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ACS

Give your accounting staff the ability to:

  • Provide on-the-spot receipting which is convenient for ‘walk in’ payments.
  • Create custom billing codes for convenient, accurate billing for fees and services.
  • Run invoices in batches, rather than created record by record.
  • Apply billing codes for multiple fees automatically, while providing custom discounting where applicable (e.g. a family who receives a multiple child discount).
  • Link to ACS School Suite for tuition billing.
  • Add “customers” directly in the module or from People or HeadMaster.
  • Name and create as many different “Revenue Centers” as needed and tie to the appropriate income accounts.
  • Define the billing frequency by user for more system flexibility.
  • Define your own aging periods – 30,60,90, or some other range.
  • Quickly add, delete, or edit invoices.
  • Print or view reports on screen including: Aging Report, Customer Listing, Unapplied Payments, Billing Codes, and Revenue Centers.
  • Print statements using various options to determine which customers receive statements.
  • Print statements on plain paper or ACS forms.
  • Utilize Accounts Receivable as a complement to the ACS financial solution.

Attempting to manage all of your people, events, and facilities in one calendar is madness.

Churches simply have too many people, events, facilities, and changes to coordinate for one calendar. ACS Facility Scheduler is a hosted, centralized scheduling tool designed specifically to expand and meet the multiple needs of organizations and their facilities. With this scheduling solution, you can create and distribute custom calendars to your members and staff so that rooms and resources are never double-booked. And since Facility Scheduler is a Web-based application, you can access it from anywhere at any time.

With its unique workflow security and even more user-friendly interface, Facility Scheduler is the optimum choice for your organization. It is the latest hosted solution, so your program is always up to date and your data is always secure.

  • View one calendar or any combination of calendars with few clicks
  • Quickly check the daily, weekly, or monthly availability of meeting rooms, people, or equipment
  • Arrange meetings, reserve rooms, and book equipment and resources without causing conflicts
  • Create complex recurring events (e.g. finance committee that meets every second Tuesday or VBS that runs five consecutive days)
  • Schedule multiple locations per event
  • Broadcast schedules and announcements on screens throughout your church
  • Integrate information with Microsoft Outlook

Easy Entering of System Options and Events

ACS Facility Scheduler includes many built-in features that enable you to avoid double booking of rooms, people, or equipment. Some of these are the ability to:

  • Enter events as pending or approved with the ability to confirm them later.
  • Cancel events and keep information in the system for reference.
  • Enter recurring events or events that span multiple days.
  • Book resources and extra setup or teardown time.
  • Enter separate rooms and then combine them to be booked as one resource. For example, you may have a multi-purpose room that can be divided and scheduled as four smaller rooms.

Accessible Anytime, Anywhere

Facility Scheduler is a hosted solution, meaning there are no program CDs to keep up with. You just install the application, and it’s maintained and updated for you by ACS Technologies. In addition, you’ll have:

  • Regular, current backups of your data in case of emergency.
  • Secure data transfer.
  • Server hardware repairs, upgrades, and replacements.
  • 24-hour network support for connection to server.
  • Up-to-the-minute software updates, so you’re always using the latest version.

Ultimate Control

  • Setup – You decide how many calendars and event types to create.
  • Security – You decide who has access to view or add events to each calendar.
  • Scheduling – You decide who can add or edit events as approved or confirmed.

Built-in Reporting

Facility Scheduler comes with many standardized reports and calendar formats, such as:

  • List of events – Two lists and two 3×5 card formats.
  • List of resources – Simple and detailed lists organized by scheduled event. You can include notes if necessary.
  • Weekly and monthly calendars – Variety of options in landscape or portrait format.
  • Request forms – Customized forms for each event type you create.
  • Planning calendar – Blank calendar in either landscape or portrait format.
  • (You may view some sample reports under resources above to the right)

Take advantage of this FREE add-ons!

Broadcast

Keep your members informed about all the news and events at your church.

Broadcast is a web application that lets you display events from ACS Facility Scheduler directly onto monitors within your building. And, it’s included for no additional charge with ACS Facility Scheduler. With Broadcast you can display published events up to six months out from the current date and it automatically updates if you make any changes in ACS Facility Scheduler. So save yourself time by adding Broadcast for FREE. Contact Support to get started.

Broadcast screen

Gain valuable insight into your ministry with customizable reports and analytics.

Report Designer provides advanced custom reporting options to complement ACS’s built-in reports. It enables your staff to build and share insightful reports that bring together information you have recorded in other ACS modules.

  • Powerful tool for analyzing the impact of your ministry
  • Advanced reporting tools that are simple to use
  • Quickly generate custom reports from information you track in ACS
"The Month End report group in the General Ledger module is awesome. I have been able to set up multiple instances of balance sheets customized to the way that a specific committee wants them.”
David Heald
Eastridge Presbyterian Church

The flexibility you need to get the information you want.

Build reports that meet your ministry needs with ACS Report Designer. Whether you are interested in simply including your church logo or building a fully customized report, this easy to use module provides you with the tools to make reports stand out. Make your reporting powerful, dynamic, and stress free with ACS Report Designer.

 

View information stored inside other ACS modules

Report Designer fully integrates with other ACS modules in order to pull information into one comprehensive view. Specifically, it connects to information recorded in People, Contributions, Attendance, Connections, Special Mailings, Organizations, Special Mailings, and General Ledger. Each report begins with a new or existing ACS Advanced Export as the data source.

 

No need to start from scratch.

ACS Report Designer includes seven sample reports from ACS People, three from ACS Contributions, and one from ACS Organizations. These reports can be redesigned by moving, deleting, or adding fields of information as needed. For example, you may want to provide a modified ACS People profile for all your members to review and correct in order to update your records. Plus, once a report is named and saved, it can be retrieved, edited, and saved as a new report with a new title.

 

Complete control over the final output.

With the use of data from an advanced export and the options of Report Designer, you can configure in-depth, professional reports based on data from the modules listed above. Your imagination is your limit. Now you can create a particular report or look. Supporting even the most advanced reporting needs, ACS Report Designer puts you in complete control of the information processed and the final output delivered.

 

Step-by-step tools to guide you.

The inclusion of a wide variety of toolbars and Experts (or Wizards) makes it easy to work in this module. The Setup tab for each report contains the Report Designer Expert, which walks you through the initial steps of building your report. If you have selected the Create A New Report option, additional Wizards in Report Design are available to help you get the finished content and look you want. As you work on the design of any report, you may easily preview the result with a simple click.

 
ADDITIONAL CAPABILITIES
  • Create a customized quarterly statement with your church letterhead or logo.
  • Create special reports for the Finance Committee based on General Ledger data.
  • Export a report created in ACS Report Designer and send it to your denominational office for import into their Report Designer menu.
  • Modify the blank Request for Use Form to include names of your user defined lists, fields, and dates.

Equip your accounting staff with the ability to:

  • Provide your organization with an excellent way to keep up with inventory and produce reports necessary throughout the year.
  • Track and print assets based on customized categories, conditions, tax districts, and departments.
  • Monitor asset values.
  • Set up user defined depreciation methods.
  • Calculate depreciation and post it directly to ACS General Ledger.
  • Print barcode labels to affix to inventory.
  • Record all equipment and assets of the church.
  • Keep detailed information on each item or piece of equipment.
  • Print lists of items that have common information: Additions, Retirement, Tax District, and Maintenance Reports; Fixed Asset Listing; Depreciation Journal.

You can't start the conversation if you don't know who was there.

ACS Attendance organizes and tracks the attendance history for all of your classes, small groups, and discipleship programs. It allows you to set up as many master groups as you need to monitor your Sunday morning, midweek, and home-based ministries. This module simplifies the processes of creating class rolls, absentee reports, marking sheets, grids, and enrollment forms. Attendance can easily be entered via keyboard or barcode scanner.

  • Track total worship attendance by marking individuals present or by adding an overall head count
  • Record service participation details like taking communion, leading prayer, or reading scripture
  • Print convenient marking grids/sheets that include attendance markings for the last five weeks plus two special fields such as birthday, parents’ names, or email address
  • Add reminders to the attendance sheets to inform teachers of upcoming events like teacher training sessions or mandatory meetings
  • Include blank lines for teachers/leaders to capture visitors’ names and other information
  • Maintain and monitor small group attendance in its own master group
"ACS allows me to provide detailed information to our staff in order for them to keep track of members more efficiently."
Sue M.
Black Rock Congregational Church

Tracking attendance has never been easier.

  • Take attendance at small group meetings, classes, services, and any other variety of events
  • Maintain attendance records by individual, class, or event
  • Mark a whole group as present or absent and then mark exceptions to save time in recording
  • Capture attendance information for services, events, and programs fast via a keyboard or barcode scanner
  • Use our daily attendance capability to mark attendance for more than one event daily if needed (e.g. multiple Sunday schools or worship services on one day)
  • Save time by pulling names and current contact information from ACS People or posting attendance from ACS Checkpoint
  • Mark attendance easily with the daily feature, no need to mark the same member multiple times
  • Go back and correct individual markings easily
  • Single-handedly add, delete, or drop multiple individuals to/from classes or groups

 

Helpful reports keep your staff informed and aware.

  • Create reports to analyze attendance summaries and trends across various timeframes, including multiple years
  • Report absentees by date, range of dates, or last attendance
  • Print attendance graphs and summaries for all recorded events and groups
  • Record and report when communion is received under Worship Attendance
  • View attendance trends across multiple year
  • Find your data easily with multiple search options
  • Quickly access date last attended by an individual
  • Customize and print any attendance group’s roster
  • Color-keyed window helps you quickly view summary information (attended any event) or specific results (attended particular Sunday School class or service)

 

It’s fully customizable to reflect the events and structure of your church.

There are three different types of attendance categories: Classes (e.g. Sunday School, Small Groups), Worship Services, and Activity Groups (e.g. Committees set up in ACS People). You can further define an unlimited number of events and activities by establishing divisions, departments, or classes in Christian education. ACS Attendance allows three setup options for one-, two-, or three-level structures for any activity or attendance class. Lastly, each person can have more than one record in each attendance group to accommodate those who teach or visit classes other than their normally assigned class.

 

ACS Attendance also includes a special promotion/graduation feature for at the end of a school year.

The promotion process can be set up at any time before the new classes begin. Class rolls for new classes can be printed before promotion is applied. Once the last attendance marks have been posted for the current year, the new settings can be applied. Promotion can be done either by individual or by class.

Give your accounting staff the ability to:

  • Control all outgoing expenses by ensuring accurate and on-budget spending.
  • Configurable to give warning messages – or not allow the entry of a PO – if an amount charged to an account will cause the account to go over budget.
  • Keep thorough records by tracking PO numbers and payee information.
  • Link with Accounts Payable and General Ledger so vendor names, addresses, and account numbers do not have to be reentered.
  • Post an encumbered amount for each account that can be printed on General Ledger reports. This allows the total expense for each account to be included when planning cash flow.
  • Print the actual purchase order to give to church officers or volunteers. No need to buy forms.
  • Setup buyers and maximum approval amounts with ease.

Don't let people fall through the cracks. Make sure your staff, members, and visitors feel connected to and a part of your ministry.

ACS Connections keeps ministry leaders informed of your church’s responsiveness to visitors and members. It’s a powerful relationship management tools that proactively prompts and records contacts with people, making interactions more personal and organized. Simply plan and enter your incoming and outgoing contacts, and you will have a clear picture of your church’s ability to follow up with people. Connections can also be used for organizing and monitoring stewardship campaigns.

  • Assign church deacons and members to oversee or shepherd specific visitors
  • Enter information about multiple persons or families at the same time you send out welcome letters
  • Easily access visit history for individuals or families
  • Plan and record incoming and outgoing contacts or visitation
  • Set up multiple phases of a capital campaign and track responses
Before the pastor makes a visit, he can go online and access a photo and any pertinent information about the parishioner that they are visiting. This feature really helps to familiarize the pastor, especially when our congregation is growing at its current rate.”
Melissa
Covenant Love Family Church

Versatility to capture the information you need.

Inward vs. Outward Contacts – It is easy to track dates of prospects’ first and subsequent contacts (inward) as needed and your response as a result (outward).

Individual vs. Family – All inward or outward activity can be recorded on the personal or family level.

Single- or Multiple-Step Follow-up – Some types of visits result in only one action by your church. For example, a first-time contact may simply receive a welcome letter from the pastor. In other cases, you may want to record and track several responses based on one inward contact. For example, an inquiry about church membership may be followed up with a pastoral phone call, invitation to the new members’ class, and a personal contact from the Membership Chairman.

  • Record all incoming and outgoing activity on the personal or family level
  • Record an unlimited number of records
  • Assign church lay leaders or members to oversee or shepherd specific visitors
  • Easily perform mass updates across all contacts or within particular groups
  • Generate lists of contacts by types, date range, or contact status
  • Easily export detailed or summary information, contact response analysis and prospect source analysis into Microsoft Excel
  • Enhance stewardship programs, such as annual fund drives or special campaigns for buildings, endowments, and more

 

Customize Visitation and Outreach Programs

Use ACS Connections any way you like. It’s like a blank canvas for establishing your outreach programs. Define or create the names of each classification of contact, response, prospect source, or other terminology to match however your church recognizes this information.

  • Easily create single or multiple-step follow-up plans with visitors or members
  • Manage denominational outreach programs and customize using your own terminology
  • Design your own Connection cards to make data collection personable throughout the year
  • Customize and print visitation cards to fit the needs of any group 
  • Store card designs for fast access as needed
  • Print cards any time and in any combination
  • Use different cards for visits such as evangelistic outreach, ministerial visit, or hospital visit

 

Graphs and Reporting Made Easy

ACS Connections offers a variety of standard reports and graphs that can be easily customized and saved with brief notes for future use. To make data collection during visits easy, you may also design your own connection cards. Then, once the information is in, you can quickly produce customizable pie charts, line graphs, or bar graphs by responses or callers.

  • Lists – You can generate lists of contacts by assigned callers, types, date range, or contact status (complete or incomplete).
  • Graphs – Pie charts, bar graphs, and line graphs are easy to create based on a variety of options. You can choose graphing by responses, callers, or types.
  • Cards – You design all cards and can include both individual and family information.

 

Integrates for Maximum Efficiency

ACS Connections eliminates double data entry because it interfaces with ACS People and other ACS solutions. For example, you can view a person’s visit history and your related church responses from within that person’s People record. You can also link directly to Mail Merge. If your organization has Access ACS, you can post information online for convenient, privately-secured viewing and data entry.

  • Increase ease-of-use when away from the church by integrating your data with Access ACS, allowing secure web viewing and data entry
  • Create a complete information file on each prospect, including when the record was entered
  • View each person’s visit history and response with ACS People
  • Link directly to Mail Merge using ACS People

Ensure that your employees receive accurate payments.

  • Set up specific pay types that may be assigned to an employee. Each type has the ability to be set up to be taxable for federal withholdings, state withholdings, FICA, etc.
  • Enter time sheets for each employee
  • Track all employee information including vacation and sick time, as well as worker’s compensation
  • Set up Regular Pay, Sick Pay, and Overtime with ease
  • Post payroll automatically to General Ledger in detail or summary
  • Ability to print and electronically file forms for the ACA (Affordable Care Act)

Flexible and multiple payment options.

  • Design check layout by rearranging items and changing fonts to meet your specific needs
  • Perform voiding functions for checks that have been written using ACS as well as void and issue manual checks
  • Pay via printed checks or direct deposit
  • Use the Direct Deposit feature (i.e. ACH format) to provide the option of electronically depositing payroll checks for employees who choose to participate

Print payroll-related information whenever necessary, like the following:

  • W2-s, 941’s, and other payroll reports
  • Check Register Journal
  • Payroll Journal (provides total gross wages, a listing of deductions, FICA, State and Federal Income Tax, Medicare, etc.)
  • And various other reports including a Time Sheet Journal (a listing of employee hours, their jobs, and date)

ACS Payroll helps you navigate federal IRS requirements.

  • View annual updates to keep your payroll tax schedules up to date with federal and state requirements
  • Set up payroll tax adjustments in addition to customized additions, deductions or contributions
  • Produce W-2’s and Form 941
  • Quickly file state and federal tax forms online with ACS Tax E-File, an optional service available within your ACS software

Employee Self Service (ESS)

  • Publish employee pay history, and time-off information to a secure site. Current and prior calendar years available.
  • Employees can login and view personal information.
  • You can learn more about ACS ESS through the Help Center.

Abundant, the new eGiving solution in ACS, offers giving via text, mobile, online, and so much more.

Giving is an important part of the spiritual journey but in a digital age, churches need to do more than pass the plate. Included in ACS’ latest version (v11.7.1.23), eGiving with Abundant allows your church to take advantage of the most robust integrated eGiving platform ever offered in ACS. Overcome traditional giving hurdles by allowing your congregation to give when it’s most convenient for them – via text, mobile, or online. With Abundant in ACS, you can raise money online for specific projects, such as a building fund or mission trip, or encourage your congregation to donate via text or the mobile app during worship. Abundant has no monthly fees so it’s an affordable option that gives your church flexibility and allows your congregation to connect, engage, and continue on their spiritual journey with your church.

Customizable Giving Forms

Do you wish your church had a way to customize the look and branding of eGiving to fit the needs of your ministry? Good news – you can do that with Abundant’s customizable giving forms in ACS. Each form can have a unique look, present different funds and tailor the messaging seen by your donors. You can even customize the giving form to match the theme of your church website and embed the form on your website.

Online Giving

Text Giving

Text giving is one of the most common ways churches are collecting donations today. eGiving in ACS with Abundant makes text giving a breeze. Your church will set up a keyword, and donors will simply text the keyword to a number. They will be prompted to enter their payment method that they can choose to save for future donations. It’s that simple.

Online Giving

Mobile & Online Giving

Using the Abundant mobile app in ACS for eGiving is easy and convenient for your congregants as well as visitors. After downloading the Abundant app, they will be able to give one-time gifts or set up recurring donations, manage their gifts, and even view their eGiving history. For those who prefer not to donate from their mobile device, using online giving provides the same benefits as mobile giving, allowing your congregation to choose the best option that fits their busy lifestyle.

For the Donor:
  • Give 24/7/365
  • Donate with debit & credit or ACH (PAD not available in Canada)
  • Donate via text, mobile, or online giving
  • Give to multiple funds
  • Ability to cover processing fees
  • Add a memo to a gift
  • Set up recurring donations
  • Make one-time gifts
  • Donate as a guest
  • Email confirmation
  • Stored payment information
  • View Abundant eGiving history
  • Transactions are securely processed
For the Church:
  • Fully integrated with ACS
  • Gifts import directly into ACS Contributions
  • Web-based solution
  • Manage and customize church’s eGiving account
  • Unlimited, branded giving forms
  • Ability to embed giving forms in any website solution
  • Ability to choose specific funds to be displayed on a form
  • Set up multiple deposit accounts
  • Ability to add, edit, or delete donor gifts
  • Set up default memos
  • No setup fees
  • No monthly fee (Plans starting at $0)
  • Competitive transaction fees
  • Live customer support
  • PCI Level 1 Compliance—ACST & Vanco

Privacy and Security

Through our software, donor information is kept secure and private with password-protected online access.

  • Staff members must sign in with a username and password before they can view any giving data.
  • A staff administrator creates the staff member accounts and sets up their passwords. (Staff can then change their own passwords.)

ACS Technologies is PCI Level 1 compliant, which means we maintain the strictest security measures.

Learn more about PCI compliance.

Merchant Account

A merchant account is required to process and receive payments. You can sign up for a Vanco merchant account here. Or if you need additional details about the merchant account and transaction fees, please contact an eGiving Consultant.

To learn more about integrated giving, schedule a call with an eGiving Consultant.

Give your accounting staff the ability to:

  • Select a Cash or Accrual method in setup to determine how invoice amounts are reflected in General Ledger module.
  • Reduce payment processing time by interfacing with the ACS General Ledger module with automated entries.
  • Ensure prompt bill payments. Memorized invoices can be scheduled to become due on specific dates.
  • Process regular, recurring, or one-time invoices.
  • Raise the level of accounting accuracy.
  • Print multiple reports at any time, showing the status of payables and payable cash requirements.
  • Print checks at any time, and handle the issuing or voiding of system-issued or manually-written checks.
  • Print 1099 forms.
  • Print checks automatically by due date.
  • Provides a method for suspending or forcing the payment of any invoice, regardless of due date.
  • Each vendor can be configured to receive payment by check, online, or ACH (direct deposit).
  • Quickly file state and federal tax forms online with ACS Tax E-File, an optional service available within your ACS software.

ACS Financials or Quickbooks?

Churches often wonder, “Should we use church software that has accounting built in, or should we use a separate program like QuickBooks?”

James B. Jordan is a CPA that has audited over 200 churches of various denominations. He is considered to be an expert in the field of Financial Management for Churches. Here are some of his thoughts about what to consider when making this decision.

"When QuickBooks is used, the difficulty in discovering fraud goes up exponentially. . . My advice is to not use QuickBooks for the church or any organization related to the church. . . There are many different commercial applications where QuickBooks is appropriate, but a church is not one of them."
James B. Jordan
Was the software designed for Churches?

ACS Financials was built specifically for churches’, with the churches needs in mind. Although QuickBooks is a good accounting system, it was not designed for churches.

Does your software integrate?

Having an accounting module that integrates with your church management software is essential for many churches. ACS Financials integrates with the Contributions module and with HeadMaster billing. QuickBooks does not integrate with any membership database that we are aware of.

What kind of support is available?

ACS offers a live support person to speak with during our Support hours.

What should I know about reporting options?

The reporting in ACS is more detailed than in QuickBooks. There are many standard reports in ACS, and lots of flexibility to customize the reports to meet your needs. QuickBooks has limitations with its reporting capabilities.

There are also guidelines for reporting that are required for non-profits. The standard advises that all non-profits must be able to produce a balance sheet by fund and other financial statements. Although QuickBooks provides you with a procedure for determining your fund balances, it cannot give you a Statement of Financial Position (balance sheet) by fund/class report.

Does the software provide an audit trail?

ACS has controls in place that cannot be altered. If you post an expense to the wrong account, a journal entry is required to fix it, thereby creating an audit trail. In QuickBooks you have the ability to turn this feature off, opening up your institution to fraud.

 

“I have not discovered a way to commit fraud with ACS software. . . I have known this company all these years and have nothing but high regard for their software, their training, their support and their people.”
James B. Jordan
Book cover

For more valuable financial advice from James B. Jordan check out his book, Financial Management for Episcopal Churches, a great resource for any church explaining leadership and roles, as well as internal controls and processes.