The following questions will help you answer some of your congregation’s most important culture questions related to choosing a CMS package. These questions are not a features checklist; rather, they are a tool to help you think about the practices and customs of your congregation. Your responses will help you pick the CMS that is right for your congregation.
⃞Do you use numbered offering envelopes?
⃞Do couples/families share a common envelope number?
⃞Does a person/couple/family keep the same envelope number from year to year?
⃞Do you record contributions of nonmembers?
⃞Do you take pledges to church funds?
⃞Are any of these pledges multiyear?
⃞Is your pledge year the same as a calendar year?
⃞Is your 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 other 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?
⃞Do you use computer-generated checks?
⃞Do you want to process payroll for employees or to 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 do they have other accounting experience?
⃞Do some couples in the same family wish to have both first names on labels and other correspondence (e.g., John and Mary Smith versus Mr. and Mrs. John Smith)?
⃞Do some couples with different last names wish to have both last names 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)?
⃞Is e-mail used for regular correspondence with the congregation? Individually and 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 of the time?
⃞Is bulk-mail sorting used for any communication to the congregation?
⃞When a person dies or leaves the congregation, do you still want to keep information about them (e.g., family connections, address, contribution or attendance information)?
⃞Is it important to record the date when a person dies or leaves?
⃞What are the special areas of ministry in your congregation that you would like to track in 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 has not) attended worship, church school classes, or other events?
⃞Do you want to keep track of attendance with both members and visitors?
⃞Do you want to know who takes communion during a worship service?
⃞Do you have multiple weekly worship services?
⃞Do you follow up with members who have missed several consecutive worship services, classes, and other events?
⃞Do you want that information to be kept in a computer database?
⃞Do you have several levels of organization for church school or other classes, and do you wish to use them in reporting (e.g., area, department, age, class name)?
⃞Do you use the Internet to publish membership, contribution, or financial information?