ChurchTrac alternative for church accounting
A ChurchTrac alternative for your church books
ChurchTrac's help docs say its accounting is single-entry and cash-based. Its own blog says a church with both payables and receivables "will need a dual-entry accounting system." Grain is that system: every fund keeps its own balance, and giving syncs from Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS or Subsplash. It's free for churches with up to $20,000 in monthly expenses.
$244,570
Best ChurchTrac alternatives for church accounting in 2026
ChurchTrac is a church database with bookkeeping included in every plan. If it's the books that no longer fit, here's ChurchTrac's accounting next to Grain's. Three other accounting options follow the table.
Other church accounting options
- QuickBooksGeneral accounting software. Churches track funds with classes, which start on QuickBooks Online Plus.Grain vs QuickBooks
- AplosAnother all-in-one: fund accounting from a nonprofit software company that also sells fundraising, CRM and payroll.Grain vs Aplos
- PowerChurch PlusWindows software with membership, contributions and accounting in one package, plus payables and payroll modules.Grain vs PowerChurch Plus
What the books add to the bill
ChurchTrac's price is set by how many people you track. If ChurchTrac stays for your people, here's what Grain adds on top.
$119 a month for unlimited names. Accounting comes with the database and giving, and yearly billing saves 10%
Up to $20k a month in expenses, 3 users
Up to $1M a year in revenue or expenses, unlimited users
On Starter, that's nothing. Bigger than $1M a year? Scale starts at $100 a month.
Why treasurers move the books off ChurchTrac
Double-entry books, not single-entry
Single-entry books are a register: each transaction is one line, a lot like a checkbook. Double-entry records both sides of every transaction, so the books have to balance. On an accrual basis, a bill you owe is on the books before the check goes out. Grain is double-entry from day one, on an accrual or cash basis. If you later need to track the bills you owe, you won't have to change systems.
Gifts that reach the ledger
In ChurchTrac, online gifts post to the Giving screen, but its docs say the Accounting screen isn't updated automatically. Stripe sends the gifts as a batch, and someone enters that deposit in the books by hand. Grain syncs gifts from the giving platform you connect, with their funds, so they land in the ledger and the deposit matches the Plaid bank feed.
Budgets by fund, not by category
ChurchTrac's budgets use categories only, not funds, so its docs suggest a separate budget for designated income and expenses. In Grain, you budget by fund or department and see budget vs. actual for each one. The fund balance report also gives your finance committee restricted and unrestricted balances, with the change in net assets.
Payroll and 1099s in the same books
ChurchTrac has no built-in payroll. Its docs send you to separate payroll software, and you key the totals in by hand. It can't generate 1099s either. Grain's payroll add-on handles direct deposit or checks, Form 941 and W-2s, and splits wages across funds automatically, for $50 a month plus $10 per employee. Grain also tracks vendor 1099s, with TIN verification.
Keeping ChurchTrac for your church database?
If your people, groups and events live in ChurchTrac and that works, leave them there. Grain isn't a church management system and doesn't try to be one. Only the books move.
Giving is the one part to plan. ChurchTrac's online gifts run through Stripe, and it has no open API. The deposits come in through your Plaid bank feed, and you post each one to its funds. Or move giving to a platform Grain syncs, like Planning Center or Pushpay, and the gifts arrive with their funds.
Moving the books from ChurchTrac
ChurchTrac doesn't list a ledger export, but it exports reports as CSV or PDF, and its Balance Sheet shows each fund in its own column. That's where your opening balances come from. Grain's free migration support works from those spreadsheets: the team maps your funds, accounts and opening balances with you, and churches are often up and running within a few weeks. Start at a month-end you've already reconciled.
Common questions
- How much does ChurchTrac cost?
- ChurchTrac lists six tiers by the number of names you track: $29 a month for 75, $39 for 125, $59 for 250, $79 for 500, $99 for 1,000 and $119 for unlimited. Every person you add counts, children and donors included, but archived names don't. There's a 30-day free trial.
- Is ChurchTrac double-entry accounting?
- No. ChurchTrac's help docs call it fund accounting with a single-entry, cash-based approach, and answer "No" to whether it offers double-entry. It has no chart of accounts: transactions go to categories and bank accounts. Grain is double-entry fund accounting on an accrual or cash basis, with a nonprofit chart of accounts you can customize.
- Is there a free ChurchTrac alternative for church accounting?
- Yes. Grain's Starter plan costs nothing for churches with up to $20,000 in monthly expenses, measured as the median of the last 3 months, so one heavy month doesn't push you onto a paid plan. You get unlimited funds, 3 users, a bank connection, giving statements and ChMS integrations. There's no trial clock and no credit card.
- How hard is it to switch from ChurchTrac to Grain?
- Not hard, and Grain's team does the mapping with you at no extra cost. The biggest change is the structure of the books: ChurchTrac's categories become accounts in a nonprofit chart of accounts, and each fund comes across with its opening balance. After that, the monthly close looks familiar: giving in, bills out, reconcile the bank, run the fund reports.
Give your church books a real ledger
Start free and give each fund its own balance. Or watch a short demo first.