If you have been hanging around here for awhile, you may remember my search for a church management system for my church. That was a year and a half ago and many things have changed. ChMS products have really stepped up and made some serious advancements and I have since left that church at about the time they went live with FellowshipOne. Now, I’m at my new church, and have offered to come up with a child check-in solution.
As I have mentioned recently, our current system is a clipboard and that is not secure at all, obviously. I still have all the data I had from my research, along with the criteria to base my decision on and it would be cool if I could just check that real fast and choose. But, like I said, the landscape of the ChMS world has changed drastically in the past year and a half. At that time, FellowshipOne was the one I recommended and ACS Technologies was a close second. In my opinion, ACS has stepped it up drastically and they probably compare closer to F1 now than they did back then. F1 is still a big dog in the market, don’t get me wrong, but they have tougher competition today than in the past.
There are 2 real changes in my search this time:
- church size – last time, my church was over 2,000 each weekend, this time, it’s probably under 500
- budget – last time, budget was obviously a factor, but we had the funds to put into it, this time, I started the conversation and I’m basically driving where this goes and as far as I know, I have no budget
So, my intention is to first look for free solutions, such as open source, however, I’m not optimistic on that front. The other free option is to build one myself and that’s a very real possibility, however, my time is very limited, so that may or may not happen. At the moment, I’m designing it in my head and getting the flow down.
Assuming nothing comes out of that, the next best thing is as low cost as possible. Like I said, I don’t have any idea if there’s any kind of money available, but I’m ready to make my case that security is crucial. We are a growing church and there are more kids each week, so now is the time to get something started.
I put a request in tonight to get access to the Church Community Builder demo site that seems like a decent package for the money. I also have some contacts at ACS and I’ll probably explore what they have to offer, as well. I’m open to anything, I just think some options are out of my budget.
One final thought, looking at this from a smaller church point of view, and this option may be out there. If you are a ChMS company, offer a low cost child check-in system that a smaller church can implement. Then, down the road, this smaller church may grow and decide they need additional functionality and there’s a good chance that they will stay with the company they started with and build on that system. Plus they already have most families with kids entered in the system, which, in many churches is probably half or more of the attendance. That’s something I’m considering now is what can I get that I can build on.
So, let me know your thoughts and insight. Plus, if you have a ChMS that you need beta tested, let’s talk. I know there are some discussions going on about ChMS in the Google group that I need to tune into that conversation a little closer too.
Hey Jim,
My name is Scott Jester, and I just recently resigned from a pastorate position that I was in for
over 7 years in order to team up with a software company to develop check-in security software for
small and mid-sized churches. Well, that product is in the final phase of development, and we are
looking for some beta sites to get our product out there. We currently have 4 sites, but would be
open to a few more. Our product is a great product that covers check-in security, tracking, volunteer
check-in, reporting, and much more. If you are still interested in being a beta site for some check-
in security software, please let me know. My e-mail is scottj@abs-in.com. I look forward to hearing f
from you.
Greetings!
If you are looking for a low-cost child check in solution, please check out our product, Digital Guardian Check In (http://www.dgcheckin.com). We are the FIRST fully web-browser based child check in solution. Our system has been put up against both Fellowship One and CCB as well as Shelby and wins hands down for the features and the cost. (In fact, I was contracted by CCB to teach them how to make a check in system! Their system is based off of Digital Guardian but hasn’t the features ours has.)
The system can handle what ever you throw at it. It’s currently being used by churches with over 8,000 TWA and over 600+ children just on Sunday morning (over 1,600 per week ages infant to 4th grade).
Go ahead and check us out!
Jason Matteson
Digital Guardian Check In.
http://www.dgcheckin.com
800.381.8075
Hi,
I am with Excellerate Church Management Software. Our company is 10 years old. The cost of our software is spread out over the growth of your church as you suggested. It is broken down by the number of members in your church and as you grow above a certain number, you simply pay the difference to upgrade to the next level. It is totally customizable to how you do church. It is not web based, but has web functionality allowing small group leaders to log on and submit their reports online. It’s the best of both worlds because your not praying that your website crashes or that your server goes down in the middle of a huge event or service–it happens!
We also just released our Child Check-In System back in January and it’s been a huge hit. We use key tags with bar codes on them or you have the option of using a touch screen. A security tag prints out with the childs name, security number, allergies, etc… The parent also gets a security tag that they must present when they pick up the child.
This system can be used any time you want to track attendance and print a name tag, such as for Sunday school, events, youth services, etc…
Check us out at http://www.Excellerate.com and please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Kristi Sciacchetano
888-371-6878
Why don’t you check out our child check in solution. Our’s is software based. It runs on a 4D database, so its a true client server achitecture. We offer many options for setting up the check in. It can be by a bar code badge, a key chain tag with a bar code on it or by entering and selecting the name of the child to be checked in.
Once the child is checked into a class you have the option to print 0,1 or 2 labels that can be used as name tags and parent security tags.
Feel free to download a copy of the software. Make sure to also download the child check in guide under Downloads>Documentation>Child checkin.
Our pricing is capacity based (how many people in your database). It is a one time fee! As your church grows, just pay the difference between the two levels to upgrade your license.