Church Management Software (ChMS) Forum

H E L P I N G L E A D E R S B E C O M E B E T T E R S T E W A R D S .

Church Management Software (ChMS) Forum

Presented by:

Shelby Systems, Inc.

CHURCH EXECUTIVE • C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E • S H E L B Y S Y S T E M S2 churchexecutive.com

Table of Contents8 QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN EVALUATING FINANCIAL APPLICATIONS IN YOUR ChMS 3Church members not only look for spiritual leadership from their pastoral staff, but they also have expectations that donations made will be widely used. Often, they expect leadership to provide financial reports produced from a reliable accounting package, verifying their trust.

By Alfred Johnson

HOW TO ENGAGE VOLUNTEERS WITH TECHNOLOGY 4“Church members need to feel they are a vital part of Christ’s work and that they are valuable to the community of believers.”

This is what we hear time and again when speaking with pastors regarding volunteers. They emphasize that church members desire to feel needed — and the Church has the responsibility of effectively plugging them into the local church community

By Angela Huenefeld

8 KEY QUESTIONS: HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR YOUR CHURCH 5Whether you’re hoping to convert from one church management software system to another — or even trying church software for the first time — you probably know by now that it takes a lot of planning and consideration before you and your church finally decide.

To help you along, here’s a handful of important questions to help your church find the best fit for its needs.

By Hal Hallum

S H E L B Y S Y S T E M S • C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E • CHURCH EXECUTIVE 3churchexecutive.com

4. Does the software have a method to keep sub ledgers in balance with the general ledger?

The review of a set of books usually includes a check of accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and contributions against the general ledger. This is usually done by creating a report from, say, accounts payable for a given month, and then comparing it to a statement of financial position (balance sheet) for the same period. Allowing changes to AP or GL without involving the other should not be allowed.

5. Does the general ledger restrict changes to finalized entries?

If the software uses a checkbook-style ledger, or allows changes to finalized transactions, then it becomes easy — and perhaps tempting — to manipulate the books.

6. Does the software track changes?

Most auditors check to see if there are changes made to original entries. Therefore, it is important that the software limits that type of activity and tracks any changes that are allowed.

7. Does the software’s standard reports allow omission of transactions?

Some software packages only have drill-down reports with various filters, which can produce reports that might not include all transactions, thus skewing the financial picture.

8. Does the software provide a method to generate consolidated reports for committees, congregation, individual ministries, etc.?

Most churches need a set of presentation reports designed for select groups. If the software does not have this option, then the staff is usually forced to create them in Excel.

It truly is fortunate that most pastors do not have to be accountants. But, they do need to be wise in their leadership roles, ensuring church finances are correctly handled.

Alfred Johnson is the Sales and Training Manager at Shelby Systems, Inc. www.shelbysystems.com in Cordova, TN.

questions to ask when evaluating financial applications in your ChMS

Church members not only look for spiritual leadership from their pastoral staff, but they also have expectations that donations made will be widely used. Often, they expect leadership to provide financial reports produced from a reliable accounting package, verifying their trust.

Evaluating financial applications

Fortunately, pastors and church leaders do not have to be accountants to find out if a product is a good fit for their ministry — they just need to ask the right questions.

The following list of evaluation questions should be helpful to most ministries.

1. Is the product designed for nonprofit organizations?

Most accounting packages are designed for businesses, and businesses are required to keep records to satisfy federal and state income tax laws. On the other hand, churches and religious organizations have very different needs that are no less complex than for-profit businesses. As long as the church does not have unrelated business income, it does not have to file income reports with the IRS. However, it is accountable to the membership, donors and, occasionally, to a foundation or other organization that has provided a grant.

These donor groups have expectations that donated funds will be used for the intended purpose. For example, some donations are received for a particular ministry, activity or building project. Therefore, nonprofit accounting software needs to be able to track and report on each of those activities.

2. Does the chart of accounts accommodate a structure that complies with FASB and GAAP requirements?

Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) provide guidance for acceptable tracking of transactions and related reports. These guidelines are used by public accountants and auditors when advising or auditing records. A common requirement of nonprofit groups is to have a place in the balance sheet within the capital section devoted to multiple closing accounts. (For-profit software often has one closing account labeled “retained earnings.”) Reports then use information from the net asset area to show the funds available for distribution. (See illustration above)

3. Does the payroll application correctly handle clergy compensation and Form W-2?

A payroll application should be designed to easily handle the complex pay package that many clergy have and also accommodate all of the payroll requirements of non-clergy staff. It should also be able to produce required federal and state tax reports, including Forms 941, W-2, W-3, as well as the set of reports required under the Affordable Care Act.

By Alfred Johnson

As long as your accounting package provides tools to align with FASB 117 and GAAP guidelines, then you might find the following tips helpful in using your current software.

• Do not readily accept someone’s view that the software cannot perform a needed function. Verify by checking with the supplier’s support and / or training department.

• Invest in annual refresh training often available in webinars, online videos, remote courses or special onsite consulting.

• Interact with user groups and online discussion communities.• Verify that controls are in place to enforce segregation

of duties.• Review your chart of accounts at least every three years to

keep reporting in step with ministry needs / focus.• After an audit, make changes in account structure per

auditor’s notes. Having a set of books that are easy to audit can cut audit expenses.

How to get the most out of your accounting package


Presented by: Shelby Systems, Inc.

CHURCH EXECUTIVE • C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E • S H E L B Y S Y S T E M S4 churchexecutive.com

How to engage volunteers with technology

Shelby Systems has provided technology for the church and non-profit community for more than 35 years. In response to our customers’ growing needs and desires to effectively engage and mobilize church members as volunteers, we created the Volunteer Tracking product. Our customers were looking for ways to easily communicate serving opportunities to their members, schedule volunteers, and track volunteers’ service hours while helping members feel they are a vital part of the church and valuable to the community of believers.

So, how do you effectively engage your church members?

With the Arena Volunteer Tracking product, church staff can:• Set up serving opportunities and group volunteers based on their areas

of serving interest• Assign and track volunteers through training, background checks and

acceptance of the serving opportunity• Communicate with volunteers through email and text messaging• View volunteer lists with filter options for specific serving opportunities


Focus on: Volunteer Management

By Angela Huenefeld

“Church members need to feel they are a vital part of Christ’s work and that they are valuable to the community of believers.”

This is what we hear time and again when speaking with pastors regarding volunteers. They emphasize that church members desire to feel needed — and the Church has the responsibility of effectively plugging them into the local church community.

with the options to Word merge, email, text message or export the list to an Excel spreadsheet

• View a color-coded calendar showing serving opportunity dates that are active, inactive and past

• Accept or decline for a volunteer who is unable to respond to a serving request.

Volunteers can:• View serving opportunities and

sign up to serve using the mobile app or their church’s website

• Accept or decline serving opportunities by responding to email requests

• View their upcoming serving opportunities.

Once a serving opportunity is created, volunteers are assigned and emailed a notification with the option to accept or decline the serving opportunity. At any time, staff members can view the serving opportunity and see which volunteers have accepted , declined or are still pending .

A color-coded calendar for the current month displays so church staff and members easily see serving opportunity dates. The calendar shows active (blue), inactive (light blue), and past (grey) service dates plus black-out dates (red).

Occasionally, a volunteer might indicate verbally or by phone call their intentions regarding a serving opportunity. Church staff can manually accept or decline for the volunteer.

Tracking volunteers can be a time-consuming job, no matter how large or small your church. Technology helps to tame this difficult but rewarding job.

Angela Huenefeld is Technical Content Writer for Shelby Systems, Inc., www.shelbysystems.com in Cordova, TN. The company’s Volunteer Tracking integrates smoothly into Arena ChMS and websites for ease of access.

S H E L B Y S Y S T E M S • C H U R C H M A N A G E M E N T S O F T W A R E • CHURCH EXECUTIVE 5churchexecutive.com

8 key questions

#1: What are your staff needs?Start by gathering the most important needs of each ministry at your

church. While very few software companies can meet every need, it’s best to know where your priorities lie. A comprehensive analysis should include all items you’d like to have, but make sure to make a special note of those items that you must have. Always have an end in mind when beginning you search.

#2: Where are you going / growing as a church?Talk to church leaders to get a better understanding of the vision

and goal for the next five to 10 years. Try looking at software that offers features such as background screening for a growing staff, or events management to provide members and visitors with more opportunities to get involved.

Consider how your admins spend their days interacting with the features. Do the tools need to be more or less mobile-based, depending on their communication and personalities? Features like these can better prepare everyone for growth.


Focus on: ChMS Selection

By Hal Hallum

Whether you’re hoping to convert from one church management software system to another — or even trying church software for the first time — you probably know by now that it takes a lot of planning and consideration before you and your church finally decide.

To help you along, here’s a handful of important questions to help your church find the best fit for its needs.

#3: What’s your member “type”? What are their needs and expectations?

Take note of the demographics in your congregation and focus on what would improve their connection with your church. Visitors are always an important focus; however, current members are the foundation of the church. Keeping them happy and well-informed is something your church software should enable.

#4: How much support do you need from your software vendor?This can be tricky, since some companies can have great support but a

product that’s pretty complex.Other companies might label themselves as “simple,” but provide low-

level support. Just remember: Simple can be good — but it can also imply a lack of

important features. Talk to the rest of your church staff about support; this decision will make a big difference down the road.

#5: Can the application you purchase grow with your church?With smaller churches, a system that can manage small amounts of

data might be all that is needed. But, once a church starts growing, it’ll be necessary to find a more advanced and structured software system.

If you foresee your church growing in the next few years, take that vision and focus on the software that’s most capable of handling changes, growth and involvement. Your solution should be more scalable.

#6: Is your prospective software vendor an established company with a good track record?

Knowing a company’s history and experience is a great indicator of its software and support function. If that history doesn’t make you feel completely confident with your decision, keep looking.

#7: Do you require vendor consultation?If so, make sure you find a trustworthy company that understands

what it takes to manage a church. Again, check the company’s background and talk to someone there about their services.

#8: What’s the cost of the software package?The possibility of hidden fees is important to vet. Otherwise, your

final price might be different than what your church budgeted for. And remember: the true “cost” of your software can’t always be

measured in dollars and cents.

When choosing a software provider, do your research and select a vendor that can meet your church’s needs, protect your members’ data, and be there to support you in the years to come. It’s a big decision; selecting the right software can make the difference between success and failure.

Hal Hallum is Marketing & Promotions Manager for Shelby Systems, Inc. [ www.shelbysystems.com ] in Cordova, TN.

How to choose the right management system for your church

ShelbyNext | Membership provides an all-new, ministry-focused, cloud-based ChMS created to build and engage your church community, fostering growth both inside and outside the walls of your church.

ShelbyNext | Financials provides cloud-based accounting software specifically designed for the unique needs of the Church.

www.shelbysystems.com

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Church Management Software (ChMS) Forum