Overview
The finance module on DiscipleSoft is comprehensive and yet easy to use finance system. There is no need of any accounting or bookkeeping background to use it. Before we get into more details here are basic you need to know.
The finance modules has seven sub modules which are
- Collective Contributions
- Individual Contributions
- Pledges
- Register Tithing Couple
- Expenses
- Assets
- Reports
Here is a brief summary on each of the modules:
Collective Contribution – this will track all offerings made collectively
Individual Contribution – this module will track any offering where you can identify the contributor like tithes. All individual contributions will be confirmed either by email or SMS as soon as they are captured on the system. Other facilities on this module include tithing for couples and companies.
Expense Tracking – this module will track all the expenditure within the church
Pledge Management – this will track pledges made towards fundraising projects. It also includes an ability to manage part payments
Assets Management – this will allow you to track all the fixed assets owned by the church in the form of a fixed asset register
Key Terms
Finance forms include some terms that you need to comprehend. These include:
Select Group
This option is available on the Finance and Groups modules. It allows you to separate finances and activities for the different stakeholders you have in the church like by groups (Men, Women, Youth and Sunday School), departments, Cell Groups and the Main Church.
This is a very powerful functionality that will help you to produce Finance and Activities reports for each group.
Contribution Type
On DiscipleSoft we do not use the traditional nominal accounts as most accounting systems do rather we drive everything using classifications. Contribution Type groups related financial transactions into categories for example Sunday Offering, Tithes, Thanksgiving etc.
We have 2 main types of
Payment Method
For contributions it is important to identify the method of payment used for example cash, transfer, mobile etc. This is useful when doing reconciliations and also for churches with a variety of ways through which members can make contributions.
Paid To
This is used to identify the different bank accounts that the church has, each transaction is associated with the account that it is paid into or paid from. This is very useful when doing bank reconciliations.
Accounts
Plege Types
Assets Groups
Suppliers
How to Set-Up Finance Options
Step 1: From the top menu, go to Settings and select Finance as shown below:
There are a total of seven categories that you need to set-up