Potential user Q:IRS Forms

[TjT]

Thinking about purchasing PC Software. Does it have all of the forms you must send in to the IRS for your employees? Does it calculate the ss payments and other withholdings like quickbooks?

[Zaphod]

You can print W2 and W3 from PowerChurch, and 1099 MISC, but the form you may be asking about is the 941. That form isn't printed explicitly, but there is a report that gives you all that information so you can fill out the 941 form.

[TjT]

Does it calculate the amounts like Quick books?

[Zaphod]

I'm not familiar with exactly how Quickbooks handles payroll, but PowerChurch does calculate the amounts shown on the W2, W3, 1099 MISC (as well as print on those forms directly). It also calculates the amounts necessary for the 941, but as a report - not directly on the form.

Is that what you're asking?

[TjT]

Not really sure what I am asking..this is all new to me. I have been told by business people that Quickbooks figures out everything you need for payroll you just type in pay out amounts and the program gives you the figures and the forms for the IRS. I have never done payroll and I use Excell for my bookkeeping for the church. We now have one employee (not including the 1099 pastor) so I need a payroll system. We decided that if I have to purchase a payroll program we may as well change over to a "real" bookkeeping system. I need to know if the payroll part of Powerchurch will have everything I need for IRS: forms, calculations and how to fill out the forms, when to send them in, etc.

[tborgal]

PC+ will do all the calculations using Tax Tables, which can be a little confusing at first but really do a good job. It will calculate State and Federal withholding, SS, and Medicare as well as the church's SS and Medicare responsibilities. It does not contain the forms or any instructions or time tables. It will print on preprinted forms and the instructions and timetables can be obtained from the IRS web site.

[Carol@bethel]

Our church recently converted from QuickBooks to Power Church. In both programs you must set up payroll items and tell the program how those items are applicable to taxes.

In Power Church you manually enter the tax tables from Circular E each year and then the program calculates the taxes for you. In Quick Books you pay them annually to have those tables available so that your calculations are automatic. From our standpoint, entering the tax tables once a year was more cost effective.

What Quick Books didn't do well was to keep track of our various fund balances. The folks that initially set up our QuickBooks did some special coding that gave fund balances, but over the years, as bookkeepers changed and folks left the church, the reason for the coding got lost until we were keeping everything in a spreadsheet as well as in QuickBooks. Power Church automatically maintains fund balances.

We are six months into using Power Church, three months running parallel with our old system and three months of live data. Our elders are pleased with the information they are getting and we feel we have a good cash management tool. Getting set up in Power Church was difficult at times, but now things are running very smoothly.

Hope this helps.

[tenalea]

Hi! I used Quickbooks at my old church and I am using Power Church now. Quickbooks would automatically generate the Form 941 which then you only had to sign and mail. You purchased the W-2's and 1099's and Quickbooks would print the data onto the pre-printed forms.

In Power Church you can still purchase and print the W-2's and 1099's onto the pre-printed forms, but it does not automatically generate the 941 form. You have to print a report in Power Church and put the figures on a 941 Form yourself. I generally go the IRS website and use their fill-in form and put the figures in from Power Church.