Church Office Software to help your office to run smoothly

Managing the church office efficiently can be helped by both using appropriate software solutions and also by outsourcing and volunteers Whilst paper-based systems can be really helpful and filing, card indexes, etc all have their place, there are an increasing number of software solutions for common administrative tasks.

Read our independent summaries of what's on offer for these popular brands of church office software:

Advanced Data Solutions offer Church Office Helper (v3.0) which has three key roles - management of member information, church finances and personnel (including volunteers). This simply and affordably fulfills the needs of any church to track it's members, their pledges, Sunday offerings and tithes, church finances, committees, sermons, church history, music, gifts,talents and surveys of needs.

Church Office Management - designed as a parish software. Enables you to track names and addresses, attendance and involvement of members, Names and addresses, Member involvement, Attendance, Special dates, Interests, Talents, and more

Greentree Church Office Suite Church data management system for office management with great reports for church staff, teachers, and committees. Free 120-day trial.

Seeker Works - track contributions, donations and pledges, view/print giving statements, analyze financial charts, manage members, regulars, visitors, inactive names by household with pictures. Organize volunteers, small groups, spiritual gifts, prayer requests, campaign teams. Create distribution lists, electronic messages, create email

White Mountain Software - ChurchWatch - track membership and create simple directories, or for full blown color photo directories, contribution management, tax receipting, and facility and event planning. Download a demo.

Managing Phone Calls When You're Away

There can't always be someone in the office to answer the phone - either you're out on visits, or you're in a meeting.

Although an ansaphone can be helpful, it doesn't have the personal touch and can't get hold of you if there's an emergency.

Across the country there's a style of new business starting up that offers to give a personal service to callers when you're not available. This may be a solution worth contemplating - or you may be able to divert your existing phone line to another church member or volunteer who can answer.

Angel Virtual Call Centre - Angel are a provider of Hosted IVR and call center solutions for businesses of all sizes that can be built, deployed, and maintained quickly online with no hardware or software. If you need phone calls answered when there's no-one in the office, this is a solution that's worth considering.

Recommended Resources for the Office

Emails software communication - fed up with getting dozens or hundreds of spam emails. One solution is SpamBlocker which is available on a free trial, and annual subscription thereafter. Easy to use and install, even for the novice technie.

Useful tips for the hard worked church secretary or administrator

Virus Protection and Data Security - if your computer crashes or gets a virus, it can take weeks to recover your data. Making sure that you have basic virus protection is essential - although to stay legal you'll have to pay, even for anti-virus like AVG.