MINNEAPOLIS (CNS) -- A Nebraska-based company providing financial services and tuition management for 5,500 schools and more than 1 million families across the United States has formed a partnership with a New Hampshire company that is a pioneer of cloud-based accounting systems for the Catholic Church.

FACTS Management Co. in Lincoln, Neb., and CathoNet in Hudson, N.H., announced they will integrate their software and computer data centers to offer Catholic parishes, schools and dioceses improved tracking, recording and coordination of information.

Clergy and laity will have “21st-century technology tools” for financial stewardship and accountability, according to Deacon William A. Koniers, president of CathoNet.

Other for-profit and nonprofit organizations offer parish programs for online giving and offertory campaigns, Deacon Koniers noted. But only this new collaboration provides an “overall business process,” or “central nervous system,” he said, for financial administration in dioceses, parishes and Catholic schools.

“Clergy and laity must be encouraged and taught to exercise good and sound leadership over the temporal goods of parishes and schools so that they can not only survive, but thrive,” said the deacon, former director of parish finance services for the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn. He serves at St. Pius X Parish in Fairfield, Conn.

“By investing in CathoNet, we are making a commitment to accelerate change in every Catholic diocese in the United States,” said Tim Tewes, president of FACTS.

Launched a year ago, CathoNet serves 15 U.S. archdioceses and dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J. Its “cloud-based” platform is an Internet-based computing system whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, not unlike an electricity grid. Its website is www.cathonet.com.

The system features tools to manage a parish’s finances, census, sacramental registries, contributions and religious education records.