ChurchFinance

Overview

ChurchFinance is web-based financial software for churches and religious organizations, best suited to teams that need fund accounting, budgeting and giving in one system. Its breadth is appealing, but the free plan is narrow and the company says it has not pursued SOC 2 or HIPAA certification.

It brings income and expense tracking, fund management, budgets, reporting and online giving together. Transaction tools include categories, recurring entries, bank rules and CSV imports; an audit trail records activity. Users can export donor, transaction and fund data as JSON or CSV at any time, which gives a church a practical route to retain or move its records.

Key features

Accounting, budgets and reports

Annual budgets, ministry-scoped plans and budget-versus-actual tracking help finance teams compare plans with activity across funds and ministries. Bank reconciliation and financial reports are included in Growth, so the free Starter plan is better suited to basic recordkeeping than to a full accounting workflow.

Reports include income statements, fund summaries, cash flow, reconciliation and giving statements, as well as board packets. Ministry adds a custom report builder, advanced analytics and forecasting, which will matter more to organizations with broader reporting needs than to a small team looking mainly for routine bookkeeping.

Online giving and oversight

Giving supports cards, ACH bank transfers and Apple Pay through Stripe, with one-time and recurring gifts and no ChurchFinance platform fee. Stripe processes the payments and is PCI DSS Level 1; that is a Stripe credential, not a ChurchFinance certification.

Scoped, read-only auditor accounts can have time-bound access to the audit log, a useful way to share records without giving auditors broad editing rights. The read-only AI Assistant answers questions using church data, logs its queries and does not use that data for model training. ChurchFinance says traffic uses HTTPS/TLS, credentials are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, passwords are hashed and backups are taken daily. It has not pursued SOC 2 or HIPAA certification, a meaningful consideration for organizations whose policies require those certifications.

Pricing

ChurchFinance is freemium, with a 7-day trial and paid plans from $71/mo.

• Starter — free: One team member, transaction tracking, and categories and funds management. It provides a no-cost starting point, but the single seat and omission of budgets, reconciliation and reports make it a limited fit for a finance team.
• Growth — $71 a month, billed $853 annually: Up to five team members, budget management, recurring transactions, bank reconciliation, financial reports, unlimited donors, online giving, campaigns and pledges, giving statements and an audit log. This is the practical tier for a small church that needs a working finance and giving process. The annual bill is a substantial commitment compared with Starter.
• Ministry — $134 a month, billed $1609 annually: Unlimited team members and everything in Growth, plus board packets, multi-campus/location support, ministry financial management, advanced analytics and forecasting, a custom report builder, giving-page customization and embedding, and a customizable dashboard. It suits organizations needing cross-location operations or deeper reporting; smaller teams may not need the added scope.

The stated plan terms do not give a separate billing interval for Starter beyond “per free”; Growth and Ministry are billed annually at the stated totals.

Platforms

ChurchFinance runs on the web. That suits organizations working through a browser, but it is not presented as a native desktop or mobile app.

Who it's for

Churches and religious organizations that want fund-based bookkeeping alongside budgeting, reconciliation and online giving should consider Growth. Starter fits a single person needing basic tracking and fund categories without the paid workflow. Ministry is the stronger fit for multi-campus organizations or teams that need advanced analysis and tailored reporting. Churches that require SOC 2 or HIPAA certification should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Accounting, budgets, reconciliation, reports and giving sit in one product, reducing the need to assemble separate tools for those functions.
• Pro: The auditor portal offers time-limited, read-only access, while exports support portability of key financial and donor records.
• Pro: Giving supports several payment methods and recurring gifts without a ChurchFinance platform fee.
• Con: Starter allows only one team member and lacks the paid plans' budgeting, reconciliation and reporting capabilities.
• Con: Growth and Ministry list annual billed totals, so their monthly plan prices still require an annual payment commitment.
• Con: ChurchFinance has not pursued SOC 2 or HIPAA certification, which may rule it out under some organizations' compliance requirements.

Alternatives

Church accounting software is a useful category comparison for readers who want to weigh more products before choosing.

• Grain Ledger is worth comparing for churches seeking a free plan with a stated monthly-expense cap, one bank connection, three users and one active budget; ChurchFinance Starter instead specifies one user and basic tracking and fund management.
• Vestrybooks may suit a reader prioritizing a free tier with donor records and online giving where available, while ChurchFinance's free plan focuses on transaction tracking and categories and funds.
• FellowshipOne is an alternative for churches wanting a product available across mobile, desktop and web platforms.
• CDM+ is an alternative for churches seeking a paid product with a free trial and broader platform coverage.
• ChurchTrac is an alternative with paid monthly plans organized by people-count tiers.
• One Church Software is an alternative for a church considering an accounting add-on within a broader church management product.
• Churchsoft Assist is an alternative with a monthly-priced suite.
• ChurchSoftware Accounting is an alternative free web product with fund accounting, income and expense tracking, reporting and integrated giving.

Verdict

ChurchFinance is a strong fit for churches that want accounting, budgets, reconciliation, reporting and online giving in one web-based system, especially once Growth's team and reporting tools are needed. Choose it for that joined-up workflow and its scoped audit access; look elsewhere if a single-seat free plan is not enough, annual billing is a poor fit, or your organization requires SOC 2 or HIPAA certification.