Awesome Church Management Software!

Church Windows has helped our church operations in so many ways. The reporting and budgeting options in Accounting have been especially helpful in financial planning and oversight. The payroll module simplifies all things related to payroll (direct deposit, taxes, W-2s, etc). Giving statements are easy to produce, as well as giving reports. People tracking is always a challenge, and the Membership module does so much to help. The support is fantastic, they know the program, and many of them also serve in their local church. Overall, Church Windows is an outstanding product!

Pros

Our church has used Church Windows for many years. It seamlessly tracks people, giving, accounting, and payroll. Each module can be used by itself, or integrated to all work together. The support people are fantastic--friendly, patient, and easy to understand. Training is readily available through online video tutorials, brief online training sessions, workbooks, and the program help feature. The user-friendly software is great for beginners, offers many features for seasoned users, and versatile enough for church volunteers and employees alike.

Cons

Nothing. I love everything about Church Windows!

Aging Technology

We use church windows to manage our parishioners’ records and all donations. We have been using this solution for more than 15 years. While it has served us well, it has not grown with changing technology. We are in the process of moving to a cloud-based solution.

Pros

Robust church management solution from a well established provider. Cost of maintenance is negligible. Feature-rich.

Cons

Single platform (Windows only). No viable cloud option (they offer cloud service, but it is really just their regular software on VM). Difficult UI, not intuitive.

A time saver!!

We moved from a spreadsheet reporting method to Church Windows for recording church members into a data base that offers many uses. Later, we added the Donation module and this was the greatest asset for the software. First in importance was the accuracy of the entry and the availability of almost instant reports. It allows us to produce a very accurate statement of giving for tax purposes and allows us to produce these statements in a very short time.

Pros

The software offers the user the ability to record data in an accurate way and therefore, produce an accurate report. Moving from an Excel spreadsheet method, this allows a more accurate product and allows for a multitude of reports in many formats.

Cons

If I were to chose a negative, I suppose it would be the learning curve. While there are many resources offered by the support staff, it takes a good bit of time to really appreciate the many functions offered by the program.

Church Windows Software

It's great to have all church information in one spot. I do feel limited with what I can do and what i want to do with the program. I am sure it's all training related.

Pros

The basics of the program is laid out nice.

Cons

The software has moved away from it's user friendly-ness a little bit. Some of the report features are confusing and if you don't check the right box or column you don't get what you are looking for. I think they wanted to make reports come from a central area but I find it confusing. Also- you have great videos, which are better than the written instructions, but if you have several issues you don't always have 20 minutes to figure out the solution by watching the video and some times it's the wrong video because you didn't word the search issue correctly. I was thrown into picking up the treasurer position when someone suddenly died, so I had no training and it has been hard to get up to date training with no time! One more thing... i would love to have a 2 day training option or someone to work with me to clean up the software from where I am making errors or making my job harder and I could just do it a simpler way. I also feel that the support people are very friendly and courteous. Some times I have issues explaining my problem so I don't get the help I need. It is also very expensive to keep the support that I have learned to go to videos first for. Sometimes I think starting over with a new/different program would be better so I can learn it from the beginning.

Long-time user

The church Session likes the Income and Expense Statement that they are given each month. Also, reports for individual committees.

Pros

I have used Church Windows at two different churches. Compared to other church software I have used, Church Windows is superior in ease of use, and support. The cost is very affordable. . Support is excellent, especially using e-mail.

Cons

I would like to see more ability to build reports. Sometimes it is frustrating trying to get the information needed.