ChurchTrac Software

The ability to see the overall health of our new church and monitor its growth in an efficient manner.

Pros

This software follows the logic of popular programs such as Quickbooks. The "Help" screen is quick good and I can usually find my own solutions to questions.

Cons

Nothing is apparent at this point in our usage thus far. We are a new church and the activity is minimal. I can see how beneficial it will be as we grow.

All the reporting I needed to keep rrcords

Pros

You do not have to be tech savvy to use. Very user friendly, easy to understand. I will recommend to all my friends.

Cons

I would like to see more reports, but love what it does offer, I have used the product for over 4 years.

A staright forward way to communicate with congregants and to keep the finances of the church.

Pros

being the church Treasurer, I focus on the accounting module. The software is very intuitive. However, when a question comes up, the online user guide answers most questions. For those more complicated questions, the support ticket process is excellent. The support team answers question very quickly.

Cons

While churches are generally on a cash basis accounting method, there are often situations where the payment of a invoice is not the same as the month of the expenditure. For example, a utility invoice representing the month of May is received in June. Since the check is dated in June, The Income Statement report reflects the charge in June and not May. The solution may be to include a "Business Month" field beside the date field.

Pros

-It's easy to use.
- By operating in the cloud, you can store a large amount of important information pertaining to members of the congregation such as address, phone numbers, emails.
- Allows an excellent management of budgetary and accounting functions.
- Through the automated messaging service provides an approach to the members of the church.
- Help the team of leaders of the congregation save valuable resources such as time and money.
- The customer service is very good because it answers questions and doubts quickly and accurately.

Cons

-Honestly, in our experience with this software we have not found any negative aspects. It is without a doubt, an excellent software.

Addresses specific church needs not needed in regular bookkeeping (donations, pledges, membership etc.) at an affordable price.

Pros

ChurchTrac is geared to the specific needs of churches where something like QuickBooks would not suffice for us. They have a ton of features we don't even use as our church is mid-size and we just haven't gotten around to implementing certain things but it's nice to know that we can use them all when we get around to setting things up. Their customer service is FANTASTIC. I shoot them an email with a question and I usually have a very quick response in my inbox. The last time I emailed not only did they tell me why something was happening, they went ahead and pointed out the 2 deposits causing the discrepancy! They continue to impress me with the help they provide.

Cons

Coming from a bookkeeping background I sometimes think that something is not functioning the way "it should" but it's always been resolved to my satisfaction.

Pros

ChurchTrac offers similar capabilities to the "bigger names" at a fraction of the cost. Having the ability to integrate with MailChimp, have accounting and budgetary functions, can limit access to selected modules (i.e., accounting and giving), provide congregational access, and automate functions reduces the time staff must spend on the computer while increasing our ability to be with people. The fact ChurchTrac can provide the same capabilities as others but at a much lower cost serves to reflect they truly have a heart for churches and ministry. It is not just talk with ChurchTrac. The support staff is wonderful and quick to provide help or answer questions. We have never once regretted our decision to trade a "big name" CMS for ChurchTrac! I only wish we found them at the time we planted out church and used them from the beginning. If we had, it would have saved a significant amount of money to which we could have applied to ministry.

Cons

This is certainly NOT a complaint, but a reflection of our reality. Integration with outside platforms is limited. We joined the ChurchTrac family with certain accounts already established and chose not to change those relationships. Maintaining these relationships caused us to sometimes do duplicative work. Having identified the limitations of limited integrations, I have found the ChurchTrac staff always willing to receive and entertain ideas for future additions.

Pros

I have used (and sold) competitive church management software. ChurchTrac provides as much or more versatility than any I have evaluated. The fact that it is internet based means I can use it anywhere I have internet access -- a BIG plus!
The availability of messaging is stellar for a small congregation.

Cons

I find reporting for our United Methodist Congregation to be somewhat tedious and a family directory, predefined with individual emails and phones is pretty much a necessity for most of the congregations I have done consulting with. For a small congregation without tech savvy people, it should be required!
However, with the price of the software, my folks can live with the inconvenience.

Pros

The cost and value was great. They seemed to have a good heart in what they do and was always willing to help.

Cons

Everything was clunky and aggravating to accomplish what we needed. Lacked a lot of common features. Needs updated UI.

It allows us to keep the members, giving, monetary accounts, and payroll in one spot.

Pros

ChurchTrac is very user-friendly. The set-up is extremely easy and straight forward. The "smart list" feature is one that we will be using to help verify those in the congregation or community that would benefit from an outreach call. We are excited about the possibility of growing the church in such as easy manner. The messaging system will also be an asset. We set up users for our children's and youth ministry teams. With the messaging feature, they are able to contact those families with any important updates or information.

Cons

The event feature is not what we had hoped. We can create an event and make it "public", but it's not truly public. It requires anyone wanting to register for the event to be first entered into the system. For current members, that's not a big deal. However, for someone outside the church, it's off-putting and we feel it will drive more people away, rather than make it an outreach possibility. We have other ways to reach them and have them register for an event, we were just hoping we could keep it under one umbrella with ChurchTrac.

Pros

The service team responded to my initial request for service in a timely manner. When the first suggestion did not resolve my concern, the team also responded to my second request in a prompt manner.

Cons

My purpose for using the software is to keep track of membership and pledges. At this time, I am able to successfully do this. At this time, I don't have cons regarding this software.

The ability to organize data, include photos, to enhance the work of our church.

Pros

It is easy to use but when you need technical support occasionally they are really quick to respond, often within an hour. I also like that I can customize many of the fields to our needs. I also like that others, with permissions, can also login and use the software.

Cons

I might like a few more options for custom reports, but it seldom comes up. I really do not have negative feelings about this product.

Pros

I tried this software helping my aunty look for software for her smallish church. We agreed that we liked these things the most: It was cloud based so safe and not on her PC, easy to get up and running and that the cost was something the church could afford.

Cons

We didnt have anything bad to say about this software at all. It was certainly a top contender in the ones that we tried and we'd recommend it to anyone as a starting point when looking at software. Go here first!

This is an excellent program for keep accurate records. It will be wonderful for keeping track of all the people and other programs in the future as we expand in numbers.

Pros

I like how easy it is to use once the funds are set up correctly. I also like how easy it to find and correct inaccurate entries. I am a perfectionist and like to see everything consistent and aligned on reports. I also like the people profile part of the program, and am looking forward to someday adding more information about individual gifts.

Cons

Takes a little time to feel comfortable using it. I am still have problems with reconciling our monthly bank statements.

Pros

I love that you can integrate attendance, event and volunteer coordination, giving, and accounting all on a single platform. We just started using the congregational access feature and love it!

Cons

While overall Churchtrac is easy to use, there are some features that we have found to be a little difficult to navigate, but that is in part because we haven't spent much time using those features.

Pros

The software is user friendly. It works well on mobile devices. The prices are affordable.
No set up fees

Cons

I haven't found any problems thus far. Our church just started using it. Just getting to our 30 days

Pros

ChurchTrac is a bargain for the features you get. The accounting part of the software is simpler and more intuitive to use than traditional accounting software. It's easy to find the information you need about people and families. We use the check-in label printing feature and were able to implement for a lesser price of the equipment using thermal labels that are fractions of a penny a piece (as opposed to other check-in options that required much more expensive setup). New features are added regularly and support is quick to respond to problems via email.

Cons

The interface/design of the software isn't as slick or shiny as other options, but this may be preferable for some users. There's not a phone number to call for support (not a problem for us, but could be an issue for some).

Pros

Very good value. Started with free church track software and then converted to Church track online. Conversion was easy and now enjoying the online version even more.

Cons

I really haven't encountered anything. We just use it to record the giving by the congregation and it works great for our small church.

Pros

Very affordable for the quality of the software. It's a small fraction of the cost of the previous software used.

Cons

The budget reports could be more detailed and easier to read. The budget vs actual is a bit confusing. Our finance committee would like to see reports of funds and categories with current totals.

organization and communication! Love it!

Pros

I love the customer support and new features that they are constantly trying to add. They are always thinking a head and trying to make it the best product!

Cons

a little old school looking, but its worth it when it comes to function! Would love to see the look of it come a little further to appeal to our Millennial staff.

It was much cheaper than the last management system that we had. We are also able to use it on more than one computer. Being the Administrative Assistant, I am able to use it on my computer at home and I can also use it on my mac that a lot of programs don't work on.

Pros

We've had some that are on our finance committee that are afraid of computers that have been able to been able to use the program.

Cons

Don't like not being able to talk to a live person when I really don't understand. I had a problem in how much money to send and I wasn't sure if I needed to mail or use a credit card. We don't have a credit card so I didn't know what to do.