You Need Good Systems
To be effective and efficient in the local church, you need good systems. I recommend that you consider the following systems for your church:
Note: None of the links below are affiliate links, and I am not making any money from promoting these companies or services. Instead, these are the companies that I use at my church, and I believe you will find them to be helpful as well.
Bible App / Sermon Notes
YouVersion has the best Bible App available. Not only is their app free, but it offers every major translation, Bible study tools, and note taking abilities. And, you can even add your weekly sermon outline into the YouVersion Bible Events, which makes it very easy for your people to follow along during your sermon.
Church Management System
Churchteams is an outstanding Church Management System. Not only is it feature-rich, powerful, and affordable, but they provide excellent customer service as well. I highly recommend that you reach out to my friends at Churchteams if you are looking for a great Church Management System.
Communication (Email, Calendar, & Contacts)
Google Workspace for Non-Profits is an excellent choice for your email, calendar, and contacts. And, by being a customer, you get access to their entire suite of products as well (docs, sheets, forms, etc). Best of all, once you are approved for their non-profit program, you get all of this for free.
Communication (Phones & Video Meetings)
Sangoma provides a wonderful solution for your communication needs. Not only do they provide a state-of-the-art cloud system for your office phones (Switchvox), but by being a customer you also get free access to their video conferencing tool as well (Sangoma Meet).
Facilities (Alarm, Fire, and Controlled Access)
Johnson Controls is a world-wide company that provides a reliable way to manage your facilities through up-to-date commercial-grade systems for burglar alarm, fire, and controlled access. And, you can easily manage everything from your computer or phone.
File Storage
Dropbox is the best file storage system you will find. Long gone are the days of local servers and backup tapes. Now, with Dropbox for Business, your team can safely store their files in the cloud and easily share them with others. And, Dropbox provides special pricing for non-profits.
Financial (Receipts)
Expensify is an easy-to-use receipt management system. Rather than having to keep track of paper receipts, Expensify allows you to snap a picture of your receipt from your smartphone, classify the expense, and submit it to the person who manages your books.
Financial (Record Keeping & Payroll)
Quickbooks Online is the best accounting system available. And, if you use their payroll system, it integrates into your books, saving you time and headache. Best of all, if you have a non-profit account with Techsoup, you can purchase an annual subscription for Quickbooks Online for $75 (yes, you read that correctly).
HR
Built For Teams provides is a great system if you are looking for a way to manage and track PTO, timesheets, and many other HR needs, such as onboarding and applicant tracking. You can even build a simple ORG chart as well. Best of all, the system is simple, clean, and has an easy-to-use app for your team.
Mileage
MileIQ is a simple solution for tracking your business miles. Once you create an account, you load this app on your smartphone and it runs in the background. Every time you complete a drive, you swipe left if it was personal, or swipe right if it was business. It doesn't get any easier than that.
Mind Mapping
Mindmeister is a great system for mind mapping. Even though everyone on your staff should have a very clear job description, I would highly recommend that they also create a mind map of their actual responsibilities. I have found this to be very helpful, and I am sure you will too.
Notes
Evernote is a simple note-taking app for your computer and smartphone that will allow you to quickly take notes and share notes with others. This is a perfect way to keep everyone on your team up-to-date during a staff meeting or to keep your own personal notes organized and up-to-date.
Productivity Suite
Office 365 is my preferred productivity suite. Even though you can use similar products from Google or Apple, I have found that Office 365 has more features, is universally accepted, and integrates perfectly into other systems. Also, Microsoft offers a major discount through their non-profit program and Techsoup.
Reviews / Evaluations
Google Forms is the easiest system to use for employee reviews/evaluations. Not only is it simple to create a form, but once your form is ready, all you have to do is send the link to your team. And, if you are using Google Workspace (see above), you already have access to Google Forms.
Software
Techsoup should be the first place you go if you are looking for software. Once you are approved in their system, you can get unbelievable discounts on popular software from major companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, Google, and many more, which will save your church a lot of money.
Website (Hosting)
Clover Sites is by far the easiest system to use for hosting your website. Even if you have never built a website before, you can build a professional website with their template-based designs. And, no matter what you build, it will look great on every device (computer, tablet, or mobile) since they use HTML5.
Website (Domain Registration)
Epik is an excellent company to use for your domain registration. Their prices are low, their system is user-friendly, they include private WHOIS registration with every domain, and best of all, they believe in free speech (which means they won't ever remove your domain from the internet, even if they disagree with you).
