Case Study: Foursquare Districts

Foursquare Helps 11 Districts Switch to Aplos

The Challenge: Finding Accounting Software That Fit the Financial and Reporting Needs of Foursquare Churches

Cindy Towne is the National Administrative Specialist for Foursquare Church, where she helps manage the needs of 11 districts spread across multiple states. Her job requires her to provide education on IRS tax regulations, offer administrative support to the districts’ churches, and determine if software platforms like Aplos are a good fit for the organization.

Cindy and the national office were struggling to make QuickBooks fit the financial needs of the churches in their districts. Without accounting expertise, Foursquare churches couldn’t create workarounds that allowed QuickBooks to fit their accounting and reporting needs. There was also a lack of software support for the districts and churches. For example, sometimes customer support didn’t understand donor-restricted funds or 990s. Foursquare’s national office requires denominational reporting, and QuickBooks didn’t have a customized solution to help churches easily generate Foursquare Monthly Church Reports either.

As the person in charge of vendor relationships with Foursquare, Cindy was the one who would determine if Aplos was a good fit when a representative from Aplos reached out via a cold call.

“It’s easy to use, and everyone we’ve referred has had very few questions. It’s a superior product.”

The Solution for Foursquare Church Reporting

One of Aplos’ main draws was that it was an easy-to-use product that any Foursquare church could pick up. Wanting to see for herself, Cindy signed up for a free 15-day trial and soon determined it could be the solution to the problems they were having with QuickBooks.

“The smaller churches in our districts don’t have the time to find different products and services to help manage their organization,” Cindy says, “but you don’t have to worry about that with Aplos. I love the fact everything can be done in the same system, which makes it so easy. It keeps it all together.”

“Not only that,” she continued, “but Aplos was actually willing to build software specifically for Foursquare. One example is FMCR. We needed more customization for larger churches and districts for their chart of accounts and other types of reporting and Aplos built it for us. Having a great relational connection with someone who’s invested in what we do is nice.”

Another big plus for Foursquare churches was the standardized chart of accounts. “That’s been huge,” Cindy says. “We had a QuickBooks style that could be helpful, but our churches still had to figure out a lot themselves. With Aplos, having a standard Foursquare chart of accounts preloaded became a huge relief for churches who weren’t trained in accounting. Using Aplos was like moving into a house with your stuff already there.”

It wasn’t long until Foursquare fully committed to Aplos, and according to Cindy, the transition was excellent. “We were in constant contact at the start," she said, "and once I was able to show the districts how to use Aplos, they picked it up fast. The districts talk about how much they like the software. Support all the way through has been very responsive.”

"I love the fact everything can be done in the same system, which makes it so easy. It keeps it all together."

Hundreds of Foursquare Churches Now Use Aplos for Accounting and Reporting

Cindy loves how easy it is to get in contact with Aplos support and how it’s free. A huge bonus is having support from people who are specifically trained to help nonprofits and churches. “QuickBooks didn’t know how to set up certain areas of the Foursquare accounts, but since Aplos knew the needs of Foursquare churches and helped them set it up, they easily explained any future questions Foursquare churches ended up having.”

The Foursquare districts, along with hundreds of Foursquare churches, are using Aplos now, and Cindy says that it’s the product she’s recommending to everyone.

Download the Foursquare Districts case study (PDF).

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