A budgeting app for churches and stewardship ministries

If you teach stewardship, sooner or later someone asks: "Okay, but what do I actually use?"

This page is for pastors, small-group leaders, and anyone who helps people in a congregation get their money in order. It explains what Paqid is, why it fits what you're already teaching, and what it doesn't do, so you can decide whether it's worth recommending.

What it is

Paqid is an envelope budget. Every dollar someone actually has gets a job before it's spent: rent, groceries, giving, the car repair that's coming. Spending comes out of those envelopes, unused money rolls forward to next month, and an overspent envelope shows red instead of quietly disappearing. It runs in a web browser and on a phone.

The name is the Hebrew word paqid (פָּקִיד): an overseer, someone entrusted with what belongs to another. Its plural is the word in Genesis 41 for the officers Joseph urged Pharaoh to appoint over the land, to set aside a fifth of the harvest in the good years against the lean ones. That is very nearly a description of a budget.

Why it fits stewardship teaching

Giving comes first, structurally

In most budgets giving is funded from whatever survives the month. In an envelope budget, Giving is an envelope like rent, and it's filled the moment income arrives. Firstfruits, not leftovers, and the software makes that the natural order rather than an act of willpower.

It only works with money people actually have

You can't assign money you don't have. The method pushes people away from spending on the expectation of next month and toward living within what's in hand, and it shows them plainly when they haven't.

Setting aside for what's coming

Joseph's storehouses, in modern form: a little set aside each month for the expense everyone knows is coming. It's the single habit that most reduces money anxiety, and envelopes make it concrete. There's more on this in budgeting as stewardship.

"Enough" becomes something you can see

When the bills, the giving and the things coming later are all covered, what's left is genuine surplus. People can name it and decide about it on purpose, which is a far better conversation than "I never seem to have enough."

What you should know before recommending it

• It isn't free. After a 45-day free trial (no card to start) it's $45 a year or $4.50 a month, everything included. I'd rather you hear it here than have someone find out after you recommended it.
• Nobody can see anyone else's budget. Each person's budget is private to them. There's no leader view and no church account; recommending it doesn't put you in the position of seeing someone's finances.
• No ads, no upsells, no selling data. Nobody gets emails about growing their net worth or a premium tier. The only mail is account mail, like a password reset.
• It doesn't connect to banks. People enter what they spend themselves. It takes seconds, and it's the moment they actually notice the purchase, which for most people is the point. More on why.
• It's not a church tool. It doesn't take donations, track members or keep giving records for the church. It's a household budget.
• It needs a few minutes a week. It suits someone ready to sit down regularly. For someone in crisis, a person who'll sit with them helps more than any app.

Getting someone started

The simplest thing is to send them to paqid.app. They can try a sample budget with no sign-up first, and the six-step setup checklist walks through the first evening: add accounts, set up envelopes, give every dollar a job, then enter spending as it happens.