The 10 Best Church Accounting Software in 2024

• Automated messages: FreshBooks lets you automatically send invoices and reminder emails to church members. The standout feature is the customization options which let you create profiles and personalize messages to individuals.
• Auto-bills: You can set up recurring payments for pledges, saving you time chasing up donations. FreshBooks allows you to decide the schedule with specific members.
• Loss and profit report: Churches can’t legally make profits but FreshBooks can still analyze your books to analyze your cashflow. Not every alternative offers this feature.
• Payment collected: You can filter your data by person, amount, or payment method to track funds. Combined with the expense report, you can see where you’re losing money.

FreshBooks offers four plans with the option to add extra staff for $11 per month. When you sign up, you get 60% off your first 4 months.

• Lite – Designed for micro-businesses, Lite has basic accounting features such as invoicing, transfers, and expense tracking. You can already find automation tools like syncs and recurring payments in this starter plan.
• Plus – This plan adds advanced accounting features such as support for double entry and bank reconciliations. You can invite your accountant to use the software and review your finances.
• Premium – In the Premium plan, you get more customization and reporting tools. You can also use email templates to make communicating with parishioners faster and easier.
• Select – The highest-cost plan has robust support options. You can access a dedicated account manager, personalized training, and guided setup along with all the features of the Premium plan.

You’ll find FreshBooks’ pricing structure is great for growing organizations. The pricing structure starts low and increases incrementally so you can easily plan and account for upgrades in your budget.

Churches with small teams that intend to grow or expand should consider FreshBooks. They can automate processes for a low cost, leaving them free to focus on outreach and community services.

• Comprehensive dashboard: Zoho has one of the most intuitive dashboards of the solutions on our list. Its minimal design is easy to understand — perfect for church staff with little accounting experience.
• Customizable receipts: You can tailor Zoho’s receipt templates to your church. There’s the option to edit everything from fonts and colors to images.
• Multiple currency support: If you have international members, you can manage over 50 currencies through the Zoho platform.
• Team collaboration: Bookkeeping is more likely to be a shared task in churches. That’s why we were happy to see Zoho lets you collaborate through chat, voice, and video calls.

There are six distinct pricing plans for Zoho’s accounting solution:

• Free – The forever free plan supports one user and one accountant. You can find essential features such as invoicing and expense tracking but there’s only email support available.
• Standard – The starter plan allows you to add another two users. You can also sync more accounts and access more advanced bookkeeping and support options.
• Professional – This plan offers more tracking, reporting, and customization tools. As you add more members, you can especially benefit from the granular user permissions.
• Premium – This plan supports up to ten users. It offers more advanced customization tools so you can tailor your financial processes more tightly to your church’s needs.

Zoho beats many of its competitors on price. It not only has a free plan but a choice of upgrades and some of the lowest monthly fees.

If you’ve got a hybrid congregation, you may have noticed you’ve come to rely more on IT and security tools. Zoho lets you combine these with your accounting solution, so you’re not juggling different platforms.

• Analytics: Xero has powerful analytics with a range of filters and functions. The ability to plan for future scenarios is a standout feature.
• Reporting: No other alternative offers so many customization options for reporting. You can access the tool anytime, choose what to display, and instantly share them with church members.
• Invoicing: You can easily create professional, branded invoices using Xero’s templates. Once sent, you can track the payment status via the dashboard.
• Mobile app: Xero not only has an employer app but gives you access to most desktop tools. For example, you can send invoices, view statements, and check reports.

Xero has three fixed monthly plans for non-profits. It also offers expense tracking, project management, and analytics as add-ons.

• Early – The lowest-cost plan has basic bookkeeping and reporting tools. There’s a limit of 20 invoices or quotes which won’t be sufficient for most medium to large-sized organizations.
• Growing – Designed for growing organizations, the Standard plan offers unlimited invoicing and daily bank reconciliations.
• Established – The Premium plan adds multiple currency support. International churches can use the feature to assess exchange rates to find the best time to accept pledges.

We found the lowest-tier plan had limited features. However, Xero is one of the most competitively priced solutions on our list so you can easily upgrade if the restrictions pose issues.

Religious organizations with multiple churches and revenue streams should consider Xero. The platform’s powerful analytics and reporting tools allow you to capture the complexities of your business.

• Inventory tracking: If you sell merchandise, QuickBooks can help you track your levels in real-time and reconcile them in your books. It also has a range of integrations with popular ecommerce websites.
• Payment options: QuickBooks allows you to offer a variety of payment options including integrated solutions like PayPal and Venmo. They also offer a mobile card reader to accept donations on the go.
• Bookkeeping services: Churches can benefit from outsourcing tax compliance to qualified professionals. QuickBooks has a reputation for hiring top US accounting experts.
• Mileage tracking: QuickBooks lets you access the mileage tracker from the lowest-cost plan. Many competitors don’t include this feature but it’s essential for accurately recording the expenses of travelling church staff.

QuickBooks offers three dedicated accounting plans for churches and other non-profits:

• Simple Start – Only supports one user and includes invoices and payments with general reporting. This plan is not as suitable for church accounting as ministries require more advanced tools.
• Plus – Access a comprehensive range of bookkeeping, reporting, and workforce management tools. There’s also a new financial planning tool that lets you collaborate with your staff on budgets.
• Advanced – The highest-cost plan adds more advanced expense and reporting tools to give you more control over your cash flow. Your staff can also access 24/7 support and free training courses.

QuickBooks is one of the higher-priced solutions on our list. However, it includes all the essential features for churches (and nothing extra) so it’s worth the cost.

If you’re unsure about your church’s tax status, QuickBooks can support you. Its team of specialists can help you navigate the US system to ensure you’re capitalizing on all possible tax advantages and saving your organization money.

• Payroll: Wave is one of the few church accounting software with payroll. This means you don’t have to learn two systems and worry about data syncing issues.
• Advisory service: You can outsource bookkeeping for a very competitive fee through Wave. We appreciate how it’s an optional add-on and not a mandatory feature so churches can choose.
• Self-service portal: Staff can access the system through a self-service portal that lets them update details and access paystubs. That means less administrative work for you.
• User permissions: Although Wave is one of the simpler tools, it has highly granular permissions. That’s essential for churches that share their software with volunteers and donors.

Wave has a choice between a free and a paid plan. There’s also a payroll add-on for an extra $20 per month and a bookkeeping service which starts at $149 per month.

• Starter – The generous free plan grants you unlimited invoicing, estimates, and bookkeeping records. You only have to pay the 2.9% plus 60 cent transaction fee for each payment.
• Pro – If you upgrade, you gain access to advanced bookkeeping tools, granular user permissions, and live customer support. The transaction fee is 2.9%, making the Pro plan one of the most cost-effective on our list.

The choice of Wave plans is limited. However, given the low pricing, you’re unlikely to find your organization going over budget.

Tight profit margins mean you might not have the budget for an accounting tool. Wave lets you access all the basics for free and upgrade as your church gets more funding.

• Real-time reporting: You can monitor your financial performance day to day. As Sage has specialist tools, you don’t have to configure the report fields for your church.
• Global support: Sage is available across popular locations including the UK and Australia. That makes it easier to manage accounts for international churches with members in different countries.
• Donation tracking: You can track donations from various sources and manage donor information. Sage also integrates with popular donation management software like RaiseDonors.
• Automation: Churches can automate their entire workflow across different entities. You can set triggers to request your approval when needed.

Sage offers three price options. When you sign up, you receive your first 2 months free.

• Accounting Start – This plan only allows one user access. The plan includes quick invoice creation and finance tracking.
• Accounting Standard – This plan includes unlimited users, bookkeeping, VAT calculations, digital receipt capturing, and more flexibility.
• Accounting Plus – This includes multi-currency banking, advanced inventory management, and automatic exchange rate updates.

Multi-national churches can use Sage to manage their revenue streams from overseas. You can integrate with other global apps to seamlessly manage your staff and members.

• Contract management: Bonsai’s unique feature lets you create best-practice agreements and have contractors sign them electronically. That way everyone can be clear about their rights and responsibilities before a project.
• Time tracking: The tracker is integrated with the client and project management tools. That means you can get a quick, accurate idea of your staff’s hours on different tasks.
• Invoicing: Using Bonsai’s automation tools, you can streamline the entire invoicing process. You can also set up recurring payments to reduce your workload even further.
• Business account: Bonsai is one of the few options on our list that includes a bank account. It’s quick to set up and there are no minimum fees required.

Bonsai offers three plans with either a monthly fee or an annual commitment. When you sign up, you get your first 2 months free.

• Starter – Unlike many competitors, Bonsai offers unlimited invoicing, contracts, and proposals from its lowest-cost plan. You can also find basic workforce management tools such as tasks and time tracking to help organize your staff.
• Professional – This plan includes everything in Starter plus workflow automation and popular integrations. You can also use it to schedule church events and manage staffing.
• Business – Suitable for larger organizations, the Business plan gives you resource planning, contractor management, and capacity reporting.

Bonsai is more affordable than solutions like QuickBooks and Sage. The tradeoff is that it has fewer capabilities than either of these platforms.

If your team shares responsibility for bookkeeping tasks, Bonsai is a good option. You can easily assign tasks, track time, and view what others have done. To keep data safe, Bonsai lets you control how much volunteers, members, and vendors see on your system.

• Vendor management: Realm offers churches the tools to track and manage vendors that provide services or supplies. This helps them have a dedicated section where every payment and bill about vendors are managed.
• Segmented Reporting: Because Realm offers various finance categories such as expenses, transactions, vendor expenses, multiple funds, departments in the church, etc, it also presents reports in the same manner. With this segmentation, you can see financial data you only want to see and filter them by specific time periods, funds, core accounts, and departments.
• Giving Integration: Realm seamlessly allows churches to manage and track donations within the accounting system. This feature integrates contributions directly into financial records, making tracking and managing donor information easier.

Realm’s price information is not available on the website. Users need to contact the sales team for the actual price information.

Realm is suitable for churches that need accounting software with detailed reports and customization to help them make informed decisions. Its giving integration will help churches adequately manage contributions.

• Bookkeeping service: The Xendoo team can reconcile your books weekly or monthly depending on your needs. Your staff can access this information via the dashboard.
• Reporting: Churches can receive reports and a professional analysis from Xendoo’s qualified accountants. You can discover potential issues or opportunities more easily.
• Catch-up: If you’ve fallen behind on your books, Xendoo can organize them for an extra fee. They can even perform this service for previous years unlike many similar services.
• Tax support: For an extra fee, Xendoo can file all your returns and reports to the state and federal US government.

There are three pricing plans based on your monthly revenue. You can also add tax guidance for $1200 a year.

• Essential – Small churches can use this plan to manage weekly bookkeeping, monthly reports, and generate statements. You get a dedicated support team and a mobile app.
• Growth – The Growth plan lets you add extra bank accounts and integrations. It also supports accrual accounting, a legal requirement for many organizations.
• Scale – The highest cost plan offers everything in Growth plus more syncs and integrations. You can also benefit from a custom chart of accounts to organize your church’s general ledger.

While Xendoo costs more than most alternatives, that’s because you’re getting a dedicated bookkeeper. These services tend to cost more than the software subscription.

Xendoo is best for church staff who want to hire an accountant but don’t have the budget. The team of experts can manage your books until you’re ready — or longer if it suits your team.

• Fund tracking: As a specialist church management software, APLOS lets you set more relevant categories and tags for your various funds. You can then track them all via the dashboard.
• Donation management: APLOS supports a range of donation methods, including SMS and website widgets. You can also let attendees choose how they pay.
• Event registration: You can create custom forms to collect information about your upcoming events. Budgeting for projects is much easier when you know how many attendees to expect.
• Church management: Aplos offers a database specially designed for church attendees. You can view all your staff members, volunteers, and congregation data including their pledges and one-off donations.

You can choose between three monthly plans on APLOS:

• Lite – The lowest-cost plan has a comprehensive range of basic accounting and event management features. There’s also a CRM-style solution to keep track of your regular attendees.
• Core – Growing churches may appreciate the Core plan which includes more donation and billing features. That means you can streamline payments even as your congregation grows.
• Advanced – The Advanced plan has everything in Core plus robust project management and budgeting tools. Pricing is custom starting at $189 per month.

While APLOS isn’t one of the most competitively priced on our list, it’s a very feature-rich platform. There are also generous discounts for new users to save you money while you familiarize yourself with the platform.

If your church is heavily involved in the community, Aplos is for you. The combination of accounting, campaign, and outreach features allows you to run many aspects of your organization from the same dashboard.