Church Community Builder FAQs
Our Church Management Software is the perfect solution for congregations of all sizes. It will improve your ability to connect with your staff, as well as your church congregation. We strive to ensure that all of your users are satisfied with their church management software.
To learn even more, please visit our dedicated Frequently Asked Questions page. Got a question you didn’t find answered here in regards to the program? Please let us know. We want to make sure that you get the most out of our Church Community Builder software. Feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help you out!
Want to know a bit more about our church management Solutions? Read more below to find out some answers to frequently asked questions that we receive about our church management software.
What is Church Community Builder?
Church Community Builder (CCB) software is a web-based, online church management software solution designed to help lighten the administrative load on church leaders so they can effectively build and support a connected, smooth running ministry.
Communication is key for growing and sustaining your ministry, especially in order to ensure that your members don’t slip through the cracks. In order to manage all of the moving parts of a church ministry, we developed Church Community Builder as a church management software to be a central platform for all of the data and communication tools you will need to effectively communicate with members.
Church Community Builder wants to support you in how you achieve your ministry and message.
What is Church Management Software (ChMS)?
Church management refers to the specific administrative tasks unique to churches and other faith-based groups. Tasks include, but are not limited to, organizing congregant details, managing membership, organizing service details, event organization, and financial reporting. Church Management Software helps streamline your processes by keeping everything in one place and making it accessible to a wide range of people which is the backbone for effective church management.
What is the best Church Management Software?
We’re partial to Church Community Builder but, there are a number of different ChMS solutions to choose from. What’s most important with a church management solution is to keep in mind what specific administrative needs your church has and whether or not you have any existing software/systems that you’d like your ChMS to integrate with. Once you know what you’re looking for, you’ll have an easier time identifying what the best church management software is for you and your church.
What is the best 2018 Church Management Software?
There are articles galore on software solutions for church management. But, like we mentioned earlier, the best way to find the Church Software Solution that’s right for you is to know the administrative needs your church has. Once you’ve identified your churches needs (from attendance to communication tools for your congregation), finding the right Church Software Solution for you will become clear.
What is Church Administration Software? Is CCB Church Administration Software?
Yes, Church Community Builder is Church Administration Software. Church Administration Software is used as an interchangeable term for Church Management Software.
What is ACS Software?
ACS is the acronym for Administrative Church Software. There is no real “standard” term or acronym for Church administration, management, or accounting software - everyone uses the acronyms ChMS, CMS, CAS, and ACS interchangeably, based on preference.
What is Church Contribution Software?
Unlike Church Management Software, which covers a wide range of church administrative tasks, Church Contribution Software specifically provides a platform in which churches can receive, track, transfer/deposit, and reporting on the contributions congregants give (can also be used for fundraising events). Most Contribution Software Solutions and donor management software can integrate with Church Management Software where other administrative needs are managed.
What is the best accounting software for churches?
CCB integrates with and recommends Aplos, the leading Church Accounting Software. Watch your donations climb, master your accounting and financials, customize your non profit reports, track your donations and administer receipts, engage supporters in your mission, meet your fundraising goals, collect donor insights, send out giving statements and thank you letters, automate your workflow, get the help you need when you need it. Everything you need in one place. You can read more about this CCB preferred partner, and the software integration, on our blog at “New Preferred Service Provider: Aplos”.
What is CCB's recommended church software?
CCB integrates with and recommends a number of different church software companies to ensure you get everything you need to make managing your church easy and efficient. Currently, our preferred servce providers includes: 2BChurch, Aplos, Assess.org, Aware3, Belay, Background Information Services Inc, BLM Technologies, BluePay, BombBomb, Boxcast, Buzzsprout, Call-Em-All, CCBChimp, CCBPress, ChristianBackgroundChecks.com, EMS Barcode Solutions, ESpace, Focus Missions, Focus Next Steps, God-Cha Bible Guide, Gyve, InThrMa Intelligent Thermal Management, Ministry Vitals, Mobile Axept, Mortar Stone, PastorsLine, Portable Church Industries, ProApps, Project My Ministry, PushPay, Schooley Mitchell, Secure Search, Secure Give, The Church App, Txt2Give, Vanco Payment Solutions, and WorshipPlanning.com. To read more about integrations at our CCB Preferred Service Providers" Page.
What is the best church software for worship?
CCB integrates with and recommends worshipplanning.com for all your worship planning needs. You can plan your service details with an easy-to-use worship flow editor, add or import song details, upload files, and add notes for yourself or your team. Scheduling is made easy with the flexibility to notify team members one week at a time or for multiple months. Team members can be notified via email, text, and even Facebook. All your team has to do is "accept" or "decline", and you’re ready to. Team members can also access the service details you've set. And if you hit a hiccup, you can update the worship flow and find substitutes to serve as needed. Plans are centrally stored in the cloud ensuring you and your team can securely access them from anywhere, instantly.
Why is Church Community Builder a web-based software?
There are a few reasons we chose to deliver our church management software in a web-based, or Software as a Service (SaaS), format:
No additional equipment is needed to run our church management software. Whether you are using a PC or a Mac system, all you will ever need to utilize our church management software is your computer (or even a mobile device) and access to the Internet. The church management software is run directly through your web browser. It is supported on most modern web browsers, including Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer versions 9+.
No installation needed. We provide web Based Software solutions for religious organisations like Churches. Unlike locally hosted apps, you won’t need to worry about installing the church management software on every computer that needs to run it. Not to mention, when any updates are made to our system, you don’t need to worry about completing all of the updates separately. When you are ready to use the Software, it is waiting for you within your web browser, fully updated and ready to go.
Freedom to work where you need to. With our SaaS church management software, you can use it anywhere that you have internet access. Whether you’re in the church office, at the kitchen table, in your favorite coffee shop, or during your flight for vacation - our Online church management solution is ready to be used. Although, we don’t recommend working while you’re on vacation. Take your well-earned break!
These are all of the benefits that come along with a web-based church management software and why we chose SaaS to deliver your product.
How secure is your web-based church management software?
We understand just how important data security and privacy is, especially within an Online church management solution. To keep it simple, all of your data and information is safe with Church Community Builder. If you want to know more about the details of how we keep your information safe within our church management software, please read more below.
DATA PRIVACY & INTEGRITY
The security of your data is taken very seriously. Our servers run on the Linux platform and have the latest stable versions and security updates installed. In addition to hardware firewalls, we use IPTables firewall software on our servers to keep them locked down as much as possible. Behind the scenes, our servers are only accessible by authorized staff securely via SSH or VPN, and all uploads/downloads of critical information are done via Secure FTP (SFTP). In addition, all passwords and login IDs to your solution are hashed and double salted to prevent unauthorized login attempts. On the user end, all church individual logins must be at least six characters long and contain at least one numeric and one alpha character to further ensure security of the data. Also, after five unsuccessful attempts at login, the user’s account is locked for a 60 minute period. Our primary and secondary datacenters are protected with dual keycard access and 24/7 video surveillance and security staff.
DATA BACKUPS
All customer data is snapshotted hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to local network storage. Offsite backups of the system are done nightly to a secure location in the unlikely event a catastrophic scenario prevents data access or recovery from the primary datacenter. Finally, we store daily backups to Amazon’s S3 service in the even more unlikely event that both the primary and secondary datacenters are unrecoverable.
REDUNDANCY
We realize reliability is a critical component of your trust. We’ve configured our systems to ensure N+1 redundancy in our firewalls,loadbalancers, physical servers, and virtual services. In addition, both datacenters employ N+1 redundancy for power, cooling, and connectivity.
A 60KW UPS and an 80KW natural gas powered generator provide continuous power to the servers and communications equipment. All of the facility equipment is operating while the UPS and generator are standing by. In case of a power emergency, the UPS takes over. The generator then starts up to provide uninterrupted power flow until the utilities company fixes the outage.
Our datacenter for this program is connected to the Internet via redundant OC-12 fiber lines. We feature fully burstable 100MB access to the Internet and to your location. The datacenters employ Cisco equipment for networking to ensure the best quality and reliability in the industry. In the unlikely event of a router failure, we have AB routes configured for an immediate failover to a standby router to ensure nothing affects the system.
Do I have to pay extra for updates?
Absolutely not! All of the updates and enhancements that we make to your Online Church Management systems are included with your annually purchased license. To ensure that you get the most out of your package purchase, we make updates and fixes on a regular basis. Not to mention, since our software is web-based - you get all of the updates immediately!
Do I need special equipment or a specific type of computer?
In short, you don’t need anything fancy to run our web-based program. Since our system is web-based, all you really need is a web browser and internet connection on your computer. We highly recommend that you use a high-speed internet connection, however it’s not required.
Additionally, if you’re the type of person that loves to accessorize your tech, a few of our features can be enhanced with extra equipment. Things like congregation or staff check-in barcode scanners and label printers, financial check readers, and scanners. These accessories give our software an extra fancy flair.
How many people can access the system at one time?
As many people as you need! We do not limit the amount of users to small groups who can access the program at the same time. This is an added bonus to our system, as you can share it with your people - including staff, volunteers, congregants, and more! The more people with access to the software, the more meaningful engagement your church will receive.
Do you provide training?
Yes! Our church management software isn’t much help if you and your people don’t know how to use it. This is why we offer software training to all of our users.
Do you provide ongoing support?
Yes! We won’t leave you hanging once you integrate CCB into your workday. We have tons of free resources, such as online help articles, video tutorials, and email ticket support. This is always included with you Church Community Builder software license. You can also purchase Premier Support service as an add-on to your software.
Will you interface with our church website?
Absolutely. Our program can be easily accessed from your website through our provided public web tools. This integration allows for easy sharing of information regarding attendance tracking, activities, events, groups, social media and giving on your own church website. This is just one of the many ways our system transforms your website into a powerful community portal.
Do you have a mobile app?
Yes! We are very excited to follow the mobile-first direction of online services by offering a mobile application to all of our current service customers. With the increasing power of mobile devices we believe mobile apps are the future. Introducing: LEAD. LEAD is our church management mobile application. It is loaded with helpful features, all designed to keep your church members connected - wherever they are.
What features come with the LEAD app?
People - Get to know your members. Our snapshot feature allows you to not just know a member’s name, but to know their story. In one quick search, you can see everything you need to know as a leader. From their family members to their contact information. Understand your people’s involvement and connection in the church.
Process Queues - As a church leader, you need a reliable tool to ensure that you can follow up with your people quickly and intentionally. This type of communication helps to keep people on track during their discipleship journey. The process queues in our LEAD app help to make sure that everyone is being cared for and that no one is slipping through the cracks.
Schedules - Managing volunteers is one thing.. But managing volunteers on the go, that’s no small feat! The scheduling feature within our LEAD app allows you to easily find where there are holes in your schedule and quickly fill them. With its unparalleled reporting capabilities, Your volunteers can easily stay informed and your services can run smoothly.
Groups - As a group or ministry leader, you are working on the front lines of your church. You are the one building meaningful relationships with your people. The Group feature in our application has robust communication tools and is designed to easily keep your group members connected.
Notes - We understand that a person’s story is far more than just the simple data that they represent. We developed the notes feature to help you view and share vital information about your people all in one convenient place - even social media, so that you and your leaders can provide the highest quality of care to your people.
Every single day, it seems that ministries rely on mobile technology to keep up with the growing mobility of tech in our world. We believe Mobile apps is the future of church management software. We specifically developed a mobile app to help you, the church leader, easily connect with your people and manage your schedule on the go. Don’t have a laptop with you? No need to worry! Our LEAD app fits right into your pocket. All you need is a little cell phone connection to the internet.
How often are updates made to the LEAD app?
It is our main priority to guarantee that you can use your software whenever and wherever you need it, at no inconvenience. We regularly make updates to the LEAD app. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our mobile application’s functionality and organization. If you are currently a LEAD app user, double check to make sure your phone is setup to make application updates on a regular basis. This will help to ensure that your application stays up with the latest features the very moment that they are released.
Where can I download the LEAD app?
Our LEAD application is readily available to download by all of our current customers on the Apple Store and Google Play Store.
Is there a more direct way to access our data?
Every single version of our software includes API capabilities. What is API? Well, API is basically a way for two computer systems to communicate with one another. Church Community Builder gives you the capability to read, and even write, to specific areas of your database through API services in order to keep all of your data in line with other software systems.
This will require a programmer from your end, as they will need to set up the details. And if all this talk about API didn’t excite you, you’re probably not the programmer on staff. :-) No worries! You just might have someone in the office who would gladly build some amazing integrated applications and tools for you.
What features does your software have?
This is a fantastic question. Our software is nothing without the wonderful features that we have developed with you, the church leader, specifically in mind. We have a wide variety of key features that make managing your church, schedule, and people easier than ever. Want to know what sets us apart from other church management software programs? Check out these key features!
Church Metrics - As a church leader, your decisions can have major impacts and consequences attached to them. We know you don’t make these decisions lightly. That’s why we added in the key feature of Church Metrics. Our church metrics provide you with real-time data in order to help you make the best choice for your ministry, right in the moment you need it. You can input the data that you need to a custom dashboard, so that you will always have exactly what you need from financial management to facility planning to programming, discipleship, and more. Make better decisions with the help of a church management solution software like the Church Community Builder.
Intuitive Web Forms - Our form builder feature makes it easy to drag and drop customized forms, so you get the information you need without spending countless extra hours trying to put it all together. This is a painless way to organize your information. Whether you want to gather survey answers, run event management (even manage event registration), perform fund accounting, collect orders and donations, or more, we’ve got you covered. Flexible and intuitive forms designed by you, for you.
Childrens Check-In - Make your Sunday morning experience fast, simple, and safe with our child check-in feature. Your children’s ministry is a huge factor in determining whether or not a family will return to your church service the next week. Our child check-in software helps to make the Sunday morning experience fast, simple, and safe for your families and your volunteers. Complete with text message paging features to contact any parents immediately.
Volunteer Scheduling - Keep your leaders organized and effectively communicate with one another. As a church leader, you have the unique opportunity to encourage, influence, and empower people who step into a leadership or serving role within your church. It’s easy to build out your schedule, even edit weeks at a time, with CCB. Print out your completed schedule for easy access both on and off the internet. Send emails, block out dates, attach files - all easily with our volunteer scheduling feature.
Multi-Site Support - Today, there are over 5,000 multi-site church organisations across the United States. These multi-site ministries require unique systems, processes, and technology in order to be effective. With the right management solution, It’s easy to manage multiple campuses, including child check-in across campuses and aggregating reports across campuses. Manage and measure ministry at a campus wide and ministry-level. The multi-site church is considered by many to be the future of church ministry. Church Community Builder can help you easily manage and connect your campuses.
Group Management - People are at the heart of discipleship and your entire church. A person’s faith is far too important to simply let them slip through the cracks. Luckily, technology has made it easier than ever to stay up to date with your members. Our powerful Group Management feature helps you in tracking attendance, allows you to communicate, help people connect, plan events, coordinate to meet your community’s needs, and so much more. No one will feel invisible. Whether you are focusing on small groups or managing a large congregation - track attendance and help the people in your ministry connect.
What’s the story behind Church Community Builder?
The short version of the story is that Church Community Builder began as a way to connect the people that wanted to serve the community within volunteer positions. We also wanted to ensure that people were empowered to serve in the unique ways that God wired them. In the beginning, Church Community Builder was simply two friends trying to solve a ministry problem. Today, our church software service has grown into an organization that employs more than 100 passionate people who actively serving thousands of churches all around the world. Our drive stems from a calling to guide church leaders and assist them with finding a better ‘how’. We complete this drive by providing software, coaching, and tribe opportunities. We are grateful to remain as a privately held, debt-free, and profitable company. Our owners have no intention to sell Church Community Builder.
The slightly longer version of our story is that in 1998, pastors Chris Fowler and Free Grafton began utilizing internet-based tools and resources to help the people within their churches connect with one another. Additionally, they felt that these tools and resources would help them stay in contact with people who were desiring community and connection, and to make sure that they weren’t falling through the cracks. It all started very simply. There was no grand mission statement, no elaborate business plan, and no dreams of an IPO. It was simply two friends who felt a calling to find a solution for the frustration that people felt in getting connected with their church.
Of course, back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, software options had to be downloaded onto one or two computers that resided within the church office. There were no options that allowed pastors and staff to work outside of the church office. This is what led Chris and Free to imagine something greater. After much dreaming, soul searching, and prayer, launched a company dedicated to providing other churches with the same ideas they had field-tested in their church.
In the world of high-tech, the only constant that you can really rely on is change. Church Community Builder is blessed to remain debt-free and operate under zero expectations from shareholders or investors. Our company’s path is led by what we believe to be a God-given vision, through prayer, and from the wisdom gleaned from serving over 4,000 churches of all sizes. Our top priority and focus is to provide churches with effective, reliable, and long-term service systems that aid in advancing God’s kingdom.
Our ideal of success lies in our associates love coming into work every day, our church partners view us as a vital part in their ministry, and that we can see tangible evidence of our tools helping church leadership to not only have effective church management but to also be able to connect and engage with their community.
We are constantly looking forward towards the future. We are always working on exciting ideas and plans that aim to provide you with an even better tool to connect your congregation with one another and with God. We hope to be continuously serving you.
Thanks for taking the time to learn a little more about our company. We’d love to tell you even more of our story. To read more about our history, our future, and our “why”, visit our dedicated About Us page.
Want more information?
We are very excited to share the benefits of our software. No matter the size of your church, our system ensures that everyone stays connected and up to date with one another. If you'd like to discuss more about how Church Community Builder's web-based program can improve your church management, we will be glad to talk with you!