Case Study: Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City

Calvary Chapel integrates Church Community Builder with Aplos to save hundreds of working hours

The Challenge: Finding Integrated Financial Software

Calvary Chapel, a church based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, was ready to make a change. They were juggling their church finances in ACS, church membership in Church Community Builder, and bookkeeping for their bookstore and thrift store in QuickBooks. Church Community Builder did an excellent job at keeping them on top of their 600 signed members, total membership of 1,800, and 50 employees, but they needed a financial system that integrated with its donation tracking.

Their combination of ACS and QuickBooks required dozens of hours each week to log donations in both Church Community Builder and their bookkeeping. They needed an integrated software that catered to their financial reporting needs, reduced the time spent tracking donations in multiple locations, and streamlined the process of working in different systems. Enter Aplos.

"Aplos proved to be the golden ticket."

Church Community Builder Meets Aplos

“We looked at Shelby, Realm, and others,” Jim Harris, the associate pastor from Calvary, said. “We found that none of them were providing the kind of consolidation we were looking for. Then Church Community Builder mentioned Aplos, who is one of their preferred partners. We did a walkthrough and it was fantastic.”

In setting up their new financial system for a more streamlined process, Calvary migrated their church, bookstore, and thrift store finances into separate sets of books in Aplos so all could be accessed from a single management platform. Using custom role permissions, users were given access to only view or edit the necessary set of books. The bookstore and thrift store had simple reporting needs, while the church elected to use Aplos Advanced Accounting for its more detailed reporting options, such as Budget by Fund and tags for more granular reporting.

"What stood out to me was Aplos's ease of use for fund accounting."

The direct integration between Aplos and Church Community Builder simplified donation tracking. Once Calvary set up their accounting in Aplos, they linked the two systems, so as batches of donations were created in Church Community Builder, they could retrieve and add the donation batch to their accounting in Aplos without manually entering data. Each import included donation information, fund allocations, and donor names, which saved hundreds of hours in labor each month.

Results Included a Streamlined Financial Process and Cost Savings

With a complete migration to Aplos, Calvary now had a streamlined financial process and could manage three separate entities in one platform. The thrift store and bookstore could also use fund accounting practices.

“It was exactly what we were looking for,” Hudson Smith, the church’s accountant, said. “What stood out to me was Aplos’s ease of use for fund accounting, especially with their tags, and the fact we could integrate into Church Community Builder seamlessly without having to do twenty batches a week.”

“It was the best decision for our church and our stores. Glad we made the switch.”

Diana Cobb, the church administrator, said, “It’s much more cost-effective from a labor standpoint.” Hudson added, “Aplos is browser-based, so we can look at it from home. It’s very intuitive and easy to use. We don’t need a whole work manual to get through it. Very friendly overall.”The Aplos support team has also been there to help Calvary along the way.

“All I have to do is log in, and the support chat is in the right corner. The support team is always super quick to respond,” Diana said. “It was the best decision for our church and our stores. Glad we made the switch.”

Download the Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City case study (PDF).

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