As of January 2007, Paritek is available for $495 (Canadian). How many things can you buy at the same price as ten years ago? Since British Columbia switched to HST and back to PST again, sales and support invoices have been tax-free. There is currently no tax on the original purchases, upgrades or support.

If you have a current list of families, they can be converted to Paritek format as part of the sales price. Since other programs store different information than Paritek, not all information that you have entered in your program may be able to be stored in Paritek. We will work together to import your most important information.

Optional upgrades are made available periodically. Upgrades that mainly consist of bug fixes are often free (or included as part of other paid services). Upgrades that introduce new features to the program have ranged in price from $30 to $185 (depending on the time spent on development). While we encourage everyone to upgrade to the latest version of the program, you can reduce your costs by not purchasing every upgrade.

Telephone support is free at the present time. You may also ask questions via e-mail (also free). On-site support or training will be billed, depending on the service provided. As of January 2018, my hourly rates are between $26 and $32 per hour, with a two hour minimum -- still an amazing value. There are no annual service contracts to purchase.

At times, products related to Paritek are offered for sale, usually at cost. For example, perforated paper for income tax receipts is purchased in bulk and sold in smaller packages. Every effort (short of working exclusively as a volunteer) is made to keep the price of owning Paritek low.

For each copy of Paritek sold, $50 is donated to an existing Paritek user (as a way of thanking existing users for their continued support).

If you are concerned about "hidden" costs, let's take a look at some real numbers. These are actual amounts (original purchase, upgrades, support, tax, etc.) that have been billed to these typical Paritek clients (updated to May, 2018).

Overall, it costs less than $10 per month to run Paritek in the long term. Obviously some clients pay more and others pay less, but if you budget $10 per month -- including the original purchase price -- then you will have a good idea of the actual cost of the program.

• on one computer (multiple copies of the program may exist). For example, if you have family and donation records for three churches, create three folders and install the program three times.
• on a network system (multiple stations may access the same database). For example, the program can be used by several people at the same time and changes made on one computer are immediately reflected on all computers on the network.
• on more than one computer (provided all copies of the program are being used to manage the same church). For example, you could install the program at your church office as well as at home. Just make sure the information is kept private and secure.

Paritek is formatted to run on a screen resolution of 800x600 or higher. The program allows you to customize colours and display font size to compensate for different display systems (or just to give you something pretty to look at).

Paritek is network ready and has run successfully on various networks. Paritek can print on any ink jet or laser printer that allows printing from Windows based programs. Many clients use large photocopier machines for their printing of reports, labels, receipts, etc.

Paritek makes use of whatever power is available on your system. Obviously, Paritek will run faster on a faster machine, but it can still be run reasonably well on an old computer.

However, you should not purchase Paritek (or any software) based on features it may have in the future. If Paritek meets your present needs, consider it. If not, you may want to keep looking.

If, after evaluating Paritek, you do not decide to purchase the program, I would appreciate receiving your opinions. With your help, we can create a program which meets the needs of every user.

If you are a software developer trying to find out what my program does so you can include some of my features in your program, you may also request a trial version. If my program can inspire you to create a better product, then I will be pleased that your customers could benefit from my talents. I will assume that since you are looking for church software, you will not be inclined to pirate my program.

You may also reach me if you call between 10:00am and 10:00pm (Pacific time) Monday through Saturday. Most likely, you will get my voice mail, but I will return your call as soon as I can.