Church Edition

One record of Sunday's offering becomes the deposit, the fund balances and every household's giving history. Add online gifts, campaign pledges, compliant annual statements and the minister's housing paperwork, all sitting on ordinary double-entry books.

Switching It On

The edition ships with every Nonprofit plan, at no extra cost and with no charge per member. It belongs there because the restricted funds a church relies on are reported through the ASC 958 statements those plans carry. Look for ⛪ Church in the top navigation; it also appears in the sidebar once your first offering is counted, or straight away if the company's industry reads like a church.

Households and Envelopes

Kantivo records giving by household, so a married couple is one record with one envelope number and one annual statement. Under Members, click + Member and capture the household name as it should read on the statement, the postal address, an email address if they'll take their statement that way, and — optionally — an envelope number, which counters can type instead of searching by name.

Statuses (member, regular attender, visitor, inactive) are there for your own lists and never change how giving is recorded. Each row shows giving so far this year and the last gift date, with links to the full history or to record a gift.

Designated Funds

You start with General Fund, Building Fund, Missions and Benevolence. Each posts to its own income account, so giving by purpose is visible on the income statement without extra bookkeeping.

The three designated funds carry a donor restriction. Gifts to them appear under "with donor restrictions" on the Statement of Activities and stay there until the money is spent on that purpose and released from ⚙️ Donor-Restricted Funds — which is both what FASB ASC 958 expects and what lets you answer the question "was the roof money spent on the roof?" with a report rather than a promise.

Create your own under Funds → + Fund, ticking Donor-restricted when the money may only be used for that purpose. The matching income account is created for you.

The Sunday Count

Click + Count an Offering after the service:

1. Service date, an optional description for multi-service churches, and the bank account receiving the deposit.
2. Both counters' names — two people counting together is the control that protects everyone, and both names print for signature.
3. One line per gift: household, fund, cash or check, check number, amount. Split gifts are two lines.
4. Loose plate cash, with the fund it belongs to. It joins the deposit but no giving record, since an anonymous gift can't be substantiated.
5. Check the running totals — currency, checks, deposit total and each fund — against what's on the table, then Save & Post.

Posting writes the deposit (a separate line per restriction group, so restricted money is never blended), credits each fund, and files every gift on its household's record. Print the count sheet for signatures.

Mid-Week Gifts

+ Single Gift covers the check in the post, the bank transfer and the stock gift: household, fund, amount, date, method and deposit account. It posts immediately and counts toward the annual statement like any other gift.

Giving Online

The Online Giving tab publishes a giving page for your church — a short link plus a QR code for the bulletin — where people give by card or bank transfer, once or every month.

The arrangement

Gifts are processed by your church's own Stripe account, so the money reaches your bank directly and you pay only Stripe's published rates. Connect Stripe under ⚙️ Company Settings → Payment Gateway first. Your secret key stays on your machine: Kantivo prepares the payment links locally, and the hosted page only sends givers to Stripe's checkout.

Publishing

1. Pick the address that follows /give/ — keep it short, it goes in print.
2. Add a headline and a line of thanks.
3. Set the suggested amounts, and decide on monthly giving, an open "other amount", and whether givers may cover the processing fee.
4. Tick the funds to offer.
5. Press Publish giving page. The payment links are created and the page goes live; the first publish takes a minute.

Gifts arriving

Kantivo runs on your computer, so it fetches completed gifts from Stripe every half hour while open, plus whenever you press Check for new gifts. Each one is posted to its fund with the Stripe fee recorded as an expense, and appears on the giver's annual statement.

A gift from an unrecognised email address creates a provisional household marked new member?. Use match to member to attach it to the right existing household — the provisional record is cleaned up — or it's new to keep it.

Monthly gifts

Load from Stripe lists who gives monthly, the amount and the next charge date, with failing cards separated out so the office can have a quiet word. Cancel from here when asked, or publish Stripe's customer portal link in the settings so givers can manage their own.

Campaign Pledges

Record a household's commitment to a fund for a period under Pledges. Progress is measured from their actual gifts to that fund inside those dates, so nothing needs updating by hand, and each pledge shows whether it's keeping pace with the calendar. Campaign totals — pledged against received — sit at the top of the tab.

The January Run

Open Giving Statements, choose the tax year, and review the list: every household with a gift, their total, their delivery preference, and whether they've already been sent one.

Statements itemise each gift by date and fund and carry the IRC §170(f)(8) substantiation wording written for churches, including intangible religious benefits. Gifts where the giver received something of value show that value and the deductible remainder; non-cash gifts are described but never valued, because that valuation is the donor's job.

Email statements sends to everyone set to email who hasn't been sent one, and lists those set to print. Individual statements print from the row. Running it twice won't double-send.

Clergy Housing

IRC §107 lets a minister exclude a housing allowance from income, provided the church designated it before the pay was earned. Record the designation under Housing Allowance: minister, tax year, amount, resolution date, and whether the home is owned, rented or a parsonage.

Kantivo produces the resolution for the board minutes and the year-end statement for the minister. Add what was actually paid, and — once the minister reports them — actual housing costs and the fair rental value plus utilities; the excludable amount is the lowest of the three, and anything above it shows as taxable excess.

What the Board Asks For

The Overview tab carries the answers: giving to date versus the same point last year, a month-by-month comparison, giving by fund for any period, the number of giving households and the average per household, and a follow-up list of households who gave last year but not yet this year.

Underneath sits the rest of Kantivo — budgets, bank reconciliation, bill payment, payroll import, and the ASC 958 statements your auditor will ask for.