Key into Church Software

How some nifty new programs can ease your load

by Jennifer Schuchmann

It's January, and you're still working on last year's contribution statements and payroll taxes. Wish you could ease those tasks? Relax. Reach for a cup of coffee and read how church-management software could help you welcome in a happier new year.

People Programs
Church-management software has been around since the early 1980s. Currently, such programs offer churches two kinds of assistance: tracking people and tracking finances. The first kind of software offers these features:

Databank information. People programs offer a database of information that can include people's addresses, activities, skills, important dates, and notes. Most membership modules will also allow you to track visitors and prospective members. After keying in relevant information for each individual that you want in your databank, you can use the list to print labels, telephone lists, statistical reports, and personalized letters.

Cross-referencing. Membership modules will link family members together. This means that if you change an address for one member of the family, the address will change for the rest of the family. Membership modules can also be linked to other modules, such as attendance or contributions.

Such cross-referencing makes church-management systems far more sophisticated, says Hal Campbell, president of Automated Church Systems (800-736-7425) in Florence, South Carolina. Once information has been entered into the system, it can be sorted any way you wish. The programs are flexible enough to be used by any size church. "Smaller churches can't afford to spend as much as larger churches, but they still need a program that does everything the expensive programs do," says Michelle Bowsher, marketing manager for Membership Plus 5.0 from Parsons Technology (800-644-6344) of Hiawatha, Iowa.

Applications. Vineyard Fellowship of Anaheim City in Anaheim, California, doesn't have church members in the traditional sense. So it uses software to identify people who are the essence of the church. "We use software to help us answer questions like: Who gives regularly? Who attends regularly? Who helps out?" says Pat Deane, business manager for Vineyard Fellowship. The task of tracking 10,000-plus names is eased considerably with Servant Keeper from Servant PC Resources (800-773-7570).

Money Programs
Church-management software also helps with financial tasks, such as accounts payable, general ledger, bank reconciliation, payroll, and fixed assets. These modules can work together or separately, depending on your needs. They can help with:

Payroll taxes. Kay Maycumber, treasurer of a church in Beaverton, Oregon, says that Logos Management Software (from Lowell Brown Enterprises: 800-266-3311) has saved her staff hundreds of hours in doing payroll taxes. "It used to take three days to add up the year-end payroll taxes for 60 employees—and that was just getting the numbers to type in the W-2s!" she says. "Now I can do the whole thing in 45 minutes."

Crediting the right account. Shelby Systems (800-877-0222) of Memphis, Tennessee, offers a product called CrossCheck, which will scan a check and enter essential information, including the account number, in a database. The next time a check comes in, the information is matched against what's in the database—not just to a person's name, which could be the same as someone else's in church.

Easier check writing. Shelby's Chekgard adds a safety feature as well as convenience to church check writing. This hardware connects a computer and printer so you can print signatures and protected dollar amounts directly onto checks.

Other programs. Church-management software can also include modules for facilities management, tracking library materials, cataloging music, and printing a church calendar. Parsons Technology offers a program called Ministry Notebook, which keeps track of ministry functions, such as sermons, prayer requests, telephone contacts, and expense reports.

More User Friendly
Church-management software companies are now focusing their efforts on making the software easier to use. For example, Shelby Systems has a program that allows you to pull up an individual's record, and with a single click of the mouse, send an e-mail, dial a person's phone number, or print a locator map. Other possibilities:

ID photos. If you've ever made a hospital visit only to discover you're talking to the wrong patient, you will appreciate new software that prints pictures of patients on information sheets. With such a tool, you'll not only recognize the person you came to see but be able to chat about the person's family, church experiences, or special interests.

Budget tool. Software programs that track people's attendance patterns and contributions can help churches set more realistic budgets, says Kip Trout, account executive of Shepherds Staff from Concordia Publishing House (800-325-2399) in St. Louis, Missouri.

Visitor follow-up. Software programs can print cards to distribute to your church's visitation committee. Committee members can mail the cards back to the church after making their visits. Some programs include mapping software that will print directions from the church to each person's house.

To this, ACS has added another feature: a product that allows committee members to make a visit, then phone the results of the visit directly into the church computer. In the morning, church staffers can print a report to see which visits took place and which individuals need follow-up.

Strategic Planning Tools
Church-management programs can give you a head start on strategic planning. "If you can identify trends or patterns in the lives of your members, you can anticipate how those things will affect your programs," says Ashley Clayton of First Baptist Church in Snellville Georgia. It can help you identify:

Types of attenders. Clayton and Automated Church Systems worked together to develop Church Growth Tools. Based on the premise that the best way to grow a church is to get occasional attenders more involved, the software identifies four groups: people who attend church regularly (R), irregularly (I), sporadically (S), or not at all (N). The church then targets visits to irregular or sporadic attendees to encourage and strengthen their commitment.

Changes in attendance. Church Growth Tools also helps identify changes in attendance patterns. Comparing two 13-week blocks of attendance, the program identifies a person's attendance as Soaring (increasing from one period to the next), Ongoing (staying about the same), or Sliding (declining).

The program helps identify problems before they become too difficult to deal with. For example, people who stop coming to church generally show a gradual decline in attendance prior to that—which is when a visit would be most effective.

Software can help churches respond to attendance patterns. It can output a custom letter to all Ongoing attenders, noting their regular attendance. It can provide a phone list of Soaring attenders to thank them for increased participation. And it can generate visitation cards to follow up on Sliding attenders.

Program Costs
Church-management software costs vary, depending on how much you want a program to do. Most churches spend $700 to $2,000 for software and training, but you could pay as much as $10,000 for the most sophisticated system.

Getting back to the problem of year-end contribution statements and payroll taxes, try a program like Membership Plus 5.0 from Parsons Technology. It will print out statements for all your contributors. Shepherd's Staff, from Concordia Publishing House, will help you identify volunteers to stuff those statements into envelopes. And ShelbyMAILROOM from Shelby Systems will help you sort addresses for faster handling by the post office.

You don't have to have software to do church work. But it sure will save you time and money and a lot of aggravation in the years to come.

Jennifer A. Schuchmann is a management consultant from Marietta, Georgia, who formerly worked in sales and marketing for church-management software.

The No-Sweat Way to Plan

Church-management software can help a church decide what programs to offer and what materials are needed for the next 10 years. That's what First Baptist Church in Snellville, Georgia, discovered.

"By recognizing patterns of life or trends, we can discover the stages people go through and plan accordingly," says Ashley Clayton, a minister at First Baptist. For example, the church's software identified 26 as the average age of people who get married at First Baptist. By this time, most husbands and wives have completed their education and worked for a few years. They are transitioning into parenting roles and moving from two incomes to one. "That means the church needs to be addressing parenting and financial management issues," says Clayton.

Simple addition predicts when these families will struggle with teens, pay for college, and confront empty nesting—all of which have implications for curriculum development. "This means that we can plan our curriculum and have better applications because we're addressing the spiritual needs of each stage of life," says Clayton.

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Your Church Magazine. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail yceditor@yourchurch.net.
January/February 1999, Vol.45, No. 1, Page 28

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