ChurchTrac

Kommentare: ChurchTrac has and continues to be capable of everything we needed and most of what we want. ChurchTrac's navigation is fairly straightforward, which is great, and their support posts tend to be helpful for everything that's not straightforward. ChurchTrac is capable of more than what we are using it for - which equates to some good goals for us to move towards things we COULD be doing. Customer service has been efficient when it is needed as well.

Vorteile: -Compared to what we were using, ChurchTrac is much easier to use!
-The ease of getting new users familiar with the basics
-Ability to personalize quite a few reports and exports for multiple uses
-Overall ability to edit and find information
-Customer support is rather efficient and helpful

Nachteile: -Some things really need some digging to find, but they can be found
-Some personalizing would/has require an outside coding expert, but that is to be expected with what ChurchTrac is (want to make it so your child check-in is fool proof? you might need a coding expert)
-Wish it integrated MORE with services like MailChimp (more than exporting to MailChimp), but ChurchTrac is transparent in what it does. This isn't unexpected.

Kommentare: I have been able to do keep up the information, set up records, print reports, communicate with members, print out yearly contribution reports, etc. I do not have a church secretary to take care of this information for me so I have to do it myself. I love having this software. To be totally frank, it offers much more than I am able to utilize. My goal is to learn even more of what it provides and enjoy additional benefits.

Vorteile: I am a pastor of a small church and had never been able to afford the "big church software" products. When I discovered ChurchTrac I found a great treasure of opportunities at a very affordable price. First of all, the product is simple to use. As with all programs it takes time to set up the membership information but after that it is very easy to keep the information up to date. The home screen shows the names and dates of those who are having birthdays soon. The People Screen is easy to use, allowing you to see member information. It is very easy to edit the information as needed. From the People Screen you can click on the Tab for Messaging. For a very reasonable price, I am able to select a small group, active members, everyone listed, etc. and then send up to a one minute recorded message. This has been a huge blessing for our church. I record the message and it is immediately sent out to those selected. I can remind them of upcoming events, things they need to remember, etc. The Attendance Screen is great. I can print out dated roll sheets for Sunday School, missions groups, Worship Service, etc. You are even able to allow members to check in via a tablet or touch screen monitor. This incredible software even includes an accounting screen and payroll. I use ChurchTrac online and can access it easily from any computer, smart phone, or tablet! The cost depends on the size of the congregation. We could afford it even as a small church! Check it out!

Nachteile: My preference has always been to call for tech support when I have an issue. ChurchTrac does not offer tech support by phone initially. You must send and email with a description of the problem and wait until they respond. I have utilized this free service several times. I always get a response and the information I need.

Kommentare: In my opinion, at this time, ChurchTrac is the best replacement program for my old computer based system. With the cloud based program I can let other Church leaders have access to the information and improve our ministry to our members. I'm a Deacon and this program really can help us with our Deacon Family Ministry Plan. The cost is really great also. We're not a large church and finances are always a concern. Another feature I think will be advantageous is having our data in the cloud. I won't have to worry about keeping the system backed-up. I searched and reviewed several other programs before deciding on ChurchTrac. In my opinion, this is the best program for the money.

Vorteile: I liked most the ease of learning the software. I took time to enter all of our Church members into the trial version of the database because I wanted to learn the software. By the time I had entered all names (about 200) I was amazed just how much I had learned to navigate the database. I ran all types of reports, tried everything that I thought I would use and I was very happy with the results. I also communicated with customer support and their response was excellent. I won't be using all of the features in the beginning but it's nice to have those extras in case I need them in the future. I also liked the Archive feature. This allows me to place those members who haven't been to Church in many years or have joined another Church (and did not communicate that to us) in a separate area. This helps keep our membership roll clutter free. The capability of bringing these archived members back into the database is extremely important. Their data is still in the system and if we ever bring them back on the Church roll, it's just a matter of updating their information. One more like. The price is excellent. I'm purchasing this software for our Church from my own monies. I have kept the membership roll for many years on an old computer based program. The person that wrote that software is no longer updating the program so I'm sure it will fail to operate in the future as technology changes. Thank you ChurchTrac for an economical database to keep up with Church membership.

Nachteile: There were a few features that I got used to in the old computer based program that I was using, that was either not possible with ChurchTrac or difficult to make happen. One was a neat little directory of members (5" x 8 1/2" when printed and the paper cut in half). This was the perfect size to fit in your Bible or purse. All our members liked the size. However since playing with the reports on ChurchTrac and communicating with the support team, I have finally figured out how to print a report that is exactly that size. It's a little more work than my old program but, the result is the same. Another feature that is lacking (in my opinion) is the numbering of the pages of the reports. This is very handy when your print the reports that are multiple pages and are assembling them. I think each report should have page numbers. One more dislike. I think all reports should have the total number of members, on that report, at the end of the report. Say, on the last page at the bottom. This would help greatly when someone asks for a total.

Vorteile: If you are a small church that needs a good online database that doesn't break the bank, this is it. There are numerous features that you can choose what fits your particular ministry and have everything in one area... instead of needing 4-5 different programs to do it all. One of the best things is that you can add more and more names and then simply pay to upgrade to the next level as your church grows, so you don't have to waste money for a database of 1,000 if you only have 70 in your church currently! But (hopefully) as your church grows, you will have the finances to have the program expand with you. I also enjoy ChurchTrac as a pastor, because I can log in on my phone or iPad from wherever I am making a visit to add notes about the visit.
We have also added multiple volunteers users who want to help make visits, send cards, make phone calls, etc who can add notes when they do so; there are great restriction capabilities available, so I can allow volunteers access to these note areas without allowing them access to giving records or more confidential pastoral counseling notes.
We have also integrated this into our children's ministry/nursery area and purchased a Dymo label printer to give each child a name badge upon check in with emergency phone numbers and allergy warnings.
Finally, the congregation access is awesome, so everyone can update their own information or get their own giving records whenever they would like to check!

Nachteile: A few of the reporting features are somewhat limited and not able to be as customized as I would like, but this is such a minor issue compared to all the Pros that it's hardly worth mentioning... but it was a required field so I had to come up with something.
I did have an issue when I wanted to add more volunteer users, but it was fixed within an hour of opening the ticket due to their AMAZING customer service!

Kommentare: We switched to this software from PowerChurch, which is old and outdated. The difference was huge. Compared to outdated software like that, this software is very easy and enjoyable to work with. However, I also tried out Breeze, which is significantly better than ChurchTrac from what I could see. Their pricing is a flat rate, however, so for a small church like ours ChurchTrac provided more value.

Vorteile: 1) Very easy to use
2) A good amount of functionality
3) Above all, the price is better than other online options I found
4) Mobile website works quite well - the online functionality is a big plus for any church who is not already using an online database

Nachteile: I have not had the best experience with their support people. Getting our database integrated into ChurchTrac was a bit of a hassle, it took us a while to do as we are a smaller church without a ton of staff resources to dedicate to this. We were constantly losing access to the database because our free trial had ended and it was time to pay for a software that we weren't even sure we would use. They did always extend our trial but it was a hassle and I felt like we were under the gun for taking so long. The biggest thing was that at one point the support person made a significant mistake in what she communicated to me, and rather than apologizing for that mistake, she told me it would cost our church a fee to re-import the database. Eventually that charge was waived, but there was never any admission of that mistake or apology at all. The software is also not very customizable for some features. In order to print tax receipts that look official and properly formatted, our accountant is having to download csv files and merge them together in Word. Similarly the calendar isn't very usable, because you can't sync it with your mobile calendar app. To use the calendar on mobile you'd have to log in to the mobile website, which is a lot of extra steps for a common task. Instead we are using google calendars so that we can sync all of our calendars together and use our mobile calendar apps, and then we are syncing those calendars one way with the church trac calendar, and then printing it from Microsoft Outlook, cause that's the only software that seems capable of printing a readable calendar. This all took a lot of time to set up. But now it is working very nicely. There should be a mobile app. I'm not usually one to use apps for something that can be done in a browser, but it would be nice to not have to constantly log in on your phone. An app could just stay logged in so that access is much quicker. I'm not sure if other database software like Breeze offers this option though.