-
Do you use numbered offering
envelopes? Do couples/families share a common envelope
number?
-
Does a person/couple/family keep the same envelope number
year-to-year?
-
Do you record contributions from
non-members?
-
Do you take pledges to church funds?
Are any of these pledges multi-year?
-
Is your pledge year and financial year
the same as a calendar year?
-
Are your contribution records kept on
a computer at the church or at another location?
-
Do pastors and/or staff have access to
contribution information? Do they need to?
-
How often do you want to send
contribution statements to the congregation?
-
How often do you write checks? Are
they computer- generated?
-
Do you want to process payroll for
employees, or would you rather use a payroll service?
-
Do you use a cash or accrual method of
accounting?
-
Is the person who manages your
day-to-day financial transactions an accountant, or does he or she have accounting
experience?
-
Do some couples within the same family
prefer to have both of their first names on labels and other correspondence? (e.g., John and Mary Smith
vs. Mr. and Mrs. John Smith)
-
Do some couples with different last
names prefer that both last names appear on labels and other correspondence? (e.g., John Smith and Mary
Miller)
-
Do members of the same family
sometimes have different addresses?
-
What individual date information is
important to your congregation? (e.g., marriage, baptism, profession of
faith)
-
Do you use e-mail for regular
correspondence with the congregation? If so, do you send them individually and/or as
groups?
-
Do you use a Phonetree or other
automated voice system to send voice messages to the congregation?
-
Do you send personalized
correspondence to large numbers of people in the congregation?
-
Do you print individual addresses
directly on envelopes, or do you use labels all the time?
-
Do you use bulk mail sorting for any
communication to the congregation?
-
When a person dies or leaves the
congregation, do you still want to keep information about them--family connections, address,
contribution or attendance information? Is it important to record the date when they die or
leave?
-
What special ministry areas within
your congregation would you like to track within a computer database?
-
Can the person in charge of your
membership data make decisions about the design of the database (more powerful), or should the software
provide all of the structure (less chance for error)?
-
Do you want to know who has (or
hasn't) attended worship, classes or other events? If so, does that include members, visitors or
both?
-
Do you want to know who takes
communion during a worship service?
-
Do you host multiple weekly worship
services?
-
Do you follow up with members who've
missed several consecutive worship services, classes or other events? Do you want that information kept
in a computer database?
-
Are there several levels of
organization for church school or other classes? If so, do you want to use them in reporting? (e.g.,
area, department, age, class name)
-
Do publish membership, contribution or
financial information on the Internet?
