Church Windows Erfahrungen

Church Windows is awesome!

Kommentare: Church windows meets all the software needs of my church including membership tracking, donations, accounting, and payroll!

Vorteile:

Ease of use for both employees and volunteers, seamless integration of modules, knowledgeable and friendly support techs, training options

Nachteile:

I love everything about this software! There really are no cons in my opinion.

Church Windows - easy to use

Kommentare: It's still much better than my previous experience with ACS. Much more user-friendly. Support has gotten slow but always resolves issues.

Vorteile:

Easier to use, once you understand the program. Lots of options for customizable reports. All our church info in one place.

Nachteile:

The customer service has gotten slower to respond over the years. You can pay extra for premium support, which I don't appreciate. Been a customer for 15 years, paid a lot of annual fees for support.

Church Windows Software

Kommentare: It's great to have all church information in one spot. I do feel limited with what I can do and what i want to do with the program. I am sure it's all training related.

Vorteile:

The basics of the program is laid out nice.

Nachteile:

The software has moved away from it's user friendly-ness a little bit. Some of the report features are confusing and if you don't check the right box or column you don't get what you are looking for. I think they wanted to make reports come from a central area but I find it confusing. Also- you have great videos, which are better than the written instructions, but if you have several issues you don't always have 20 minutes to figure out the solution by watching the video and some times it's the wrong video because you didn't word the search issue correctly. I was thrown into picking up the treasurer position when someone suddenly died, so I had no training and it has been hard to get up to date training with no time! One more thing... i would love to have a 2 day training option or someone to work with me to clean up the software from where I am making errors or making my job harder and I could just do it a simpler way. I also feel that the support people are very friendly and courteous. Some times I have issues explaining my problem so I don't get the help I need. It is also very expensive to keep the support that I have learned to go to videos first for. Sometimes I think starting over with a new/different program would be better so I can learn it from the beginning.

Church Windows Software

Vorteile:

Easy to use for someone with no previous computer training. Excellent customer support.

Nachteile:

I do not currently have anything that I do not like.

You get A LOT for your money with this program!

Kommentare: I use the membership, donations, and accounting parts of Church Windows. It is a very thorough program with a lot of content, but if you take the time to learn how to use it well, it can really increase your productivity!

Vorteile:

Our office originally switched to Church Windows because we wanted to be able to use one program for our membership and financial needs. Church Windows does this and a whole lot more! There is so much content to this program, that I am still discovering new things after years of using it! It was very daunting in the beginning, but I have found the Church Windows customer service to be invaluable. No matter how big of a mess I've ever thought I made, they are always able to walk me through it and get everything in its proper place with minimal effort. They are amazing!

Nachteile:

Because there is SO much content, it can be quite difficult to master. I believe that the individual/s using this program should be someone who is able to teach themselves and learn by trial and error. Especially in the beginning. The program will do just about anything you want it to, but sometimes it can be difficult figuring out how to communicate it correctly.

Good product. Great customer service.

Vorteile:

Church Windows is easy to use and easy to learn. But the thing that sells me on the product is their customer service. It is exceptional. You call their number, give them your code, tell them your issue, and then an expert gives you a call back. No need to wait on hold for someone to answer...ever. Usually within 30 minutes they are calling you right back and able to help with your issue. There are a lot of different options out there, but Church Windows customer service has to be at the top and gives us reason to continue using this product.

Nachteile:

We have an older version and don't necessarily plan on updating for the time being. With that said, the version we do have is outdated. It only runs on a PC, which that requires us to have Parallels and a Windows desktop. This is a headache for me as it takes over 35 gigs of space on my MacBook. That's basically my only complaint!

Membership Module

Kommentare: I did not have access to the other system at the church nor could I get access to it for some reason. I needed a system that I could use to do my job. A friend of mine had used Church Windows at another church and gave me the heads up. It has been a huge help.

Vorteile:

This is the only module we have at this time. It has lots of features that allow me to customize reports and data that I need to help my co-workers out. It is very easy to use. The webinars are amazing and since they are recorded, you can go back and re-watch if you need a refresher. Everytime I have called in or emailed a question I get prompt and helpful feedback. They will even right down your request for the developers if what you are looking for is not possible at this time. Friendly and knowledgeable staff. Thanks for making my workday so much easier! I also like the ability to only purchase the modules you need. No wasting money.

Nachteile:

The beginning was a bit rough. The migration of data was a bit rough. Some things did not migrate well. Since then all good. I started using Church Windows Membership in 2008.

Former User

Kommentare: 12 years' use by the parish to manage membership and donations. Key operators kept it going for first few years. Parish did not devote specific time at the outset to setting parameters of use. When the original users left organization, volunteers had to help newly-appointed users learn how to record data. After a two-year attempt to rectify, Parish Database team elected to search for and have settled on a Cloud-based replacement open for use by many more within the parish.

Vorteile:

High Level of adaptable detail in custom Donations reports exported into csv for conversion to xlsx and further analysis within parish.

Nachteile:

Not readily mastered except by a user willing to invest significant time in learning how to understand and apply documentation offered in training manuals. On-line help is mostly how-to guidance for performing specific tasks. Tech service is responsive when reached, but also mostly how-to. Very little help on understanding the "Why". Incompatibility between membership module's members and visitors section made it impossible to transfer groups from one to another area, other than one at a time.

Best Church software

Kommentare: I pay bills, run payroll (optional module that transfers info to finances) keep contribution, run monthly, quarterly, etc. reports. Year end reports are a breeze, including W2's & 1099's. I keep membership info, including; email, mailing address, phone #'s, all membership status info. etc. I just can't imagine doing without it now that I use it.

Vorteile:

It saves me time, work, and it's so easy to use. I enter the data, and it creates any reports I need.

Nachteile:

I can't think of anything that I don't like or that I like least... it's all so productive.

Accounting Module

Kommentare: The software provides a strong framework for establishing proper accounting standards. Once the basic work setting up the chart of accounts is done, keeping the transctions current is relatively easy. The software also supports changes in operation that come up as the Church's financial management needs change and evolve.

Vorteile:

The best feature is it being designed from the ground up to support fund accounting. This positions the software to handle the demands of church financial management as changes inrvitably come up. Other strong points are the report writer and integration with Donation and Payroll modules.

Nachteile:

The user interface has roots from the early days of Windows and can be awkward. There seems to be a lot of operation confirmation dialog boxes, these may keep new users on track but slow down data entry operations.

Good Program with Great Customer Support

Kommentare: We are a small, small town congregation. We use the program for all our membership and financial records of the church. In general we have had a positive experience with the Church Windows program and helpline.

Vorteile:

The Customer support is one of the best selling points of this program - professional, helpful, patient, and prompt in their replies. In regards to the program it is great how the system for Members, Donations, and Accounting are woven together, there is the ability in detail to establish security settings, and the system creates a trail for every action. For Accounting the system is robust for Fund accounting and provides a number of reports with the click of a button. We are glad to see the most recent overhaul to the software that has made significant improvements to the program.

Nachteile:

The online mobile version is cost prohibitive for a small and medium sized congregations limiting its value for less centralized congregations and use in the mission field. Though the report creation tool is powerful, it is complicated to the point of needing to relearn how to create new reports each time one is needed (a definite time sink limiting the ability to readily create new reports). At times search results are baffling in that they do not appear to generate the full data one had requested. The interface between the Donations Module and Membership Module has the ability to create duplicates of people in which an individual's information is spread over two profiles. Lastly we have never found a meaningful use for the Scheduler Module as it is a self-contained module that can't be utilized to automatically populate online calendars or sync with other devices.

Church Windows review

Kommentare: I recently spend about 3 months evaluating other church software programs for our church. We wanted something to reach a younger audience more quickly and something more integrated with a modern web-design. I read online, talked to people on the phone and evaluated lots of other Church-oriented software. None of them had all of the components that Church Windows had. Most did not have an integrated payroll and lots did not have integrated accounting. And ALL of them were a lot more money. For churches not willing or able to put tons of money into a software option, I believe Church Windows is the best. As I said before, there is a steep learning curve at first and lots of little quirks, but overall it does a great job of keeping all of the information that a church needs to keep in one place with easy access.

Vorteile:

The best thing about Church Windows is that it is integrated and fairly inexpensive. You can get a donations module, payroll, accounting, membership AND scheduling with online access for a low monthly fee. AND for only a little more per year, get unlimited phone support. The support is amazing. Never have I called and not gotten an answer to any issue that I was having. The modules are all integrated and talk to each other so there is no double entry or having to make sure to remember to upload something. Payroll is great and always updated with latest forms. The accounting module is good and fairly easy to use, especially for people that may not have formal accounting training. I don't actually use the scheduling, so I cannot evaluate it. Membership and Donations are also integrated and fairly easy to use. You can send professional letters and print any donation letters that you might need.

Nachteile:

Unfortunately, Church Windows is not always intuitive. There are tons of things that it can do and it can generate tons of data and reports, but you to know EXACTLY how to ask it for what you want. There is quite a steep learning curve to really get the most out of the program. The accounting software does use different terminology and reports than most professional accountants are used to. And the flexibility to create your own reports in Accounting is not there. This is fine for most people, but if you have a professional accountant on your staff or in your congregation, be prepared to explain some of the quirks of the system. Some of the issues are because the Accounting software has to completely integrate with the other modules and so there are limitations. I for the most part, think it is great. I has taken me about 3 years to really get comfortable using all of the modules and using them to generate the reports that I want and give me the information that I want quickly and easily. Church Windows is not really quite as modern and flashy as some of the other programs out there. It doesn't integrate with a website platform. It doesn't have the ability to produce more modern points of contact like texting, or online church directories, or some of the fresh-er and more tech integrated programs. BUT, it is a heck of a lot cheaper than those other programs AND it has good, solid, integrated payroll and accounting modules.

Navigating Church Windows for Ease of Use

Kommentare: Overall experience is very good. I would rate it very well. Adequate support makes all the difference in helping to apply a good experience in working with any kind of software uses.

Vorteile:

I like how all of the options and functions are easy to find and navigate through in finding the information and the end result of printing out a report, labels, or directory listing that I am looking for. All of the information is easy to read, find, and use when I am able to print out a listing and read it correctly.

Nachteile:

I did not like how the instructions are somewhat muddled and a little hard to interpret sometimes. The system itself is easy to use, but however the steps in order to understand in how to use the software is not necessarily the easiest to understand. Whenever I have contacted Church Windows phone support they have always been very helpful, but sometimes it gets confusing in order to know how to ask the certain questions to under to achieve the end results for what I am looking for. I am going to explore more so in newest coffee break webinars in order to access the features and function to help me understand the system and help me to navigate around it much better.

Long-Time user of Church Windows

Kommentare: My overall experience with Church Windows has been very positive. I "inherited" Church Windows when I started my job many years ago and have grown with/into it over the years. It does have certain limitations but overall it does what I need it to do on a daily basis for my job. Church accounting is a very specific type of "beast" with many different variables, I'm thankful that Church Windows has provided the support I've needed along the way.

Vorteile:

I have been using Church Windows for over a dozen years and I won't use any other software for my church.I have been overall very pleased throughout the years as our church has grown and added a preschool. It is user-friendly and provides the reports I need for my church council as well as my preschool families. In 2019 I upgraded my old "server-based system" to a "cloud-based" system and I no longer have to worry about storage or updates. Church Windows has seen me through many changes over the years.

Nachteile:

I think the thing I like least about Church Windows is that there are a lot of "grey" areas in the church and CW is more black/white. It's hard to determine "Members," "Potential," "Visitors," etc. when setting up a family. I also wish that different modules were better able to "talk" to each other within Church Windows (i.e. Membership/Donations/Accounting).

CW Review 11/13/18

Kommentare: The best part is the payroll and the taxes. We originally were using QuickBooks and trying to "tweek" it to work. CW takes a lot of the guessing and headache out of the payroll differences in a church setting.

Vorteile:

To be honest, the customer support. From the moment someone answers the phone until someone calls you back, the professionalism and friendliness is unmatched. I always feel like I am calling a friend who is knowledgeable about the software. At first I struggled to comprehend some of the aspects of the software because I do not come from an accounting background. It did take me some time to feel comfortable with what I was doing but once I was I no longer had fear that I would "screw" something up.

Nachteile:

I wish some of the techs would tone down the accounting terminology when trying to explain things to me. Like I said I didn't come from an accounting background so the lingo was somewhat foreign and I felt lost when they would explain things to me. The software seems to be continuously updated which if I had the time to explore some of the new upgrades I believe I would be able to utilize them. Not sure if you have this or not, but a video explaining some of the new features that accompany an update would be nice.

I love CW!

Kommentare: I love the software. It is much better than what I use at my "regular" job. The help is amazing and its so convenient to have everything under one program. Our Church Council has wanted to stop using it multiple times, but I have been here 22 years and always say Im leaving if I can't use it :) LOL

Vorteile:

The software is fairly easy to navigate and work with. I've been using it for over 20 years and I appreciate that the updates are typically subtle and don't take me by surprise. I do all of the accounting for a church, so I use most aspects of the software, including Payroll. I am SO grateful for the amazing techs that all call me back in a timely manner and have always been able to guide me through any issue I'm having. I would rate the Customer Service as the biggest Pro!

Nachteile:

Some aspects can be hard to navigate. "Normal" people have a difficult time reading the financial reports and we have to convert some into Excel for them to follow. Im not crazy about the Contributions module, It can be difficult to pair family members and the statement generating feature is a bit slow and can be difficult to interpret. I wish I could change some membership aspects directly in the Contributions module.

Eastside

Kommentare: Our overall experience with Church Windows is great. We are able to keep track of our donations, pledges, great files for tracking membership and the information we need to update for emergency information and family information. Definitely a great tool for tracking our members and visitors donations and supplying them with their year-end reports for tax purposes. There are so many other services that we are offered but have not tapped into yet. Very pleased with Church Windows.

Vorteile:

The service received. Have always received great help when I call even if it is a dumb question I am never made to feel that it is. Never have to wait long times for call backs. The Webinars are great and give instructions that are simple and easy to understand and you can get feedback during the sessions.

Nachteile:

We do not use the accounting part and would like to see software that is simple math in adding and subtracting. We are a small church and all of our help is volunteer so we do not have an Accountant on payroll, just those that give of their time. So a software program that would allow us to enter donations, pledges, etc., and then be able to substract payments, and distributions would be awesome.

Church Windows Revew

Kommentare: It allows a small congregation to maintain payroll and accounting records without the added expense of hiring an accountant.
I have always found the support team to be helpful and responsive. The free webinars are also very useful - particularly the ones designed for year-end procedures!

Vorteile:

It is user friendly for someone who is not a trained accountant or bookkeeper. Allows me to print professional appearing reports that are easily distributed to committees. The reports provide the information needed for various finance committees. Stored history in the various modules is helpful when I need to recall various transactions or help a committee remember a particular vendor or reason for an expense. Reports in the donations module are helpful during our stewardship campaign to track pledges and donations and compare them to previous years.

Nachteile:

I do not like the most recent version of Membership! I think the previous version was much easier to read and edit. The result is that I use membership much less frequently. I also used to use it sending email blasts to our congregation but now use Mail Chimp instead.

Excellent program with great support

Kommentare: Good, great, love it. Someone at the church recently wanted to change b/c they don't feel the membership database is up to snuff but I was very vocal that I really like the accounting module, and I have worked with MANY accounting programs.

Vorteile:

I work mostly the the Accounting and I love the Flexibility. You can change entries, work in a current month without closing out the prior month and I find it user friendly. (see below for a colleague's opposite view re: membership.) LOVE THE CUSTOMER SERVICE. Seriously, I could not have learned this program without them. The very best, smart, patient. Great folks.

Nachteile:

Accounting: 1. the A/R module is a bit odd. You can't reprint invoices after they're paid for example. It seems a bit less thought through than the rest of accounting, perhaps because it's an add-on. 2. There should be better interface between the modules. For example, when you change an address in Membership or Payroll it doesn't change in any other module. 3. My colleague reports that Membership a. had a steep learning curve and b. is not "user friendly" in her opinion.

Church Windows is all you need!

Kommentare: The biggest advantage for both churches where I've used CW has to be the all encompassing package. We never needed a separate spreadsheet for payroll or Quickbooks for accounting and then worried whether the data reported was accurate. With the complete package, we can trust the integrity of the data.

Vorteile:

I've used CW for 15 years and what I enjoy most is that it does it all and it's easy to learn. There's no need for other software packages or worrying whether it's compatible with or will interface with other software. It handles everything a church needs from accounting, payroll, donations and membership. Knowing you can trust the data that's shared within the modules is key. It keeps up with payroll tax changes and reporting and their customer support is the best! I currently use the web version, but for many years I had the desktop and both work equally well.

Nachteile:

I've never been a huge fan of report writers, but it really is the best way to give every customer what they need. The reports they originally offered were all we needed and more.

Church Windows Woe's

Kommentare: Church Windows is not user friendly. The customer service is not much better. You find yourself not wanting to call them, because they either will confuse you more or be of no help really at all. They speak to you as if you are a CPA and you should already know this. We have thought about changing software, just haven't done it yet. Probably, because I do not want to take the time to learn a new one. I do wish this software had a lot of the features that Quick books offers.

Vorteile:

To be honest, nothing. After working with the software for 4 years, it has gotten better, but I still find myself having to stop and think ware to go to get a report that I need or how to make something work etc..

Nachteile:

The reports are hard to read and understand. Not being able to type in an account number and it open up on the Treasures report, you have to scroll up and down looking for the account. Membership has been updated and it is worse than it was before. The entire setup of Donations, accounting and Payroll are very tedious and hard to understand, especially trying to explain reports to a non financial person.

You came through in a pinch

Kommentare: Overall the program is excellent. I appreciate the ease of reconciling bank statements and maintenance of member records. Also, remote access is well worth the price.

Vorteile:

The amount of training and backup material for learning the programs is top-notch. Customer service support goes above and beyond. An illustration: while I was on vacation recently, my office assistant had a problem with re-installing the program on an older computer. It turns out that the problem was internal. Your tech person spent a great deal of time walking her through the network problem that affected the installation of your software. Your remote access is a blessing.

Nachteile:

It's too big a program for a small church and your options for purchasing particular modules are limited. My personal opinion is that a less complicated modified version for smaller churches would be a profitable option moving into a future where churches are continually decreasing in attendance and increasing in budgetary restrictions.

Saved by Church Windows Software

Kommentare: I feel more comfortable starting my work day as I know that it will make sense. I appreciate the online support and the quick responses that we receive which are easy to work through. I wish we had discovered this software much earlier. I appreciate that it is affordable for small churches and that we don't have to struggle with poorly written programs because that is all our budget can handle.

Vorteile:

I am so grateful for a program that is easy to set up, easy to navigate, and easy on brain power. I was using another program that caused me daily frustration and I hated to even open the program. When we switched it was like a mental vacation. I like the 20 minutes webinars that allow us to get training to refresher courses or that give us training prior to changes.

Nachteile:

I'm not sure how to get the online help that I need which occurred when You Tube became the source. I have not had time to investigate how to navigate. I'm sure that once I have time to investigate it will be simple as the rest of the procedures.

Great software for church management

Kommentare: Overall, I have been very pleased with Church Windows. It is user friendly, and the customer support and online webinars are fantastic. I always receive a response promptly when we need support, and there are many offerings online to help with the various modules. We have multiple users with different job functions using the software and we have found it to be a very efficient and effective solution for church administration.

Vorteile:

I like that the modules work seamlessly together. We are able to take the membership information entered by one staff member and use it to create a donations record in a different module which is managed by another employee. This information is then transferred to our accounting module. The same is true with the payroll and accounting modules, allowing for less manual entries.

Nachteile:

We have had some difficulty with deleting inactive duplicate files and we frequently have updates to run, which can be time consuming since it needs to be run on the server and then each individual computer.

Improvements

Kommentare: It is has been a good experience in the last 3 years I have used it. Coming from other business accounting software has helped me to understand and navigate the system. It has also helped me to see where improvements can be made in the Church Windows software. Overall Church windows does handle the needs of this church as far as accounting and membership are concerned.

Vorteile:

This software is easy to maneuver through. It is very basic and handles all the needs of our fund accounting.

Nachteile:

There are some things that I feel could be added to help the user. The ability to "close" each month so that no transactions can be accidentally be entered into previous months. The search feature in the Membership portion is not user friendly also. I think warning features for using the same Invoice number, Check number and other important header items should be put into place. Reporting is fine if the reports you want are already set up but the methods are very cumbersome to try and create new reports.