ACS Erfahrungen

Great Functionality Needs Upgrade

Kommentare: We used ACS for everything for several years, but now only use them for financials. We moved to a more user friendly platform for our users. This is a give and take situation the new system is more user friendly, but not as feature rich as ACS.

Vorteile:

This software will do most anything you want with great support especially with Megachurch support. It is built for all kinds of churches and includes all the modules you would need. ACS is one of the only church management systems that include a financial module that will manage GL accounts as well as POs.

Nachteile:

Software needs to be upgraded from the backend. Speed is an issue when running large reports and I think SQL would help this. This software is feature rich so it makes it not so user friendly sometimes and it kinda has a 90s look in several areas. NO API ACCESS.

ACS CAN DO BETTER

Kommentare: We no longer have problems managing the donations received and the registration of our members in a database.

Vorteile:

The first remark is the customer service which is very reactive and quickly solves your problem. ACS is a very useful church management software, because we won't have the problem to manage the database of our members or the registration of the children, and even all the donations received. I like the way it stores information. Of course, it is not quick to master ACS, but once you have mastered it you have everything you want to know about reports, campaign follow-ups, etc. In conclusion, ACS is a very good software to store any kind of information.

Nachteile:

Despite the fast customer service, we notice that during the months of February and March the wait is rather long. The ACS software often bugs or slows down when donor files increase. The lack of functional expense reporting is lacking given the current state of the art technology. ACS is also limited on the choice of administrators on who should access this or that. The ACS software needs to be upgraded, as the speed is poor when running large reports. The look needs to be redesigned not too aesthetically pleasing, but also the API access which is almost non-existent.

What happened to the wonderful ACS of past?

Kommentare: Back with the awesomely designed old ACS On Demand I was a huge fan of everything about this company - great support - robust trouble-free (rarely had a file corruption issue) modules with tremendous flexibility. The new Realm products - For the price they are charging - we would be as well served with Quickbooks.
Don't get me wrong - I'm all about paying for quality but this Realm product falls short on too many important features.

Vorteile:

ACS had fantastic software until they created Realm Giving and Realm Accounting and decided to care more about form than function, and "dumbed" down the flexibility of the accounting module. Their outstanding reputation is based on the old versions I believe. I am currently looking to overhaul our entire system at tremendous expense because the new accounting interface does not work the way I need it - we are locked out of any contra-accounting interface due to the product management team's decision to "appeal to non-accounting people" - If you are serious about your job then that should say it all.

Nachteile:

There are absolutely no drill-downs in the new system - no calculation features and it is over-engineered so that nearly every entry field has a drop down box - really, really, really slows you down if you have a large JE to process - and if you just fill in the box and don't go through all the steps, half the time it loses that entry. I also can no longer run event and other income smoothly and directly to a contra-expense. The product management people have decided that they understand accounting better than professional users.

Exploring software for your church - consider ACS.

Kommentare: My experience with ACS has been very good. I started with them when we all had DOS computers and moved up to the windows platform. Now, we are able to have versions of the software on our phone. The system has the capability of being backed up to the cloud and does not need to be kept on your church's server. There is also an alternative for more contemporary churches called "Realm."

Vorteile:

ACS gives you the total package in church software. It helps you efficiently mange both the "people" side of the job and the "accounting" and numbers side and will allow them to communicate with each other. There are several modules that will allow you to track different aspects of the member or prospect in the life of the church and this system does it very effectively. It has been around for a long time and they have perfected the software.

Nachteile:

Because the software does so many functions and can be tailored to almost any church of any size or situation, it can be a little confusing. Therefore, training is vital. They excel in offering wonderful training through their company and through local trainers.

Documentation lacking, some add-on modules don't mesh well, reporting in Access sorely lacking.

Kommentare: In general, many of the features of your software are frustrating and not intuitive. I was a programmer and it seems your programmers need to spend more time using the product in real world applications. It should be word like in functions like word. Copying and pasting, formatting those types of applications.

Vorteile:

#1 Pro is that ACS addresses the most important tasks a church is in need of.

Nachteile:

I have found many thing that weren't intuitive. Uploading of photos ok although no way to standardize within the program (cropping sorely needed) and downloading photos isn't intuitive. The modules are limited, all the data in Access needs to transfer into the people suite for reporting purposes. Access pretty useless for reporting purposes. Using the volunteer management is not really practical to use as intended. Although you have made changes where you can transmit data to excel or word. OnDemand stings because you can't save locally in an easy manner. Many times our church has served more or less as your beta testing because we actually try to use all the features and give feedback but we get nothing in return for that. We only do that because it is lacking features or functionality.

Realm Church Management Software

Kommentare: We formerly had a lot of cash and checks coming through the office for camps, studies and events, etc. With online event registration and payment, it cuts down the need for people to come in to register and pay. Also has various report options that go along with these registrations that are very helpful. Whenever we have a problem or question, customer support is very helpful and friendly!

Vorteile:

Lots of functions from directory, group management, event registration, online payment for events. Every module I've used has been fairly user-friendly. Always upgrading and improving.

Nachteile:

Some days we notice it's "sluggish" (may be an internet issue). We use it every day in our office, but people using it from home often have problems. Doesn't work as well on mobile devices as on computer.

As Great as You Can Make It

Kommentare: This software is amazing one-stop shop for database, scheduling, volunteer, financial, and communication software.

Vorteile:

My title may be odd but it describes this software. This software is very powerful and its capabilities are far greater than any church I have ever worked at has taken advantage of. It is marvelous in it's simplicity but also the sky is the limit with regards to it's complexity in it's ability to create reports, schedule volunteers, and communicate with teams.

Nachteile:

It is a very steep learning curve. Although the customer service is excellent, but it is important to remember that the learning curve is high if you have a transition in staff (give them time to learn and use the tutorials.)

ACS is THE BEST!!

Kommentare: ACS cares about us. Cares about churches. Our business relationship with them helps us to do what we, the church, were intended to do in the first place, which is build the Kingdom of God.

Vorteile:

We have been ACS clients since the beginning!! Currently we are using Realm for membership tracking, but still use ACS Financials for our book-keeping needs. It does everything we need, and our books are not as simple as one might think.

Nachteile:

The only con I can think of is that I wish ACS Financials could integrate with Realm. We have ACS Financials down pat, and I wish we could port it over!!

Best Church Software - REALM

Kommentare: Great company and very helpful. They want us to succeed.

Vorteile:

The ease of use. The versatility. They update and upgrade every week to stay relevant. Very helpful to make sure we are happy especially during Covid.

Nachteile:

The ability to get a photo attached to your profile for an older person. That our church database is everyone - not just a database for members and one for donors/visitors.

Look elsewhere for a ministry database

Vorteile:

There are several desirable features with this software. A primary one is the high amount of customization. However, this customization is only available to administrators and people with understanding of coding.

Nachteile:

Immensely outdated and not functional. While using this software, I felt I put more work into using the software than actual results it gave. I would steer clear of this software if you're looking for a simple, user-friendly and intuitive experience.

Not a good choice...

Kommentare: We made it work for us but it was very hard to make work. We spent a lot of time with their team trying to make it do what we wanted. After a couple of years, we abandoned it.

Vorteile:

We used ACS for a number of years, not understanding that there were such better alternatives. It came with reccomendations that it was the choice of some larger churches we knew.

Nachteile:

It is archaic. The user interface is hard to read and looks like something from the dark ages.

A proven product but a lot of training is required.

Vorteile:

ACS does everything and more than what we need. Customer support is excellent. Cloud based for remote access is very helpful to work from home or office.

Nachteile:

ACS is not intuitive at all. It has been around for decades and often feels like it is old software with a lot of patches to make it work with new ideas. Customer support is great, but you shouldn't need it frequently. We spent a full week training our staff on ACS and the modules we have added. It seems like we frequently get "kicked off" and have to log back in to keep using the software.

Best church software I've seen!

Kommentare: The software is superb and the customer service goes above and beyond to answer all my questions. ACS offers everything I need to run the church office tasks. From member information, contributions, directory, to financial reports, payroll, taxes, etc.

Vorteile:

Ease of use; frequent upgrades; makes my job more efficient

Nachteile:

I really do like everything about it but if I had to name one thing, it would be the reports part of the program. The reports can be a little difficult to search & display the results you want.

Great Customer Service with ACS!

Kommentare: Our church has been with ACS for many years. Customer support is the biggest attraction to this company! We've used several of their products - Realm, Extend - and now are looking forward to what's coming next with mobile apps!

Vorteile:

Love the customer service! They are great about working with you on issues. It's rare that they cannot solve a problem.

Nachteile:

Not as intuitive as I'd like, but still fairly easy to use once you get used to it.

ACS Review

Kommentare: Overall it is very dated and I would not recommend. They have not made significant updates for years and it feels like we are still in the early 2000s.

Vorteile:

Their accounting module is amazing. I have not found any CMS that is anywhere close to being as good as ACS ileith accounting.

Nachteile:

It is hard to learn and it is very dated. Not mobile friendly. Ugly.

Effective for our operations

Kommentare: Overall, nice evolution of the software

Vorteile:

Ease of navigation, customizable reporting, effective help menu system. Adjustable to individual user in the settings and screen layouts.

Nachteile:

Occasional crashes, if it locks up, you have to re-log in, and via the log in, exit the program that just crashed, then reinitialize.

Great Customer Service & Support!

Kommentare: ACS OnDemand church database is not incredibly pretty or user-friendly, but it is very capable software for mid- to large-sized churches to choose.

Vorteile:

The biggest pro is ACS' support team. They will capably answer almost any question about how to use the database when you get stuck, and will remain friendly, patient and helpful throughout the call. A+

Nachteile:

The thing I dislike most is the "look and feel" of the user experience. It just isn't pretty.

Good management software for churches

Kommentare: Church membership management, running reports, accounting and bookkeeping, contributions, etc

Vorteile:

- Easy to use - Great customer service - Great customizability

Nachteile:

Could look more modern, but certainly gets the job done

difficult

Vorteile:

It does interface with our financial system and they have good accounting people to solve accounting problems

Nachteile:

Set-up for reports is too complicated and graphs are difficult to arrange and filters are confusing.

ACS software

Vorteile:

It manages our church membership well and the customer service is excellent

Nachteile:

The software is a little clunky and out dated to a degree

Reporting is not that easy, especially setting up for year end statements.

Kommentare: Membership interface capabilities. Good product and better than what we had, but I didn't get much training. When we have used customer service/support it has always been good. I am part time, so do not have lots of time to waste trying to figure things out and dealing with customer service.

Vorteile:

Lots of fields available, good access for members. Info seems to be reliable if entered properly. Easy to fix mistakes.

Nachteile:

Setting up reports is not very intuitive and is hard to customize. Not enough directions within the product to guide you.

ACS Software

Kommentare: New to using the software. Minimal training as the previous person had already left the job. Too expensive for the church to send new hires to ACS Training.

Vorteile:

Can make up a Form Letters, Labels etc to send to entire congregation. Can copy someone's address to your clipboard for ease of sending letter/envelope to one person.

Nachteile:

Hard to do a search for a group of people. Very complicated to get exact list of criteria to get the search results you want.

We Moved On from ACS

Kommentare: ACS was great in its time but newer products like Planning Center or ACS's own Realm are much better for the modern church.

Vorteile:

ACS was one of the earlier full-featured church database management systems. Its original iteration was groundbreaking.

Nachteile:

ACS struggled to keep up with the changing digital landscape and was too slow to implement online features, cross-platform compatibility, and the like. As a result, the software is clunky and not particularly user-friendly.

Not the best software compared to others that are comparable.

Kommentare: I was able to do snail mailings from this software but only if it was a mass communication and not a more narrow piece.

Vorteile:

I like the fact that it is easy to use at first glance. It is easy to log on and view information and to use the database entry pieces

Nachteile:

I do not like the fact that you cannot sort out your database to a great degree. For example, you can add fields, but it is not easy to do and to then sort according to your added fields is not easy.

Old software in need of an overhaul

Vorteile:

It was a strong tool for us for quite some time.

Nachteile:

The software hasn’t aged well. In an age of cloud and apps this software looks stuck in the 90’s