IconCMO Review

IconCMO features its true fund accounting module which is considered as one of the major functionality of the church management software. This module highlights and promotes compliance with FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) specifically with FASB reporting standards No.95 and No. 117. Within this module, users would be able to quickly create invoices, pay their bills and expenditures, manage their checkbook, create funds and accounts under the chart of accounts, and view and track transactions from the General Ledger.

The fund accounting module of IconCMO supports both the two types of accounting which is cash accounting and accrual-based accounting depending on the what is used by a particular church or congregation as stated in their by-law.  For those transactions that would use the cash accounting method especially those organizations that don’t need an inventory, changing fund assignments is just easy. However, if they would use the accrual-based accounting, they have to void first the payment made for an invoice before they would be able to make some changes in the type of fund being debited or credited for a given transaction.

Check Writing is another distinct feature found in this accounting module. Through this functionality, users would be able to instantly create journal entries and update their balance sheets relating to their transactions. Also, they would be able to prepare checks for payment to bank loans and their interest, office supplies from their vendors, as well as sending payments for their bills and other expenditures.  Moreover, the Checkbook Deposit functionality within this module allows users to  deposit money into their revenue accounts to designated to funds such as general, building or youth funds.

To illustrate this functionalities, suppose a church plans to buy tickets for a trip that it is organizing. In the Check Writing, the church administrative staff could choose the Expenditures as the Account Type and the Account Name as Transportation. So, under the debit field, the staff would enter the total amount of all the tickets, and as a result,  it would increase the expenditures of the church. However, it also plans to take reimbursement from those who would join the trip. Therefore, when someone makes a payment, a deposit has to be made into the Expenditures – Transportation. When all of the participants sent each of their portions to reimburse  the church for the travel expenses, the General Ledger Reports  would show that the Expenditures-Transportation as zero . Hence, with all of these capabilities in the  IconCMO accounting module, churches could manage their transactions as accurate as it should be.

As a component of its Access and Security feature, IconCMO has another functionality that enables church members to update their information through the web. This capability is found within the Parishioner’s Module wherein they are provided with an 8-digit username and password to login and access an online directory in the website.This login information is sent per household and it is similar to what a bank or brokerage gives to their customers. With this capability, churches would be ensured that the member profile information are reliable, accurate, and up to date since members could review them online. Moreover, contributions statements could be  printed by members through such access, eliminating postage or mailing fees.

Another feature of IconCMO is its communications management capability which allows churches to review all the emails that were sent to their members. Though these emails that could  be sent are unlimited, the software is introducing ways to track them instantly. Text messaging functionality is also provided that they could use to send reminders and even last minute alerts and updates. With the objective to improve the connection of church admin offices with their church members, this feature strengthens churches and promotes solidarity.