Best Accounting Software for Churches in 2026: Fund Tracking, Giving Records and Free Options

Accounting software for churches has two jobs that are often confused: keeping the books, and keeping a record of what each household gave and to which fund. Very few tools in Enlisted's catalogue are written for churches. ChurchCRM is a free, self-hosted church management system with pledges, funds, deposits and giving reports, while Wave, QuickBooks, Xero and Zoho Books are general accounting products that publish pages for churches or nonprofits.

The guide groups 11 options by job and says plainly where a tool is general-purpose and needs setting up. It is a buying guide, not tax or legal advice, and what a church must report differs by country and denomination.

What a church treasurer is really buying

A treasurer usually has three questions. Where did each gift go, can the books be shown to a finance committee or an auditor, and can a volunteer take over next year? The vendor pages below show where tools answer each one:

• Designated gifts. ChurchCRM's documentation describes donation funds such as a general fund, building fund and missions, and QuickBooks describes tracking funds with classes.
• Giving statements. ChurchCRM lists giving reports for tax statements, QuickBooks mentions yearly donation statements on its nonprofit page, and Zoho Invoice's page for churches describes receipts for donors.
• Shared access. Wave's church page says the Pro plan lets you invite limited users such as board members, volunteers and accountants, and Xero's church page highlights working with an accountant online.

How we picked

Each tool either serves churches by name or does an accounting or giving-record job that a church can use. For hosted products Enlisted reads the vendor's own church or nonprofit pages and the pricing model; for open-source projects it checks the licence, GitHub activity and self-hosting support. Products that only take payments without keeping records are labelled. For the method, see how Enlisted ranks tools, or browse the finance category.

Best church software with built-in giving and finance records

1. ChurchCRM: best free, self-hosted system for pledges, funds and giving reports

ChurchCRM is free, open-source church management software for people, families, groups, events, attendance, giving and volunteers, released under the MIT licence. Its site describes pledges, deposits, funds and statements, aiming to keep a church accountable without turning the office into an accounting department.

The documentation goes further: you add donation funds, enter pledges and payments with date, amount, fund and method, group payments into deposit slips for the bank, and run giving reports for tax statements. You install it on your own hosting, and a temporary demo is offered before you commit. See the ChurchCRM listing.

• Best for: small and mid-size congregations that want giving records and fund totals without a subscription.
• Watch out for: it is a records system rather than a general ledger, and you are responsible for hosting, backups and updates.

2. Ecclesiato: best Portuguese-language church system with finance tracking

Ecclesiato is a Brazilian church management system for tracking members, events, children's ministry and finances in one web platform. It is a hosted, proprietary, Portuguese-language product, and its plans are sized by the number of members.

Enlisted's entry notes that the vendor's homepage text is sparse, so details of its giving and accounting tools are not confirmed. Ask for a demo of the finance screens before you rely on it for your books.

• Best for: churches in Brazil that want a Portuguese-language hosted system.
• Watch out for: the depth of its accounting features is unconfirmed, and there is no self-hosted version.

3. Tap.Giving: best way to point pew donations at the giving page you already use

Tap.Giving is a supplier of custom NFC discs rather than software: a phone tapped on the disc opens your church's existing giving page. It names Tithely, Pushpay and Givelify as platforms the discs work with, and says it never touches the money.

It belongs in this guide because gifts still need to be recorded, and the giving platform you point it at handles that. It has no monthly or transaction fees from Tap.Giving, though your giving platform's own fees apply, and there is a minimum order.

• Best for: churches that already have an online giving platform and want an in-person way to reach it.
• Watch out for: it does not record or account for gifts, so it does nothing for your books on its own.

Best hosted accounting software for churches

These keep the ledger: income, expenses, bank reconciliation and reports. All four are closed-source hosted products.

4. Wave: best free hosted option with a page for churches

Wave is accounting and invoicing software for small businesses with a free Starter plan, and its page for churches says you can track donations and record giving, manage expenses, process online donations and run payroll, and produce year-end reports for your accountant. It uses double-entry accounting.

The Pro plan unlocks bank connections and limited users for board members, volunteers and accountants. Wave's help centre says it has no separate donation-tracking feature for nonprofits and suggests custom tags per fund, which belong to Pro. Online card payments carry a per-transaction fee. See Wave alternatives for other hosted options.

• Best for: a small church with a volunteer treasurer and simple books.
• Watch out for: fund tags and bank connections need the paid plan, and it is not self-hostable.

5. QuickBooks: best-known option, recommended on its own page for churches

QuickBooks is Intuit's accounting software family for small businesses. Its nonprofit page recommends the Plus or Advanced plans for churches and houses of worship, and describes categorizing revenue and expenses by fund or program, nonprofit reports and yearly donation statements with thank-you letters.

Intuit's help article describes setting up funds with class tracking and bank sub-accounts, which needs a higher tier, and the nonprofit page says discounted products are available through TechSoup. Many accountants know it, which helps when a volunteer treasurer changes. Compare other tools in the QuickBooks alternatives guide.

• Best for: churches whose bookkeeper or accountant already uses QuickBooks.
• Watch out for: the features that matter for funds sit on higher tiers, and classes are a workaround rather than a built-in church fund system.

6. Xero: best for churches that share books with an outside accountant

Xero is cloud accounting software that links to your bank and your accountant. Its church page lists expense claims, bank feeds and reconciliation, invoices and quotes, online invoice payments, bill tracking and real-time reports, with payroll through a partner and hundreds of apps in its store.

The page does not discuss donations, funds or giving statements, so test how your designated funds would be set up before you switch. Xero has no free plan, only a trial. See the Xero listing.

• Best for: churches with a part-time accountant who prefers bank-feed-driven bookkeeping.
• Watch out for: nothing on the church page covers giving records, so you would need a separate system for statements.

7. Zoho Books: best for projects and donor receipts on a free or low-cost start

Zoho Books is online accounting from Zoho with invoices, bills, bank reconciliation and reports. Its nonprofit page describes donations in multiple currencies, receipts for donors, projects with expenses attached and separate expense accounts for funds, and Zoho lists a free plan for micro businesses.

The nonprofit page does not describe restricted funds or grants, so see whether projects and accounts can reproduce your fund reports. Limits on the free plan are on Zoho's pricing page.

• Best for: very small churches that want a free starting point and project-level reporting.
• Watch out for: no restricted-fund features are described, and the free plan has limits.

8. Zoho Invoice: best free tool for donation receipts and recurring giving

Zoho Invoice is an online invoicing and time billing tool from Zoho, free for small organizations within its limits, with Zoho branding on documents. Its page for churches describes receipts to donors for each gift, recurring invoices for regular donors, online payments through a payment gateway of your choice, thank-you messages and estimates for charitable projects.

It is not a ledger. A church that only needs receipts and invoices for a store or events can use it alone, and one that needs full books should pair it with an accounting tool.

• Best for: churches that need receipts and invoices, not a full ledger.
• Watch out for: its page does not describe fund tracking or reports, and the free tier has limits.

Best free desktop and open-source ledgers

9. GnuCash: best free double-entry ledger on a treasurer's computer

GnuCash is free double-entry accounting software for individuals and small businesses, licensed under the GNU GPL, running on Windows, macOS and Linux. It uses a checkbook-style register while keeping balanced books and has no subscription.

Enlisted's entry for GnuCash lists no fund tracking or giving statements, and it has no hosted version, so a church would design its chart of accounts around funds and share reports by export. It suits one person keeping a small set of books.

• Best for: a treasurer who wants a free ledger and is comfortable setting up accounts.
• Watch out for: no giving statements, no hosted access for other volunteers, and some accounting knowledge is expected.

10. Dolibarr: loose fit for churches that want one system for members and invoices

Dolibarr is an open-source ERP and CRM whose own description names foundations among its users. Its membership page for associations and foundations lists member records, subscriptions, online collection of fees and follow-up of donations, alongside invoicing and purchasing.

It does not mention churches by name, so treat it as a loose fit. It is GPL-3.0 or later, has Windows and Linux installers and a Docker image, and needs someone to host and maintain it. For a wider nonprofit view, see the guide to accounting software for nonprofits.

• Best for: a church with technical volunteers that wants members, donations follow-up and invoices on its own server.
• Watch out for: accounting depth is not described on the membership page, and a broad ERP means many modules to configure.

Best for larger churches and church networks

11. Blackbaud: best fund accounting for a large organization with finance staff

Blackbaud sells cloud software to nonprofits, schools and foundations, and its Financial Edge NXT product does fund accounting with sub-funds for restricted money, grants and nonprofit statement templates. Its pages are written for nonprofits in general rather than churches in particular.

That makes it a candidate for a large church, multi-site congregation or denominational office with finance staff and many restricted funds. Pricing is by sales quote.

• Best for: large organizations with several restricted funds and a paid finance team.
• Watch out for: no published price, and it is more system than a small church needs.

Related products that are not in the catalogue

Aplos, a product outside Enlisted's catalogue, describes itself as built for fund-based accounting for churches and nonprofits, with giving statements and fund reports; check the Aplos church accounting page if fund tracking is your first requirement. For payroll and staff records, see the guides to payroll software for nonprofits and HR software for nonprofits.

What churches should check before buying

• Where giving statements come from. Decide whether your accounting tool, ChurchCRM or your online giving platform will produce them, and test one.
• Whether funds are tracked in the ledger. Ask the vendor to show a building-fund gift and a report for that fund. QuickBooks uses classes, Wave uses tags on Pro, and Zoho Books uses projects.
• How volunteers get access. Wave's limited users sit on Pro, and an open-source system needs someone to host it. Plan for the day the current treasurer steps down.
• Payroll. Wave, Xero and QuickBooks describe standard payroll, and none of their church or nonprofit pages explain how clergy pay is treated, so ask your accountant.
• Where gifts arrive. Tap.Giving points to your giving platform, so check that its payout reports reach the books without retyping.

Which accounting software should your church choose?

• A tiny church with a volunteer treasurer: Wave, with ChurchCRM for giving records.
• An accountant already uses QuickBooks: QuickBooks Plus or Advanced.
• Bank-feed-driven books shared with an accountant: Xero.
• Only receipts and donor invoices: Zoho Invoice.
• Free ledger on one computer: GnuCash.
• Large church with restricted funds and staff: Blackbaud.
• Brazilian church wanting Portuguese-language software: Ecclesiato.

For a wider look at free ledgers, read the free accounting software guide.