ChurchSoftware Accounting vs PDS Ledger

ChurchSoftware Accounting is a free accounting suite for churches, with fund tracking, income and expense records, and financial reporting. It can track designated funds for purposes such as missions, building projects, and benevolence, and record tithes, offerings, donations, bills, payroll, and ministry expenses. Reports include financial statements, giving reports, and custom summaries. Online giving and donations connect to accounting for automatic recordkeeping. The vendor says its core platform is free for eligible 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches, parachurch organizations, nonprofits, and mission organizations, with no fees or trial period. The free core also includes people, groups, and volunteer management; check-in; event registration and forms; a sermon library; a church mobile app; custom reports; and customer support. It runs on Android, iOS, and the web. Optional services have separate listed prices, including a church website for $59/mo and payroll for $25/mo + $9 per employee. The vendor says it serves churches ranging from church plants to multi-site megachurches.

PDS Ledger is accounting software for parish financial management from ACS Technologies. It tracks up to eight years of balances on a cash or accrual basis and organizes accounts as assets, liabilities, income, or expenses. Parish offices can set monthly, quarterly, or yearly budgets and move budget data through spreadsheet import and export. Transaction tools cover records and rules, automatic check numbering, invoice entry, check printing and reprinting, and spending alerts. Documents can link to transactions, vendors, income sources, fixed assets, and employees. Dozens of predefined reports are included, while Easy Reports supports custom report design and field selection for printing or export. The software can extract contribution totals from PDS Church Office or Formation Office and integrates with PDS Ledger/Payroll. Within the Diocesan Financial Solution, financial data can be shared electronically with a diocese. Pricing is on request.