
Sometimes shortened to ChMS, church management software refers to any technical solutions used by churches to manage their everyday tasks. This includes things like tracking online donations, managing databases, and communicating with members via email outreach. From a central dashboard, church administrators can also plan schedules, book function rooms, and track attendance.
The benefits of church management software
Automating your church’s systems using management software offers plentiful benefits. You’ll be able to save time by cutting down on the everyday busywork. Here are just a few tasks that church management software can take care of:
Track church membership with contact details, family profiles, volunteer profiles, and other details in a central database.
Schedule church events from a single platform, keeping track not only of worship services but also of special events and community classes.
Keep track of member contributions, with tax receipts, to ensure easier IRS reporting each year. The best software will integrate with your accounting software to keep everything in one place.
How to choose the best church management software
While the benefits mentioned above give you some idea of what you can expect from the best church membership software, not all apps are identical. Features can vary, so you need to narrow down the options to find the best fit. At minimum, a good management solution will allow you to track membership details, donations, and events. However, you should also look carefully at fees, scalability, and customization. You want your ministry to grow, so look for software that can grow along with your membership.
5 best church management software
Church managers are spoiled for choice today, with dozens of well-designed products on the market to automate your admin processes. Here’s our roundup of some of the best software out there.
1. ACS
ACS church management software is a cloud-based solution with a comprehensive range of features. It allows you to manage contacts, track contributions, issue receipts, and plan fundraising efforts all from a central platform. You can also share group calendars to make volunteering easy for your members.
2. Aplos
Another top option is Aplos Software, which offers a full suite of integrated products to help you with marketing, tithe tracking, reporting, and member management duties. It’s particularly helpful when it comes to accounting tasks, with automated account reconciliation and report generation. You can use it for team management as well, scheduling meetings and assigning tasks to members.
3. Tithe.ly Church Giving
If you’re looking for a central donation platform, Tithe.ly makes the process easier for your members. Managers can filter lists by individual members and larger groups to facilitate communication, while automated workflows help keep members on task. The app really excels when it comes to donations, offering a combination of mobile, text, and online tools for simplified giving. Tithe.ly also helps you follow up with in-depth reporting capabilities and daily deposits.
4. ChMeetings
If you need to track your events more efficiently, ChMeetings is a good choice of church management software. It lets you plan events, track memberships, create custom groups and assign tasks. With a Firewall feature, member data is kept secure in the cloud even across multiple devices. Best of all, at its most basic level the software is free.
5. Flocknote
Our fifth pick for best church management software is Flocknote, notable for its in-depth communication features. You need to get in touch with your members quickly and efficiently to share the latest church news, and Flocknote offers mass texting and emails to make this easier. It also offers a handy text-to-join feature that lets members opt into events with a single click.
We can help
When it comes to taking membership payments, GoCardless can help. Pull-based Direct Debit is perfect for receiving recurring payments, allowing for clear visibility over which payments have been received. There’s no monthly fee involved, and we also partner with over 200 platforms including Xero and Salesforce for easy integration with the management software of your choice.
GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.
