Temple HubBuilt for US temples, not adapted for them
Most temple software on the market was built for temples in India and works in the US by coincidence. A US temple is a 501(c)(3) with substantiation obligations, donors who pay by Zelle, and a treasurer who has to produce year-end statements in January. Temple Hub is built around those facts.
501(c)(3) substantiation
The receipt is issued correctly, per transaction type
Most systems put every payment through one receipt template and leave the tax treatment to whoever assembles the year-end letter. That works until a donor is audited, or until someone notices the temple has been calling raffle tickets donations for three years.
Temple Hub decides the treatment at the moment of the transaction, from a policy the temple sets once under Booking Rules → Receipts & Tax:
- Contributions of $250 or more
A contemporaneous written acknowledgment under Section 170(f)(8), issued at the time of the gift rather than reconstructed in January.
- Payments over $75 with goods or services
A quid pro quo disclosure under Section 6115, carrying a good-faith estimate of the fair market value the donor received.
- In-temple religious ceremonies
Intangible religious benefit language, for ceremonies where the devotee receives only a spiritual benefit with no market value.
- Non-cash gifts
A description of the property with no stated value — because valuing a donated item is the donor's job, not the temple's.
- Membership dues
Dues of $75 or less granting only routine benefits are treated under the Publication 1771 membership-benefits exception; above that, the perks are valued and disclosed.
- Volunteer out-of-pocket expenses
A service acknowledgment letter, downloadable per volunteer — required once a volunteer claims $250 or more in supplies or mileage.
The corollary matters as much: payments that are notdeductible stay off the tax letter. Canteen meals and prasadam, gift-shop items, hall and kitchen rentals, class tuition and raffle tickets are all recorded as what they are, so a devotee’s year-end statement does not overstate what they can claim.
The one nobody else handles
Donor-advised funds and IRA distributions, blocked where they must be
Federal rules say a DAF grant or an IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution cannot confer any more-than-incidental benefit on the donor. In practice that means these sources may be used for pure donations and never for a puja booking, an event ticket, a membership with perks, or anything else where the devotee receives something in return.
Temple Hub enforces this at checkout: DAF and QCD payment sources are blocked on quid pro quo items and accepted only on pure-donation options. A treasurer does not have to know the rule for the system to follow it — which is the point, because the treasurer is usually a volunteer.
How Americans actually pay a temple
Zelle, Venmo, checks — recorded, not scribbled
A US temple takes a serious share of its income outside the card reader. Temple Hub records those properly instead of leaving them in a notebook: choose the Other mode at Confirm Payment Details and pick Check, Zelle, Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Bank Transfer or Other. Enter the reference or confirmation number and attach a required proof image — a photo or a screenshot.
The payment then behaves like any other paid order: it appears in the Finance Dashboard, lands on the devotee’s profile, counts toward their year-end statement, and sends an emailed acknowledgment. The proof image is visible only to Finance and SuperAdmin roles, so a screenshot of someone’s bank app is not sitting where every volunteer can open it.
At the counter, staff take cash with change calculation, card, split cash-and-card, or complimentary — and reconcile the drawer at end of shift, which is what makes the deposit match the books on Monday.
January
Year-end statements that assemble themselves
Because every transaction already carries its treatment, the annual donor statement is a report rather than a project. Each household gets one letter covering everything they paid, with the deductible and non-deductible portions separated according to the policy the temple configured — not according to what someone remembered in January.
Temple Hub is not a tax adviser, and this page is not tax advice. The software applies the substantiation rules your temple configures and produces the paperwork; whether a particular payment is deductible is between the donor, your temple’s counsel and the IRS.
And the ordinary things
Priced in dollars, supported in your time zone
Pricing is in USD — $499 a month for up to 500 active households, $1,199 for up to 2,500 — with no per-booking or per-transaction fee. Support runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern. Devotee communication is English-first. The temple calendar handles both the festival calendar and the US holidays your hall gets booked around.
Bring your treasurer to the demo
This is the part worth checking with the person who actually signs the year-end letters. Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial, no credit card required.