Baptism Book System

Manages the baptism register with extensive search capabilities that accommodate area-specific spelling variations. Includes name indexing and PDF export of entire baptism books, selected years, or index pages.

Family File System

Produces family cards and files (parents and their children and dependents, similar to Status Book entries) that represent past and present households and marital situations. The system also handles polygamous situations and the broader range of family structures found in Africa.

Double-Entry Finance

The easy to use double-entry accountancy system maintains two ledgers: one for individual contributions spanning the entire lifespan of the parish database, and a second refreshed at the close of each accounting period (e.g. annually). Supports full customisation of reporting on all different accountancy levels.

Non-Monetary Accounts

Supports contributions given in kind — bags of maize, hours worked on a parish farm, and similar — reflecting the reality of giving in many African communities.

Multi-Level Accounting

Accounts operate at the parish level, hierarchical area levels (zones, prayer centres or outstations, Small Christian Communities, etc.), and the individual level, where contribution records are maintained over many years.

Excel Integration

Queries for any account and year are transferred automatically to Excel. Balance sheets and area reports can be pushed to Excel with a single click, integrating seamlessly into existing spreadsheets and keeping them current with every change.

Customisable Parish Structure

Supports multi-tiered, customisable structure labels — sub-parishes, outstations, prayer centres, Small Christian Communities, and more — to match the exact organisation of your parish.

Lay Groups & Instruction Groups

Any number of lay groups and catechumenate or instruction groups can be configured. Membership lists, including the contributions and obligations of each member, are compiled automatically.

Document Attachments

Photos, certificates, and other supplementary files can be attached directly to any record in the system.

Offline Syncing

Parish Record Keeper includes its own offline syncing mechanism, allowing multiple users on multiple computers to work on the same database — without relying on Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or any outside server. Your parish retains full control of its data at all times.

The Optional Online Workspace

In return for a contribution covering the server costs, a parish can have an online Workspace set up. A Workspace is the whole online side of Parish Record Keeper, taken as one package for one datafile and for a term the parish chooses, and it holds all of the following:

• a shared master file, so that several people work on one datafile in turn: each downloads the current master, works on it, and hands their version in for the workspace administrator to merge and republish;
• an account for each member of the parish who needs one;
• the online search, which makes baptism records, church records, contributions and the parish accounts readable in a browser by workspace members;
• the offline phone app, described in the next card;
• the parish transport register, on which catechists take bus bookings from the outstations using one shared login; and
• shared report logins for a treasurer or a section leader who has no account of their own.

None of these is priced separately: the one contribution covers the Workspace entire. You choose how long to contribute for, and a longer term costs less per year:

It is wholly optional, governed by its own Cloud Service Agreement, and the parish can delete its data from the server at any time. A Workspace is requested from inside the program rather than on this website — how to get access.

Offline Phone App

Workspace members can install a free phone app (no app store needed) that carries an offline copy of the parish database: baptism book, church records and contributions remain searchable also outside network coverage. Changes recorded in the field are exported as a file and reviewed in the desktop application before anything is applied. Internet is only needed for refreshing the latest parish data to the phone. Record searches and the production of area based contribution listings can be conducted offline on the phone.

Optional Encryption & PIN Protection

The user database can be fully encrypted with a single click, so that it cannot be opened even if transferred via USB to another machine. The application itself can also be PIN-protected to restrict access on shared office computers.

Export & Conversion

Export capabilities support data transfer to other systems (Excel, JSON, MySQL). Feel free to discuss with the developer how to make your already existing data compatible with the Parish Record Keeper format. (contact us to discuss conversion.)