- The first thing you should do is pray. James 1:5 says that God gives wisdom to anyone who
asks Him.
- You should consult with several others. Ask yourself:
- who will use the software?
- who has the expertise to help in the decision?
- who will make the final decision?
- who will be served by the software?
All these people should be consulted and take part in the following steps.
- Make a list of what you need
the software to do. Here are some things you may want to include in your list:
- be easy to use
- keep track of members
- keep track of donations
- print tax receipts for donors to use on their income tax
- be able to customize the tax receipts
- track pledges
- track "gifts in kind"
- track donations made through pre-authorized payments
- re-assign envelope numbers when I give out new envelopes at the start of the year
- do mailings by printing labels or directly on envelopes
- print personalized letters
- send personalized emails
- print a church directory
- print a variety of reports
- control who can use the software using passwords
- import data so I don't have to re-type the information
- export data to other programs
- keep track of attendance
- keep track of expenses
- budgetting
- payroll
- Decide on a price range that your church or ministry can afford. Consider both
the initial purchase and any yearly support fees that some companies charge.
- Consider whether you want one product which does everything or several
products for different tasks. For example, you might want one product to keep track
of members and donations, an
accounting package for your expenses and budgetting, and a third program for payroll. You
should take into account that the all-in-one software usually costs more and may not do each
task as well as a specialized one.
- Find out what software is available. Here are some ways to do that:
- Do a search on the Internet, trying several search engines and
search for: "donation software", "donation tracking", "church software",
"church management software", "donor software", etc.
- Look at some other websites that have links to
church management software, such as Capterra,
One Church Source and the
Open Directory Project.
- Call other churches and ministries similar to yours to see what software
they use. Ask them what the service was like and if they had any problems.
- There are about 70 companies in the USA and Canada that sell
church management software
(Christian Computing Magazine, Oct 2007)
so it is impractical to look at all of them.
You should narrow the choices to 5 or 6 products that seem to fit your
needs and price range.
- For each of your choices, download a free demo or order a demo CD.
The way a product works may not always be what you expect.
You should try it out for yourself before you buy it.
- Find out what kind of service the company provides. Will they be there when
you need help? The best way to do this is to ask for references.
Contact each one and get their opinion.
- If the software seems to do everything you want or may want in the future and
the price is right, then it is probably the product for you. However, if it is missing
something you need, ask the company if they
would do some changes for you. If you think your needs may change later, you should
ask the company this question:
"Suppose that in six months, I need the software to do something else - what would you do for me then?"
Now you and the other people involved, can make a decision.
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