ChurchTrac

Wow! Excellent, incredibly affordable software for the mainline micro-church

Commenti: Amazing experience so far. ChurchTrac is going to be such a huge help to us as we transition into whatever-is-next for our ministry. It really has been a wonderful thing for me as preacher, administrative assistant, worship planner, and chief bottle-washer to be able to enter info and know where it is and how to access it.

Aspetti positivi:

ChurchTrac is obviously designed to assist larger congregations, but it is incredibly versatile for our small church. We were driven to find a database program by our need for accounting and budgeting software. Even if that was all ChurchTrac provided, it would be worth the cost for our little congregation. But the member management platform, the event and scheduling features, the calendaring options, and the Connect app have absolutely blown us away! It is SO intuitive, so easy to use, with a very reasonable investment of time. I've seen other church database programs that are five or six times as expensive (or more!) as ChurchTrac with less features and a much steeper learning curve. The introductory instruction and on-boarding tools are thorough and easily navigable. They offer free import of previous data which is just astonishingly generous. Their free introductory webinar is very, very helpful. I had been using the program for a month and still learned a lot. And the customer support is just incredible. Their help topics are vast and diverse and the team responds almost immediately to other questions not covered in the help topic library. I've no sense that they've prioritized other users with larger accounts over me, either. Every communication has been warm, personal, timely, and has resolved any issue I've had.

Aspetti negativi:

I wish I could more easily use the Worship Planning tools as a small, mainline church with a traditional hymnal. It's not a big deal, because, as I said elsewhere, we purchased this program for the accounting and budgeting program. But I do sort of wistfully wish I could use it, too. I would like to use some of the communication tools with ChurchTrac without it costing us more. We have 25 average attendance on Sunday and with 30 giving units and an electronic newsletter with 72 contacts on Mailchimp. Using that integration would bump our "people count" up to right near the 125 mark which means we would pay more. And right now, every penny is precious, and we need that buffer to communicate with potential attendees. So - there's a bit of a learning curve there that I've not yet conquered. Also - and this is not a con- but a potential future offering - lots of pastors have to save receipts, track mileage, create expense reports, etc. THAT added to ChurchTrac would be a HUGE gift to me.

Love this product

Commenti: Overall, I found this product while dissatisfied with another similar product and I am pleased with this product.

Aspetti positivi:

I like the ease of use. I like the various accounting reports and I am still exploring other features.The pricing is generous .The Bibke verses are also inspiring.

Aspetti negativi:

I really don’t have a con. O need to take advantage of the tutorials for additional features.

Admin Assistant

Commenti: I am not since i have been locked out.
i feel information would be helpful, it i could pull it easily and print.
I don't like not being able to speak with someone or at lease have them look a my information.

Aspetti positivi:

I can pull and print reports of the information I put in.

Aspetti negativi:

I liked the previous package better -- it was user friendly. This package is not easily walked thru to pull reports and input the information as the previous package. Someone has changed my login and password - there is not a way to speak with anyone for help! The steps provided did not work. I have been locked out all week and now starting another week. I am disgusted!

The best church management system out there!

Commenti: This has been the best product we've found for church management systems. We've used it for several years. It's incredibly efficient, cost and time-saving. Their customer support is amazing and their tech support has been some of the best we've ever experienced. We've recommended this system to numerous sister churches because it's such a great, cost-effective system designed for churches.

Aspetti positivi:

We love the ease of use and the intuitiveness of this system. It's overall design is perfect for churches - small churches in particular. The integration between giving and accounting is exceptional and has reduced the amount of time needed for accounting entries by our volunteer church treasurer. The communication system is awesome. But, best of all is the price - this is by far the best and most cost-effective product out there in church management systems.

Aspetti negativi:

Sometimes it can be a little clunky, mostly little inconveniences that are outweighed by the benefits of this system.

Great Value Church Database Software

Commenti: Has been great value and does all that is needed.

Aspetti positivi:

Easy to use, it does all that we need the software for and makes it easy to do so, while also having some flexibility to customize to suit our church.

Aspetti negativi:

Would like the interface to be a bit wider on my screen, i.e not in thirds.

Great Program

Commenti: It has been a wonderful experience. The team is a great help.

Aspetti positivi:

It is user friendly and the support from the team is amazing.

Aspetti negativi:

I wish that during the set up of the process, when you send in a ticket the time would be longer than 15 minutes. The setup process can take time to understand, especially with the bookkeeping.

Senor Pastor

Commenti: I love it churchtrac software is very helpful.

Aspetti positivi:

Easy to use the software I have use it for years.

Aspetti negativi:

I do not have issues with the software I am so happy with it.

Churchtrac Support along with Father God saved our finances!!

Commenti: ChurchTrac and the Support Team have been near life saving for me and my church. They were there for me in an amazing way when our finances where almost over taken by disgruntled members in our church.

Aspetti positivi:

How easy it is to record deposits, have records of tithe & donations for individuals, inputting payouts of checks and debit cards. Help screen is wonderful for self-help. Can's say enough about ChruchTrac Support Team! They are amazing and prompt getting back with solutions if I have problems.

Aspetti negativi:

Reports are wonderful but the Balance Sheet along with Funds is very difficult to understand.

We love ChurchTrac

Commenti: It was awesome, the representative was clear and concise

Aspetti positivi:

Our question was answered with great clarity

Aspetti negativi:

We are very satisfied with ChurchTrac! Nothing!

My Experience

Commenti: My experience with churchTrac has always been a good one. Chris, who called me twice was excellent help!

Aspetti positivi:

They were prompt and called exactly at the time of my appointment

Aspetti negativi:

Not being able to get a call in while i was dealing with the issue.

Love using ChurchTrac!

Commenti: I think being able to email to the entire congregation, enter accounting, giving and child check in, it just makes it the best program and user friendly!

Aspetti positivi:

I really like that everything is in one place. You can track attendance, membership database, accounting, giving, etc. When I started using ChurchTrac it was a desk top program. Not online. But everything transferred over and was even better than before! I have worked for the church almost 6 years and I have ChurchTrac open all day as I am working! We just recently started using the Child Check In and that works fabulous! I have spent countless hours on the phone and thru email with [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and she is the best tech support and I would highly recommend anyone that is new and is struggling with the program to reach to her!

Aspetti negativi:

I don't there is anything that I don't really like about it. You can create reports for almost anything, you just have to learn how to use the program.

ChurchTrac is an excellent product

Commenti: I have used Churchtrac since its initial version, and have had the opportunity to see its growth and inclusion of more dynamic and effective features. It is a comprehensive software designed for churches with a real understanding of the various needs - you can see that in the design. I am very happy to have discovered the software as it is affordable, as it is effective. Everything from one central dashboard, to audit trails, a fund accounting framework, member communication, notes, and processes got me sold.

Aspetti positivi:

The software is choc full of features: the SMS messaging integration, form letters, accounting dashboard, and the connect page are wins for the software. What stands out most though is its portability - you can use it anywhere.

Aspetti negativi:

I had some trouble figuring out the new worship/scheduling module.

ChurchTrac is the cost effective, complete solution you've been looking for

Commenti: We were using one of the other big names, and found it didn't meet our needs as well as we wanted. We set out on a journey to evaluate ChMS systems, and after webinars, demos and weeks of comparisons had settled on another solution. Putting together a presentation for the elders led us to stumble on to ChurchTrac, the difference was night and day. ChurchTrac has clearly been a labor of love for a team that has worked in churches. Intuitive, complete and powerful member engagement has been steadily increasing.

Aspetti positivi:

ChurchTrac does the heavy lifting to empower churches with the tools needed.-Documentation is great, and if you need more, their support is extremely fast, and super knowledgeable.-Giving is easy and cost-effective, no expensive fees.-Event planning and registrations are easy and get everyone on the same page.-ChurchConnect is member portal and app rolled in to one, enabling giving, registrations, and check-ins.-ChurchConnect isn't as customizable as we're used to, but that is actually proving to be a good thing our website was constantly out of date as it was a chore to update. Connect fixes that with powerful but simple to create cards.

Aspetti negativi:

-URL customization for Church Connect would be a really great addition.-Group messaging through Connect would be a good way for teams or small groups to communicate.

ChurchTrac: Simple & Thorough

Commenti: ChurchTrac has been a pleasure to use. The system is easy to learn, and the support team is very quick to respond to questions.

Aspetti positivi:

ChurchTrac was easy to import and to use. The training videos are very helpful and the support team is very responsive. It's easy to see at a glance our attendance and giving on the ChurchTrac Dashboard. Individual profiles are easy to compose and very detailed.

Aspetti negativi:

There are only two features I would like changed but the system cannot change them. One printing the Events Calendar with location views, I would like to be able to edit the rows to a different size. The other is when sending messages I would like the 'Everyone Tagged' to appear first. I've learned to work around this.

A Great Choice!

Aspetti positivi:

This is a great, all-in-one software for our church. As the financial and clerical secretary, I was responsible for finding it, purchasing it, setting it up and getting the accounting end of it rolling. It was very intuitive, very simple to use, and is exactly the right fit for our church's needs!! Also, wonderful customer service, and a great YouTube tutorial library.

Aspetti negativi:

The only con I can think of, is that some of the reporting features aren't quite what we need. The annual budget reporting needs some work, and it would be great if it exported to XLXS rather than CSV only. But in the grand scheme of things, those are mild complaints.

Very Satisfied

Commenti: Very pleased. And it saves us a lot of money. Our old computer based system from another company charged us an annual fee much higher than Churchtrac, and then every couple years required us to pay for an “upgraded version”, at a cost of around $350.00. Since Churchtrac is web based, there are no upgrades required. In addition to its “people tracking” system (addresses, phone, membership level, etc), it really simplified our “giving” tracking system, which is also included in the basic package. We have not used their upgraded “Plus Plan” as of yet (worship planning, scheduling, Accounting & Budgeting) so I cant speak to those features.

Aspetti positivi:

Initially it was the cost savings. They are very reasonable and based on your congregation size which really helps smaller churches. Plus it is web based. Our older system, from a different company, was stored on our server. When it crashed we were unable to retrieve the data. This system has no need for a server. Lastly their tech support is included and has been very responsive. Very impressed.

Aspetti negativi:

We gave it a slightly lower rating on “Ease of Deployment”. The nice thing about Churchtrac is also it’s most challenging. It has a lot of useful features, but they take a little time to figure how to use them all. I’m sure someone who is more tech literate and who uses the varied features more regularly would have no problem.

Great platform, especially for smaller churches

Commenti: We can keep track of membership, finances, worship, and many other routine things we need in one place, and we can have access to it from anywhere.

Aspetti positivi:

It does what we need without giving us things that we don't that increase its cost. And it does it in an easy to use way so that others can come on board with it easily.

Aspetti negativi:

We're still learning all the ins and outs of the accounting piece, and the reconciliation process could be easier if we didn't have to try reconciling all the way from the beginning but could go on a month by month with our bank statements.

Perfect Church Management Software

Commenti: I've been able to do everything I've been asked. We are using Quickbooks for our gov't-required accounting, but for the day-to-day bookkeeping, ChurchTrac even handles that! I especially love how it intgrates giving with bookkeeping so well.

Aspetti positivi:

ChurchTrac integrates everything I could possibly need for all aspects of church administration: people tracking, attendance, giving, receipting, income, expenses, processes, follow up, tracking screening, messaging (email & text), people reports, budget tracking & reporting, online directory (I print only as needed now), congregational access to their own giving record & contact information, ... the list goes on. I haven't found any other software that does as much as ChurchTrac. I recommend it to everyone. The price is also outstanding for what you get. Can't find anything more reasonably priced!

Aspetti negativi:

Would love to be able to sort people on the people screen by membership status & attendance, and would love to see individual attendance on the people screen. Giving vs. Attendance is also a report that is requested often, but I haven't figured out how to easily do that.

Loving ChurchTrac!

Commenti: It's been a bit of a learning curve for me (a middle-aged person who has been doing things the old-school way for 20+ years), but I'm loving the ease of...everything really. ChurchTrac is so much easier to use than the two previous services we've had. It is saving me a lot of time and a lot of headaches! Everything is what and where it should be - I'm not hunting for transactions in different places, I can zero out a check and tag it as voided, it has a great search feature, giving imports are easier. It has been a game changer and I love it! And it is less expensive than both of our previous providers.

Aspetti positivi:

Fund accounting, ease of use, responsive and kind customer service, they seem to care about helping their customers have a good experience instead of just getting money out them

Aspetti negativi:

Sometimes I think I would like more customizable reports (the ability to select multiple categories), but it's really not a huge deal for us.

ChurchTrac Online - good value for money, not perfect but does most of what you need to do

Commenti: We switched to this software from PowerChurch, which is old and outdated. The difference was huge. Compared to outdated software like that, this software is very easy and enjoyable to work with. However, I also tried out Breeze, which is significantly better than ChurchTrac from what I could see. Their pricing is a flat rate, however, so for a small church like ours ChurchTrac provided more value.

Aspetti positivi:

1) Very easy to use 2) A good amount of functionality 3) Above all, the price is better than other online options I found 4) Mobile website works quite well - the online functionality is a big plus for any church who is not already using an online database

Aspetti negativi:

I have not had the best experience with their support people. Getting our database integrated into ChurchTrac was a bit of a hassle, it took us a while to do as we are a smaller church without a ton of staff resources to dedicate to this. We were constantly losing access to the database because our free trial had ended and it was time to pay for a software that we weren't even sure we would use. They did always extend our trial but it was a hassle and I felt like we were under the gun for taking so long. The biggest thing was that at one point the support person made a significant mistake in what she communicated to me, and rather than apologizing for that mistake, she told me it would cost our church a fee to re-import the database. Eventually that charge was waived, but there was never any admission of that mistake or apology at all. The software is also not very customizable for some features. In order to print tax receipts that look official and properly formatted, our accountant is having to download csv files and merge them together in Word. Similarly the calendar isn't very usable, because you can't sync it with your mobile calendar app. To use the calendar on mobile you'd have to log in to the mobile website, which is a lot of extra steps for a common task. Instead we are using google calendars so that we can sync all of our calendars together and use our mobile calendar apps, and then we are syncing those calendars one way with the church trac calendar, and then printing it from Microsoft Outlook, cause that's the only software that seems capable of printing a readable calendar. This all took a lot of time to set up. But now it is working very nicely. There should be a mobile app. I'm not usually one to use apps for something that can be done in a browser, but it would be nice to not have to constantly log in on your phone. An app could just stay logged in so that access is much quicker. I'm not sure if other database software like Breeze offers this option though.

affordable easy to use program with incredible features and great support! You won't be disappointed

Commenti: This software will make our church more excellent in serving God.

Aspetti positivi:

We have used this program for a year and love it. We use it to track our membership, attendance, finances and calendaring, but there is much more to it. They recently had an upgrade, we were concerned we would not like it, but wow! This is what you call an upgrade! It is even easier to learn and navigate. It has so many new features, I haven't even learned then all yet. I appreciate that members can access and update their own profile when you give them a code, and the church can control what parts of the membership list members can view. They can also see the calendar and their donation info. We haven't used it yet, but there is a child checkin system with access to info about childrens' allergies, special needs, etc. And all of our favorite features are still there. Easily accessed from anywhere online. I write this review to thank the support staff and creators of this program and with the hope that other churches will try it. We could never afford these features in our small but growing church. This will help us to do a better job in serving our congregation. And if you think, well I don't like that there is not a number to call for help, let me tell you that with just a tiny slice of patience to write them a message, you will receive excellent, courteous, and easily understood accurate information to dove ant issue or question you have. Folks, this is a truly Christian organization in my opinion.

Hope

Commenti: I have learned alot about the program that I never would have any situations with in Quicken. At my age it is a real challenge.

Aspetti positivi:

The donations has worked well. The sending statements by email is great. Wish we could get all to do that. Haven't had a problem with the donations at all.

Aspetti negativi:

I am just getting started on the accounting. It has been a challenge for me. I used Quicken before and transferred my work to an Excel spreadsheet. I am trying to get familiar with the program to be able to give the board a monthly report that they will understand.

Very extensive and affordable!

Commenti: Im honestly not sure what we would do without churchtrac. It’s fingers are in almost everything we do.

Aspetti positivi:

It’s great that all of the different aspects of churchtrac integrate with each other and help each other. And the price for everything they do is incredible!

Aspetti negativi:

It would be nice if the transactions could auto link to the software, but it’s not difficult to import and reconcile transactions.

After 2 years, even more in love with ChurchTrac

Commenti: Overall experience with ChurchTrac is nothing but wonderful. There is always something new, to make your church management easier. Thank you for growing with us & our needs.

Aspetti positivi:

What I like most? The videos, training, support, that are available to user(s).

Aspetti negativi:

Being located in Canada, not everything is available to us, that others can take advantage of. That being said, it is still the best Church Management/ Fund Accounting program out there!

New ChurchTrac Congregation

Commenti: I can't say enough good about what a great experience it has been to work with ChurchTrac so far. I'm sure most of our questions have been rudimentary to experienced users but when we get stuck on some special feature, or special formatting, or such we lauch a support ticket with a click and in a few minutes we get a helpful reply back. It has been a very smooth experience, which I appreciate being one of the admins.

Aspetti positivi:

ChurchTrac is very straight-forward and easy to use. The training of staff and other users has been smooth. Having many short videos available on specific topics has been wonderfully helpful. We took advantage of the 30 day evaluation with our real membership records and we are very happy ChurchTrac makes this service available. It convinced us to take the next step.

Aspetti negativi:

Hard to say at this point, as we as such new users, working our way along the user experience. Our improvement in member communication has been a huge early win for us. Accounting though is harder for us to evailuate. Our plan is to run our legacy accounting and ChurchTrac accounting in parallel for a time so that we can better understand what ChurchTrac has to offer us.