Lessons Learned from Portugal
Last month my husband and I got the chance to go to Portugal. It was amazing.
The countryside was stunning.
Me in Douro Valley
The cities were also captivating. Even the sidewalks are works of art.
Apparently, the fancier the sidewalks, the nicer the area. No need to open Google Maps to find the good shops, instead just look down.
But with those beautiful sidewalks comes a few problems. They're uneven, very slippery when wet, and expensive to maintain and repair. Beautiful, but not efficient.
This reminded me of the financial systems I see in churches. (Yes, I know, I'm in Portugal and still thinking about bookkeeping. I can't help myself.)
Stuck in a Beautiful System
Many churches I work with are running on systems that were genuinely well-built but for another era. A long-time employee or volunteer who spent years building something that made sense at the time. Moving away from it feels like a waste of their effort, even a bit disloyal, even though something better exists.
But staying put has a cost too. Your people are slipping on uneven terrain, and the resources spent maintaining an outdated system could be used somewhere else.
How do you know it’s time to update? Here are three signs:
Other churches spend significantly less time on their bookkeeping than you
Bookkeeping is still paper-based meaning paper bills to file, paper cheques to sign
The reports are often late or past month’s numbers are continually edited.
What Does a Modernized Church Bookkeeping System Look Like?
The good news is that the tools exist and they work well together. Here's what we recommend for churches:
1. Planning Center Giving — Still our favourite for recording donations and issuing tax receipts. It's built for churches and it shows.
2. QuickBooks Online (QBO) — Being cloud-based means your treasurer, pastor, admin, bookkeeper, and accountant can all access the same file at the same time. There are no version control headaches, no emailing spreadsheets back and forth. It also creates transparency and opens the door to other apps that sync directly with QBO, building even more efficiency.
3. Dext — Instead of handing in a stack of receipts, staff and volunteers take a photo on their phone. That image gets pushed directly into QBO as an attachment in the expense transaction. Clean records, audit-ready books.
4. Plooto — A virtual payment system that allows direct deposit to your vendors while still honouring your church's signing authority requirements. No more paper cheques.
Change Is Hard. We Know.
Modernizing sounds like a project everyone groans about. And honestly, it can be. But done right, it's a one-time investment that pays back in time, clarity, and peace of mind every single month after.
Walking those beautiful sidewalks in Portugal, I was genuinely grateful the Portuguese chose artful over practical. Those sidewalks are part of what makes the country so memorable.
But for your church's bookkeeping? Give me practical and efficient every time.
If you're not sure where to start, or want a second opinion on your current systems, we'd love to help. Reach out at www.mybookkeepingsolution.ca or book a call to talk.