Church Windows Software Manual
Support Remote Support IMPORTANT: Remote support will not be provided to individuals that are not on the church's account. This is done to protect your data.
If you need to add or remove someone from your account, call us for instructions on how to proceed. Remote support is only available to customers who have a Technical Support Agreement. You must have a high speed internet connection before clicking a link below. Technical support is your safety net. When you need help, our Support Center staff is waiting to assist you. Our staff is friendly, patient, understanding, and knowledgeable. With a Technical Support Agreement you can: - Call during office hours and ask technical questions.
- Get help in understanding how to perform a task. - Solve problems that would otherwise take you hours to resolve. If scheduled, technical support can be made available to you during evening or weekend hours. Many churches have volunteers who come in after their regular job and need support after hours.
Integrated church software with a well designed app driven interface; CD Rom w/ printed illustrated User Guide; A total of over 1000 pre-built forms, reports and queries; A program that runs on all versions of Windows and Mac w/Parallels; UNLIMITED installs on church and pastor's computers; Desktop users can easily.
Just reserve some time when you might need it. With all new purchases (not including upgrades), you receive 90 days of free technical support and we encourage our new users to take advantage of it.
After the initial 90 day time period has passed, you may purchase tech support for one of the lowest prices in the industry. Phone Support Call any of the numbers below for assistance. If you are sent to voicemail, please leave your name, customer number if available, and a brief description of your problem or question and one of our technical support agents will get back in touch with you as soon as possible. 443-640-6181 443-640-6393 E-Mail Support Support Center Hours Monday - Thursday: 9am - 5pm EST Friday: 9am - 4pm EST Weekend and after-hours help available by appointment.
Comments: Would not recommend Church Windows, especially because of the customer service 'call back' issue. Pros: Seems programmers understand basic 'church' use needs. What I like most about the program is the graphics, they are fairing instinctive. Cons: Customer service is provided only on a 'call back' basis. This means whatever/wherever the user was into at the time of question, they must go on with something else while waiting. Many times it's difficult to reinact the event or remember the nuances. Some of the responses by the Customer Services staff only cause greater confusion, i.e.
'warning' you of what might happen when you're not going down that path anyway, or not asking whether you use their payroll system before directing you to make a change, etc. Comments: CW software helps you keep all financial records recorded and at your fingertips with a few strokes of the keyboard. The different modules allow you to jump from year to year with ease to find or make any type report. As you learn how to navigate CW, your calls to the support staff reduces, which is bittersweet. The support staff consist of all kinds of personalities to suit any personality.and you learn how to maneuver around and figure out your question before they return your call sometimes. The great advantage of CW is the support of the staff to help you when you have a question. They are like friends and family.I joyfully recommend them.
I've never been employed in a career like this and would consider myself with no experience. I enjoy this work and CW has been one of the reasons for my success in my opinion. Comments: When I took on a new job recently, I was introduced to Church Windows.
At first, I used the same logic as I did with a comparable software, at the end of the day, that approach didn't work. So, rather than trying to figure it out myself, I was going to call its help desk every time I needed help. And you know what, that's how I learned the system. I spoke with Church Windows technicians almost daily, sometime two and three times for the first month or two. There is no better customer service. I would rate each technician with a nine out of 10.
As each day passed during the first two months on the job, working with Church Windows just got better and better, and a whole lot easier. I was amazed at how many functions the software can perform. At the end of the day, it beats ACS hands down. Now that I'm comfortable with the system, I don't talk with the techs too much anymore, unless it's to call them up and say hi. Comments: I have been using this program for a number of years and have assisted a number of church in getting it set up. I attended the local training which they provided on the west coast every year when we first began using the program. I find the customer service to be outstanding.
The only problem I find is that when a new person takes over in a church, they don't call for help and get messed up. My advice.use customer service, check their website and keep up to date with what they offer you and things will go well. Comments: Church Windows is very flexible. There is usually a way to access the information that you need. It is not particularly easy to use. The options which give it the flexibility also make it quite cumbersome to learn and use.
Several people with whom I work think Church Windows is very tedious and frustrating, but I find simpler software can also be frustrating because you do not always have the options to get the information you need without cut and pasting into excel spreadsheets. I personally have found the webinars very helpful and the customer support very knowledgeable and willing to help. We are fortunate enough to have a computer 'guru' on staff, but I would think that it would be difficult to run Church Windows without in house technical support to discuss technical issues with Church Windows (no one else here is able to 'talk the talk'). The simpler programs with which I have worked have required much less customer support interaction- fewer updates, fewer options, but also fewer problems/ unknowns. Bottom line for me is that I believe accounting software is a trade off between ease of use and flexibility of use. I find Church Windows to be more flexible than simple. Comments: I've now watched three church administrators in two different congregations struggle with Church Windows.
It is neither clear nor functional: even generating a simple membership report is inordinately difficult. We spent hundred$$ for live tech support in December 2014. In without getting what our people needed to make it useful. In Feb 2015 we got a new administrator who must learn the software, but Church Windows will not allow us to purchase another live tech support subscription unless we put several hundred more dollars into a software upgrade and sign up for their most expensive 12 month subscription. In both my congregations I've had tech professionals in the congregation try to figure out Church Windows.
Even they come back shaking their heads over how difficult this software is to use. Comments: Much more complex than the original church window program. If it were not for the tech assistance most users would be completely overwhelmed. The program was suppose to make many jobs easier, but we have not notice any simplicity. Our office has some very proficient computer people and find that your email of statements, that was suppose to be a 'slam dunk', do not have the time to try to figure out how it works.
So we do the statements the old fashion way instead of emailing.Much too complex for the average user. The tech people are mostly helpful but not 100%. Some have an attitude problem. My favorite is Rachel. She is extremely helpful, patient and knowledgeable plus thorough. She is a real asset to your organization. Comments: Our church has been using Church Windows for about a year and couldn't be happier!
Each module of the Church Windows software is so helpful! It is so clean to have all our administrative and financial software in the same system. Each module is so well laid out and readable. I learned Church Windows just by using it - it's that intuitive! And, if you want to know how to get more out your software, they offer quick webinars and have a library of training videos!
Church Windows phone support is extremely friendly and their email support responds very quickly! I work heavily with membership and it stores detailed contact information on each of our members and enables us to easily print specific reports for any need: detailed contact list for a ministry area, simplified birthday reports, those we don't have an address for, and all kinds of attendance summaries. This software is helping us to define and fill-in our membership roles, helps our ministry areas run more smoothly, and allows us to track and define membership goals. Thank you Church Windows for such a useful and comprehensive product! I suggest this to any organization looking for a thorough,yet easy to use software. Pros: Great software to use if you know what your doing or have time to do learn it.
Cons: Not easily usable Technical Services and Customer Support as well as Technical Support, not the most knowledgeable. Took over 2 months to finally get the system running and each time they said it was a windows update issue. Which was not true. Overall: Church Windows software is great for tracking the tithes for your church. We updated our old version when we got a new computer. The download process wasn't the easiest and ended up having a bad CD sent to us by the company but after 2 months of finally talking to someone who knew what the were doing, we had a file uploaded to us by email and were able to download it and now everything works. The program is hard to understand right off the bat, but if you use it weekly you get used to it.
Recommendations to other buyers: Use if you need to track offering or tithing. If you have a knowledgeable person for computers then the accounting part of the software is very useful and can create clear and precise reports for your council and budget needs. Pros: The designers 'get' what a church needs to function efficiently. The finance module is the strongest part of the software package. Cons: Church Windows proved difficult to use when it worked, even for professional IT people in the congregation. Unfortunately it was even worse when we attempted to generate lists such as '6th grade Sunday School Students' or identifying regular givers.
People who visited once, years ago, showed up on lists of active members, while many of our most faithful and generous people were left off entirely. We spent hundreds of dollars on a contract for live support, but even the CW support team was unable to get the program to function correctly. Recommendations to other buyers: Request a full trial run before investing in Church Windows. COmpare and contrast with other available church management programs.
Comments: Pros - I'm thinking hold on. It has nice stain glass window on its product. It is a software written just for churches. Cons - It terrible in being user friendly. To follow a transaction such as Utilities Expenses for the last 5 years you have to do the following; I'm going to start after I have clicked 3 times to get to where you need to go. You click on a year, to 12/31/31, then in a drop down box you find the expense account.
Did I mention you have to scroll through all vendor names to get to expenses? Well this is what you have to do. Once you find the account you click OK. If what you are trying to find is not in this year, you have to repeat by changing the year then finding the Expense account again and repeat, repeat and again repeat till you have gone through each year. Overall - DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.
I have a background in finance and accounting. I'm use to hospital software, sure it is much more expensive, also using QuickBooks ( which is cheap but you get so much more than CW offers) for small businesses. Becoming our church treasurer last fall I agreed to take this volunteer position if we went to QuickBooks. Buy QuickBooks Pro 2014. Vhdl Code For Serial Data Transmitter Equipment there. You can do my example above by clicking on Chart of Accounts find Utilities Expense do Quick Report and by changing the year to 2008 it will give you all five years of this accounts transactions.
What took you five minutes or more you can do in less than a minute. Also buy Lisa London's book QuickBooks for Churches.
I gave Customer Review 4 Stars; reason if you buy the monthly support which we have they get back to you quickly but if you don't have it takes a while maybe even the next day. Comments: As you can tell by my title, we've been using Church Windows for a long time. Up until about two years ago, we used four modules: Accounting, Membership, Contributions, and Scheduling. Given a need for better reporting, we stopped using the Accounting module, replacing it with QuickBooks. Our church secretary is our our sole user. We've found that to figure out a process, you usually need to call customer service (which is very good); we typically call every couple of weeks with a question, so Ease of Use could clearly be improved.
Pros: Software does everything we needed it to do and more! Great reporting tools. The thing we have been most impressed with is the Customer Support we receive. They are very responsive and they always go above and beyond to make sure we are satisfied with the product and support. Nikki is our hero!
Cons: Not available for Mac:( But then again.It is Church WINDOWS! Overall: We would and have highly recommended this software to others. It is a great tool for our church and we utilize all the features almost daily. Pros: This multi-faceted program can take care of all your church needs. Membership database, Contributions, Scheduler, Accounting & Payroll. Modules can be purchased separately to meet the specific needs of your church.
Customer support is fabulous as is the training available. Payroll module takes care of Pastor housing allowance and other payroll that is unique to churches. Weaves together all of the modules to provide smooth accounting. Cons: Not exactly a con- To get the full use out of the program Training is recommended.
Training and full telephone support is a yearly fee, this includes unlimited telephone & e-mail support, program updates (usually 2 a year), reduced rate for training classes, monthly newletter. Overall: Have used this program for over 10 years.
If you need a serious program to take care of every aspect of your church organization, I would recommend this program or something very similar. Church Management Software programs are designed for the special accounting that is required for churches, known as 'Fund Accounting'. This is different from accounting for 'Profit' businesses. Pros: Thank you for your help today. I talked with you at least twice and a couple of your associates, trying to recover from a computer disaster. Your help was perfect and very easy to understand. I appreciated the attitudes and helpfulness of everyone I spoke with today.
Thanks again, Stan Schad Treasurer Gethsemane United Methodist Church Muncie, IN Cons: I did have some challenges in the beginning and most of them were my fault. We have used the is product over 5 years. Overall: I do recommend Church Windows as an excellent product and their customer support is excellent, from the person who answers the phone, yes really a person who you can tell has a smile on their face and sometimes can even solve your problem to the technical person who ultimately and courtesly solves your problem. How I Met Your Mother Season 4 Episode 17 Torrent. Their call back times are very acceptable.
I highly recommend this product and the ease of use. Pros: Church Windows has proved to be an easy-to-learn database system, enabling us to manage information about our membership base of about 500 people. The new financial module was fairly easy to learn when we recently converted, and when problems arose, the Tech Support team was always prompt and thorough with its answers. As we continue into our eighth year of using Church Windows, we discover new features almost weekly. We are constantly managing more and more additional information. Cons: The only problem I have had with the Church Windows software is in the area of the report writer.
At times, creating a non-standard report seems to be an unwieldy process. Fortunately, there are enough standard reports available in the system to serve most all our needs. Overall: I am happy to give a high recommendation to anyone who is considering the purchase of Church Windows software. It serves our needs admirably, and we look forward to using it for years to come! Pros: software is well organized, easy to learn and user friendly security log-on with options tech support is good. Although I've only had to call them 3 or 4 times in the past 3 years and on each occassion they resolved each one of my issues.
Application support is always very friendly and knowledgeable. Cost varies depending on applications purchased and is comparable to other church software on the market sends monthly newsletters providing any upcoming upgrades and events regarding their software the integration of the member/visitor database to contributions to accounting all in one software says it all.
Cons: I can't really think of anything negative that would keep me from recommending this software to other churches so I'll nit-pick. Always room for improvements: Review details for 'finishing touches'. Overall: Overall, as a member of a newer church, working full-time as a technical analyst, and part time as our church treasurer - with very little accounting background - I would recommend church windows. If it weren't for this software and the support team I don't know where I/or our church would be with the management of God's resources today. It's true, CW has come along way since the stone age of 'financial' to 'accounting', however, they continue to find ways to persevere as good stewards in providing the best possible church software available. CW ~ Thank you!
Pros: Security for log-on Cons: -Not user-friendly -Problems with software working properly, especially records that become 'hidden' by the program -Over-priced, especially 'customer support' & 'training' Overall: I would not recommend this software until a complete review and demo of competitive software programs is made. The 'bugs' in this program will require you to purchase their 'customer support' and 'training' services when in reality they should be fixed.
I would recommend Quickbooks if you need accounting software.