Things are changing fast in the technological age which allows for some collaboration and accountability in ministry which we have never seen before.

One of the big issues for a camp is finding committed volunteers to do the books and furthermore, to get timely reports so that the members of the board and leadership can fulfill their fiduciary duties (Board members and elected officers have a responsibility under the law to protect the financial interest of the organization – to be informed and aware of the financial dealings of the organization).

While some of our volunteers are very comfortable with a ledger book and paper to keep a record of the camp’s dealings, as these duties are passed to a younger generation the bookwork will likely be done on computer, either in an excel or other spreadsheet or in an accounting software program.

I welcome any recommendations regarding good accounting software. My favorite for my law practice and for several ministries I am involved with is Intuit’s Quickbooks. While they have several editions and their website recommends the Intuit QuickBooks Premier Industry Edition 2009 which costs $400 for one user, I have had success with the Quickbook Pro Edition with is only $200 for new users. I tried Quickbooks for Mac and was thoroughly disappointed before returning it and moving back to QB Premier.

Now a new option has emerged which might make more sense for a camp ministry, Quickbooks Online. QB Online is part of a new wave of options known as SaaS or Software as a Service. Rather than purchase a CD-ROM with the software, installing it on your machine and running it, the user gets a id name and password and logs onto the companies website to use the software.

There are several benefits to this type of application. First your data is protected and backed up off site. If your treasurer’s five year old PC crashes and he or she has not done sufficient backups you are in trouble. However if you are using a SaaS one only need to log on from a different computer and access the financial information. Second with SaaS there is no cost to upgrade or update the software on the computer. Many of these programs come out with new versions every couple of years and all but require you to upgrade at the cost of $100-$200. With SaaS the company is responsible for keeping the software updated, fixing all glitches in the program and correcting any known security issues.

The cost of Quickbooks Online Plus is $35 per month which I recommend rather than the Basic version at $10 per month. The Plus version gives your volunteers over the phone customer support with their questions, allows for three persons (maybe this would be a treasurer, financial secretary and the President or Chair of the Financial Committee) to log on and access data or print reports. In all versions of Quickbooks Online the organization can designate an accountant who has complete access, can go online and print or download any information they need for annual returns or to do a full audit.

There are a lot of benefits to using SaaS if your ministry has volunteers ready to use this type of technology. The cost of $35 per month may be prohibitive but is not significantly higher than using the software on CD and has significant advantages.

There are other options for SaaS accounting but Quickbooks is the company I am most familiar using. If you have had success with another application for financial accounting I would love for you to comment with the information. Also I am curious as to what are your biggest frustrations when it comes to keeping good organization financial records? What have you discovered helps make accounting more effective or protective of the integrity of the ministry? Let’s help each other!