The church mailing list is kept in a word processing mail merge document. Giving records are entered into a popular database program. The general ledger is kept on a widely-used, inexpensive financial program. Sounds like an up-to-date, technically-savvy church, doesn't it?

Think again. In this real-life example, each of these three functions is managed by a different person. The tithes and offerings are totaled in one program, then the deposit is recorded in another. When the Jones family moves, two people need to update their records, hopefully using the same new address.

Is your church doing business like this? If so, it's time to integrate your software. While standalone programs may serve individual needs, nothing serves your whole church better than an integrated church management system (CMS). Here are nine reasons why you should integrate now.

1. Address the unique needs of church management. CMS providers help tens of thousands of churches with their administrative needs, so they have the experience to help you, too.

"Products like our Membership Plus Deluxe integrate membership tracking, contributions, scheduling, member directories, fund accounting, and much, much more," says Britt Edwards of Findex. "It's designed solely for the church by people who thoroughly understand the needs of the church."

Even if you use an off-the-shelf accounting package, Edwards says, "You still have to use another product or a manual system to manage the membership side of the church."

2. Membership and accounting are integrated. While separate packages might appeal to you because you're already familiar with them, there are benefits to a combined suite.

"Most secular packages have integration among the financial modules, but the advantage of CMS packages is the integration with the entire database," says Frank Canady of Shelby Systems.

3. Customized reports. Integrated software can create reports using data from several different modules.

"You can create new fields and reports; plus, you can combine information from all of the modules into a single report," says Maureen Wygant of Church Windows/Computer Helper. For example, in a few keystrokes you can put together a list of everyone who attended and contributed at least three times in the first half of the year, but have neither attended nor contributed in the last month.

4. Designed for fund accounting. Many off-the-shelf accounting packages don't handle fund accounting. Churches often compensate by having multiple checkbooks and bank accounts, which increases monthly accounting tasks necessary to understand the church's financial standing. Integrated systems can give you complete reports with a mouse click.

"Reports are the heart and soul of the church," says Randy Clay of Suran Systems. "At board or session meetings, everyone wants to see a financial report because all decisions are driven by the financial picture." With fund accounting software, you don't have to close out the month to know how much is left in the budget.

5. An audit trail is created. Audit trails allow accountants to track monies from donation to disbursement.

"Mass-market personal and small-business programs are great for individuals and companies where the person keeping the books is managing his or her own money," says Wes Haystead of Logos Management Software. "But these systems have serious shortcomings for managing a church's finances. Churches need software that is auditable, where items cannot be changed without an audit trail."

6. Church-knowledgeable technical help. If you are using several different programs designed primarily for businesses, calling their customer service numbers probably won't get you the church-specific help you need; for example, with the subtleties of ministerial payroll.

"Because we specialize in churches, we understand what it is that churches are trying to accomplish," says Carla Bracalente of PowerChurch Software. "We can provide suggestions or solutions directly applicable to churches rather than generic suggestions more geared towards for-profit companies."

7. Integrate with existing programs. Some CMS packages are designed to integrate with accounting programs you already own. The CMS membership database links to your accounting software so entries are not duplicated.

"We chose to allow church treasurers and volunteers to use the tools and products that many of them were already familiar with," says Ed Newman of Servant PC Resources. "[We] have focused our efforts on producing an extremely easy-to-use and efficient software pack-age that addresses the church's unique accounting needs in the areas of data entry, pledge tracking, and producing income and contributor statements, bank deposit slips, and reports. We then link to the leading accounting packages."

If you're already using QuickBooks you may be interested to know Intuit has recently released a non-profit version that now handles fund accounting.

8. Reduce learning time, increase staff flexibility. Well-designed CMS packages use a similar interface for all modules. Learn one module, and the others follow easily. Church staff can perform each other's functions when needed with little or no training, something that won't happen if you're using completely different programs. Also, the ability to enter information once and have it update several modules is a big timesaver for a busy church.

"It eliminates duplicate entry of records into different packages and databases," says Marlene Vande Berg of Greentree Applied Systems, Inc.

9. The future is integration. "We believe integration needs are only going to accelerate, thanks in large part to the Internet," predicts Pattie White of ACS Technologies. "Church members are going to want to go to the church's web site and update their records, make a donation, sign up for events, and so forth. And of course, church staff don't want to re-enter all that data. We're convinced that integration is going to be increasingly expected by our clients."

Change can be hard, but the companies we talked to are making it easier for you to integrate. Many offer special pricing for small and mission churches. Training options include central and regional training sites, as well as online and web-based training. Some companies offer free or reduced support fees for new churches. Others allow you to test their software before you pay for it. Several companies have plans to offer complete web-based systems in the next year, including Scout Applications, scheduled to be available later this month.

With integrated software your church can keep up with the Joneses no matter where they move.

Jennifer Schuchmann (jschuchmann@bellsouth.net) is a management consultant and freelance writer in the Atlanta area.