Vendor websites:  |  Membership Plus  |  Church Windows  | Churchmate 2004  | Viansoft  |  ACS Technologies  |  Servant Keeper  |  Quicken  |  CCIS Software  |   Shepherd's Staff from Concordia  |   Church Software for Ministry  |  Big List of Software Vendors

We asked New England Conference church computer users for their experiences with church software. These are the results.

Membership Software

Access (Microsoft) - It takes a long time to learn to use it. I recommend the Access Bible - even if I have theological issues with the name! After a year of working at it I can make it generate reports, and it works with MS Word. Rating: 4. - Rev. Sarah Mount, pastor of Rockport UMC, Rockport MA, revsarahmount@yahoo.com. 

CCIS (CCIS Church Management Software) - Each version was an improvement. Up until the latest 3.0, many reports had to be exported to Word for manipulation and printing which was annoying to say the least. I just received 3.0, immediately followed by 3.1 and I have not yet used it. Apparently many/most reports can be printed from within CCIS. Rating: 4 (prior to 3.0). Robin DeGutis, Database Manager at Kingston Presbyterian Church, Kingston NJ, robinsdog@yahoo.com. 

CCIS -This program has worked very well for us. Once you learn the program it is very easy to maintain. Rating: 4. - Sandra A. Dearborn, office manager at St. John's UMC, Dover NH, stjumcdv@rcn.com. 

Church Windows - Excellent, user friendly, comprehensive, I've helped other churches in the area who are looking into this software. Rating: 5. - Deb Christensen, parish administrator at First UMC, Bangor ME, fumco@juno.com. 

Church Windows - We have used this software for 7 years with very good results. It has membership, contributions, finance and payroll modules, all of which we use in an integrated manner. We could not imagine running church administration without it. Rating: 5. - Joe Marrone, treasurer at St. James UMC, Merrimack NH, joemarrone@adelphia.net. 

Excel (Microsoft) - Flexible. Rating: 4. - Joe Chamberland, pastor of Eaton Memorial UMC, Livermore Falls ME, pastors@prexar.com. 

File Maker Pro - Excellent database program, cross platform to share info with board members. Rating: 4. - John Fischer, pastor and IT person at Alexandria UMC, Alexandria NH, fischer@fcgnetworks.net. 

Membership Plus - Not good. It's capabilities are limited in generating the kind of reports that we want. It is not as user friendly as we would like. Rating: 2. - Lyle Seger, pastor of Wesley UMC, Amherst MA, fmlseger@comcast.net. 

PowerChurch Plus - I have used Power Church for several years. It is design for small churches but can handled membership up to 99,999. I use it for membership, mailing labels, donations, accounts receivable, and payable. I haven't used it but it has complete inventory, music library and sermons. I would recommend this software to any one starting out or expert in church work. Rating: 5. - Luciele Gaskill, secretary at Contoocook UMC, Contoocook NH, methodistcumc@mcttelecom.com. 

CCIS (CCIS Church Management Software) - Our treasurer is still using UMIS, but the pledges and donations are being done on CCIS. I find it easy to use. Rating for CCIS: 4. - Sandra A. Dearborn, office manager at St. John's UMC, Dover NH, stjumcdv@rcn.com. 

Churchmate 2004 - Churchmate is an Access based software package that does an excellent job of tracking membership, pledges, contributions, and attendance. Reports are comprehensive, and it creates quarterly and annual statements easily. The are several built in reports including directory and contributions reports the database is also accessible by an SQL based report writing system. Rating: 5. - George Ferguson, financial secretary at Franklin UMC, Franklin MA, franklinumc@verizon.net. 

Church Windows - Very strong software with good support from vendor. No problems with software installation or operation. Have had no problems in 3+ years of operation. Rating 5. - Lee Elliott, Chichester UMC, Chichester NH, elliott-l-n@comcast.net. 

Church Windows - Very easy to use. Rating: 5. - Kim Kloczkowski, office manager at Arnold Mills UMC, Cumberland RI, amumc@aol.com. 

Church Windows - This is an excellent software package, all modules are interrelated and easy to use. Doesn't require an accounting degree. Computer knowledge helpful but it is easy to learn. Company support for software is outstanding. Rating: 5. - Deb Christensen, parish administrator at First UMC, Bangor ME, fumco@juno.com. 

Excel (Microsoft) - Very usable and reliable. Rating 5. - Wayne VanGundy, pastor at Epping Community Church, Epping NH, vangundy@comcast.net. 

Excel (Microsoft) - If you're good, you can build a great financial tracking application with this industry standard spreadsheet. Takes some time and requires one to be Excel literate, but once it is done it works well. It is part of the standard Office Suite so does not cost extra. Rating: 3. - John Fischer, pastor and IT person at Alexandria UMC, Alexandria NH, fischer@fcgnetworks.net.

Excel (Microsoft) - Flexible. Rating: 4. - Joe Chamberland, pastor of Eaton Memorial UMC, Livermore Falls ME, pastors@prexar.com. 

Excel (Microsoft) - We have not purchased a tailored software program for financial management. We find that Microsoft Excel provides all the functionality we need to meet requirements of local reporting and also reporting to Conference. It takes some effort initially to set up worksheets in Excel, but, once set up, the processes are quick and easy. We have adapted Excel to the following uses: 1. Monthly reporting; 2. Payroll stubs; 3. IRS Form 941 backup records and posting to the Federal form; 4. Mass WR-1 reporting; 5. annual Conference forms such as Tables I & III, and all the other forms in that package. (In fact, Excel provides the computational backup to translate our financial data into the figures required by Conference, and we have scanned all Conference forms into Microsoft Word enabling us to print out full "typed" versions of these forms on the computer. The data is transcribed from the Excel worksheets.) Rating: 5. - Chuck Frary, treasurer of Church Hill UMC, Norwell MA, hloring.cfrary@verizon.net. 

Membership Plus - We have used membership Plus for several years to record pledges and contributions as well as Money Counts to do budgetting and treasurer's work. Both are easy to use once learned and satisfy all our needs for records and reports. One additional factor, the cost is much lower than most other software. Rating: 4. - Arthur F. Clough, finance chair at First UMC, Chatham MA, aclough197@earthlink.net. 

Money Counts 9 - I have been very satisfied. I also have used Quicken for another organization I was treasurer of and prefer Money Counts. Unfortunately it is now only available as part of "Membership Plus' which I haven't used. Rating: 4. - Calvin Fish, treasurer at First UMC, Mansfield Center CT, calandcarole@comcast.net. 

PowerChurch Plus - I have used Power Church for several years. It is design for small churches but can handled membership up to 99,999. I use it for membership, mailing labels, donations, accounts receivable, and payable. I haven't used it but it has complete inventory, music library and sermons. I would recommend this software to any one starting out or expert in church work. Rating: 5. - Luciele Gaskill, secretary at Contoocook UMC, Contoocook NH, methodistcumc@mcttelecom.com. 

Quickbooks - I have had very good experience with it. I just keep the general fund on it. I do not do any of the pledge reporting. Rating: 5. - Martha Ahern, treasurer at Shepherd of the Valley UMC, Hope RI, mbahern@hotmail.com. 

Quickbooks Pro 2004 - Very Positive. It handles payroll as well as all normal expenses and income. It generates reports almost automatically and tracks budget items. Rating: 4. - Jerry Gray, treasurer at College Ave UMC, Somerville MA, jerry.gray@comcast.net. 

Quicken - It works wonderfully! I get graphs and reports customized as needed. Rating: 5. - Heidi Barber, secretary / editor / treasurer at Bath UMC, Bath ME, bassin@gwi.net. 

Quicken - I find that it is very user-friendly. Rating: 5. - Mary Jutting, financial secretary at West Scarborough UMC, Scarborough ME, djuttin@maine.rr.com. 

Quicken 2002, Excel - I use Quicken 2002 for the church financial records and the MS Excel spreadsheet program for my reports. This is my personal software on my home computer. Rating: 5. - Doris Young, treasurer at Belfast UMC, Belfast ME, dlyoung@direcway.com. 

Quicken (bookkeeping) and QuatroPro (giving records) - We are happy with it. There is no way we can afford the specialized church software and there are very few people in our church willing to take offices that are computer competent. I developed the spread sheet program to record giving and prepare the quarterly giving reports. It does the job for us. Rating 4. - Don Hirsch, treasurer at First UMC of Boothbay Harbor ME, dehirsch1924@yahoo.com. 

Quicken for Business - We use Quicken as a General Ledger for our General Fund, recording each transaction and assigning it to the appropriate inflow or outflow budget account. Quicken makes easy cash flow reporting for any time period, and the budget feature permits creation of monthly budgets for each account -- or at any level of detail you choose -- that gives us on-going control of actual expenses vs. budget throughout the year. Reconciliation to bank statements is quick and easy, and Quicken allows easy "copy-paste" features to move specific groups of data onto Excel spreadsheets for further analysis and reporting. We do not use Quicken's direct on-line link to our bank, or the check printing feature, but both are available if desired. At year-end, full-year reports are generated for our annual report simply by specifying the start and end dates desired. During the year, it is simple to answer any question regarding, say, expenses for Sunday school to date, by clicking and printing a detailed "zoom" report for any account for any time period. Rating: 5. - Chuck Frary, treasurer of Church Hill UMC, Norwell MA, hloring.cfrary@verizon.net. 

Shepherd's Staff (Concordia) - As Financial Secretary I use only 2 modules and find them easy to use both for record keeping and for producing reports. Rating: 4. - Marilyn Seymour, financial secretary at UMC of Westford (MA), seymourpm@verizon.net. 

Shepherd's Staff (Concordia) - The software is easy to use but has a limited number of reports that can be run. It would be much improved if you were able to design your own reports. Rating: 3. - Michael Lizotte, treasurer at UMC of Westford MA, MJZot@comcast.net. 

Viansoft - I have used this software for several years and find it to be quite good for keeping track of pledges and donations. The cost was much less than many programs that I looked at. A trial copy can be downloaded and used to see if it meets the needs of the user. The program is frequently improved and technical help is both good and fast. Rating: 5. - Norma Rose, financial secretary at Hampton UMC, Hampton NH, normajr@earthlink.net. 

Publishing / Newsletter

Home Publishing  (Microsoft) - It also works wonderfully. I can do the calendar, graphics, clip art, special text design and numerous other things for the church, such as creating greeting cards, business cards, flyers for special events, and dressed up sign-up sheets for events. It is very versatile. Rating: 5. - Heidi Barber, secretary / editor / treasurer at Bath UMC, Bath ME, bassin@gwi.net. 

Office 2000 (Microsoft) - I have a wide variety of options with the office programs. I do most of my work on them. Rating: 4. - Sandra A. Dearborn, office manager at St. John's UMC, Dover NH, stjumcdv@rcn.com. 

PageMaker 7.0 (Adobe) - Love it! Rating 4. - Beth Schondorf, newsletter editor at UMC of Moodus CT, ehbulletin@yanoo.com. 

Publisher (Microsoft) - For the kind of newsletter we are producing, Publisher is sufficient for our needs. Rating: 3. - Lyle Seger, pastor of Wesley UMC, Amherst MA, fmlseger@comcast.net. 

Publisher (Microsoft) - I've been using it for several years. Although it took some time to get used to the differences between Publisher and Word, I am very happy using it for our newsletter. Rating: 4. - Sue McDonald, co-chair of Communications Committee at Main St UMC, Nashua NH, smcdonald101@comcast.net. 

Publisher 2003 (Microsoft) - I have been using Publisher for several years and I find it easy and uncomplicated. Rating: 4. - Linda J. Evans, lay leader at Grace UMC, Westerly RI, levans@uri.edu. 

Quark Express and Microsoft Publisher - Both have very user friendly features, and combined with a good printer, provide excellent publications, bulletins, newsletters, etc. Rating 5. - Wayne VanGundy, pastor at Epping Community Church, Epping NH, vangundy@comcast.net. 

Quark XPress - High end professional desktop publishing program. Many advanced features that I do not use. Not too difficult to get good results. Like to try Adobe InDesign. Rating: 4. - John Fischer, pastor and IT person at Alexandria UMC, Alexandria NH, fischer@fcgnetworks.net. 

Word and Publisher (both Microsoft) - Flexible. Rating: 4. - Joe Chamberland, pastor of Eaton Memorial UMC, Livermore Falls ME, pastors@prexar.com. 

Website / Online

Dreamweaver - Not a bad product, though it has so many features, it can take quite some time to learn them all. Using templates, however, makes it very easy to keep all the pages of a web site similar in appearance. Rating: 4. - Don Mack, lay speaker and webmaster at Cochesett UMC, West Bridgewater MA, dgmack@adelphia.net. 

FrontPage (Microsoft) - I have been using this software to produce our church website for about 4 years. Easy to learn for folks with good computer skills. You can also publish directly from the software to your site or use an FTP software program such as Cute FTP. Rating: 5. - Larry Price, webmaster / historian / lay speaker at North Kingstown UMC, North Kingstown RI, editor@nkumcri.com.

Hostway.com - Not software, but a website hosting company. We are extremely pleased with the options they offer and with their very fast and helpful customer service. Would highly recommend them to anyone considering establishing a church website. They have packages to suit all size needs, and you can grow with their help to be as much as you want to become. Excellent company! Rating: 5. - Barbara Johnson, webmaster at St. John's UMC, Dover NH, blynnj@epiph.com. 

Publisher (Microsoft) and WS_FTP Pro - Please keep in mind our church is not on line this is only through the pastors home connection. --not in the budget. Mission Shares come 1st. Rating: 4. - Joe Chamberland, pastor of Eaton Memorial UMC, Livermore Falls ME, pastors@prexar.com. 

RCN (Internet Service Provider) - I am not happy with their service and they are expensive. We are looking for another server. Rating: 2. - Sandra A. Dearborn, office manager at St. John's UMC, Dover NH, stjumcdv@rcn.com. 

Other Purposes

Access (Microsoft) - I am grateful to have some one to run this. But this is an awkward program to run. Rating: 2. - Joe Chamberland, pastor of Eaton Memorial UMC, Livermore Falls ME, pastors@prexar.com. 

Office (Microsoft) - I have used this software for many years in other positions I have held so I am comfortable with it. I'm a new secretary here and am not familiar with the other softwares listed. Rating: 4. - Phyllis Rathbun, secretary, East Longmeadow UMC, East Longmeadow MA, elumc@worldnet.att.net. 

Peachtree - Used at TUMC for 3 years. While it does not have all the bells and whistles of the church-specific software, it handles all financial transactions and produces meaningful statements at a minimal cost. Rating: 5. - Robbin Grill, PPR Chair and auditor at Tuftonboro UMC, Tuftonboro NH, robbin@rrgcpa.com. 

Quickbooks - Utilized by the church treasurer as another channel for record keeping. We also utilize an accountant for records keeping, etc. Rating 3. - Wayne VanGundy, pastor at Epping Community Church, Epping NH, vangundy@comcast.net. 

Word (Microsoft) - MS Word is used for all other office functions except mailing list. Rating: 4. - Joe Chamberland, pastor of Eaton Memorial UMC, Livermore Falls ME, pastors@prexar.com.