Starter
For churches with up to $20k in monthly expenses
Free
- 1 Bank Connection
- 3 Users
- Unlimited Funds
- Donor Insights
- 1 Active Budget
- Standard GAAP Reports
Track restricted and designated gifts, reconcile bank activity, and produce board-ready financial reports in a ledger built for churches. Grain replaces QuickBooks classes, spreadsheet close packets, and disconnected giving exports.

Church accounting software is the system a congregation uses to record gifts, expenses, payroll, and fund balances, then prove to a board, a donor, or an auditor that restricted money stayed where it was promised. It is not generic small-business bookkeeping with a church logo on the login screen.
Business accounting asks whether the organization made a profit. Church fund accounting asks whether the missions fund, building fund, benevolence fund, and general operations each have a true balance. Those are different jobs. When the software treats them as the same job, treasurers spend month-end rebuilding reports in spreadsheets.
Grain is church accounting software with a native fund-based ledger. Restricted and unrestricted activity live on the books, giving deposits post into the right funds, and the reports a finance committee expects come from the same ledger the treasurer uses all month.
If you are comparing accounting software for churches, that fund question is the one that matters. Church financial software has to answer it on Tuesday before finance committee, not after someone rebuilds a workbook.
Start on this church accounting software page for pricing and comparisons, or open church fund accounting software to see how restricted gifts stay on the ledger.
Most churches do not manage abstract departments. They have a general fund that pays the lights, a missions gift a family asked you to protect, a building campaign the congregation can see, and a benevolence envelope that should never become extra salary money.
Church fund accounting software has to treat those balances as first-class. The examples below are the ones treasurers answer for in finance committee. Grain keeps each one as its own fund on the same ledger, even when the cash sits in one checking account.
Unrestricted
Sunday offering, online general giving, and undesignated checks. This is the money that pays pastoral compensation, Grain payroll allocated to operations, utilities, insurance, and the weekly ministry calendar.
What the treasurer is asked: Can we cover next month's bills without touching designated gifts?
Temporarily restricted / designated
A $1,200 designated gift for the summer trip, plus monthly missionary support. Those dollars stay in missions even when operating cash lives in the same bank account.
What the treasurer is asked: How much is left for the trip after we booked flights?
Temporarily restricted / designated
Multi-year gifts for a roof, HVAC, or sanctuary renovation. The board wants pledges received, cash on hand, and what is still unspent, not a blended checking total.
What the treasurer is asked: How much of the campaign is still unused, and what did we spend this quarter?
Temporarily restricted / designated
Deacons or pastors request help for a family in crisis. The gift was given for benevolence, so it cannot quietly refill the office-supply line.
What the treasurer is asked: Did this assistance come from benevolence, and is any balance left?
Designated
VBS, camp scholarships, or a youth mission week. Parents and donors expect the camp gift to pay camp, not the copier lease.
What the treasurer is asked: Is there enough designated youth money for scholarships this summer?
Temporarily restricted unless the family left them unrestricted
A memorial for a member often names a purpose: the music ministry, a scholarship, or the building. If the family designated it, the purpose travels with the gift.
What the treasurer is asked: What did the family ask us to do with this memorial, and have we done it?
Unrestricted, set aside by the board
The finance committee votes to hold three months of expenses in reserve. That is not a donor restriction. The board can later un-designate it. The report still has to show it separately so no one spends it as leftover offering.
What the treasurer is asked: How much did we set aside, and has the board released any of it?
Permanently restricted
A donor gives principal the church may not spend. Only income, if the gift allows it, can fund scholarships or ministry. This is different from a board reserve and different from a building campaign.
What the treasurer is asked: What is principal versus spendable income, and did we leave the principal intact?
See church fund accounting for how those balances stay in a double-entry ledger, or small church accounting software if one volunteer still owns the whole close.
Treasurers get asked these words as if they are interchangeable. They are not. Mixing them is how a designated missions gift disappears into "we had a good month."
Church fund accounting software should keep the donor promise, the board vote, and the operating surplus on separate tracks. Grain records that distinction on the ledger so the finance committee can see it without a side spreadsheet.
Those distinctions only help if church financial reports and finance committee packets use the same names the treasurer posted.
A designated gift is a promise. A donor gives to the building campaign, a missions trip, or benevolence, and the church has to show that those dollars were used for that purpose. Temporarily restricted gifts, permanently restricted gifts, and board-designated reserves are not the same thing, and they should not collapse into one checking-account total.
Church fund accounting software keeps each fund as a first-class balance. When $1,200 arrives for missions and $5,420 arrives as general offering, Grain records both in a balanced journal entry and keeps the missions balance separate from operations. The treasurer can answer "how much is left in missions?" from the ledger, not from a side spreadsheet.
That same week a memorial may land for the music ministry, a family may pay a camp scholarship, and the deacons may spend $400 from benevolence. If those four movements only change one bank balance, the church has cash, not fund accounting. Grain posts each one to the fund the donor or the board intended.
Board-ready reports then follow the same structure: fund balances, statement of activities by fund, and the ability to drill from a total to the journal entries behind it. That is the difference between church financial software and a filtered profit-and-loss that someone reformats the night before the meeting.
Read church fund accounting for the ledger mechanics, or church accounting for treasurers if the job is posting those gifts every week.
QuickBooks is excellent general accounting. Churches run into trouble when they ask classes, tags, locations, or bank sub-accounts to behave like funds. A class can slice a report. It does not enforce a fund balance, it does not stop a restricted gift from posting to operations, and it does not produce a clean statement of activities by fund unless someone maintains perfect discipline.
The failure usually shows up on a Tuesday before finance committee. A memorial gift posted to the wrong class. A missions balance looks off. The treasurer exports transactions, rebuilds a packet, and hopes the board does not ask for the audit trail. That cleanup work is the signal that fund accounting is an add-on in the current system, not the foundation.
Classes also hide the difference between a donor restriction and a board designation. A class named "Reserve" can mix a true donor-restricted building gift with money the board merely hoped to save. When the HVAC fails, nobody can tell which dollars were actually available.
Grain does not ask churches to make classes behave like funds. Funds are native to the ledger, so restricted activity, giving deposits, expenses, Grain payroll allocations, and board reports share one fund-aware close.
Compare Grain vs QuickBooks Online and Grain vs QuickBooks Desktop.
Church financial software has to serve two readers: the volunteer treasurer who posts the month, and the board that needs to trust the packet. If those readers need different systems, the church does not have reporting. It has a translation project.
A usable packet usually needs four things the treasurer can defend: fund balances (what is left in missions, building, benevolence, and operations), a statement of activities by fund (what came in and what went out), budget versus actuals for the funds the board approved, and a drill-down from any total to the journal entries behind it.
Grain produces those from the same books. Leaders can see restricted versus unrestricted totals, compare a fund to its budget, and open the entries behind a line when someone asks why it moved. That is what "board-ready" means here: the report is the ledger, not a rebuilt workbook.
Smaller churches often need this more, not less. A volunteer treasurer cannot spend Sunday afternoon formatting statements. Larger churches need the same structure when campuses, restricted campaigns, and Grain payroll allocations have to land in one packet.
See small church accounting software if the close is still one person and a spreadsheet, or church accounting for treasurers if the job is already fund-aware and just too manual.
The ledger has to absorb giving, bank activity, bills, Grain payroll, and reports without a second set of books.
Import deposits from the giving platform the church already uses, including Planning Center, Pushpay, and Rock RMS, then post them to the correct funds. Grain is the finance layer. It does not force the church to replace its ChMS or giving product.
Import bank transactions, match them to journal entries, and reconcile in a fund-aware close. The point is not a prettier bank feed. The point is that a cleared deposit still lands in the fund the donor or the board intended.
Bills, approvals, card spend, and Grain payroll allocate to funds and ministries instead of living in a side process. The monthly close should not require a second set of books to explain payroll or payables.
Build budgets by fund and ministry, then compare actuals without exporting to a new model. The finance committee should see the same fund names the treasurer posted all month.
Church accounting software uses one of three fund models: a native fund ledger, tags or classes in general business software, or a spreadsheet.
A native fund ledger keeps a true balance for each purpose. Tags and classes only slice a profit-and-loss. A spreadsheet remembers the purpose in a tab, with no balanced entry behind it.
Grain is a native fund ledger. Aplos and Sage also treat funds as real balances. QuickBooks-style classes do not. ChurchTrac and Realm can track church money inside a broader suite. Starter on Grain is free for churches with up to $20,000 in monthly expenses. Growth is $70/month.
| Approach | Keeps a fund balance? | How funds work | Restricted gifts | Board packet | Month-end close | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native fund ledger (Grain) | Yes. Each fund has a first-class balance on the ledger. | Gifts, bills, and Grain payroll post to a fund. The balance is the books, not a filter. | Restricted, designated, and board-designated dollars stay in their funds, even in one checking account. | Fund balances, activity by fund, and budget versus actuals come from the same close. | Giving, bank reconciliation, and reports share one fund-aware close. No workbook rebuild. | Churches that accept designated gifts and want finance-first software without replacing their ChMS. |
| Tags and classes (QuickBooks-style) | No. Classes and tags only filter reports. They do not keep a fund balance. | Classes, tags, locations, or bank sub-accounts slice a general-business profit-and-loss. | Only with perfect class discipline. A missed tag can post a missions gift to operations. | General reports that usually need a church rebuild before finance committee. | Export transactions and rebuild the packet in a spreadsheet when a class looks off. | Simple books, an experienced QuickBooks bookkeeper, and few restricted funds. |
| Spreadsheets | No. Tabs and columns do not keep a fund balance or a balanced entry. | The treasurer assigns purpose in a workbook. Formulas can drift with no ledger check. | The treasurer remembers the donor purpose. There is nothing on the books to prove it later. | Whatever workbook someone formatted this month. Next month may look different. | Copy, paste, and reconcile two versions of the same month. No journal-entry drill-down. | A brand-new plant with almost no designated gifts, before the first real close. |
The method table above is the fund model: native fund ledger versus tags and classes versus spreadsheets. This table names the products those "church accounting software" queries compare: Aplos, ChurchTrac, QuickBooks, Sage, and Realm.
Use the full side-by-side pages when you are choosing a specific alternative: Grain vs Aplos, Grain vs ChurchTrac, Grain vs QuickBooks Online, Grain vs QuickBooks Desktop, Grain vs Realm, and Grain vs Shelby Systems.
No row here claims a vendor cannot do church books. The difference is whether fund accounting is the foundation, an add-on, or a class workaround, and whether finance has to live inside a broader church admin suite.
| Software | Fund accounting | Restricted gifts | Board-ready reports | Giving workflow | ChMS role | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grain Ledger | Native church fund accounting with first-class fund balances | Restricted, designated, and board-designated activity stay on the ledger | Fund balances, activity by fund, and board packets from the same books | Connects the giving platform you already use | Accounting layer only. Keeps Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS, or Realm for people | Churches that want finance-first software without replacing their ChMS |
| Aplos | True nonprofit fund accounting | Strong fund tracking inside the Aplos suite | Nonprofit and fund-level statements | Built-in Aplos giving and donor tools | Broad nonprofit suite can also cover people, giving, and donor tools | Churches that want accounting, donors, and giving from one nonprofit vendor |
| ChurchTrac | Finance module inside a church admin suite | Workable for simpler small-church funds | Admin reporting for volunteer-led churches | Giving bundled with ChurchTrac people tools | All-in-one people, giving, and accounting for churches that want one vendor | Small churches that want people, giving, and accounting in one low-cost platform |
| QuickBooks | Classes, tags, and sub-accounts approximate funds | Possible with strict class discipline and extra reports | Powerful general reports that often need a church rebuild | Apps, imports, and manual deposit workflows | Not a ChMS. Churches usually keep a separate people and giving system | Simple books with an experienced QuickBooks bookkeeper and few restricted funds |
| Sage | Enterprise nonprofit fund accounting | Deep fund and grant tracking for large organizations | Strong statements once implementation is complete | Giving and bank workflows usually need add-ons | Finance system, not a church management suite | Large churches with dedicated finance staff and an enterprise budget |
| Realm | Funds and account segments inside Realm Accounting | Works best when giving also lives in Realm | Reports inside the Realm accounting add-on | Strongest with Realm Giving deposits | Full Realm people, giving, and accounting suite | Churches standardized on Realm for people, giving, and accounting |
The best church accounting software is the one that matches the books you already have, not the longest feature list. Work through these questions before you compare brands.
If donors give to missions, a building campaign, benevolence, or camp, you need church fund accounting software, not a class or tag convention. One checking account can hold several funds. The ledger has to know which dollars belong where.
If Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS, or Realm already holds people and giving, look for accounting software for churches that connects those deposits instead of asking you to move membership. Grain is the finance layer. It does not replace the campus directory.
A volunteer treasurer needs bank imports, fund-safe categorization, and a packet they can send without Sunday-afternoon formatting. A staff accountant still needs the same fund structure, plus Grain payroll allocations and drill-down when the board asks why a line moved.
If the finance committee wants fund balances, activity by fund, and budget versus actuals, church financial software has to produce those from the ledger. If the current close is an export ritual, the software is doing bookkeeping and you are doing reporting.
Smaller churches can start on Grain's free Starter tier when monthly expenses stay within the published limit. Multi-campus or high-volume churches should look at large church accounting software and whether they need an enterprise finance suite such as Sage.
After those questions, compare specific alternatives on Grain vs Aplos, Grain vs ChurchTrac, Grain vs QuickBooks Online, or large church accounting software.
Grain is the finance layer for churches that already have people and giving tools, and for treasurers who need the books to stand up in a board meeting.
Bank imports, fund-safe categorization, and reports a board can read without a Sunday-afternoon rebuild.
Open pageFund balances, budget versus actuals, and a packet the committee can trust without a translation project.
Open pageProper fund accounting without enterprise overhead. Start on the free Starter tier if monthly expenses stay within the published limit.
Open pageThe same native funds when campuses, restricted campaigns, and Grain payroll have to land in one close.
Open pageMove classes, accounts, and opening balances into native funds instead of maintaining another year of workarounds.
Open pageKeep Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS, or another ministry stack. Grain is the accounting layer, not a replacement campus system.
Open pageStart with the product areas that match the close, then review pricing or a short demo.
Restricted gifts, ministry funds, and a ledger that stays in balance.
Learn moreFund balances, statements of activities, and drill-down for the board.
Learn moreBudgets by fund and ministry, then actuals from the same names.
Learn moreChurch payroll that posts into the same fund-aware ledger.
Learn moreConnect Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS, and the bank activity you already reconcile.
Learn moreStarter is free for churches with up to $20,000 in monthly expenses. Growth is $70/month.
Learn moreThese pages stay on Grain so you can move from the head-term search into the comparison or role that matches your church.
The product page for volunteer-led churches that need bookkeeping software without enterprise complexity.
Open resourceFund accounting, campuses, and a close that still stands up in a board meeting.
Open resourceA fund-aware ledger for plants that are past the first spreadsheet.
Open resourceWorkflows for the person who actually closes the month.
Open resourceWhat a committee should be able to read without a rebuilt workbook.
Open resourceWhen a broad nonprofit suite is enough, and when a finance-first ledger is the better fit.
Open resourceBundled church admin versus dedicated church accounting software.
Open resourceWhy classes and tags stop working once restricted gifts matter.
Open resourceA cloud fund-accounting path off aging Desktop files.
Open resourceKeep Realm for ministry operations and put accounting on its own ledger.
Open resourceCompare Grain with Shelby when the church is evaluating a long-standing church finance stack.
Open resourceA planning tool for churches building a first fund-aware budget.
Open resourceFree Starter eligibility, Growth pricing, and when churches move up.
Open resourceNo credit card required. Most features are free for churches with up to $20k in monthly expenses.
For churches with up to $20k in monthly expenses
Free
For churches with up to $1M in annualized revenue or expenses
$70/month
Scale-based pricing for larger churches
$100/month
Pay your church staff and file payroll taxes, with every pay run posted to the right fund.
$50/month base
+ $10 per employee / month
Works with every accounting plan. No upgrade required.
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Start free or watch a short demo of fund accounting, giving imports, and board reporting for your church.