Skip to content

Books your treasurer can hand an auditor.

This is a real double-entry ledger built for a parish, not a donation tracker. Every gift and expense posts as a balanced entry, your fund balances stay honest, and your nonprofit statements tie out on their own. It's the whole back office, from the first bill to the year-end close.

The books only one person understands.

Every parish has a treasurer who keeps the books in a spreadsheet only they can read, and a quiet worry about what happens when they step down or the diocese asks for an audit. Symphonia turns parish finance into a real general ledger that anyone can pick up, where the giving posts itself, the statements tie out, and a month closes with a click. The books stop being a person's private burden and become the parish's own.

Provably in balance.

A trial balance where the debits and credits agree to the penny, on the desk or in your pocket.

A
Finances.
Ledger
Bills 3
Invoices
Reconcile
Payroll
Statements
People Parish Office Finances Priest's Corner Settings
Ledger
General ledger.
Journal entry
$48,210
Total assets
$182,400
Revenue YTD
$0.00
Out of balance
Trial balanceBalance sheetActivitiesFunds
AccountDebitCredit
1000 · Operating Checking 14,220.00 ·
6100 · Utilities & Repairs 3,910.00 ·
4000 · Stewardship & Offerings · 16,480.00
4500 · Candle & Bookstore · 1,650.00
Totals18,130.0018,130.00
June closed and balancedDebits = credits.
Parish Studio, on your desk
9:41Parish Studio
Financial
The books.
$48,210
Total assets
$182k
Revenue YTD
$164k
Expenses YTD
+$18k
Net change
June closed & balanced
The plate and the ledger agree.
People Pastoral Comms Giving
The same Studio, in your pocket

The whole back office.

A real general ledger
True double-entry
Every gift and expense posts a balanced journal entry, so the books provably balance to the penny.
Guided setup
Set up ParishBooks by answering a short list of questions. You can start with files on the first day, before any outside connection.
A chart of accounts you control
Seed a standard nonprofit chart in one click, then rename, add, or reclass with a clean structure.
Nonprofit statements, live
Balance sheet, statement of activities, trial balance, and fund balances, all filterable by period.
Real fund accounting
Money tracked as unrestricted, temporarily, or permanently restricted, with the reason on the record.
The money-out side
Bills & vendors
Track what you owe, keep vendors with renewal reminders, and record W-9 contractors for tax time.
Invoices you can email
Bill for hall rentals or dues, send a pay link, and record the receipt against the ledger.
Reconcile to zero
Match every bank line to a ledger line. It won't finalize while a penny is off, and it names the gap.
Bank statement import
Bring in a statement from your bank as OFX, QFX, QuickBooks (QBO), CAMT.053, or CSV. You see what is new before anything is added, and ParishBooks suggests matches. Live bank feeds are not offered yet.
A second signer on payments
Payments, reimbursements, and transfers can require two signers. Approve payments is its own permission, so a council member can co-sign without seeing the rest of ParishBooks.
Year-end without the dread
1099s for the IRS
ParishBooks prepares each contractor’s 1099-NEC from their W-9 details, the copies to send them, and the upload file for the IRS’s free IRIS portal, with a record of what was filed.
In-house payroll
Pay clergy and staff. ParishBooks works out withholding, makes pay stubs, tracks tax deposit dates, and prepares Form 941 and W-2 figures. The parish makes the deposits and files the forms.
Budget vs actual
Set a budget, watch the variance line by line, and hand the board a clean, ready-made pack.
A tidy period close
Lock a month with a closing entry, so the books stay honest and an auditor has nothing to untangle.
Send to QuickBooks
Once a month, download the month’s journal for QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop and mark it sent, so next month offers only what is new. History can come over from QuickBooks too.
Reconciliation

It won't let the books be wrong.

Import a bank statement and tie each line to your books. ParishBooks reads OFX, QFX, QuickBooks (QBO), CAMT.053, and CSV files, skips lines already in the books, and matches the exact ones for you. Reconciliation refuses to finalize while a single penny is out of place, and it tells you exactly where the gap is. A running check watches that every recorded gift actually made it onto the ledger.

Bank reconciliationOperating checking
Sunday collection deposit+2,140.00
Utility payment · ComEd−318.44
Candle desk settlement+86.00
Matched to zero. Ready to finalize.

The ledger everything posts to.

Giving posts here

Every gift becomes a balanced entry, so the plate and the books reconcile themselves.

The store posts here

Candle-desk and bookstore sales land as journal entries, idempotently, never double-counted.

Feeds the reports

Budget variance, fund balances, and the diocesan census all read from the one honest ledger.

The honest answers.

Is it really double-entry, or just a donation tracker?

Real double-entry. Every gift and expense posts a balanced journal entry to a proper general ledger, so your trial balance ties out and your statements are the ones a nonprofit auditor expects.

Do we still need QuickBooks?

Most parishes cancel it. ParishBooks is built for a parish, with fund accounting and giving that posts itself. If your accountant or diocese works in QuickBooks, send each month to QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop as a file. Live sync with QuickBooks Online is added once Intuit approves Symphonia’s connection.

Can it handle 1099s and payroll?

Yes. ParishBooks prepares each contractor’s 1099-NEC, the recipient copies, and the upload file for the IRS’s free IRIS portal, where the parish files with its own IRS account. Payroll works out withholding, pay stubs, tax deposit dates, and Form 941 and W-2 figures. The parish makes its own tax deposits and filings. A payroll service that does this for you is not connected yet.

Does our bank need to connect to Symphonia?

No. Download a statement file from your bank’s website and import it. ParishBooks reads OFX, QFX, QuickBooks (QBO), CAMT.053, and CSV, and remembers how your bank lays out its CSV. Live bank feeds are not offered yet.

How do gifts get onto the books?

Automatically. Every online and in-person gift posts a balanced entry as it happens, so the plate and the ledger always agree without a data-entry night.

The QuickBooks you get to cancel.

See ParishBooks keep your parish's books balanced, with your own accounts, in a short walkthrough.