You will need the Accounting Settings permission to change your organization's accounting method.
Cash and accrual are two ways of answering the same question: when does a transaction count? One Church Software records every transaction once, with full detail, and then lets you view your finances through either lens. You are not keeping two sets of books - you are choosing which date your reports use.
The two methods
Cash basis - money counts when it changes hands. Income appears on the day you receive it, and an expense appears on the day you pay it.
Accrual - money counts when the obligation is created. Income appears when you have billed for it, and an expense appears when you receive the bill, even if payment happens weeks later.
Tip: Cash basis answers "what moved through our bank account?" Accrual answers "what do we actually owe and expect?" Most churches find one useful for day-to-day decisions and the other useful for board reporting and audits.
Which date your reports use
In One Church Software, the difference between the two methods comes down to one thing: which date a bill or an invoice is reported on.
On accrual, a payable or receivable is reported on its own date - the day you entered the bill or issued the invoice.
On cash basis, it is reported on the date it was paid off - the day the payment actually moved through your checking account or another register account.
Take a $900 utility bill dated March 28 that you pay on April 10. An accrual report puts the $900 expense in March. A cash basis report puts it in April. Same bill, same payment, two different months - because the two methods are reading two different dates.
This is also why your Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable accounts appear on accrual reports but not on cash basis reports. Those accounts exist to hold amounts between the bill date and the payment date. A cash basis report skips that waiting period entirely and reports the payment instead.
Note: The payment side of a bill or invoice is recorded against a register account - your checking account, savings, or another account with Use as register? checked. That setting is part of what makes an account reportable on a cash basis. See How do I set an account as a register account?
Why totals move in both directions
It is tempting to assume accrual always shows the bigger number, since it counts money you have not collected yet. That is not how it works, and it catches people out.
Because the two methods read different dates, a report covering a fixed period can pick up different transactions under each one. An invoice you issued last year but collected in March lands in this year on a cash basis report and in last year on an accrual report. So for any given date range, a cash basis total can come out higher than accrual, lower than accrual, or the same - depending on what was carried in from earlier periods and what is still outstanding.
Tip: When two reports disagree and you want to know why, run the Transaction List for the same date range both ways and compare an account line by line. The rows themselves change, not just the totals - which makes the cause easy to spot.
Setting your organization's accounting method
Your accounting method is set once for the whole organization, and every accounting report opens using it.
Go to Accounting > Settings in the left-hand menu.
Open the Options tab.
Under General, choose Accrual or Cash Basis next to Accounting Method.
The Fiscal Year Start setting sits just above it on the same tab, so this is a good moment to confirm both are right for your church.
Switching methods on a single report
You do not have to change your organization's setting to see the other view. A report can be run either way without affecting anything else.
Go to Accounting > Reports in the left-hand menu. The Accounting Dashboard opens with a Reports list.
Click the report you want to run.
Click additional options under the date range to open the Report Options panel.
Under Accounting Method, choose Accrual or Cash Basis.
Click Refresh to run the report on the method you picked.
The method used is printed in the report header, under your organization name and above the date range - Method: Cash Basis or Method: Accrual. Check that line before you export or share a report, so everyone reading it knows which view they are looking at.
Choosing a method here changes only the report in front of you. Open the report fresh and it uses your organization's setting again.
Which method should our church use?
That decision belongs to your church's leadership and your accountant, not to your software. A few things worth knowing as you discuss it:
Cash basis is simpler to maintain and lines up closely with your bank balance, which is why many smaller churches start there.
Accrual gives a fuller picture of commitments already made, and audited financial statements are generally prepared on an accrual basis.
If your church does not use Payables or Receivables, there is nothing waiting between a bill date and a payment date, so the two methods will report the same figures.
Whichever you choose, the underlying records in One Church Software are the same - you can produce the other view at any time, so the choice is not permanent.
Talk with your accountant or treasurer before changing the setting mid-year, since it changes how every report reads.