Fewer Workarounds, More Time for People: Choosing a Church Management System
Some churches are choosing their first system after years of spreadsheets. Others are replacing one they’ve outgrown. Either way, it’s easy to treat the choice as a technology decision and hand it to whoever is most comfortable with computers. Learning how to choose church management software starts with a better question: which system can your people move into and keep using?
It’s a ministry decision. Church management software (ChMS) shapes the weekly work of the administrator entering records, the finance leader reconciling giving, and the volunteer checking in children. If they struggle, the workarounds return: the side spreadsheet, the paper list, and the follow-up that depends on memory.
Choose the system your people will still be using a year from now. That standard guides each step that follows, from setting must-haves to training your team.
Before You Choose Church Management Software
Settle a few things together before anyone books a demo or compares church management tools.
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22, NIV)
- Build a small decision team with the administrator, the finance leader, a Sunday volunteer, and an IT person if you have one. From the first meeting, make clear that the executive pastor or operations leader makes the final call with the team’s input. Name an owner for after launch, plus a backup.
- List your must-haves by asking each person for the two or three weekly tasks that break down most often. Write them in your church’s terms (a parish may need to submit data the way its diocese collects it), so you can judge church management software features against real work. A two-person staff may need only three, ranked by what would happen if each task slipped.
- Take stock of where your records live now (spreadsheets, paper files, a giving tool, an old system) to see what the new system must hold and what will move.
- Decide on one system or connected tools. All-in-one church management software keeps people, giving, groups, and communication together. Connected tools depend on church management software integrations, so ask whether data syncs both ways and who fixes a failed sync. For one Plano, Texas, church averaging about 2,000 in weekly attendance, the main reason to switch was handling events, attendance, and giving in one place.
How to Choose a Church Management System
Narrow the options to two or three, then put each through the same four checks.
Test It With Your Own Data
Ask for a test environment with a sample of your records, and have each person try their own job without a salesperson’s help:
- The administrator adds a new family and a first-time guest.
- The finance leader enters a week’s giving and pulls a statement.
- A volunteer checks in a child or updates a roster.
Send demo scenarios ahead of time, too. One Decatur, Georgia, church of 4,000 to 5,000 members found that its previous system required the church to adapt its operations to the software, a problem this testing can catch early.
Ask About Training, Support, and Data Access
Ask each provider the same questions, in writing:
- What training is included for staff and volunteers, and does it cost extra?
- What will you move for us, including giving history, and who does the import?
- What support hours, channels, and response times do you offer?
- Who can see what, and how are permissions set?
- Can staff logins require multifactor authentication?
- Can we export all of our data if we leave, and in what format?
Press on the login question. Your system will hold giving and family records, and multifactor authentication makes an account 99% less likely to be hacked.
Check Reviews and Ask Other Churches
Church management software reviews help most when you read for patterns in support, ease of use, and life after the first year. Favor recent reviews from churches of your size and type.
Then call one or two churches using each finalist and ask for the administrator. Find out what took the longest to learn, what they’d do differently, and how support responded when something broke. The director of an Iowa campus ministry says his team gets asked which database works for his ministry at a yearly conference of more than 25,000 people from similar ministries.
Compare Your Finalists Side by Side
After testing, gather each tester’s notes, check them against your must-haves, and let each person weigh in on their own area. Then bring the notes to whoever is making the final call.
Price each finalist over several years, counting the subscription and how it’s priced, add-on modules, payment processing for online giving, setup, moving your records, and training. Weigh church management software pricing against how well the system matches your weekly work, the staff time it gives back, and the support behind it.
Plan Your Move
A church management software migration, from spreadsheets or another system, goes more smoothly with four things settled early:
- Protect giving history and core records. Keep your own full export before anything moves, and have the finance leader compare giving totals by fund before and after. Tax-exempt organizations must be able to document the sources of their receipts and expenditures and keep records available for IRS inspection, so confirm retention with your CPA. Then decide how much giving history, donor records, and opening balances by fund to bring over.
- Name who does the work. Agree on what the provider and your staff each handle, and protect the administrator’s time for it.
- Time it around the church calendar, avoiding Easter, Christmas, year-end giving and statement season, and fall kickoff if you rely on volunteers. If you can, start recording gifts in the new system at the beginning of a calendar year, and let the old system produce the prior year’s statements. Your fiscal year may run on different dates, so plan the timing with your finance leader and CPA.
- Overlap briefly by running a few critical tasks, like giving entry or check-in, in both systems and comparing results. A lean staff doesn’t need to run everything twice.
Train Staff First, Then Volunteers
Train the people others will ask for help first, so questions get answered close to home:
- Daily users, such as the administrator and finance leader.
- Ministry and group leaders.
- Volunteers.
- The congregation, with a short note on what changes for them, like logging in and updating their information or giving profile.
Launch with people and giving records, then add more as your team gets comfortable. A Greek Orthodox church near Milwaukee with about 170 members and a staff of three began using its system in 2018 and, over the years, gradually started using more of its tools, such as attendance and event registration.
After launch, name one go-to person for questions, and schedule a check-in a few weeks later to fix what isn’t working. New software for church management only helps the people who keep using it.
ACST Options for Churches and Parishes
Churches need different things from a system, and the questions above apply to ACST too. ACST’s church management solutions include three options for different kinds of ministry:
- Realm is a cloud-based system that brings the whole church together, with tools for administration, group leaders, members, and volunteers.
- MinistryPlatform can be customized around how a ministry works, for larger or more complex churches, parishes, dioceses, and denominational offices.
- Parish Data System (PDS), founded by a Catholic priest, serves Catholic parishes and dioceses, with help that includes data conversion, advice, and training.
ACST has served churches since 1978, and its training and support services include MinistrySmart Academy courses, one-to-one training, a 24/7 self-service Help Center, and phone support.
Start the Conversation With Your Team
Knowing how to choose church management software comes down to order: team and must-haves first, then testing with real work, comparing finalists, planning the move, and training. Done that way, the new system is more likely to give your people fewer workarounds and more time for follow-up, care, and ministry.
Pick a target launch window on your church calendar and work backward: when the team meets, when you test finalists, and when you decide. Then bring your must-haves and target window to a personalized demo so the conversation starts with your church’s weekly work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should We Choose a System We Can Grow Into?
Plan for the growth you can see in the next few years, not every possibility. Ask each provider how the system handles more people, a second campus, or new ministries, and what moving to a larger plan involves. Avoid paying now for complexity your team won’t use.
What If We’re Still Under Contract?
You can start evaluating now and time the decision around your current agreement. Find your renewal date, notice period, and the terms for exporting your data, and don’t sign a new agreement until you know when the old one ends. Have whoever handles church contracts, or an attorney, review the terms.
What Happens to Our Old System After We Switch?
Keep access long enough to confirm everything moved correctly, then take a final full export before the old system closes. Ask the old provider how long access lasts after canceling, decide who keeps the export, and confirm with your CPA how long to keep records.
