Build a temple system around your sevas, your donations and your trust accounts.
A temple office keeps more records than most businesses. Seva receipts torn off at a counter, a donation register, the hundi counted in front of trustees. A priest list for tomorrow, and a fund-wise statement the auditor will ask for in September.
Almost all of it is written by hand. It works, until a festival arrives. Then four counters run at once, two families turn up for the same homa slot, and a devotee in another country cannot give towards annadanam without telephoning the office.
A system built for your institution by GullySystem keeps those records in one place. Sevas with their slots, donations under their funds, numbered receipts, the priest roster, the devotee who comes every Thursday, and reports the trustees can read without anyone assembling them first.
Institutions we can build for.
A neighbourhood temple with one archaka and a pilgrimage centre with a hundred counters keep different records, and the counters you run decide what the system has to hold. Where a trust also runs a school, the admissions and fee side belongs on the schools page.
- Temples
- Temple trusts
- Pilgrimage centres
- Maths and peethas
- Jain temples and trusts
- Churches and parishes
- Mosques and jamaat committees
- Gurudwaras
- Buddhist viharas
- Religious charitable trusts
- Annadanam and food service trusts
- Goshalas
- Vedic pathashalas
- Choultries and kalyana mantapas
- Temple trusts that also run a school or a college
- Trusts with several shrines under them
The modules, and what each one covers.
Nothing here is a fixed package. Each module is built, left out or changed to match how your organisation already works.
Sevas and poojas offered
Your own list, with your own names for them, in the language the counter uses.
- Seva name in English and the local language
- Amount
- Days it is performed
- Time slots
- Number allowed per slot
- Details required from the devotee
- Whether the devotee must be present
- Prasadam given
- Priest required
The seva counter
- Devotee at the counter
- Seva selected
- Date and slot
- Name and details
- Payment
- Numbered receipt
- Added to the priest list
The counter screen has to be usable by a clerk who has done this with a receipt book for twenty years. Fewer fields, larger type, and the local language where it helps.
Sankalpa details
The details that must be read out correctly, and which a rushed counter clerk most often gets wrong.
- Devotee name
- Gothra
- Nakshatra
- Rashi
- Family members included
- Occasion
- Spelling as the family wants it read
Slots and capacity
- Sevas allowed per slot
- Slots already full
- Booking closed for a date
- Special arrangements by the trust
- Waiting list
- Cancellation and refund under your rules
- Reschedule to another date
Two families arriving for one homa slot is the complaint this module exists to end. Whether a full slot can be opened further is a decision for the office, and the system records who allowed it.
Online seva requests
- Seva list with amounts and days
- Choose date and slot
- Enter sankalpa details
- Online payment
- Request reaches the office as pending
- Office confirms or suggests another date
- Confirmation to the devotee
Whether prasadam is posted, and where to, is your institution’s decision. The system records the address and the despatch, and the courier remains a separate arrangement.
The priest list
Tomorrow’s poojas, sorted by time, in the hands of the people performing them before the gate opens.
- Sevas booked for each day
- Grouped by time and by deity
- Sankalpa details for each
- Priest assigned
- Printed list or on a phone
- Completed and not performed
- Reason where a seva was not performed
Archakas and temple staff
- Archaka records
- Duty roster by day and shift
- Sevas assigned
- Leave and substitutes
- Honorarium or salary
- Attendance
- Other temple staff
Donations by fund
A donation without a fund attached becomes an argument in the audit.
- Annadanam
- Gopura and construction fund
- Festival fund
- Goshala
- Education and scholarships
- Maintenance fund
- Corpus donations
- General donations
- Donations with the donor’s condition recorded
Receipts
- Serially numbered receipts
- Printed at the counter
- PDF to the devotee
- Trust name, address and registration details
- Donor PAN where it is given
- Payment mode and reference
- Cancelled receipts with a reason
- Duplicate issued with a record
Whether a donation qualifies for 80G depends on your trust’s own registration and on your auditor’s view. The software prints what you tell it to print and keeps the record. It does not decide eligibility.
The hundi
Counted physically, in front of trustees, exactly as it is today. What changes is what happens to the number afterwards.
- Opening date and time
- Trustees and witnesses present
- Denomination-wise count
- Foreign currency separately
- Gold and silver items found
- Total recorded
- Signatures
- Bank deposit slip attached
Donations in kind
- Gold and silver articles
- Weight and description
- Donor details
- Rice, grain and provisions
- Ghee, oil and camphor
- Vastra and ornaments
- Cattle for the goshala
- Land and immovable property
Valuing an article in kind is a matter for the trustees and the auditor. The system stores the description, the weight and whatever valuation you record against it.
Devotee register
- Name and phone number
- Family members
- Gothra and nakshatra
- Address
- Seva history
- Donation history
- Regular sevas on fixed days
- Birthdays and anniversaries in the family
- Language preferred
Messages to devotees
- Seva confirmation
- Donation receipt
- Reminder before an annual seva
- Festival announcements
- Special pooja timings
- Temple closure or change in timings
- Appeal for a specific fund
A seva receipt and a festival date are welcome messages. A donation appeal is not always welcome, and the record of which devotee agreed to hear from you sits against that devotee rather than in a trustee’s head.
Annadanam
The kitchen is an operation with a budget, and it usually has no records at all.
- Donations received for annadanam
- Sponsored days
- Sponsor named on the day
- Expected count for the day
- Provisions issued from the store
- Cooking staff
- Meals served
- Cost for the day
Prasadam and the counter shop
- Items and rates
- Stock prepared
- Counter sale
- Included with a seva
- Daily sale and closing stock
- Wastage
- Books, photographs and calendars
Festivals and utsavas
The week that makes the year, and the week every manual record gives way.
- Festival calendar for the year
- Daily programme and timings
- Special sevas for the festival
- Extra counters opened
- Volunteers assigned
- Sponsors and their contributions
- Purchases made for the festival
- Expenses against the festival fund
- Collection by counter and by day
Kalyana mantapa and hall bookings
- Hall and mantapa details
- Rate and deposit
- Availability calendar
- Booking with the family’s details
- Advance received
- Purpose and timings
- Additional facilities
- Cancellation and refund rules
Accommodation
For institutions with rooms or a dharmashala for pilgrims.
- Rooms and categories
- Tariff and deposit
- Availability
- Booking and allotment
- Devotee identity details
- Check-in and check-out
- Housekeeping status
- Charges and receipt
Darshan queue
- Token or slot for darshan
- Special entry sevas
- Queue counts
- Timings and closure
- Group and institutional visits
- Assistance for elderly devotees
Volunteers and sevadars
- Volunteer register
- Skills and preferred work
- Availability
- Duties assigned for a festival
- Attendance
- Identity cards
Purchases and stores
- Flowers, garlands and fruits
- Ghee, oil and camphor
- Rice and provisions
- Pooja articles
- Suppliers and rates
- Purchase orders
- Goods received
- Issue to the kitchen or the sanctum
Trust accounts
Written the way a religious trust actually keeps them, by fund and not only by head.
- Receipts by fund
- Expenses by fund and head
- Cash book and bank book
- Counter-wise daily collection
- Bank deposits against collections
- Vouchers with approvals
- Fund-wise balances
- Monthly and annual statements
The statements a trust must produce depend on its registration and on the auditor who signs them. The system holds the records and prepares the statements your auditor asks for, and he remains the authority on their form.
Trustees and meetings
- Trustee records
- Terms and appointment dates
- Meeting notices
- Agenda
- Minutes
- Resolutions
- Approvals recorded against expenses
Properties and assets
- Land and buildings
- Lease and rent records
- Tenants and dues
- Shops let out
- Jewellery and ornaments register
- Vehicles
- Equipment and fixtures
- Insurance and renewal dates
Charitable work
Where a trust also runs a school, a dispensary, a goshala or a scholarship scheme.
- Beneficiary records
- Scholarships awarded
- Medical assistance given
- Free food and clothing distribution
- Goshala cattle and upkeep
- Fund used for each activity
- Sponsor reporting
Counter discipline and access
- Counter logins
- Shift opening and closing
- Cash collected per counter
- Cash handed over
- Short and excess with a reason
- Cancellation rights restricted
- Discount or free seva approvals
- Full trail of who did what
Website and devotee app
- Timings and daily programme
- Seva list with amounts
- Online seva booking
- Online donation
- Festival calendar
- Photographs and announcements
- Receipts and history for the devotee
- Directions and contact
Online payments depend on a payment gateway accepting your trust’s account and paperwork. That approval sits with the gateway and the bank, not with us.
Reports the trustees ask for
- Collection by day and counter
- Seva-wise collection
- Donations by fund
- Hundi collections over the year
- Festival income and expenditure
- Annadanam days sponsored and served
- Hall booking income
- Expenses by head
- Fund balances
- Devotees who give regularly
What it connects to
- Tally and accounting software
- Payment gateways and UPI
- WhatsApp and SMS
- Receipt and token printers
- Display boards
- Your website
Temples administered by a government endowment department often must use that department’s own system. Where that is so, we would not replace it, and we would look only at what sits alongside it lawfully.
One connected workflow, end to end.
Every stage below can sit in one system, so nobody re-enters what the last stage already captured.
- Devotee arrives or books online
- Seva or donation chosen
- Details recorded
- Payment
- Numbered receipt
- Priest list
- Pooja performed
- Prasadam
- Counter close
- Bank deposit
- Fund accounts
- Trustee reports
You do not have to replace everything at once.
Each phase is usable on its own, so the system earns its place before the next part is built.
- 1
The counter
Sevas, slots, sankalpa details, numbered receipts and the daily priest list. The receipt book retires here. Nothing else changes yet.
- 2
Donations and funds
Donations by fund, the hundi record, donations in kind, the devotee register and the collection reports for the treasurer.
- 3
Festivals and facilities
Festival programmes, extra counters, volunteers, annadanam, hall bookings and accommodation for pilgrims.
- 4
Accounts and the website
Fund-wise accounts, purchases, trustee reports, online seva and donation, and the devotee app.
How a build actually runs.
- 01
Understand
We watch the counter through an ordinary week rather than a festival. A festival only shows louder what already gives way.
- 02
Map
Sevas, slots, funds, receipt series, priests, counters, approvals and the registers each of them keeps.
- 03
Design
A counter screen for a clerk with a queue in front of him, and separate screens for the office and the trustees.
- 04
Build
Seva booking, receipts and donations first. Those three carry the money, and everything else can wait.
- 05
Test
The office runs a normal week on it beside the receipt book, and the two are compared at the end of each day.
- 06
Deploy
One counter first, then the rest, with the clerks trained on the screen they will actually stand at.
- 07
Improve
Online booking, the devotee app, festival handling and the reports the trustees start asking for once they trust the numbers.
Systems we can put together for you.
- Temple management systems
- Seva and pooja booking software
- Donation and receipt systems
- Hundi and collection records
- Devotee registers and communication
- Festival and event management
- Annadanam and kitchen records
- Kalyana mantapa booking systems
- Pilgrim accommodation systems
- Trust accounting and fund reporting
- Volunteer management
- Temple websites and devotee apps
- Trustee dashboards
- Platforms for trusts with several shrines
Questions owners ask before starting.
Should we buy the ready temple software instead?
For most temples, yes. Our Temple Management Software already covers seva booking, donations, receipts, devotees, priests and a temple website. Building is for institutions it genuinely cannot hold.
When is a custom build the right choice?
When a trust runs several shrines, a mantapa, a pilgrim lodge and a school together, or when the fund and approval structure is unusual. Large pilgrimage centres with many counters are another case.
Will the counter staff manage a screen?
Usually yes, if the screen is built for them. Seva, date, name, payment, print. Seva names can show in Kannada or whichever language the counter speaks.
Can devotees book a seva from another city?
Yes. An online request carries the date, the slot and the sankalpa details, and it reaches the office as pending until somebody confirms it.
Does it print 80G receipts?
It prints your trust’s registration details and the donor’s PAN on the receipt. Whether the donation qualifies depends on your trust’s registration, which stays between you and your auditor.
How is the hundi handled?
The counting stays exactly as it is, in front of the trustees. The system records the date, who was present, the denomination-wise count and the deposit slip, so the year’s hundi history is in one place.
Will our Tally continue?
Yes. Collections and expenses by fund can be exported or posted across, so the auditor works exactly as he does now.
We are a church trust, not a temple. Does this fit?
The shape is the same. Offerings and subscriptions instead of sevas, funds, numbered receipts, members, events, halls and trust accounts. The names and the workflow change, and the build follows yours.
Can we start with only the seva counter?
Yes, and most institutions should. The counter and the receipts alone settle the day’s collection, and donations, festivals and the website can follow at your pace.
What will the software not do?
It will not count the hundi, and it will not decide what your trust may or may not do with a fund. It keeps the record so trustees and the auditor are looking at the same one.
How we work with this trade.
Software we already run for this work.
If one of these fits, it is cheaper and faster than building from scratch. We will say so.
Build the records your institution can stand behind.
A temple office is trusted with other people’s faith and other people’s money. The records should be clear enough that no trustee has to take anything on trust.
Take one festival day and try to close the hundi, the seva counter and the annadanam account from the same set of records. Where those three stop agreeing is the first thing a trustee will ask about.
Tell us how your temples and religious institutions runs today.
We will tell you what can be digitised, what can be connected, what is worth automating, and what you should leave alone.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
- Your details stay private