Church accounting doesn't have to be a headache! Often, churches have limited staff and resources. Choosing the right tools to streamline your workflow will keep you from getting overwhelmed. In this article, we'll show you how QuickBooks can help you manage your church accounting – without stress.
Only 32% of people report trusting religious institutions. Building this trust is crucial to getting more church attendance – and more donations – so you can spread the word of God.
One way to boost trust is to ensure your church is doing everything to be good stewards of tithes and offerings. Having a clear accounting process can help you do this.
With flexible, powerful tools, QuickBooks really streamlines the entire accounting process for churches. In this article, we’ll look at the basics of QuickBooks for churches, including which type of church QuickBooks is best. We’ll also walk you through how you can easily integrate QuickBooks with Donorbox for smarter accounting.
Let’s first outline how QuickBooks helps churches with their accounting.
QuickBooks allows you to assign each dollar your church receives to a specific area. So anytime you receive tithing, you can track where that tithing goes by committee, program, or fund. This is especially helpful if your church uses the fund accounting method.
This means you can easily get a clear sense of how much cash your church has and what expenses are being covered by it. So when it comes to creating a case for support or providing impact data, your church will have all it will require handy on the tool.
Plus, with multiple user accounts with unique access permissions, multiple people in your church can work on the application at once. This is especially helpful if you have volunteers managing your accounting.
In summary, QuickBooks streamlines church accounting – letting you spend less time worrying about the money you raise and more time serving your community!
And if you’re using Donorbox for your church fundraising, your job becomes absolutely hassle-free! Donorbox seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks to help manage your donations easily. More on that later!
Both types of QuickBooks can be helpful for churches! But let’s break each down so you can determine what’s best for your church’s needs.
QuickBooks Online offers 4 tiers:
All tiers come with these basic perks:
However, QuickBooks recommends either the Plus or Advanced tiers for churches and houses of worship. This is because some of the advanced tools, like bill management and multiple users, are especially helpful for churches looking to grow.
Other pros for QuickBooks Online:
Although QuickBooks Online is a great choice for churches, there are a few reasons to consider QuickBooks Desktop, too.
QuickBooks Desktop comes in two tiers:
Each tier offers some significant accounting power, but the biggest difference is the ability to customize. The Enterprise level allows up to 40 users plus strong customization to make it as useful for your church as possible.
Enterprise also lets you add on cloud access and Salesforce CRM integration.
Other pros for QuickBooks Desktop include –
A big con for QuickBooks Desktop is limited integrations. If you want to seamlessly connect with your favorite online tools, like Donorbox, you’ll want to go with QuickBooks Online. However, Donorbox also provides a way for you to connect with QuickBooks Desktop via Stripe and Commerce Sync. We’ll discuss that in detail later.
If you’re balking at the prices listed for each tier above, don’t fret. Nonprofits – and therefore churches with 501(c)(3) status – can receive significant discounts through TechSoup.
An important note: as of 2022, TechSoup will only provide QuickBooks Desktop to organizations that have received QuickBooks Desktop in the past. This is because Intuit is changing the way they support certain versions.
TechSoup offers the following QuickBooks versions:
In addition to being an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit, there are a few other requirements to be eligible for Intuit products from TechSoup. These include things like having an annual operating budget under $10 million and not engaging in discrimination as an organization.
Connecting your Donorbox account to QuickBooks is a great way to make your church fundraising and accounting seamless. That means that any time you receive a donation, it will automatically show up in QuickBooks. You won’t have to do a thing!
Here’s how to integrate QuickBooks with Donorbox in 2 easy ways-
Zapier helps you connect Donorbox with QuickBooks Online.
Before you start this process, you’ll need –
If you haven’t already, sign up with Donorbox – it will take only a few minutes for you to get started! Our step-by-step guide will walk you through the entire process!
Login to your account on Donorbox and under “Integrations & Add-ons”, select “Zapier & API”.
Now, click “Activate Zapier Integration” and get the API key you’ll need for integrating Donorbox and QuickBooks Online.
First, set up the Zap with an initial trigger and action. Here, you’ll see the trigger is “New or Updated Donation” in Donorbox, while the action is “Find or Create Customer” in QuickBooks Online. –
The information needed to continue with the Zap will include –
You’ll be able to test the connection after this.
Next, you need to input the QuickBooks Online account information –
Once your Donorbox account is connected with your QuickBooks Online account via this Zap, you’re ready to start the following actions –
As a result, you’ll be able to do the following –
Here’s the detailed step-by-step guide to help you set up the Zaps for all the above actions.
Need more help? Check out this video that walks you through everything you need to know about Zapier and Donorbox integration!
Donorbox + Zapier - Learn More!
This method connects QuickBooks (Online and Desktop) to Donorbox donations via Stripe with Commerce Sync.
For this integration to work, you will need a few things in place –
If you need help getting started with Donorbox, read this guide – and sign up for free to start fundraising in just 15 minutes!
Click this link to start the activation process at Commerce Sync.
From there, you’ll be prompted to log into your Stripe account.
Next, give Commerce Sync access to your Stripe account by clicking “Connect my Stripe Account.”
Once you do that, Commerce Sync will link with your Stripe account.
After your Stripe account is connected, you’ll be prompted to select which accounting software you want to connect with.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to do it with QuickBooks Online, but you also have the option of connecting with QuickBooks Desktop.
Here’s the screen you’ll see. Select QuickBooks Online.
You’ll then be prompted to sign into your QuickBooks Online account if you aren’t already.
Next, click “Connect” to confirm you want to link your Commerce Sync account with QuickBooks Online. This will authorize the connection!
Connect QuickBooks with Donorbox - Sign Up!
You will be prompted to select whether you want your sales separated by customers or lumped together in a daily summary.
We recommend keeping sales separated by customers since that is usually how donation-based businesses like churches need to track their sales.
Now all your Donorbox donations will be logged in QuickBooks online! You’ll be able to do the following –
Learn how to activate the above actions in this step-by-step guide on ‘Donorbox and QuickBooks’ integration using Stripe with Commerce Sync.
When your church needs new accounting software, QuickBooks is an excellent choice. Plus, it helps that TechSoup offers significant discounts on Intuit products so your church doesn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for solid accounting software.
Donorbox is here to help you streamline your accounting even more with quick and easy integrations. Whether you choose the Zapier method or the Commerce Sync method, both will help connect your Donorbox donations to your QuickBooks account without you having to lift a finger.
Donorbox also offers a plethora of powerful fundraising tools for churches and nonprofit organizations. More than 80,000 organizations are using these tools and have raised $2 billion – and counting! – in donations. Sign up today and start fundraising in just about 15 minutes!
For thorough guides and helpful advice for churches, visit our Donorbox Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter and rest assured – your church will receive the best collection of Donorbox resources every month in your inbox!
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower