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Church database

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    #1

    Church database

    Hello,
    I have just recently started working
    with A5 again after being away from it for some time.
    So needless to say I am going to be rusty to say
    the least. I am looking for a sample of a church database
    that I can look at for some examples in order to help
    give me a jump start on the project. It will need to
    be able to track the budget/finanacial books of the
    church.

    Thanks.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Church database

    Glen, welcome back. I don't know of an example accounting program for non-profits (or for for-profits, either). There's a Membership example database in the Templates folder of your Alpha Five program files folder. Maybe that will give you some ideas that will help you get going. Building a complete accounting system from scratch is a huge task. -- tom

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Church database

      Originally posted by Tom Cone Jr View Post
      Glen, welcome back. I don't know of an example accounting program for non-profits (or for for-profits, either). There's a Membership example database in the Templates folder of your Alpha Five program files folder. Maybe that will give you some ideas that will help you get going. Building a complete accounting system from scratch is a huge task. -- tom
      Thanks for the reply,
      I'll take a look at the example databases
      to see if there is anything there that will help.
      Right now I am looking for examples that will help
      speed the learning process. The examples don't
      necessarily need to be from an app specifically
      for a church. They can be other types of accounting
      apps that serve a similar purpose that could be viewed to help get me going in the right direction.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Church database

        Hi Glen

        The best example to of the many things Alpha can do is the sample application that is shipped with Alpha, called AlphaSports.

        Open that up and you will see notes as to how each page was built.

        If you need any further questions answered, here is best place.
        Regards
        Keith Hubert
        Alpha Guild Member
        London.
        KHDB Management Systems
        Skype = keith.hubert


        For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Church database

          Originally posted by glen65x View Post
          It will need to be able to track the budget/finanacial books of the church.
          Originally posted by Tom Cone Jr View Post
          Building a complete accounting system from scratch is a huge task.
          No offense. Are you really sure that you want to build an accounting package? If so, I suggest you use Quickbooks, or similar, instead. OTOH, if you are an accountant and a skilled programmer, then you must have your reasons and I'm sure you will succeed.
          Peter
          AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

           [email protected]
          https://www.alphabasesolutions.com

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Church database

            Originally posted by Peter.Greulich View Post
            No offense. Are you really sure that you want to build an accounting package? If so, I suggest you use Quickbooks, or similar, instead. OTOH, if you are an accountant and a skilled programmer, then you must have your reasons and I'm sure you will succeed.
            I don’t think its going to require something quite as elaborate
            as Quickbooks. The person that will be doing the actual data
            entry was talking about using MS Excel, basically setting it up
            to where they enter dollar amounts (coming in and going out) in columns
            and having it display totals at the bottom of the page. The problem
            is neither of us really have any experience with that program.
            The only program I have experience building apps with is Alpha 5.
            So I told her I would check into building an app with alpha instead.
            Since I am going to have to build another app for myself anyway
            I decided to go ahead and persue it.
            Last edited by glen65x; 12-05-2008, 03:06 PM.

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Church database

              Glen, you (& the end user) may be seriously underestimating the complexity of tracking funds that come in and funds that go out. Do you want to use the system to reconcile bank accounts? Do you want to be able to split receipts among various accounts? Do you want to be able to split payments among various accounts? Do you need to track donors? Are donors individuals or families or households? Do you want to be able to generate a report at year end for each donor? Grouped by account (ministry)? Do you need to keep running balances in restricted accounts? in general operating accounts? Do you need to be able to compare actual with a budget? Will the system require double entry to assure everything balances as you go? What level of security is appropriate? How are changes to be authorized? How about deletions? It gets complicated in a hurry.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Church database

                Glen,
                In support of Peter and Tom's thoughts: Building an accounting system using Alpha is a daunting task even for a skilled database programmer. If I were you I'd consider using Alpha to maintain a list of donors and potential donors, and using Quickbooks as your accounting software. As a future task you could consider integrating the info from both systems.
                John

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Church database

                  Glen

                  For what it's worth, I'm the treasurer for a 501 c3 (non-profit) corporation.

                  I have a pretty good idea of how to setup an Alpha 5 application...

                  I use QuickBooks Not-for-profit edition for all of the work that QB's will do and then supplement that with Alpha 5 to do the things that QB doesn't do.

                  I see no reason to re-invent the wheel for the work that QB will do. And since I don't get paid for the work I do, I do it as efficiently as I can... Even if I spend my own money to get QB to save my time from writing the A5 system that would/could replace QB.

                  Since I can use QODBC to have Alpha 5 read and write to QB, I can integrate as needed.

                  That's my nickel's worth of advice....
                  Al Buchholz
                  Bookwood Systems, LTD
                  Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

                  Occam's Razor - KISS
                  Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
                  Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
                  When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
                  "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
                  Albert Einstein

                  http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Church database

                    Thanks guys for your input,
                    I am currently speaking with this person
                    about doing it the way you suggested,
                    using Quickbooks in conjunction with A5.
                    One of the other members here says he has
                    a database ap he can show me, I'll look
                    forward to taking a look at it.


                    Thanks

                    Comment

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