ACS - great value for churches and small nonprofits

Pros

As a small nonprofit, we have used ACS General Ledger, People, and Contributions for over 15 years. What I like best is that it is an affordable, integrated, double-entry accounting system designed specifically for churches and small non-profit organizations. The People and Contributions modules allow us to easily monitor pledges, acknowledge donations, summarize gifts by fund, and report on subsets of our donor base using criteria we choose. The General Ledger offers the custom budget-actual reports and statement of financial position (non-profit balance sheet), as well as the summary of restricted accounts that is not found in typical for-profit packages. ACS also allows your administrator to set specific user permissions customization, so you can limit each user to only the functions that he or she needs.

Vendor support is key, and we have found the vendor support behind ACS to be very solid. The software does not do everything, but what it does it does well. When we have had problems or questions, ACS technical support has pro-actively worked them out. In most support sessions, the ACS rep is temporarily granted remote control of our local computers and works directly with our data and reports. Support reps are readily available when we call, and they are very knowledgeable of the product.

Cons

Overall, we like ACS. I don't have a lot of criticism. The addition of a functional expense statement would be very helpful, since this is the format used by the IRS on Form 990 (required of most 403(b) organizations but not for most churches). Direct delivery of GL reports by email would also be helpful, but printing to pdf and emailing is not terribly difficult. As our number of donor records and years of data have grown, I have found the software to slow down somewhat, particularly when running custom extracts of donor data.

Documentation lacking, some add-on modules don't mesh well, reporting in Access sorely lacking.

In general, many of the features of your software are frustrating and not intuitive. I was a programmer and it seems your programmers need to spend more time using the product in real world applications. It should be word like in functions like word. Copying and pasting, formatting those types of applications.

Pros

#1 Pro is that ACS addresses the most important tasks a church is in need of.

Cons

I have found many thing that weren't intuitive. Uploading of photos ok although no way to standardize within the program (cropping sorely needed) and downloading photos isn't intuitive. The modules are limited, all the data in Access needs to transfer into the people suite for reporting purposes. Access pretty useless for reporting purposes. Using the volunteer management is not really practical to use as intended. Although you have made changes where you can transmit data to excel or word. OnDemand stings because you can't save locally in an easy manner. Many times our church has served more or less as your beta testing because we actually try to use all the features and give feedback but we get nothing in return for that. We only do that because it is lacking features or functionality.

Bulletproof, contains all the core functionality, but dated

Crucial information that aids in caring for our church family.

Pros

I love that this software has been refined and is extremely reliable and fast. Efficient data entry and keyboard functionality. Powerful reporting. Covers the basics of what a ChMS should offer with ease, speed and power.

Cons

This software is dated. It's "cloud" based, but lacks lots of modern communication tools such as text communication, easy email distribution and remote web-based functions like small group attendance, and volunteer management. In all honesty, ACS is so big and has so many add-on features, it can probably do all of these things, but it's hard to know all of the functionality because it's not easily explained anywhere (and I've been a user for 12 years).

Also, it's reporting process is not difficult for someone with some background in reports, but it's far too complex for an average pastor or lay-leader to use - which requires a database person to run reports.

Also, no customizable dashboards, etc.

So, it will probably do most everything you want, but you'll need a ChMS expert to figure it all out and run the reports...

A Great Product Overall with World-Class Customer Service

ACS is a church software product with several different suites to choose from. I found the People Suite, then Realm, extremely helpful in keeping member records, and the Financial Suite gives the church the reports and information needed for making budget decisions.

Pros

ACS Realm is a simpler version of ACS People Suite, and much more intuitive. The implementation was smooth and the transition fully backed by their wonderful customer service. I also love getting a live, knowledgeable person on the phone within a few seconds of calling.
Payroll is also very easy in ACS Financial Suite.

Cons

The Financial Suite is not intuitive, but mistakes have gotten easier to fix due to upgrades. The church is still waiting to switch to ACS Realm Financials, as payroll cannot be done there, despite well over a year of promises that it is happening soon. It would be helpful for Realm input of donations to flow to the Financial Suite.
Also, ACS People Suite gave options for certain reports that cannot be run in ACS Realm.

Great Functionality Needs Upgrade

We used ACS for everything for several years, but now only use them for financials. We moved to a more user friendly platform for our users. This is a give and take situation the new system is more user friendly, but not as feature rich as ACS.

Pros

This software will do most anything you want with great support especially with Megachurch support. It is built for all kinds of churches and includes all the modules you would need. ACS is one of the only church management systems that include a financial module that will manage GL accounts as well as POs.

Cons

Software needs to be upgraded from the backend. Speed is an issue when running large reports and I think SQL would help this. This software is feature rich so it makes it not so user friendly sometimes and it kinda has a 90s look in several areas. NO API ACCESS.

ACS - small group management

We are a non-denom multi-site church in the DC suburbs (predominantly African-American) with apx 4000 in weekly attendance and 10,000 watching services online. We chose ACS software over the competition because it was robust enough to meet our needs. And like most churches...our needs are varied and nuanced.

Pros

1. The customer support!!!! If I can't figure out how to do something, there are so many ways to get help: Phone calls to a live person that walks me through things step-by-step, webinars, other ACS users in different online communities, etc.
2. The flexibility of the product and how it's grown...and continues to grow...to meet our needs.

Cons

The volunteer management piece isn't as directly integrated as we would like.

As Great as You Can Make It

This software is amazing one-stop shop for database, scheduling, volunteer, financial, and communication software.

Pros

My title may be odd but it describes this software. This software is very powerful and its capabilities are far greater than any church I have ever worked at has taken advantage of. It is marvelous in it's simplicity but also the sky is the limit with regards to it's complexity in it's ability to create reports, schedule volunteers, and communicate with teams.

Cons

It is a very steep learning curve. Although the customer service is excellent, but it is important to remember that the learning curve is high if you have a transition in staff (give them time to learn and use the tutorials.)

ACS - Finance - People - Headmaster

We selected this product years ago, because we needed a church database software that could do a good job with Finance/General Ledger processes. The product we were using at the time did not perform well. We researched a variety of products, narrowed our search to 3, and visited areas churches that were using the 3 products to test them out. At that time, ACS was much more user friendly than the other products. We have now been talking to ACS about converting to Realm. Watching demos, Realm is much more modern looking and ease of use is high. We will be working on transitioning to this within the coming year. After talking to other churches who have made this transition, we will take a gradual approach - activating Realm with staff for a time period first before fully activating with the entire congregation.

Pros

Performs general ledger and accounts payable functions well. Headmaster is used for Preschool/Kindergarten classes.

Cons

Headmaster is a little cumbersome to use, but you get used to it. Heavy on data entry to set up students. We looked into using Event Scheduler, but determined it was too cumbersome for our use.

Best church software I've seen!

The software is superb and the customer service goes above and beyond to answer all my questions. ACS offers everything I need to run the church office tasks. From member information, contributions, directory, to financial reports, payroll, taxes, etc.

Pros

Ease of use; frequent upgrades; makes my job more efficient

Cons

I really do like everything about it but if I had to name one thing, it would be the reports part of the program. The reports can be a little difficult to search & display the results you want.

ACS User For Over 20 years--Using 10.0 Now

Our church is medium sized. We love the Flex Contribution Forms and it's layout. Customer service is spot-on. I agree with all other users who have reviewed. Ease of use, love the People and Financial Modules with its reports which we own. Don't know much about REALM but I think we would be interested. What would seal the deal is the reporting for my Boards and administrators.

Pros

Ease of use--the reporting is awesome.

Cons

Could look more pleasing to the eye like most of the programs today. But it gets the job done. I've seen the progression over the twenty years I have used ACS.

Solid, but not exciting

Pros

ACS has a lot of features, and customizable fields, etc. Great customer service for problems (for additional fee per month).

Cons

Updates come out very slowly, and the product feels at least 5-10 years out of date. Reports are not very customizable unless you purchase additional module. Not very responsive to requested features. Not Mac-compatible (unless you use cloud version which is more expensive). Have trouble getting staff to use the software - they tend to just want to access it on their phone app. Online Giving is not easy for first-time users. Lots of small group leaders have had trouble using the online attendance tracking.

Mostly high marks

We use ACS OnDemand (PeopleSuite, Attendance, Connections modules) and are preparing to roll out AccessACS to our membership as part of a website re-do. The pros: * Using PeopleSuite and Attendance moved us from multiple spreadsheets (and hundreds of errors/discrepancies) to track member info and attendance. * The Connections module is being used for our evangelism/visitation teams. They were slow to adopt, but their leader has championed its use and they're getting there. * It allowed us to introduce spiritual gifts tied to volunteer opportunities to our membership, and our deacons and volunteer organizers can use it to track involvement and identify volunteers when opportunities arise. * The directory phone/tablet app is very handy for our ministers and leadership (it has not been rolled out to the membership yet, but will be introduced this summer.) The Cons: * Attendance. We are a small/mid size church (just over 1,000 member/visitor files) so we handle attendance manually. The AccessACS module is too clunky for volunteers to enter attendance, which has placed the workload back on our very small office staff. * There are significant limitations to the reporting on member involvement. Customized reports (and access to a report builder) are pricey. * Creating a MS Word letter template is far more complicated than it should be. * Texting capability ranges from bad (integration between PeopleSuite and AccessACS) to non-existent (integration with PhoneTree). Bottom line: We purchased ACS years ago as a stand-alone, one-user model. We're now entering Year 2 of using the OnDemand, multi-user model. It has allowed us to become far more efficient than we were, but it's not where we want to be long-term.

Keeps going strong!!

ACS helps us track data, solve problems, and enables us to do ministry instead of having to worry about data. ACS takes care of our data!!

Pros

We are one of the oldest ACS clients in South Carolina, being with them since the ACS for DOS days. Their tech support is hard-working and responsive, and thankfully we don't have to call them often. This software just works.

Cons

I have used ACS for decades, and I cannot find anything that I like least.

Grateful!

A very good product. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a flexible system.

Pros

As a small non-profit, we were looking for software to help streamline our data collection and reporting; one which focuses on client management and tracking. When we were introduced to ACS, they were a God-send. It was a flexible system that provided numerous options. We were able to manage our client intake much more easily than in the past. Overall, we found them to be a great fit for our organization.

Cons

Once you understand the main parts, the system works well, however, more integration is needed. Usually, the help-desk representative was very prompt with their answers to questions. There were so many features that we didn't get to learn them all.

ACS for First Church

Pledgers who are not attending.

Pros

Reports, tracking a stewardship campaign over several years, customer service is tops.

Cons

Uses a software that doesn't convert excel spreadsheets into a functional spreadsheet. The columns do not keep the formulas. Therefore you have to make the formulas in a new column. Multiply steps for reports. Should have more reports that are already set up in the software.

Great Customer Service with ACS!

Our church has been with ACS for many years. Customer support is the biggest attraction to this company! We've used several of their products - Realm, Extend - and now are looking forward to what's coming next with mobile apps!

Pros

Love the customer service! They are great about working with you on issues. It's rare that they cannot solve a problem.

Cons

Not as intuitive as I'd like, but still fairly easy to use once you get used to it.

ACS was a huge learning curve for me, but its robust database made it worth it.

Pros

ACS is powerful. It holds a whole lot of data and can do everything from help manage group and events to managing payroll. Once you learn how to navigate the software, you are able to dig into a lot of different search criteria and information to find just about any piece of info you would want on a church member. I personally do not work with the financial side, but I hear nothing but great things about how secure and robust the financial info is as well.

Cons

ACS has a huge learning curve and the user interface is antiquated and pretty hard to navigate. The ACS team knows this however and rather than rock the boat for those who know ACS inside and out, they developed REALM which we have since moved to.

Great Customer Service & Support!

ACS OnDemand church database is not incredibly pretty or user-friendly, but it is very capable software for mid- to large-sized churches to choose.

Pros

The biggest pro is ACS' support team. They will capably answer almost any question about how to use the database when you get stuck, and will remain friendly, patient and helpful throughout the call. A+

Cons

The thing I dislike most is the "look and feel" of the user experience. It just isn't pretty.

ACS is a must have software for churches.

Helps keep up with membership info and tracking.

Pros

The best part about this software is the search ability to locate information. While it takes some time to become familiar with how the searches work, you can pretty much find what you are looking for as long as the data has been imputed correctly. For example, you can locate a certain phone number. However, you still need to know how the phone number was classified when it was entered into the software.

Cons

The part I like least about this software is the difficulty of merging documents for mass mail out. There are many steps and takes some time to master this process. It would be great to simply this process.

Effective for our operations

Overall, nice evolution of the software

Pros

Ease of navigation, customizable reporting, effective help menu system. Adjustable to individual user in the settings and screen layouts.

Cons

Occasional crashes, if it locks up, you have to re-log in, and via the log in, exit the program that just crashed, then reinitialize.