Frequently Asked Questions

Church staff and volunteers who plan events and answer for the money: youth ministers pricing a camp, program directors planning a retreat, and treasurers and finance committees who need a total they can defend. If you've ever priced an event in a spreadsheet and hoped, it's for you.

No, and it isn't trying to. Your books (QuickBooks, Aplos, whatever the office runs) are the official record of what was spent, and they are better at that than we will ever be. Much Entrusted answers the questions around them: what an event will cost and how much of it lands on the church, whether the year is on track, and what everything really cost once it's over. You can import your transactions as a CSV to line the plan up against what actually happened, but nothing here replaces your ledger or your accountant.

Not directly. Once a month you export your transactions from QuickBooks (or Aplos, or your bank) as a CSV file and import it. Account codes and short memo tags file charges for you, and anything they can't place waits in one short list at month-end.

Usually it's the other way around. A large church has finance staff whose job is to answer these questions. A small one has a part-time bookkeeper, a volunteer treasurer, and a youth minister who is also the person answering for the camp. There's no minimum. One event with a handful of costs is a perfectly good reason to start, and what it really cost this year is where next year starts.

Your whole spending budget, yes: that's the goal, one picture of the year. Any account in your chart of accounts can be a budget line, staff pay and building costs included. Events plan their own costs, everything else sits on its line as a direct cost, and one forecast covers all of it.

No. The year-end forecast is what the church will spend against its budget: each event's cost after what families and fundraising bring in, plus every other budget line. Tithes and offerings aren't in it. Money given to a designated fund is tracked with that fund.

Yes. Add one ministry and its account codes, plan its events, and bring in the others when you're ready. The totals only count what you've added.

For the beta, very little. When you sign up, you pick what you came to do. Planning an event or building a budget starts in your own church, with a short guide. Checking spending or just looking around starts in a sample church with a year of books. After that, the Next Steps list walks you through your church's name and fiscal year, your ministries, and your chart of accounts (a CSV import works). Importing transactions is optional, and there's a ready-made practice file if you'd like to try it. A full setup guide comes at launch.

Yes. Import as many past months as you like, up to 5,000 transactions in a file. Each charge counts in the month it happened, and last year's real spending is where each budget line starts when you build next year's budget.

Nothing during the closed beta, and we don't ask for payment details. We're still working out pricing and will announce it before launch, and you won't be charged unless you choose to subscribe.

It's cleared when Much Entrusted launches. The beta is for trying things out, so keep your official records where they are now. We'll tell you ahead of time, so you can print or download anything you want to keep.

The beta is invitation-only for now. Join the wait-list on the Pricing page and we'll write when there's room. The invitation includes the code you'll need to create your account.

No. Families register and pay however you do it now: an online form, a table at church, your church management system. Much Entrusted keeps the Roster of who's coming and what each has paid, which you can type in or import as a CSV file.

No. You enter what you already know (how many kids, what the van costs, what families can afford) and the app does the math: the price per participant, a suggested price, the church's share. The output is plain English anyone can follow.

During the beta, each church shares one sign-in, and it can step into each seat (a youth minister, the finance director, the executive pastor) so you can try the whole approval route yourself. Each person gets their own login at launch.

By email, from the person building it: hello@muchentrusted.com. Inside the app, every page has a feedback button, and the Next Steps list and the guides cover the basics.

Yes, always: CSV and Excel exports for budgets and reports, PDF packets for leadership, and a roster export of who's paid what. Nothing is held hostage.

Every church has its own private workspace. The database itself keeps churches apart, and automated tests check that no church can see another's data. Sign-in is by email and password over an encrypted connection, with a reset link one email away.

Not yet. It opens on a phone, but it hasn't been designed for small screens, so for now we recommend a laptop or desktop.