A Quick-reference Evaluation Guide

1. Do you use numbered offering envelopes? Do couples/families share a common envelope number?  
2. Does a person/couple/family keep the same envelope number year-to-year?  
3. Do you record contributions from non-members?  
4. Do you take pledges to church funds? Are any of these pledges multi-year?  
5. Is your pledge year and financial year the same as a calendar year?  
6. Are your contribution records kept on a computer at the church or at another location?  
7. Do pastors and/or staff have access to contribution information? Do they need to?  
8. How often do you want to send contribution statements to the congregation?  
9. How often do you write checks? Are they computer- generated?  
10. Do you want to process payroll for employees, or would you rather use a payroll service?  
11. Do you use a cash or accrual method of accounting?  
12. Is the person who manages your day-to-day financial transactions an accountant, or does he or she have accounting experience?  
13. 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)  
14. 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)  
15. Do members of the same family sometimes have different addresses?  
16. What individual date information is important to your congregation? (e.g., marriage, baptism, profession of faith)  
17. Do you use e-mail for regular correspondence with the congregation? If so, do you send them individually and/or as groups?  
18. Do you use a Phonetree or other automated voice system to send voice messages to the congregation?  
19. Do you send personalized correspondence to large numbers of people in the congregation?  
20. Do you print individual addresses directly on envelopes, or do you use labels all the time?  
21. Do you use bulk mail sorting for any communication to the congregation?  
22. 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?  
23. What special ministry areas within your congregation would you like to track within a computer database?  
24. 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)?  
25. 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?  
26. Do you want to know who takes communion during a worship service?  
27. Do you host multiple weekly worship services?  
28. 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?  
29. 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)  
30. Do publish membership, contribution or financial information on the Internet?