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January 31, 2024 Release Notes

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 20:44:51 GMT

Webinar Replay: Database Cleanliness

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 14:15:00 GMT

Database Cleanliness Webinar THIS THURSDAY!

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 15:00:03 GMT

Ministry by Text is now Powered by Text

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 14:00:06 GMT

January 15, 2024 Release Notes

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:00:01 GMT

Webinar Replay: 2023 Fireside Chat w/Ross & Others!

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 06:41:33 GMT

Registrations Without Accounting Codes

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 19:03:30 GMT

Fireside Chat - THIS Thursday!

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 14:57:32 GMT

Check Scan Update

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 14:32:41 GMT

December 6, 2023 Release Notes

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 14:00:05 GMT

Scheduled System Maintenance

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:48:26 GMT

Last Chance - Webinar Thursday!

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:37:14 GMT

Finance Updates Release Notes - Nov 2023

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 14:00:02 GMT

Improving Security - reCAPTCHA Update

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 18:00:00 GMT

Ticketing Updates

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 13:00:00 GMT

Last Chance: Webinar Registration

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 16:06:31 GMT

Calling All Power Users!

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 18:00:01 GMT

TouchPoint Training Update

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 13:00:02 GMT

Webinar Replay: Summit Recap

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 17:50:39 GMT

Summit Recap Webinar This Week!

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 17:32:58 GMT

TouchPoint Has A New Look!

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 15:21:32 GMT

Finance Roundtable Replay

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 16:31:02 GMT

Drive church growth using these proven texting workflows and MMS

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 14:11:17 GMT

Finance (Phase II) Roundtable

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 20:14:31 GMT

Finance Enhancements - Additional Phase II Information

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:06:15 GMT

Finance Enhancements - Phase II

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:12:12 GMT

Upcoming Webinar! Don't Miss Out

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 11:56:52 GMT

Additional Finance - Phase I Updates

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 18:08:25 GMT

Changes to Imported "Online" Contributions

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 13:00:00 GMT

TouchPoint Minute Recap

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 14:12:48 GMT

Last Summer Roundtable

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 14:21:38 GMT

TouchPoint Sites with Solertiae

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 20:28:51 GMT

Summit Is Just Around The Corner!

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 17:38:51 GMT

📢 Exciting Finance Roundtable Replay from TouchPoint Software!

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 15:43:44 GMT

Update in Media and Resources

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 19:14:33 GMT

A Minute of Value

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 17:53:49 GMT

Finance Enhancements - You Spoke, We Acted!

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 14:19:20 GMT

Finance Enhancements - Phase I

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 12:00:00 GMT

Finance Enhancements

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 14:15:49 GMT

REMINDER: Email Scams & How To Avoid Them

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 12:00:01 GMT

Webinar Replay: Scheduler

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 17:45:40 GMT

Upcoming Webinar

Tue, 23 May 2023 20:01:17 GMT

Promotion and Grade Level Settings

Wed, 17 May 2023 13:00:00 GMT

Scheduler is LIVE!

Wed, 03 May 2023 16:24:28 GMT

Financial Webinar Replay

Mon, 01 May 2023 19:23:13 GMT

Replacement Code for Giving to Funds

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 18:30:00 GMT

New Navigation Menu!

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:30:01 GMT

Upcoming Webinar: Finance Enhancements

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:44:00 GMT

April 2023 Release Notes

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:00:40 GMT

Engage Easter

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 18:47:23 GMT

It's All About Check-In!

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 22:24:22 GMT

Upcoming Webinar - New Features!

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 18:33:10 GMT

Check Scan Update

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 17:01:14 GMT

Check-In Print Server Update

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 17:23:21 GMT

Upcoming Webinar - Embracing TouchPoint

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:03:20 GMT

Check-In Updates

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 14:00:01 GMT

TouchPointers: Check-Out

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 21:51:44 GMT

February 2023 Release Notes

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 17:30:03 GMT

Webinar Replay: To The Point - Database Cleanliness

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:59:35 GMT

WEBINAR REPLAY: FIRESIDE CHAT

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 21:02:38 GMT

Pledge Enhancements

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 16:58:36 GMT

TouchPointers: Measuring Engagement

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 15:04:09 GMT

Our Favorite Churches to Visit for Christmas

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 22:26:16 GMT

Each year Christmas Eve services are prepared across the country and we've compiled a list of the best! Check it out now!

Settlements Report

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 14:00:11 GMT

Check-In and Classroom Dashboard Updates

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 15:50:31 GMT

Resources is now "Media & Resources"

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 14:00:00 GMT

December 2022 Release Notes

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 20:26:32 GMT

Email Scams & How To Avoid Them

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 19:58:20 GMT

TouchPointers: Understanding Engagement

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:00:43 GMT

Learn what churchgoer engagement is all about in this TouchPointers!

TouchPointers: Batch Updating Involvements

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 20:32:30 GMT

Webinar On Demand: TouchPoint's Guide to Effective Email Communication

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 14:59:00 GMT

Learn more about best practices when it comes to email communication!

Check-In Print Server Update

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 21:03:05 GMT

TouchPointers: Widget Focus - Vital Stats

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 22:44:55 GMT

New FinanceViewOnlyDetails Role

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 22:41:44 GMT

WEBINAR REPLAY: WHAT'S THE POINT...OF TOUCHPOINT GIVING

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 22:11:55 GMT

Learn more about TouchPoint Giving by watching our October Webinar!

Check-In Enhancements

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:24:09 GMT

October 31 2022 Release Notes

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 21:55:16 GMT

Check out the list of upcoming changes in our next deployment!

Upcoming Webinar: What's the Point of TouchPoint Giving

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 21:01:51 GMT

Touchpointers: Configuring Your Mobile App Directory Privacy Settings

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 13:59:28 GMT

Learn how to update privacy settings in this TouchPointers.

October '22 Release Notes

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 21:52:41 GMT

Webinar Replay: September New Features

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 20:35:34 GMT

If you missed September's TouchPoint New Features Webinar, catch it here on the blog!

September 26th Release Notes

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 16:13:37 GMT

Ticketing Enhancements!

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 03:43:14 GMT

If you are using our Ticketing feature, you’ll love the following updates we just released! Ticket Sales Report There is a new and improved Ticket Sales Report available under the Reports menu in the Attendance Summary section. The report contains new columns such as separate Section, Row, and Seat columns. Best of all, the report is fully searchable for Involvement, Section, Status, etc. You will be able to view the report if you have the Ticketing role.

ATTENTION: Action Required If You Use Twilio

brad.mcilwain@solertiaelabs.com (Bradley McIlwain) — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 03:38:37 GMT

If your church uses Twilio, you likely received an email from them notifying you that (1) all new toll-free numbers require verification effective May 15, 2022 and (2) all existing toll-free numbers require submission for verification by Sept 30, 2022. If you have already verified your number(s) (unlikely), no action is required. If you have not yet verified your toll free number(s), please do so today. If you are unsure whether or not your numbers are verified, log in to Twilio and submit a support ticket asking them to check whether your number(s) are already verified or not. If you do not verify your number(s), on October 1, 2022, messages sent via Toll-Free numbers will be restricted to the following messaging limits. Daily limit: 2,000 messages Weekly limit: 12,000 messages Monthly limit: 25,000 messages These limits aren’t applicable when a Toll-Free number has been submitted for verification and is in a ‘pending’ state or already verified. Verifying your numbers has no additional charge (according

One Page Forms

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 03:36:39 GMT

Over time, several people have asked for a simplified registration that includes the collection of contact information, answers to questions, and payment all in ONE PAGE! Well, that dream is now a reality! We are pleased to announce the addition of the One Page Forms registration type!

New Registration Submission Report

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 03:32:07 GMT

Registration reporting is even easier now with the newly created Submission Report. The report is run from the Cloud icon of the Involvement Blue toolbar under the Involvement Members Reports section. The Excel report contains information about each registration. If Allow Re-Register is True for the involvement, the report will provide a line item for each re-registration. The Submission Report will be dynamic based on the questions provided in the online registration and will also contain fees information. Each question and the corresponding answers will have a separate column, versus the Registration Report that provides all the answers in one column. Basic information about the registrant including Name, Address, DOB and Grade is included as well. Learn more about this new report in the Submission Report help article.

Touchpointers: People Record Creation Details

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 03:30:22 GMT

TouchPoint stores a lot of details about people records, from the very moment the record is first created inside of your TouchPoint database. In this TouchPointers, Andrew points out where you can find the helpful information regarding when a people record was created, who created it, when he/she last logged in to TouchPoint...and how they accessed your database (mobile app versus web browser). Check out the video below to learn more:

SEPTEMBER '22 RELEASE NOTES

brad.mcilwain@solertiaelabs.com (Bradley McIlwain) — Sat, 10 Sep 2022 03:28:12 GMT

We have a mini release scheduled to be deployed this Sunday night, September 11th. There are a few new things you’ll see in your system Monday morning and several items are wrapping up final features that we’ll be discussing at Summit. In case you are not able to attend Summit this year, watch the blog for more details in the coming weeks. Fully Released New Features Ticketing Enhancements - There is a new report for viewing all ticket sales with easy filters and sort capabilities. In addition to this report, several other enhancements were added to our Ticketing system for an enhanced user and admin experience. Submission Report - This new report that was built as part of the One Page Forms project is now available for all registration types. Note: This will only show data for registrations that have been completed in mid-summer 2022 moving forward. Limit Editing/Hide Fields - The user interface on these admin settings has been adjusted so that it is easy to use and set your requirements. Beta / Summit Fea

TOUCHPOINTERS: INVOLVEMENT CLEAN UP

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 03:25:50 GMT

In the last TouchPointers, we discussed keeping your database clean by ensuring your People Record data remains complete and accurate. In this episode, we discuss keeping your Involvements organized. A primary way of doing so is by reusing your Involvements.

WEBINAR REPLAY: WHAT'S THE POINT...OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 03:23:11 GMT

ENGAGEMENT SCORE REPORT AND NEW SETTINGS

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 03:17:50 GMT

Along with providing more user-friendly and customizable Status Flag searches that can also be assigned Engagement Scores, we’ve created a way to export the information as well! The Engagement Score Report is found in the Blue Toolbar under the Cloud icon in the Reports section. You will be able to view past Engagement Score history in an Excel report for up to the last 52 weeks, 12 quarters, and 5 years based on data availability. You can hide the Report from the toolbar along with hiding the Profile > Engagement Tab, Engagement Score badge and related search conditions using a new setting called Engagement Information Role. Limit access by adding roles under Administration > Settings > Features > Status Flags. Additionally, the actual Engagement Score can be hidden under another new setting called Show Engagement Score, also found under Status Flags settings. If toggled to False, users won’t be able to view the actual score in the Badge or by hovering the Engagement Score Graph. Learn more about Engag

CHECK-IN PROFILE UPDATES - ACTION REQUIRED!

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 03:15:37 GMT

We recently added the ability for congregants to update their Emergency Contacts and Profile Pictures very easily when checking into classes through TouchPoint Check-In. The deployment on 8/29/2022 added two new settings that will allow your church to opt to hide access to these. Simply navigate to Administration > Check-In > Profiles on the Security tab and uncheck the boxes for Allow Emergency Contact Edit and Allow Photo Edit. IMPORTANT: Since these new Check-In Profile options now exist, you will need to log out of your Check-In kiosks and log back in, even if you do not plan to use them.

NEW MINISTRYSAFE INTEGRATION!

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 03:10:36 GMT

ACTION REQUIRED: If you haven’t already done so, establish an account with MinistrySafe. Look for the Integration Administrative Settings. You generate your own API key. If you want to see and use the Training Classes, you must have the MinistrySafeClasses user role. Find out more about this exciting new integration in this article.

VOLUNTEER TAB ENHANCEMENTS - ACTION MAY BE REQUIRED!

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 03:03:21 GMT

The deployment on 8/29/2022 included some enhancements to the Volunteer tab on a person’s record. Be on the lookout for another blog about the new MinistrySafe integration. Watch this video to see an overview of the Volunteer tab changes.

AUGUST '22 RELEASE NOTES

brad.mcilwain@solertiaelabs.com (Bradley McIlwain) — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 02:51:04 GMT

Our August release is scheduled to be deployed next Monday night, August 22nd 29th. Some updates are for features that are still in development or in beta, but there are several new features and enhancements as well. Here are the details of everything that is being released: Fully Released New Features MinistrySafe Integration - As previously announced, we are integrating with MinistrySafe to provide background checks and abuse-prevention training. We have also made enhancements to the Involvement > Volunteer tab on a People Record to better support the background check process. Engagement Score - If you're using Engagement Scores, you will be excited to know there is a new status badge that shows the individual's score. You can update an Administrative Setting to specify who sees the badge. There is also a new export that shows the score over the past 52 weeks, 12 quarters, or 3 years. Check-In - There is a new Profile setting that allows you to hide the photo editing ability and emergency contact abi

TOUCHPOINTERS: PEOPLE RECORD CLEAN UP

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 02:43:35 GMT

What good is it to have People Records in your database if they aren't accurate? In this TouchPointers, Andrew walks us through how to quickly identify incomplete People Records so that we may get them updated. If we know someone's gender/age/marital status, we want to include that information inside of TouchPoint. The more complete a picture we have of someone, the better we will be able to minister to him/her. This is especially important for your Members, the people who are closest to your church.

Mobile App Update Aug 2022

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 21:55:47 GMT

Our next mobile app update (version 2022.2.4) includes some minor fixes and adjustments, in addition to some exciting new features. This release is going out now and is in the approval process in the app stores, so it will be available in the upcoming days. We have added an account deletion option, people search bar under meeting attendance, and support for the media type .m3u8. Account Deletion: Effective July 30, 2022, Apple now requires that all mobile apps provide an end user the option to request an account deletion so this option has been added to the app. This new feature has been added to the Profile page under Settings and Preferences where they will see the Request Account Deletion option.

ACCOUNT DELETION REQUEST ON MOBILE

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 02:39:19 GMT

The latest update to our mobile app (version 2022.2.4) adds the ability for an individual to request an account deletion. This is a option that Apple now requires in order to publish an app in their app store. This has been added to the Profile page under Settings and Preferences, where you will see the Request Account Deletion option.

TOUCHPOINTERS: USING THE CHECK-IN DASHBOARD

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 23:58:53 GMT

The Check-In Dashboard is designed to give us live reporting for our Check-In Involvements. This gives the staff member who is overseeing several volunteers and classrooms a snapshot of who has been Checked In to each class, who has been Checked Out, and the ratio of leaders to students. We can easily increase or decrease capacity for each room as well and open or close a Meeting. Closing a Meeting would disallow any further kids from checking in to that room.

TouchPointers: Using The Classroom Dashboard

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 14:24:00 GMT

The newly refreshed Classroom Dashboard is loaded with options to help you manage your classes. From viewing those who are on the way to communicating with the parents of those in your class, the Classroom Dashboard is a great tool for your busy Sunday mornings. For help with your Classroom Dashboard, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

Specify Required Fields For New Records

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 13:15:00 GMT

We have created a new dashboard to designate which fields are required when someone is adding a new record or editing an existing record. You can allow users with certain roles (i.e. Finance or Staff) to override the rules. You also have the ability to prevent certain fields from being edited (unless blank). Here's a glance at the new dashboard: This new setting replaces the following settings: AddPersonRequiredFields, EditPersonRequiredFields and UsePersonValidationScript. Learn more about this new feature here.

Status Flags & Engagement Score

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 18:00:00 GMT

Our beloved Status Flag feature has seen a facelift! Status Flags are customizable and more user-friendly. There is no limit to how many Status Flags you can create. Flag color can be chosen from one of eight preset colors which can be customized as well, and the colors will appear as a Badge (with which you are likely already familiar) or a Picture Border or both! Status Flags do more than alert you of a person's current status on a particular day; they can work in tandem with our new Engagement Score system, allowing churches to measure and track engagement over time using Status Flags. Learn more about Status Flags and Engagement Score in these help articles: Status Flags Engagement Score

Exciting Check-In Enhancements

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 13:26:00 GMT

We're steadily enhancing Check-In to ensure your Sundays remain as smooth (and fun) as possible! We have introduced several new features that will elevate the experience for your staff and church goers: Check-In Keypad Text You can now easily edit the text that shows above the entry box, or leave it blank to use text from your background image instead. Filter By Grade You now have the option to filter classes at Check-In for guests based on Grade in addition to Birthday. This can be updated within the Involvement or on the Involvement Search page. Restrict By IP Lastly, we have added a new setting called Restrict Check-In by IP. This will restrict Check-In to only the IP addresses listed in the setting. Learn more about these Check-In features in the help articles below: Using Check-In Involvements > Search/Manage Page Check-In Administrative Settings

Classroom Dashboard Supports Check-Out!

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 14:56:00 GMT

Our Classroom Dashboard has been updated with additional features! You can now easily see children that are "Present" in the class as well as those who are "On The Way." New menu items including Check-Out, Edit Note, and Move Child are also available. Along with using a security code label or QR code, class leaders with the Check-Out role may use the Dashboard to facilitate Check-Out. Learn more: Classroom Dashboard Check-Out

Update Regarding Grade

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 21:07:00 GMT

Recently TouchPoint announced a new Administrative Setting called GradeUpdateDate. This setting is not currently functional, but will be effective Thursday, July 7th. The default value is set for July 1st, which means that the Grade field will not update this year unless you set this to a future date. For this year, you have 3 options: Do nothing - No grades will update this year, but next year on July 1, all grades (except any that start with “Class of” will increase one year). Adjust it to a date after the current date - Grades will then update automatically on that date (it is recommended to then reset it to the date you would want these to update next year so that you don’t forget to adjust it). Adjust it to a date in the past - Grades will not update this year, but they will update automatically on this date next year. Note: if you have previously set this date in the past, you will need to modify it when this update goes out since we had to reset all current settings. Reports: This release will also update the following reports to start using the new Grade Field: Blue Toolbar reports (including the Excel export, Attendance (Main Fellowship), Custom Report, Member Export, and Group Export) and Children reports will now reflect the Grade from the new grade on a person’s record or from the Grade question in a registration. Note: Please consider carefully how or if you use the Grade question in a registration. You may want to ask for “current” grade rather than upcoming grade to avoid a “double promotion.”

TouchPointers: Text Message Reply Words

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:01:00 GMT

Get some time back in your day! Configure Reply Words to automatically engage with your church goers. Text Message Reply Words are a great way to keep people connected. Check out this episode of TouchPointers to learn more about this TouchPoint feature: For personalized help with Reply Words, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

July Release Notes + Last Day For Summit Summer Savings!

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 19:39:00 GMT

TouchPointers: Using Deeplinks

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 13:00:00 GMT

Deeplinks make it easy to get people into your mobile app. TouchPoint offers many different Deeplinks. You can read more about them here. When accessed from a mobile device, the Deeplink will launch your church's TouchPoint Mobile App--instead of a web bitemser--directly on the page the User was directed to. No navigation required. If he/she doesn't have the mobile app installed, they will be prompted to do so. Check out this episode of TouchPointers to see how easy it is to set up and begin using Deeplinks: For personalized help with Deeplinking, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

New Enhancement Related to Tasks

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 13:00:00 GMT

If you’ve been looking for a way to easily identify and address Tasks requiring action by you, we've got a new enhancement to do just that! You can now easily sort Tasks so that those owned by or assigned to you are positioned at the top of the list. You will now notice a button called My Action Required on an individual’s Touchpoints Tab and on the Tasks & Notes Search Page (People > Tasks & Notes), between Open Tasks and Complete. Simply click the button to sort the list. Action items include: Accept or Decline - These options will appear together as actions required by the person to which the Task is assigned. Note: If an Assignee declines a Task, that Assignee will be prompted to enter a reason. Complete - This option will appear on its own as an action required by the person who was assigned and has accepted the Task. Complete or Edit - These options will appear together as actions required by the Owner of the Task once that Task has been declined by the Assignee. The Owner can either Complete the Task on their own or click Edit to reassign or make any other necessary adjustments. Special thanks to James Kurtz at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia for this very exciting enhancement! Learn more here!

June Release Notes

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 21:23:00 GMT

TouchPointers: No More Lost Data - Archive those People Records!

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 18:50:00 GMT

There is an easy and effective way to hide inactive people records in TouchPoint. You do not have to delete a record and lose all of the data associated with that person...just archive the record! Once an individual's record is archived, it is hidden from searches but can easily become unarchived at the touch of a button. TouchPoint even has built-in automation that will automatically unarchive someone once they meet certain criteria. Their data stays on record if they return to church, so you will never have to start from scratch with someone returning again. Check out this episode of TouchPointers to see how easy it is to archive and unarchive People Records on your database: Read more about Archiving People Records. For personalized help with Archiving People Records, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

Webinar Replay: What's the Point...of Measuring Engagement

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 18:31:00 GMT

In case you missed it: Michael and Chris answered, "What's the Point of Measuring Engagement?" We enjoyed discussing what it looks like to measure engagement within the church and then took a sneak peek at what this feature will look like in TouchPoint. Special thanks to Greg Goulet, technology expert from Hill Country Bible Church for joining us and giving insight on how his church will use this feature soon! Watch our recorded webinar below to learn more: Click HERE to download the slide deck!

Church Spotlight: Great Hills Baptist Church

Fri, 20 May 2022 16:52:00 GMT

If you plan to join us for the TouchPoint 2022 Summit, you'll get to see this lovely church in person. As one of our two host churches for this year's event, Terry Hurt (Executive Pastor*) with Great Hills Baptist Church connected with the TouchPoint team to share some details about how TouchPoint has impacted their ministry. {{cta('3cd3978c-0558-47fd-a0bc-2bbf20bc0216','justifycenter')}} *Terry was the Executive Pastor at the time of interview; he has since moved away from his position at the church. If you would like to reach out to someone at Great Hills Baptist Church, please contact marketing@touchpointsoftware.com and we will get you connected with someone!

TouchPointers: Creating Tasks & Notes In Mobile

Mon, 16 May 2022 15:40:00 GMT

Continuing the trend for Mobile May: this episode of TouchPointers focuses on creating Tasks/Notes in the Mobile App. As you know, your TouchPoint Mobile App is an extension of your TouchPoint database. Everything is synced in real time, allowing you to always have updated information from anywhere. Check out this episode of TouchPointers to see how easy it is to do ministry on-the-go with Tasks & Notes: Read more about Tasks & Notes. For personalized help Tasks & Notes, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

May Release Notes

Mon, 09 May 2022 20:22:00 GMT

We have an update scheduled to be deployed tonight that is mostly behind-the-scenes items for features that are in development or in beta, with the exception of one change that impacts the mobile app registrations. Here are the details of everything that is being released: Mobile App Registrations - In case you missed the update last week please check it out here. In order for registrations to show in the mobile app, you will no longer need a start or end date as long as it is not past the end date or before the start date. Also, there is a change to the way we are storing photos for the mobile app, so you’ll need to re-upload any Involvement photos after the release. Process Builder - We are making great progress on the process and automations tool and this update releases more code into production where it can be further tested. We will show some of the progress on our next New Features webinar (in June), so don’t miss it! Volunteer Scheduler - The new scheduler tool is in beta and this release fixes some issues found by our beta testers. Thank you to our testing churches for providing feedback to make this tool great for everyone! One Page Forms - This release has the final code, which will allow one page forms to go into beta very soon. Stay tuned for more details.

UPDATE: Registrations In The Mobile App!

Thu, 05 May 2022 13:30:00 GMT

Mobile App Update!

Wed, 04 May 2022 20:34:00 GMT

Programs, Divisions, Involvements - Oh, My!

Wed, 04 May 2022 16:53:00 GMT

You know you need them (Involvements), and you know it's best for everyone managing your TouchPoint database to keep the entire organizational structure supporting Involvements tidy. Programs and Divisions will help with communication and reporting purposes. You may easily sort by either of these to evaluate the health of a specific ministry or email targeted individuals. Involvement Types may help you evaluate how engaged individuals are, simply by viewing their people record. Download our free infographic to learn more about the relationship between Programs, Divisions, Involvements, and Involvement Types. {{cta('5b117e54-6f87-40f2-b33a-5529a24a2172','justifycenter')}} Additional Resources Involvements Programs, Divisions, Involvements Involvement Types

TouchPointers: Mobile App Directories

Mon, 02 May 2022 14:00:00 GMT

It's Mobile May! For the month of May, TouchPointers will be devoted to the Mobile App! TouchPoint's Mobile App communicates seamlessly with your TouchPoint database. This gives you the flexibility to access the same information at work, at home, while ministering in the community, etc. Our Mobile App Directories make it easy for you and your churchgoers to stay connected. Of course, these Directories are highly customizable! You decide which Involvements appear in the Mobile App. You decide which Involvements get Directories. You decide what information is revealed in those Directories (per Involvement) for Leaders and Members. The icing: Members have the final say on what personal information of theirs is shared, so you can never share more than what they're comfortable with. Check out this episode of TouchPointers to see our Mobile App Directories: Read more about Privacy Settings for Mobile App Directories. For personalized help setting up your Mobile App Directories, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

Important Action Required Regarding Grade Question In Online Registrations

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 14:11:00 GMT

In our recent deployment, the Grade question was updated to reflect the new Grade Options dropdown. Because of that, there is action required on any of your online registration Involvements that use the Grade question. You must navigate to the Registration > Questions tab. You will see something that looks like the image below. You need to edit the Grade Options to match the Grade. For example; if the Grade says Kindergarten, the corresponding Grade Option would be K. Make these edits for any open registrations first. To make it easier to find the registrations that use the Grade question, you can run the Questions Usage report from the blue toolbar on the Involvement Search page.

Webinar Replay: Child Abuse Prevention Month

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 18:00:00 GMT

Thank you for joining us for this month's webinar where our partners at MinistrySafe shed light on how we can equip our ministries with best practices in preventing child sexual abuse. While this is a hard topic, it is an important one which is why we decided to share these resources with you all in April. Watch the webinar here: Here are some free resources written by the founders of MinistrySafe your church can use at any time: Child Sexual Abuse & Student MinistryReporting Abuse - The Church's Blindspot Stop Sexual Abuse - Responding to an AllegationFalse AllegationsReporting ProcessesChild Sexual Abuse in Ministry Contexts - Understanding the RiskPreventing Child Sexual Abuse - An Effective Safety SystemEffective Screening - Keeping the Wolf Out of the Sheep PenCriminal Background Checks - Not a Silver Bullet!Peer-to-Peer Child Sexual Abuse Risk - Protecting Children from Other ChildrenChild Sexual Abuse and Insurance Coverage - Avoiding Common PitfallsRegistered Sex Offenders - Should Your Church Accommodate Known Offenders? Keep an eye on our blog early Summer for information on TouchPoint's MinistrySafe integration.

April Release Notes

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 22:15:00 GMT

We are scheduled to push updates to our main web application tomoritem tonight. This release mainly includes “behind-the-scenes” updates to support the next mobile app release, beta features, and new features that are in development that will not be visible (this allows us to further test in a production environment). You can read more about everything that is being deployed below: Process Builder & Automations Tool - That’s right! We are making great progress on this tool and this deployment lays the foundation for many new features that are to come. Check-Out - This new functionality is very close to being live and this release includes a few updates to labels and the APIs to support the new work. Watch for updates in the blog in the coming weeks for an announcement of when this is live. One Page Forms - This new registration form is very close to being in beta. Stay tuned! Volunteer Scheduler (beta) Updates - The scheduler tool is in beta and this update fixes a few bugs that have been reported and adds some enhancements based on feedback we’ve received. A special thank you to our beta churches for helping us make this tool the best it can be. Mobile Registrations Changes - The API that powers registrations in the mobile app has been updated to support the enhancements that are coming in our next mobile app update. See the NEEDS ATTENTION: Registrations In The Mobile App! blog post that covers what you need to do if you’re using registrations in the mobile app and how these are about to get a lot better. New Labels - A few new Check-In label options have been added for all churches. Watch out for a blog with more details. Miscellaneous Bug Fixes - Several small bugs have been fixed as part of this release. If you have previously contacted support about any of these issues you will be notified.

TouchPointers: Getting Creative With The Small Group Finder

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 15:00:00 GMT

The Small Group Finder is a great way to alert your church-goers of the various ways they can get plugged in to the church. You may be familiar with the two types of Small Group Finders TouchPoint offers -- one with a map and one without. We typically see churches using the Small Group Finder without a map for their on-campus groups, the map being well-suited for the off-campus groups. Check out this edition of TouchPointers to see these two creative uses of the Small Group Finder: Read more about Small Group Finders: Standard Small Group Finder Small Group Finder With A Map For personalized help setting up your Small Group Finders, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

New Prayer Request Keyword

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 14:00:00 GMT

We have created a new Prayer Request keyword to assist in tracking the source of submitted prayer requests. Any Prayer Requests submitted through the new Stand Alone Form or Embedded Web Form are tagged with the new "Prayer Request Unauthenticated" keyword. This keyword is also attached to requests submitted from the Mobile App by someone that is not logged in. As you may know, Prayer Requests submitted through the Mobile App are also tagged with the Mobile Prayer Request keyword. Mobile prayer requests submitted “anonymously” will also have the keyword Anonymous Prayer Request. For more information, visit the help article on Prayer Requests.

Get On The Brand-Wagon

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 14:00:00 GMT

Branding is a representation of your church's identity, such as the values it embraces and the messages it shares. People want to be involved with organizations where those align with their own. Recognizable branding instills trust for the community. People are more likely to continue with a transaction if they are comfortable with what they see. Branding can invoke an emotional response, so cultivating a positive image will have an impact on a person when they see your logo and colors. Assemble A Brand Kit If your church hasn't already established a strong brand identity, consider building a Brand Kit. This may contain your selected color scheme, logos, typography (font style and size), graphics, and any other guidelines. You may have different graphics for different ministries (think Children versus Adults). Our friends at Abundant Life have assembled a Brand Style Guide that you may reference. Communicate Your Brand Through TouchPoint Brand TouchPoint with your church's approved logos and graphics. Download our free Branding PDF to learn more about how you can apply your church's branding to your TouchPoint database and to see some great examples of churches who have done so beautifully. Want To Learn More About Branding? {{cta('86651220-d04a-4c58-b408-15a620be290a')}} {{cta('0d03e8e2-3ae3-4948-b06d-4f047857a193')}} Additional Resources TouchPoint Help Articles Default Shell for Online Registrations Using a Custom Login Page Using a Custom Header Check-In Design Small Group Finder Unsplash.com - Freely-usable images Color Picker - Find the exact HTML color code Coolors.co - Color scheme generator Bootstrap Docs - TouchPoint CSS framework Codecademy - Learn to code Encouraging TouchPoint Adoption Training - Training available to TouchPoint churches

COMING SOON: Electronic Check-Out using the mobile app

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 17:01:00 GMT

TouchPointers: Managing Subscriptions

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 14:00:00 GMT

Do you have several newsletters or regularly-scheduled church communications that you email to your church-goers? Managing email communications inside of TouchPoint has never been easier! Check out this edition of TouchPointers to learn more about Managing Subscription Registration Types: Read more about Managing Subscriptions here. For personalized help setting up your subscription-based registrations, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Check out our recent TouchPointers on creating Mobile-Friendly Newsletters! Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

Webinar Replay: New Features March 2022

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 22:30:00 GMT

Andrew and Chris showed off TouchPoint's newest features in the most recent webinar. To Recap: Some major feature enhancements relating to Check-In have a dedicated blog that you will not want to miss. One of these enhancements is related to Check-In kiosk modes where you can set a kiosk to "scanning" and let individuals scan their Pre-Check QR codes from their app. This feature does need a background image set. Village Bible has a great example of how you can utilize this background image: Another release from this past week is related to the standardized grade dropdown. Check that blog out here. Many of you know we recently integrated with Ministry By Text. Churches now have the option to choose between MBT and Twilio and we have been continuing to update and enhance the SMS feature within TouchPoint. Read about the most recent update to SMS here. The Tasks and Notes feature enhancement has been live for a while now, but we are continuing to make tweaks to make your experience even better! Read more about the recent update here. It is easier than ever for church members to make updates their recurring gifts. Learn more here. There is so much more covered in our recording, so if you would like a deep dive into our new features, watch the webinar below! Click HERE to download the slide deck! Our friends at Ministry Safe are offering free resources for individuals to learn more about keeping children out of harms way during child abuse prevention month. Please visit their website to learn more.

NEW Embeddable Prayer Request Form

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 14:00:00 GMT

To match the functionality that was released in our last mobile app update, we now have a prayer request submission form. You can either embed the form onto your website within an iFrame, or link to the form as a standalone page. There are a few new settings that can be used with this form which are found in the Admin settings under Features > Prayer Requests Prayer Request Default Shell - this will allow you to set a shell to the form so it can be used as a stand alone page. You also have the option to embed the form into your website, use a blank shell, and add CSS to the shell to style the form to match your website. Use Prayer Feed - this is set to false for all churches and is there to support a future feature that you’ll be hearing about in the coming months. If you toggle this to true (not recommended until later) then a checkbox will appear in the form allowing a user to select whether they want their request to show in a feed or not. How to use the Prayer Request Form as a stand alone page: Make sure you set a shell in the Admin settings The URL for the form is https://yourchurch.tpsdb.com/prayerrequest How to embed the Prayer Request Form on your website: Set a blank shell in the Admin settings Embed the following code in your website Adjust the pixel size as needed In order for the form to work you’ll need to add a Content Security Policy to your website. You can do that by: Access your website’s head-section.html file Add between the tags To learn more about prayer requests and access the full documentation, click here.

Task & Notes: Email Templates and Load More

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 14:00:00 GMT

A few changes have been made to the Task & Notes Functionality. It is now possible for a church to edit and customize Task email templates. These emails can be found under the Email Templates menu by filtering for “SystemEmailTemplate.” These templates are live, so please note that any changes will be reflected immediately. A user now has the option to increase their view when they “load more” Tasks and Notes. You can now choose from 20 all the way up to 200 additional Tasks or Notes per load. The ManageTouchpoints and ViewPrivateTouchpoints roles can now be found under the advanced roles section when managing a user’s access roles. To learn more about Tasks and Notes Email Templates, click here. Updates related to a person’s Touchpoints tab can be found here.

Important Action Needed Regarding Check-In

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:30:00 GMT

Earlier this week, we released several enhancements to Check-In. See the Major Updates Now Live For Check-In blog post for those details. Since those updates included changes to the Check-In Profile, you will need to log out and back in to Check-In. This is especially important if you have Check-In kiosks that have not been logged out since Tuesday morning.We hope you are excited about these new features. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Changes to SMS Management in Twilio and Ministry by Text

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 14:00:00 GMT

Updates to the Check-in Dashboard & Classroom Dashboard

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 22:16:00 GMT

Links to the Classroom Dashboard from the Check-In Dashboard are available again. You will notice a couple of updates: There is now a column for “Checked Out” which will be used in conjunction with Check-Out (more details coming soon). You can now update the meeting location on the fly directly from the Check-in Dashboard. The Classroom Dashboard received a total makeover, so it looks and functions better on mobile (which has been included in the mobile app for leaders in our latest app release). Leaders can reset the highlight per person by clicking on an individual and marking them as present. You also have the ability to add an optional note that will display on the dashboard for the day. After a person is marked present, you can click on them to view more details. This page includes photos of the person’s parents as well as a link to message them. If someone has designated “Authorized Check-Out” people or an Emergency Contact, they will be listed here as well. To learn more about check-in click here.

Grade Has Been Standardized

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 16:00:00 GMT

The Grade field has been updated to a predefined dropdown list instead of a free-form field. This list includes “class of year” to specify the year an individual graduated from high school. There is a new Admin setting (System > Administration > GradeUpdateDate) that allows you to set a date to automatically update the grade or “promote” each year. By default this will happen each year on July 1st. This automation means you will only need to set the grade field for a child once (unless they are held back or skip a year). You’ll notice that both the old Grade field, now called Grade (legacy), and the new field both appear. This is so you can reference the old field when updating the new one. You can also do this en masse by using the “Update Fields from a Tag/Query” tool in the Admin menu. If you don’t want to use the old field, you can also use the search builder condition for Birthday to find and mass update individuals.When you no longer want the old/legacy field to appear, you can turn it off in the Admin Settings under System > Administration > HideGradeLegacy by setting it to True. This new field is available as a search builder condition, it has been added to the merge controller, and as mentioned above, it can be updated in bulk. You no longer need to update a child’s grade as part of the promotion process where you move people from one Involvement to another.You can also edit the grade options in the lookup codes. If you’d like to add new codes, you must toggle the setting System > Administration > AllowNewGradeLevels to True.

Major Updates Now Live for Check-in

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 14:00:00 GMT

Several enhancements have been made to Check-In: Profile Updates A family can now upload a profile photo during the check-in process! Also, if an adult does not have a cell phone number on their record, a red phone icon will appear allowing them to add a cell phone number. This is helpful if your church uses the Classroom Dashboard to text parents. (Visit our help article about the Classroom Dashboard to learn more.) Similarly, a family now has the ability to quickly update the emergency contact information for all children in the family as they check-in. Creating People Records During Check-In We have improved the layout for adding a new person during the check-in process. With this, we have updated the ability to select a grade level. (Read more about the grade updates here.) You can now turn on/off the following fields in the admin settings under Features > Check-In: NewPersonHideAddress NewPersonHideEmergencyContact NewPersonHideMaritalStatus Check-In Kiosk Modes A new concept has been added to check-in profiles where you can now select a mode option. All existing profiles are set to “Standard” and the two new options being added are: Continuous Admin - this mode keeps the Check-In station in admin mode at all times and is recommended if the station has a permanent staff/volunteer assigned to assist (i.e. for a guest station) or to be used behind a welcome center/desk that is staffed. Scanning - this mode removes the keypad and will only work for scanning QR codes for pre-check (or barcodes if you use this instead of searching by phone number). It's important to note that this mode requires a background image to be uploaded. To learn more about Check-In click here.

TouchPointers: Custom Check-In Stations

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 15:56:00 GMT

You've heard us mention in webinars and other TouchPointers the importance of communicating your church's brand using various features that TouchPoint offers. This enhances the churchgoers experience by instilling comfort through the use of familiar images/text. A great way to welcome your guests and generate some excitement is through customizing your Check-In stations. The Check-In kiosk may greet members and guests at the entrance of the church, the nursery, the Sunday School classroom, the sanctuary, etc. Whether it be a normal Sunday or a special event, enhance the Check-In experience by welcoming churchgoers with a custom graphic. Check out some examples of custom Check-In stations in this episode of TouchPointers: Read more about customizing the Check-In stations here. For personalized help setting up your Check-In stations, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

Check-In Print Server

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 18:20:00 GMT

An updated print server for Check-In is available. After a few weeks of successful beta testing, version 1.1.3 is now ready for general release. This newest version eliminates the five-second delay of previous versions and, like the most recent previous version (1.0.4), can be run as a system service. Or, if you prefer, it can still be run as a standalone application. If you have 1.0.4 installed as a system service, the upgrade to 1.1.3 will be automatic. If you currently have a version earlier than 1.0.4 installed or are running 1.0.4 as a standalone application, you will need to manually upgrade to the newest version. To do this, follow the installation instruction in this help article, where you can also read more about the Check-In Print Server.

March Release Notes

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 21:58:00 GMT

TouchPointers: Attendance Reminders

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 15:00:00 GMT

Attendance Reminders are a great option for your class leaders. These emails and text messages get sent to your leaders 15 minutes before the class begins. Check out the video below: How It Works TouchPoint checks every 15 minutes to see if any classes are about to meet and if they have the setting in place for sending these messages. For those classes, TouchPoint will send a text (or email) to the leaders. This will serve as a great reminder for them to record attendance. If the leader doesn't have a cell phone number listed in TouchPoint or has not opted-in to receiving text messages, the system will send an email instead. The email will contain the same link. The text messages are hard-coded, but the email may be customized in the Special Content. Look for the template called Attendance Reminder Email. Read more about Attendance Reminders. For personalized help setting up your Attendance Reminders, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

Webinar Replay: What's the Point...of Facility Management

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 16:24:00 GMT

In case you missed it: Michael was joined by Lee from eSPACE to answer, "What's the Point of Facility Management?" We enjoyed our session with eSPACE and hope you did too! We discussed the importance of crating a solid plan for managing your facility, and we also took a glimpse into the reality churches face when plans are not made. Watch our recorded webinar below to learn more! Click HERE to download the slide deck!

TouchPointers: RSVP & Regrets Links

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 16:10:00 GMT

Managing your events in TouchPoint means you can easily solicit responses to get a quick "yes" or "no" and plan accordingly. Using both RSVP Links and Regrets Links allows you to get a list of those who are able to join as well as those who aren't...and also distinguish the "no" responses from the non-responders. Watch this episode of TouchPointers to learn more: Read more about RSVP Links & Regrets Links. For personalized help configuring your RSVP Links & Regrets Links, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

Feature Update: Tasks & Notes Keywords and Extra Questions

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 19:00:00 GMT

TouchPointers: Mobile-Friendly Newsletter

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 15:00:00 GMT

TouchPoint's mobile-friendly email builder allows you to easily construct emails and templates that are formatted for viewing on both a desktop and a mobile device. With the drag-and-drop feature, you'll be able to create templates for your ministries, events, church newsletter, etc. in minutes. Check out this episode of TouchPointers to learn more: Read more about the Mobile-Friendly Email Builder. For personalized help setting up your Email Templates, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

New Feature Alert: Mass Update Contributions!

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:15:00 GMT

On the Contributions Search (Administration > Contributions > Search), we have added the ability to mass move contributions to a specified donor and/or mass update the Fund. These options are found by clicking on the down aritem beside the Filter button: After clicking Update All, you will get a Bulk Update prompt where you may mass re-assign the donor (using Update People ID) and/or mass update the Fund (through Update Fund ID) tied to the filtered list of contributions. For more detailed instructions, please refer to our Contributions Search article.

Brand New Feature - Failed Gift Tasks!

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:15:00 GMT

You may not have noticed, but included in our February 2022 release was an exciting brand new feature! We think the Failed Gift Task will make it much easier to follow up on those recurring gift failures. Here’s the scoop! New Settings: Failed Gift Task - Set this to True to enable the failed gift task. Failed Gift Task Owner - Use the people chooser to select the owner of these tasks. This should be someone with the Finance role. Update To An Existing Setting: LimitToRoleTasksNotes - Add the Finance role to the comma-separated list. This will allow you to filter for those Tasks when using the Role filter. New Keyword: Failed Gift - This Keyword now exists on all databases and cannot be deleted. This will be automatically added to the Failed Gift Tasks for easy filtering. What To Expect: Read more about this exciting new feature in the Recurring Giving Failure Notices help article!

Updates To Online Giving

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 14:45:00 GMT

We have released some exciting enhancements in the way of Online Giving -- both Recurring and One-Time Giving. Recurring Gift Editing Donors may now easily edit the fund and the amount of the gift while logged in to the Online Giving page. The giver will see the pencil icon under the Actions column. When the pencil is clicked, they will be able to choose another fund from the drop-down menu and/or change their contribution amount. If they need to change the frequency, the giver should delete this recurring gift and create a new recurring gift. Read more about other settings and options in the Online Giving Setup help article. Giving Notes You already had the option to enable a Notes field on an individual fund, which gives your One-Time Givers a way to provide additional information about their gift. We have now added a system-wide setting, which will allow the Notes field to be automatically expanded, bringing more attention to the Notes option. You will find the setting under Administration > Settings > Finance > Online Giving. By toggling the Note Default Open to True, the Notes field will be automatically revealed, but it can be closed again by the user, if desired. You may also customize the text inside of the Note field by using the CustomNote setting. This is an example of the Notes field expanded with customized text.

WEBINAR REPLAY: WHAT'S THE POINT...OF TIDYING YOUR DATABASE

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 19:27:56 GMT

February Release Notes

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 22:47:00 GMT

TouchPointers: Giving Change Histogram Widget

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 15:00:00 GMT

Widgets on your homepage or dashboard are a great way to visually communicate important data such as giving changes and attendance. Creating a custom dashboard allows you to track what matters to your ministry most, like this giving change histogram highlighted in today's TouchPointer. Check out this edition of TouchPointers below: Read more about the Giving Change Histogram Widget here. Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

January Release Notes

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 22:25:00 GMT

Coming Soon - Background Check Feature Enhancement!

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 21:27:00 GMT

We are excited to share some enhancements to the background check process in connection with Protect My Ministry (PMM)! The entire process will be managed on a person’s Involvement > Volunteer tab in the Background Check section. Now, there will be TWO options for submitting a background check. Email for Consent: This will email the person needing a background check with a secure link to submit their PII (personal identifiable information) and consent form. Submit with PII: This will let you enter the required information and submit the background check on the spot! ACTION REQUIRED: If you haven’t already done so, establish an account with Protect My Ministry. Go to Administration Settings > Integrations > Protect My Ministry. Rather than a PMM username & password, all you need is the PMMApiKey. NOTE: If you already have an account and are using the PMM integration, TouchPoint will update this for you! Pro Tips: Reach out to PMM to find out what background check type options are available (including customized options). These options are what will populate the Type dropdown. Go to Administration > Lookup Codes > Miscellaneous > Background Check Labels. These are what will populate in the Label dropdown. Be on the lookout for these changes coming next week!

TouchPointers: Customized Giving Statements

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 15:37:00 GMT

You may have seen our recent blog post about Contribution Statements, where we shared tips for ensuring you've dotted your i's and crossed your t's before generating those statements. In this edition of TouchPointers, we share more tips--about customizing your statements. Giving statements are a great opportunity to communicate to your donors. You can let them know the impact of their donation, provide ministry insights, or give them a reason to give again by including information on short-term projects. In this video, we share examples of communicating both on the statement itself and in a cover letter. Check out this edition of TouchPointers below: Read more about Contribution Statements here.

Mobile App Update - Prayer Requests & More!

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Contribution Statements

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 20:40:00 GMT

TouchPointers: Custom Login Page

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Customizing your TouchPoint database login page with your church's graphics offers familiarity to your users. They know this is a trusted site to log in and access their information. Watch this video to see how some other churches have customized their login pages: Read more about Custom Login Pages here.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 15:00:00 GMT

2021 flew by; Christmas is next week! Most of our team gathered together yesterday for a Christmas Lunch. If we can't be together in person, breaking bread virtually is the next best thing. Here's a picture of your TouchPoint Leadership Team having some fun on another call: In case you missed it, we just wrapped up our Fireside Chat. We reminisced about 2021 highlights and shared what some of us are most excited about in the coming months. Watch the Fireside Chat replay below: We are so grateful for each and every partnership. Merry Christmas from our TouchPoint family to you and yours! {{cta('0c9fefbb-ecb5-45b1-8d5e-ddec5ce0dd46','justifycenter')}}

Web Check-In Print Server Update

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 22:13:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that an update to the Check-In Print Server is available. This newest version can be run as a Windows service, running in the background even when no one is logged into the computer. While running as a service, the print server will automatically restart itself hourly. For updated information about the Check-In Print Server, read here. What You Need to Do If you have a previous version of the Check-In Print Server installed (1.0.3 or earlier), it will not automatically update to the latest version (1.0.4). You will need to manually install the new version from https://www.touchpointsoftware.com/checkinprinter. Your previous settings will be retained. After installation, you can uninstall version 1.0.3. If you are still using the legacy version of Check-In, please plan to migrate to Web Check-In as soon as possible. This print server update paves the way for planned updates to the Check-In apps for iOS and Android tablets. Once those are updated, the apps will only work with Web Check-In. For more information about Web Check-In, begin here.

TouchPointers: Custom Database Domains

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 20:32:00 GMT

Did you know you can customize your church's TouchPoint domain? Check out this episode of TouchPointers to learn how some of our church partners use this to their advantage: {{cta('ad4df216-442b-43a7-ae49-12b8d8c52032')}}

WEBINAR REPLAY: WHAT'S THE POINT...OF YEAR-END GIVING

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 19:40:53 GMT

Mapping Your People

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 22:53:00 GMT

Want to know the geographic region for each of your congregants? Or, are you looking to start a new church location, host a picnic, or start a new small group? These questions and more can be answered by using our new Family Mapping feature. In summary, this feature allows you to set a latitude and longitude for every person’s address which can then be used to find out which geographic region they live in (based on a map that you define and upload to TouchPoint) as well as visualize where people live with points on a map. This tool requires a Google API Key to be set up by your church. For more information and details on how to get this set up, please visit our documentation here.

TouchPointers: Using A Reply Word for Recording Attendance

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 22:07:00 GMT

Did you know you can configure a Reply Word to allow for recording attendance? Check out this edition of TouchPointers to learn more: TouchPoint offers over ten different methods of recording attendance. Read more below: Reply Words Recording Attendance For personalized help setting up your Reply Words, reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com.

Action Item: Update Saved Searches for Task & Notes

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 17:10:00 GMT

Search conditions related to the old Tasks and Contacts have been temporarily enabled for the month of November. This is so you can update any saved searches using those old conditions with the new search conditions for Tasks & Notes. The restored conditions are: Days Since Last Contact Recent Contact Ministry Recent Contact Type Recent Contact Reason Made Contact Type As Of Has Contacts Family Has Contacts Contact Recipients Contact Makers If you have several saved searches using one or more of these conditions and do not have the staff resources to update them before the end of the month, you can document them and revise them as time permits. To document a saved search, an admin can run the saved search and then click View Code. Copy the code and paste it into a document along with the name of the saved search. These search conditions will be removed again on December 1, so please update your saved searches (or document what will need to change) before the end of November.

Introducing TouchPointers - Ideas For More Effective Ministry

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 19:49:00 GMT

Check out our new segment, TouchPointers, where we share tips you can use for bettering your church's ministry! In this video, you can learn more about special purpose Giving Pages. It's great for each church to have one primary Giving Page configured for One-Time and Recurring Giving, but Giving Pages can easily be configured for one-time events, annual fundraisers, different campuses, specific audiences, etc. Watch the video below to learn more! Want personalized help setting up your Giving Pages? Reach out to Consulting@TouchPointSoftware.com. Below are a few help articles to learn more about customizing Giving Pages: Standard Shells for Online Registrations or Giving Pages Online Giving Setup Online Giving Overview

WEBINAR REPLAY: WHAT'S THE POINT...OF CHURCH APPS?

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 20:09:23 GMT

October Release Notes

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 21:32:00 GMT

October's deployment will be live on all databases tonight (October 25, 2021). Over the next several days, be on the lookout for more detailed communication (via blog posts and documentation) about these features and enhancements. Here are some of the top feature changes you can expect to see in this release: Task & Notes - This feature is officially live for all churches. We are continuing to release enhancements and update the menus, toolbars, settings, and lookup codes to remove language for the legacy Tasks & Contacts. Geographic Regions Beta - This new feature will allow you to set your own geographic regions in a mapping tool (like Google Maps). You can then upload a KML file (provided by the mapping tool) to TouchPoint to see which geographic region your congregants live in. You will also be able to view your people overlaid on a google map. This requires a Google Maps API to be entered in the Admin settings to use. Volunteer Scheduler - We are continuing to make great progress on the NEW Volunteer Scheduler that will be available later this year. New features and functionality related to this feature are being released behind the scenes to be tested in production. API Updates - New API endpoints have been released (as well as updates to existing APIs) to support new features that you will hear about in a future mobile app release. Ticketing Discount Codes and MyTickets Page - A new Discount Code type has been created for Ticketing events, and a page has been created to display all future tickets to an upcoming event for a user (with new pre-authenticated SMS and email links). Bug Fixes - This deployment also includes various bug fixes to improve the user experience and keep your database running smoothly.

Custom Mobile App Update

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 21:04:00 GMT

With our latest app update, version 2021.5.2 for Android and version 2021.5.2 for iOS, we have added a Menu, enhanced Directories, Task due dates, resolved an issue with photos, and added support for iOS 15. We have started pushing these updates to all custom apps. You should begin seeing these on your church's app within the coming week or two, pending approval from Apple or Google. Users with the Custom Mobile App will now see a Menu in the upper right corner. This hamburger icon will take users directly to their Profile Menu. Users can still get to the Profile Menu by clicking on their Profile Picture. For the Involvements that have Directories enabled, users will now have the ability to search for an individual within the Directory using the newly added Search Box at the top of the Directory page. We have also included an alphabetical Scroll feature which makes it easy to quickly jump up/down the list by last name (similar to what you may have seen in other mobile contact lists). Read more about Involvement Directories here.

Schedule Your Tasks & Notes Training!

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 13:13:00 GMT

TouchPoint Training has released our latest training for the updated feature, Tasks & Notes. If your church has already completed the legacy Tasks & Contacts training, please email Training@TouchPointSoftware.com prior to scheduling this training session. {{cta('0b65c39d-ab24-47b3-84a0-72459a0f03fc','justifycenter')}} About TouchPoint Training Each paid course is 1 hour in duration and is conducted privately between a TouchPoint Trainer and your team. We share our computer screen using Zoom so you can easily follow along. We also record each session and make it available to you the same day. We conduct these sessions in our Training Database, so you don’t have to worry about your data being shared. The cost per online training is $150/hour. Additionally, we offer a number of free courses, which are 30 minutes in duration and are also facilitated live, privately with a TouchPoint Trainer. If you have any questions about your church's training hours or would like to purchase additional training hours, please email Training@TouchPointSoftware.com. {{cta('fa42afe7-98dd-4599-a580-23c1e8c7e391')}} {{cta('7c4ad77c-9fce-4032-879d-7bf53a1bbf0e')}}

The Migration To The New Tasks & Notes Has Begun!

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 21:09:00 GMT

The process to migrate all the legacy Tasks & Contacts to the new Tasks & Notes began last night for all churches. This process will take a few days to complete for all databases. Please take note of these important items: As your church’s migration is completed, the legacy pages (Tasks and Contacts) and tab (Ministry) on a person's record will no longer be available. Your My Tasks homepage widget will also be updated to the new My Task List widget. All mobile apps have all been updated to work with the new Tasks & Notes. After all churches are live on the new Tasks & Notes, we will remove the old reports, settings, and search builder conditions. If you want to learn more about the new Tasks & Notes you can check out the announcement here with overview videos. The documentation for Tasks & Notes has all been updated and is live on our documentation page.

Supported Platforms

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 18:09:00 GMT

Introducing Our New Partner Integration: Ministry By Text

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 19:38:00 GMT

If you were at the 2021 TouchPoint Summit two weeks ago or if you were on our August webinar, you have heard about the integration with our new partner, Ministry By Text. This integration is now live! Ministry by Text (MBT) is part of a full-service consulting firm, Solutions by Text, that has been serving the business community since 1995. Ministry by Text was created to leverage the power of SMS to meet the unique needs of the church, ministry, and nonprofit sector. This new integration provides the same great tools TouchPoint provides currently with Twilio plus many new tools like dedicated short codes, ministry consultants, text to give, text dripping, and more. Learn more about Ministry by Text on their website at https://ministrybytext.com/ and check out more information about our integration in our documentation: Texting From TouchPoint - Overview Establish An Account With MBT Texting with MBT and/or Twilio

ATTENTION: Tasks & Notes Will Be Automatically Migrated NEXT Tuesday Night, October 5

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 21:57:00 GMT

Have you had a chance to try out the new Tasks & Notes features that have been live for the last two weeks? In case you missed it, please check out the announcement with overview videos here. We have received very positive feedback and many churches are loving the new tools and functionality. We have decided to give churches one more week (previous date of 9/28 has been pushed to 10/5) to try it out before we do the migration for everyone and turn off the old Tasks & Contacts. If your church would like to migrate sooner, reach out to support and we will gladly migrate you before Oct 5th.

Updated Check-In Dashboard and NEW Classroom Dashboard

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 16:43:00 GMT

If you were at the 2021 TouchPoint Summit two weeks ago, you heard about the changes we announced to the Check-In Dashboard and the new Classroom Dashboard. These are both now live! Summary of Changes to the Check-In Dashboard: You can now see a total number of checked in people per time slot and each Involvement now breaks out the number of Leaders and Members/Guests checked in. The Capacity for each Meeting is now based on just the Members/Guests. There is now the ability for a Leader in an Involvement to Notify Staff via the New Classroom Dashboard (read more below). You will see a link next to each Involvement for that Meeting’s Classroom Dashboard. Overview of the NEW Classroom Dashboard: Each Meeting has its own Dashboard where all Members and Guests are listed as they check in. When a new person checks in, his/her name is highlighted so that Leaders can be prepared to greet the child and the parents. The photo, allergies, and birthday are listed for easy access. Leaders have the ability to conveniently send an SMS message to the parents of the child (if they have a valid cell phone number on their record) as well as ping the staff (via the Check-In Dashboard) if assistance is needed. Read more about the Check-In Dashboard and Classroom Dashboard.

September Release Notes

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 19:01:00 GMT

New Custom Mobile App Release

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 20:49:00 GMT

The next version of the TouchPoint mobile app (version 2021.4.5) will be available beginning early next week, pending approval by Apple and Google. If your church uses the custom mobile app, these changes will be released automatically. The changes include the following: Newly-updated Tasks & Notes You've heard about the rebuilt tasks and notes features in TouchPoint. Now we have updated the mobile app to complement these new features. In addition to an improved user interface, we have now provided staff and lay leaders with the ability to add a task or note for a person on the fly by using the people search. We invite you to try it out to see how easy it is now to add notes as well as to create and manage tasks. Mobile support for the Person Validation Script For you who have been using the Person Validation Script that was released earlier this year, the mobile app now supports this feature. Whether someone is creating a new user record or a guest is being added via the attendance function, you can now control which fields are required. This script also makes sure the required fields are included if a record is being updated in the mobile app, helping to ensure clean data. Even if the person validation script is not being used, now when creating a record there are new minimum requirements of first name, last name, and email address. Re-architected loading of person images for increased performance As people's images become more important for directories, notes, pre check-in and other features, we've re-designed the way these images are stored and accessed to ensure fast, secure and reliable performance. Other minor changes D-Groups home page and resources changes Additional translations Menu changes for MyData users Fixes to directory lists Fix for editing titles and other fields Other minor bug corrections

Here's Your List...Check It Twice (Tasks & Notes To Do's)

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 20:28:00 GMT

We are excited to announce the upcoming launch of our new Tasks & Notes feature. Please carefully note the following timeline: The new Tasks & Notes will be turned on for all churches the evening of Monday, September 13, so you can set it up to start using it and training your staff and leaders. The legacy Tasks & Contacts will continue to be available temporarily. The latest app release will begin to be available early next week and continue into the following week, depending on approvals by Apple and Google. This new app version works exclusively with the new Tasks & Notes and no longer supports legacy Tasks & Contacts. Beginning the week of September 20th, churches may send a request to Support that we migrate their legacy Tasks & Contacts to the new platform. The night of Tuesday, September 28th October 5th, we will migrate everyone to the new Tasks & Notes and will turn off the legacy functionality. In order to prepare you and your teams for this transition we have provided the following: 1. Video Overview of the New Feature - Share this with your team so they can be familiar with the changes that are coming. 2. Video for Admins - This video is a review of what you need to do before and after the transition. There is some setup you can do today, prior to the feature’s full release. This video walks you through those changes so that you and your teams can be ready to use the new functionality as soon as it is live. 3. What questions do you have? We will be assembling a FAQ documentation guide that will include your questions and answers. Once we receive several questions, we will publish those questions and answers. We will be adding to the document as new questions come in, so submit your questions! {{cta('550ef863-6539-478d-bebc-9461becc9cf7','justifycenter')}}

Action Required: A2P 10DLC Compliance for SMS

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 21:33:00 GMT

Webinar Replay: What's The Point...Of Text Message Communication

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 20:34:33 GMT

In case you missed it: Mike Cantrell from Ministry By Text joined Michael and Andrew to help answer the question, "What's the Point of Texting". We hope this helps you discover some new ways text message communication can help your ministry.

Reminder: Migrating to new giving statements

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 16:43:00 GMT

This is a reminder that next Tuesday, August 31, all contribution statements will use the HTML format and legacy statements will be disabled. For details about the action you should take, please see this blog post that was sent July 30th. For information about migrating to HTML statements, read here. For a complete description of HTML statements, read here.

In Case You Missed It...Access The August TouchPoint Minute Here!

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 20:17:00 GMT

{{cta('00a2b9da-dd84-4a77-8f0d-db89c7a40df1','justifycenter')}} What's Inside This Issue: TouchPoint Summit Webinars Keith's Korner New Features Tips & Tricks 60 Seconds With... Summer Fun Get the TouchPoint Minute hot off the press each month by subscribing below: {{cta('5bffc7b2-f669-48c4-b18e-89e8b4b8ac7f')}}

Track Finance-Related Changes With The Contribution Change Log

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 20:12:00 GMT

TouchPoint has introduced a new way to track contribution-related changes with the Contribution Change Log. Users with the Finance role may access this new feature by navigating to Administration > Contributions > Change Log. The Contribution Change Log will list all contribution entries that have been Edited, Split, or Deleted. Edited contributions will be listed if the Donor, Amount, or Fund has changed. The log lists the date and timestamp the change occurred, a link to the Bundle where the Contribution entry may be found, the type of change, details of the contribution entry before the change and after, along with the username of the Finance user who made the change. You may also use the Advanced Search to filter by the User, Action (Split, Delete, or Edit), Fund, or Date to easily locate specific contribution entries. Alternatively, there's a powerful Quick Search where you may type a few characters of the Amount, User, Fund, etc. to naritem down the results. Note that all contribution changes are tracked from August 11, 2021 forward. Read more about the Contribution Change Log here.

August Release Notes

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 16:17:00 GMT

We are finalizing testing and documentation for our next release which you can expect this week. Be on the lookout for more detailed communication (via blog posts and documentation) once these releases have been made available. Here are some of the top feature changes you can expect in this release: Contribution Change Log - Finance users will now have access to a log of any changes made to contributions. Any time a contribution is modified, you will have a record of the date/time the change occurred along with the details of the change (fund, amount, date, donor, or type). In addition, if a contribution is split or deleted, these will be recorded in the log as well. Final Tasks & Notes Tweaks (still in Beta) and New APIs to Support the Mobile App Features - As we approach the launch of our newly-rebuilt feature, Tasks & Notes, this deployment addresses some minor changes identified in the beta testing. It also adds new API endpoints to support the rebuilt Tasks & Notes in the mobile app. NEW Volunteer Scheduler (behind the scenes) - We are continuing to make great progress, and this tool will be available this Fall. Performance Enhancements - Now that we rely so heavily on people record images we have re-architected the way these are stored and loaded. This will facilitate a faster experience in key areas like Web Check-In and the Mobile App. We are also releasing a number of backend enhancements to ensure the continued speed, reliability, and stability of existing TouchPoint tools.

Webinar Replay: What's The Point...Of Event Ticketing?

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 20:44:33 GMT

In case you missed it: Michael and Andrew led a conversation that answered, "What's the Point of Event Ticketing?" Michael began the conversation by exploring the importance of ticketing and how it can be used in ministry. Andrew then showed us how a church can utilize our ticketing solution within TouchPoint. He also showed us some cool features like creating custom tickets.

Action Required: Migration to New Giving Statements

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 18:05:00 GMT

HTML giving statements have been available for nearly two years. In January of this year, in this blog post, we informed you that we will discontinue legacy giving statements and offer only the option for HTML statements. That cut off date will be August 31, 2021. Beginning on that day, all giving statements will use the HTML statement templates. What You Need to Do Many of you are already using HTML statements and so no action is required. If you are still using the legacy statements, please review the format of HTML statements and make any desired adjustments. You can enable the new statements by adding the administration setting UseNewStatementsFormat with a value of True. If you have not turned on the new statements by August 31st it will be turned on for you automatically and the default template will be used. Between now and August 31st, you can switch back and forth between the two formats by toggling the value of this setting between True and False. Standard templates are provided that may provide what you need without any customization. The same header and notice you have been using will continue to work with the new statements. HTML statements provide much more flexibility, so you may choose to customize the templates so that your giving statements provide exactly the information you desire. Some of the administration settings used to modify the older statements are no longer valid. Please see the help article Migrating to HTML Contribution Statements for instructions on how to obtain the same results in the new format. For more information about HTML statements read here.

Web Check-In Print Server Automatically Launches!

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 16:05:00 GMT

We have made an enhancement to the Web Check-In Print Server: it can keep the user signed in and can optionally automatically launch as Windows launches. There is a checkbox on the sign-in screen that you may select to "remember login info" to ensure that particular user won't be signed out until he/she chooses "sign out," a new option that's available once signed in. If you already have the print server installed, the next time you launch it, will automatically update to 1.0.3 and will look like the screenshot below. Read more about the Web Check-In Print Server here.

Mission Trip Updates

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 14:00:00 GMT

We have two enhancements in the way of Mission Trips--one that will allow your participants to raise more money than their goal, and the other that will allow you to change the gateway that processes your Mission Trip transactions. Participants Raising More Than Goal By adding an Extra Value to the Mission Trip Involvement, your participants will now be able to continue soliciting donations, even after they have reached their target amount. In the example below, we are still able to provide financial support towards Lois's trip even though she has reached her goal: This is the Ad Hoc Extra Value (located on the Involvement's Settings > Extra Values tab) that enables this feature: Thank you James from Tenth Presbyterian for this great addition! Specify Different Mission Trip Payment Gateway By default, the Mission Trip Involvements will process payments using the same gateway as One-Time Giving. If you have a separate payment gateway for your Online Registrations and you would like to have your Mission Trip Involvements set to process payments using that gateway, you may toggle the setting called MissionTripInvUseOnlineRegGateway to True. This setting may be found by navigating to Administration > Setup > Settings > Features > Registrations. Learn more about Mission Trips here.

Don't Delete Those Inactive People Records -- Archive Them!

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 20:50:00 GMT

July Release Notes

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 18:41:00 GMT

We are finalizing testing and documentation for our next release which you can expect to be deployed the night of Monday, July 19th. Be on the lookout for more detailed communication (via blog posts and documentation) once these releases have been made available. Here are some of the top feature changes you can expect to see in the next release: Archive a Record. Staff with the Manage or Admin role will soon have the ability to archive a record so the record no longer appears in the Quick Search, Basic People Search, or Search Builder results by default. This update will also include a saved search that will auto unarchive people based on criteria that you determine. Ministry By Text Integration. We are excited to formally announce a new integration with a partner software company called Ministry By Text. For churches looking for shared or unique short code SMS numbers as well as additional features, check out our new integration partner MBT. The same great features available through our Twilio integration, plus more, will be available through this new partnership. NEW Tasks & Notes Changes (still in Beta). As we approach the launch of our newly-rebuilt feature, Tasks & Notes, this deployment will add new features and functionality that will only be available to our Beta testers initially. Mission Trip Enhancements. You can expect two updates for Mission Trips: one that will allow your participants to raise more money than their goal and the other will allow you to specify which payment processor to use for your Mission Trip Involvements. In addition to these changes, we are excited to be putting the infrastructure in place for the NEW Volunteer Scheduler tool that will be available this Fall. We are also releasing a number of backend enhancements to ensure the continued speed, reliability, and stability of existing TouchPoint tools.

WEBINAR REPLAY: WHAT'S THE POINT...OF TASKS AND NOTES?

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 20:49:59 GMT

In case you missed it: Michael and Andrew led a conversation that answered, "What's the Point of Tasks and Notes?" Michael discussed what tasks and notes look like in the "real world" and how we can apply these habits to better minister. Later, Andrew showed us what to expect with Tasks & Notes within TouchPoint. Our Tasks & Notes update is happening soon, so make sure you're subscribed to be the first to know when this exciting update goes live!

Web Check-In Updates

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 15:38:00 GMT

We have made two small changes that impact Web Check-In: one that you may have already noticed, and the other is an optional setting. Classes are now listed chronologically first, then alphabetically. All of your early morning classes will be grouped together, later morning together, and so on. With a new optional setting, any number under 7 digits that is used on the Check-In keypad will only search PINs (Admin PIN, Logout PIN, EV PIN). This will be helpful in the event that a family's last 4 digits matches a PIN. This setting may be found by navigating to Administration > Setup > Settings > Features > Check-In > LimitNumberSearch. Toggle to true to enable the setting.

Attendance Enhancements

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Increased Flexibility with Updating Meeting Capacity If you've been using our Check-In Dashboard, you're aware of one way to edit a Meeting's Capacity on the fly. We have recently introduced one more way to easily increase or decrease the capacity per Meeting...and it's right on the Meeting Page. The Capacity comes from the Involvement's Schedule. As you are able to establish a max Capacity per Schedule, this number is letting you know how many people your room can contain. If there is No Capacity, "Empty" will appear in the field. Weekly Attendance Percentage Report Variations The Weekly Attendance Percentage Report now includes a 4-week lookback and 1-week lookback in addition to the existing 1-year lookback. This report may be accessed by navigating to the Involvement Search > Blue Toolbar Cloud Icon. Read more about the Check-In Dashboard.

Find Involvements With Directories Enabled

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 13:30:00 GMT

Mobile Directories have been released! We have created a report to help you evaluate which Involvements have already had Directories configured and which have not. Directory Enabled Report The report is already on your TouchPoint database and may be accessed by navigating to the Involvements > Search page. Click on the Code Icon to see Directory Enabled. This report looks at the "Use Directory" setting on the Involvement, which is located on the Setting > Directory tab. If the setting is enabled, a "Yes" will appear in the "Directory?" column. If the setting has been disabled, a "No" will appear. If you don't see anything in the "Directory?" column, that means no one has yet configured the "Use Directory?" setting for this Involvement. You will see those Involvements whose setting has not yet been configured listed first, then the Involvements with the setting enabled (Yes), then the Involvements with the setting disabled (No). Read the help article here.

Enhancements to People Records

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Which Involvements Appear in Your Mobile App? You Decide!

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 18:00:00 GMT

We know that many Involvements exist for organizational purposes for the church, not necessarily for the churchgoer to keep up with. To that point, we have now made it very easy to specify which Involvements appear inside of your church's Custom-Branded Mobile App. Manage which Involvements appear with Involvement Types. If your church doesn't currently use Involvement Types, you may now want to begin. Involvement Types are used to describe the Involvement or its function. Read this help article to learn more about Involvement Types. Once Involvement Types are in place, you may then specify which ones you would like to appear in the Mobile App by navigating to Administration > Setup > Lookup Codes > Involvement Types. Don't have TouchPoint's Custom-Branded Mobile App? Connect with us to learn more.

Registration Payments Page Gets a Facelift!

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:00:00 GMT

We have remastered some important components of Online Registrations! New Payment Page Our sleek new registration payment page gives our partner churches and end users new functionality: Registrants may have multiple payments saved. This saved payment information is pulled from previous registrations or from their Online Giving profile. This also works the other way around: a giving profile will have saved payment information if the registrant has completed an Online Registration requiring payments. Registrants can also add additional payment methods and edit them at any time. In addition to being able to allow Discount Codes per registration, churches may also optionally allow the registrant to cover the service fee associated with processing the payment (per registration). Shell Dropdown It is now easier to choose a Shell for your Online Registrations! Instead of typing the Shell's name into a text box, you will now be provided with a dropdown list to select from. If you use our Giving Pages, this will look familiar to you. Any Shells that have already been created should appear in this dropdown list, having been assigned the keyword of "shell."

SMS Changes Are Live!

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 13:21:00 GMT

Last week, we blogged about the exciting changes coming to SMS in the form of managing text message subscriptions. To ensure you're set up for success, we're including two tips regarding setup: Tip #1: Resolve Duplicate Cell Phone Numbers from People Records. If multiple people records share the same mobile phone number, TouchPoint will not know which person to opt-in when one replies with "START" or "UNSTOP." Identify records with duplicate cell phone numbers using this SQL Report. Be sure to remove the cell phone number from the children's/spouse's records (whomever it doesn't belong to). This is simple with the Update Fields from a Tag/Query, found under Administration > Batch Actions. Tip #2: Configure your Twilio Account for 2-way Text Message Communication. Watch this 2-minute video to ensure you haven't missed anything, including paying attention to the Webhooks. The changes are live! Go check 'em out! Read this blog post and the following help articles for more information: Texting: Opt-In How to Send Texts via TouchPoint Managing SMS Messages

Please Read: Important Update Regarding the June Deployment

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 15:51:00 GMT

We have decided to hold the deployment for this week to complete more thorough testing on some components. We will be targeting a release on the evening of Monday, June 14th. See the blog containing our Release Notes for more information. Please stay tuned in to our blog for details on the new features and updates as they are released. Thank you for your patience!

More Widgets ... More Dashboards!

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 21:11:00 GMT

Widgets on your TouchPoint home page are a great way to give your users and admins a snapshot of important information they need to know. Since releasing our Widgets, many of our church partners have graciously contributed to the project and added incredible new Widgets which you can review here. In fact, our list of Widgets has gitemn so much that some churches have created individual dashboard pages so the primary homepage doesn’t become too cluttered. Using some clever python scripting, you can now create individual Dashboards organized just the way you want. This help article will walk you through the code you can use to set up these new Dashboards. We’d like to especially thank Heath Kouns from Hope Valley Church for putting this code together and allowing us to share it with all our church partners!

The Latest TouchPoint Mobile App Release

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 23:00:00 GMT

We are releasing a new version of the TouchPoint mobile app (version 2021.3.2), which will include our new Directories feature, improved functionality and terminology, as well as minor tweaks. Involvements have been updated to include Directories When a user visits his/her Involvements list, they will see 3 horizontal dots to the right of those Involvements with an available Directory. After selecting a Directory, the user will have two setting options available from the Gear Icon in the upper righthand side: My Global Settings and Settings For This Directory. When choosing My Global Settings, users can select what information they want to show in all Directories they are in. Alternatively, if users choose Settings for this Directory, users can select what information they would like to show for just that particular Directory. For more information about privacy settings, please see our Privacy Settings help article, and for additional details about Directories, see our Mobile App Directories blog. Specify which Involvements appear in the Mobile App. Using Lookup Codes, you may restrict (by Involvement Type) which Involvements appear in the Mobile App. Stay up-to-date with our blog for more details, coming in the next web release. Additional Changes When a person only has one user account (most common scenario), they will no longer need to select the user and instead it will go straight to their account. The profile menu has been reorganized and updated with better terminology. We standardized the title field (and a few other fields) to match the recent updates on the web side. We have sent these updates to each app store, so be on the lookout for this new version in the next few days. Stay tuned for the next version (2021.4) which will add the new Tasks & Notes functionality natively in the mobile app.

WEBINAR REPLAY: WHAT'S THE POINT...OF BRANDING?

Fri, 28 May 2021 20:54:15 GMT

In case you missed it: Michael and Andrew led a conversation that answered, "What's the Point of Branding?" Michael began the conversation by exploring the concept of brand kits, why they're important, and how to create one of your own. Andrew then showed us how a church can reach their full branding potential on TouchPoint when using custom giving pages, personalized mobile apps, church emails, and more!

Release Notes - June Deployment

Thu, 27 May 2021 17:00:00 GMT

ATTENTION REQUIRED - SMS Updates Coming Soon!

Thu, 27 May 2021 16:38:00 GMT

"Upload Document" Registration Question Creates Sub-Group

Thu, 13 May 2021 18:00:00 GMT

Like many other Registration Question responses, a sub-group is now automatically created when a user uploads a document in conjunction with their registration. You can create multiple Upload Document questions, and this data will be stored accordingly in the sub-group. The sub-group will be named “RegDoc-DocName." You may easily identify who is associated with the sub-group (i.e. who has uploaded that particular document) in the same way that you manage your sub-groups--by utilizing your familiar Sub-Group Manager (found on the Blue Toolbar > Gear Icon), the Groups Export or Members Export (Blue Toolbar > Cloud Icon), the Groups Tab of the Member Dialog box. Read more about Registration Questions.

More Flexibility with "Admin" Functionality

Thu, 13 May 2021 13:00:00 GMT

We have made updates to help break up some Admin role functionality in an effort to streamline role delegation and system communications. Automated Error Notices Can Now Be Delegated To Specific Admin Users Batch service emails may now be sent to specific users. Those who need to be in the loop can remain so, and others can keep their inboxes clear. We have created a setting where you have the freedom to choose which users receive the scheduled error emails. Find this new setting here: Administration > Setup > Settings > System > Administration > SendErrorEmailsTo. You may select as many people as you like. Users will appear in this list if they have the Admin or Finance role. If no one is delegated to receive these messages, the system will continue to send emails to all users with the Admin role. Manager Role Now Responsible for Converting Business Records We have also implemented another new feature to help break up some Admin functionality: Anyone with the Manager role is now able to “Convert to Business” or “Convert to Person” in the gear icon of blue toolbar on People Records. Those with the Admin role will still be able to perform this action. Click here to learn more about converting to a business record.

Online Giving Enhancements & Other Finance-Related Updates

Wed, 12 May 2021 20:00:00 GMT

Online Giving Pages Enhancement When configuring your Online Giving Pages, you may now optionally include a quick search filter to allow the donor to easily locate a specific fund when giving online. This can be helpful when providing a long list of Missionaries, for example. Behind the scenes: To enable the search box, you will need to remove the Default Fund by clearing the selection. You may also decide to reorder the list of funds (on the public-facing page) by sorting alphabetically versus sorting by how the funds were added to the Fund Options box. Contribution Bundle Includes Reference IDs Contribution Bundles will now include a Reference ID. This will be helpful if multiple bundles are included in the same deposit. We will also be updating the Deposit Report to include these Reference IDs. Mission Trip Payments Until now, Mission Trip payments have been processed using the same gateway as Online Registration payments. Since Mission Trip payments are considered tax deductible contributions, they will now be processed using the same payment gateway as Online Giving. Read more about Online Giving Setup, Bundles, and Mission Trips.

UPDATED Directory Privacy Settings Priorities

Wed, 12 May 2021 17:00:00 GMT

Email Templates Have a New Home! 🏡 (And Other Communications Updates)

Wed, 12 May 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Email options that were previously found in Special Content can now be accessed by navigating to Administration > Communications > Email Templates. You will find both the Email Templates and Saved Drafts. Both of these options have been moved from Administration > Setup > Special Content. Additionally, the Design role has been renamed to EmailTemplates. Anyone who had the Design role has automatically been granted the EmailTemplates role. Since Email Templates and Saved Drafts are no longer housed under Special Content, the new EmailTemplates role will not grant access to Special Content items. We have created two new roles for that reason: SpecialContentBasic - Grants access to HTML and Text files. This is good for individuals who want to create shells for customizing Registrations, Giving Pages, Small Group Finder, etc. SpecialContentFull - Grants access to all Special Content files. This should be given to select users and allows individuals to create SQL and Python scripts. Users with this role will also be able to customize Widgets. Anyone who had the Design role has not automatically been granted either of these roles. If you need someone to have Special Content access, please assign the appropriate role. Another important Communications-related update falls under the umbrella of Texting. When setting up SMS Reply Words (from Administration > Communications > SMS Messages), all Action types now support reply messages for both known and unknown senders. Recipients no longer have to be in your database to receive customized communication. Read more about Email Templates and SMS Messages.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR | WHAT'S THE POINT...OF ENCOURAGING & TRACKING GIVING?

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 21:00:57 GMT

Many churches are gearing up for a spike in summer attendance. It’s such a blessing to be able to begin to gather together in person! This increase in attendance also comes with an increase in giving, including first-time givers. In April's “What’s the Point” webinar, Andrew Triplett, Director of Consulting, is joined by special guest host Brent Spicer from MortarStone. They ask "What’s the point of encouraging and tracking giving?" They focus on what it takes to encourage churchgoers to give; Brent and Andrew also dive into how helpful it is to have tools in place for tracking this giving online.

New Email Replacement Code For Recurring Giving

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 19:00:00 GMT

Email Replacement Codes are a great way to easily tailor the information for each recipient without having to compose a separate email to each person individually. The current Email Replacement Code {recurringsummary} is helpful for providing the donor with information via the confirmation email. The donor will receive the fund name, frequency, amount, and payment information for the newly configured giving schedules. We have introduced a new replacement code {recurringsummaryall} which provides the same details as the {recurringsummary} across all giving schedules, not just those that have been newly established. They already have this information available to them from within their profile and on the giving page; now they may access it from their inbox as well. To modify the online giving email templates, navigate to Administration > Setup > Special Content > Email Templates, and filter by the GivingEmailTemplates role. From there, you will see the Recurring Giving Setup and Pledge Setup Confirmation templates, which is where you will find the {recurringsummary} codes (if you have retained the codes in the templates provided by TouchPoint). Simply change that replacement code to {recurringsummaryall} and save the template to use this new replacement code. Read more about email replacement codes here.

New Look: User Email Delegation

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 13:00:00 GMT

We made some improvements to both the aesthetics and functionality of User Email Delegation. The process of adding a delegate and associating him/her to the appropriate people is more streamlined. Once setup, the User Email Delegation page may look similar to this example below. Those who may send emails are listed on the left, and those whom they may email on behalf of are listed to the right, all in the same line. Assigning a new delegate is very easy. Those with the Access role will appear in the dropdown for Person Who Can Email, and then you can assign the individuals they may email on behalf of. Multiple people may be selected in the second field. Read more about User Email Delegation.

Mobile App Directories - Tips & Tricks

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 21:46:00 GMT

ACTION REQUIRED: Titles Becoming Standardized

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 13:44:00 GMT

In our commitment to helping you keep tidy data, we are standardizing the titles that are used on people records. The "title" field is no longer a freeform text box; it is instead a dropdown list, controlled by the Lookup Codes (Administration > Setup > Lookup Codes). This will prevent inconsistent titles and also allow for easily searching to locate people records with a particular title. When adding a new people record or updating a people record, we will now see options for selecting items within a dropdown list. These are controlled by what is stored in the Administration > Setup > Lookup Codes. There is a new option for Titles, found under the People category. This is where you come in: you will want to clean up any duplicate/similar titles. In this example below, it would make sense to merge "Dr." and "Doctor" since they both mean the same thing. After selecting "Merge and Delete," the system will walk you through merging "Doctor" with "Dr." In addition to cleaning up any duplicate titles, you may want to add titles that your church frequently uses. If you want to see which people records are associated with a particular title before merging it with another, you can click on the title itself. That will take you into Search Builder with the results comprised of those individuals who have that title.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR | WHAT'S THE POINT...OF TAKING ATTENDANCE

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 21:07:31 GMT

TouchPoint launched a new webinar series in March: What's the Point. In this first episode, we asked the question "What's the point of taking attendance?"

Attendance Reminder SMS Tracking

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 18:52:00 GMT

TouchPoint now logs Attendance Reminder text messages on the SMS Messages Page when they are sent to your class leaders! This allows for easily identifying which leaders received the text or troubleshooting why a leader inadvertently received an attendance reminder. Go to Administration > Communication > SMS Messages and filter for System Messages to display Attendance Reminder texts in your results. The sender (From) will be listed as System for these text messages. If you are not currently using attendance reminders, be sure to check out the Send Leaders Attendance Reminders help article for details. Read more about Managing SMS Messages here.

BIG Updates To Merging Duplicates!

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 13:00:00 GMT

If you're ever in need of merging duplicate people records, these updates will make your life easier! Below are some of the new options you will see when merging two records: Member Status SMS Opt In Photo Number of Involvements Transactions Attendance Ticket Orders Registrations Check-Ins Emails Tasks To see the full list of optional fields that are able to be combined when merging duplicate records, read this help article.

Mass Assign User Roles

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 18:00:00 GMT

The day has arrived: you can now quickly assign User Roles to multiple people at once! 🎉 There are two new options under Administration > Batch Actions > Update Fields From A Tag/Query: Assign Role Remove Role This means you can grant all of your new class leaders with OrgLeadersOnly access with a few simple clicks, or easily give everyone in your Communications department the Design role, or assign your entire staff Access. Conversely, let's imagine that VBS necessitated additional volunteers be granted the CheckIn role. Once the eventful week is behind you, it's very easy to remove that access with the Remove Role option. Multiple User Accounts Occasionally, people records may contain multiple User Accounts. If this happens, TouchPoint will group these people in a tag instead of assigning the Role to all User Accounts. You may then manage that person individually. Additionally, we have added a new Search Builder Condition, named Has Multiple User Accounts, which will assist in identifying those People records. See the Batch Update Fields from a Tag or Query help article for more information about this feature.

Registration Updates That Put The Icing On The Cake

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:00:00 GMT

New Settings In Preparation For Updated Mobile Directories

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 21:03:00 GMT

Online Giving Enhancement - Update Saved Payment Method

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 13:00:00 GMT

A small change with a big impact. Your givers are now able to update their saved payment information without making another donation or changing their current giving schedule. Once they click to Edit their payment information, they will now see the option to "Update" the changes. This may all be done from the Online Giving Page -- the same page they frequent for making donations online.

Get Ready...SMS Updates Are Coming (TONIGHT)!

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 22:21:00 GMT

Insert Special Links - Now Available for SMS Reply Words! The easy-to-use "Insert Special Links" button that you have been using to build emails and texts is now available for text message reply words! Let's say you want to automatically reply with an event's registration link once someone texts the church...now you can easily configure that registration link right from the SMS Reply Words page: Opt Out of Any SMS Group! Currently, users may opt out of a SMS group that has sent him/her a text message. With our latest enhancements, individuals may be opted out of any SMS group, even if that group has not yet sent a text message to that individual. This may be done on the user's profile by navigating to the Communications > Optouts tab. Enhancements to SMS "Draft" When drafting your text messages, you will also notice you now have the ability to send a test SMS to yourself prior to sending to the entire list of recipients! This will allow you to double-check your text before sending it out to your entire list of recipients! Additionally, when tracking that text message, you may notice that we have replaced the "title" field with (part of) the text message itself. This will save you some clicks by allowing you to view the message right from the SMS Messages page. Speaking of the SMS Messages page, if the Sender (person sending the text to the Church phone number) has a record in TouchPoint, you can click on the Sender's name to hop straight over to his/her profile from the Received tab. Happy texting! 😊👍

Web Check-In Enhancement in Support of Pre Check-In

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 15:34:00 GMT

If your church is using or has plans to use Pre Check-In, we have great news! You may now use your device's camera (such as the webcam on your iPad, Android tablet, or laptop) as a QR Code Scanner, so you will not need to purchase a separate one to scan the phone. The screenshot above is what you will see before you sign in to Web Check-In. If your device has two cameras, you may select which one to use--the front or rear camera. Alternatively, you may also keep it disabled if you don't plan to use Pre Check-In or if you will be using a separate QR Code Scanner. To test the camera: once signed in to Web Check-In, click or tap at the very top of the screen in the horizontal center. If you have selected the correct camera, it will appear. Click or tap in the same area to dismiss the camera. If you do not see what you expect to see (or if you see nothing), sign out of Web Check-In and select the other camera (front or rear). A special "Thank You" to James at Tenth Presbyterian Church for developing this feature and making it available to our partner churches!

Does Your Church Use Twilio For Texting? We Have An Important Announcement...

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Now Supporting Multiple Merchant Accounts!

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 22:34:00 GMT

If you are a multisite church, if you have a school or non-profit attached to your church, or if you run special events with other organizations, you might be particularly interested in this new feature. TouchPoint now offers the ability to run Giving and Online Registration payments through separate payment merchant accounts. This feature is currently supported for churches using TransNational as the payment gateway. To turn this feature on, check the box on the Payment Gateway Setup page for “UseProcessorId.” Your transactions will continue to process using your default gateway and processor unless you set a specific setting for one of the following: A Fund by adding the Merchant ID on the Edit Fund Page An Involvement Registration by setting the Merchant ID on the Fees tab All Involvement Registrations for a specific Campus by setting the Merchant ID on the Campus settings in the Lookup Codes If you use this for Online Giving, it is recommended that you only have Funds that use the same MerchantID listed on a specific Giving Page so that if someone is making a gift to multiple Funds, they will process in the same transaction. When setting up the new Processor/Merchant accounts with TransNational, both the ACH and Credit accounts should have the same name with the account used to process ACH payments appended with a “1” (example: credit - church, ACH - church1).

There's A New Extra Value Type In Town...

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 23:02:00 GMT

We recently released a new HTML Editor Extra Value Type that allows you to add custom content! This might be helpful for storing images, documents, or any other custom (HTML) content on a People record or Involvement. On a related note, have you seen how easy it is to move Extra Values among various tabs now? If you have Extra Values stored on the Profile > Extra Values tab of a People record, you have the option to easily move them to the Involvement > Volunteer, Profile > Member, or Profile > Entry tabs for easier access. To further organize your Extra Values, you can also add headers and new sections to group the Extra Values however you’d like to organize them.

Recent Changes To Pledging

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 16:51:00 GMT

Sneak Peek...User Enhancements Coming Tonight!

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 21:45:00 GMT

Mobile App Update

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 19:00:00 GMT

Introducing: The Check-In Dashboard!

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 17:18:00 GMT

We've teased you for a few days on this new feature, so here's all that you need to know about TouchPoint's new Check-In Dashboard! We are excited to announce this new feature that will assist with room capacity monitoring and management. The Check-In Dashboard works hand-in-hand with Web Check-In and allows for real-time monitoring of room attendance numbers as compared to capacity. Anyone with the CheckIn role will be able to access the Check-In Dashboard, found under the Reports Menu > Attendance Summary > Check-In Dashboard. For a Meeting to appear on the list, the Involvement must have the box checked to Allow Check-In; there also must be a Schedule or Meeting for today. The Capacity on the Check-In Dashboard comes from the Schedule (found under the Involvement's Settings > Attendance tab). When a Meeting's recorded attendance reaches Capacity, the Meeting toggles from Open to Closed, and the number of individuals present is highlighted in red to alert you of that status. You're able to make in-the-moment adjustments, should you need to increase the capacity to allow others to check-in or decrease the capacity and close the Meeting altogether. Learn more about the Check-In Dashboard here!

February New Features Recording + Other Announcements

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:04:00 GMT

New Features Webinar Recording Check out our February New Features Webinar recording! This month's hosts were Chris.Dolan@touchpointsoftware.com (Chris Dolan), VP of Product and Strategy, and Andrew.Triplett@touchpointsoftware.com (Andrew Triplett), Director of Consulting. New Webinar Series We are transitioning the New Features Webinar to a new solution-focused webinar series: What's the Point...? What's the point of technology if it doesn't help? What's the point of ____ feature? Each month, we will be focusing on one way that we can help impact your ministry using TouchPoint's solutions. This new webinar series will be hosted by Michael Faulkner, VP of Solutions, and Andrew.Triplett@touchpointsoftware.com (Andrew Triplett), Director of Consulting. Stay in the loop on New Feature Communications: Subscribe to our Blog (you may do so on the righthand side of this page). Subscribe to the TouchPoint Minute, our monthly newsletter. As a reminder, here's some of what you can expect regarding New Feature Releases: New features and major updates will occur on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays in order to give you and your teams adequate notice and thus minimize any disruption to your Sunday activities. For changes that impact existing functionality, we will blog about the feature in advance. You will also be seeing more videos in our blogs highlighting those updates. Small changes and fixes will continue to be released as quickly as possible (after successfully passing our testing process) regardless of the day of the week. Online Giving Roundtable If you haven't yet migrated to our new Online Giving Pages, join our roundtable discussion Thursday, March 4 at 2pm Central to assist with the transition and to answer any questions you may have. {{cta('350e2bb1-f05a-4476-bcef-3b03b719403d','justifycenter')}}

Communication Re: New Features + Product Updates

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 14:25:00 GMT

As we work to deliver new features and product updates on a regular basis, we also commit to a communication strategy and rollout plan that aligns with your ministry. We have made several recent changes in how we handle our releases, documentation, webinars, and blogs that incorporate valuable feedback from you, our partner churches. Here’s some of what you can expect: New features and major updates will occur only on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays in order to give you and your teams adequate notice and thus minimize any disruption to your Sunday activities. For changes that impact existing functionality, we will blog about the feature in advance. You will also be seeing more videos in our blogs highlighting those updates. Small changes and fixes will continue to be released as quickly as possible (after successfully passing our testing process) regardless of the day of the week. As always, thank you for allowing us to partner with you in ministry. More information on our communication plan will be coming soon!

New Batch Report

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 17:35:00 GMT

We are pleased to offer a new financial report that we hope will simplify the process of reconciling online transactions. The new Batch Report can be accessed from the Reconcile Report and shows details with fund subtotals for the transactions included in the selected settlement batch. The report displays each fund's Income Account as an aid in general ledger entry. Links in the Batch Report provide access to further information: Name links will open a new tab with that person's profile. Date links will open a new tab with the online transaction for that entry. Amount links will open a new tab with the bundle containing that contribution entry. You can read more about this new report here.

Organizations Are Now Involvements

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 14:09:00 GMT

As previewed in the recent New Features Webinar, we are releasing the first phase of our refresh of organizations. Perhaps the most noticeable change is in terminology. Organizations are now Involvements! You will see this new wording in menus and in Search Builder conditions and, of course, on the page for an Involvement. Watch the video below for an overview of the changes, then continue reading for additional information. Please note the following changes to navigation and editing: To access the Member Dialog, click the pencil icon for that person. (You will no longer access it by clicking on member type.) To modify the program/division for an Involvement, click the info icon (the "i" inside a blue circle) to the right of its name. Then click on a program/division. To add an individual member, click on the Add Members button. To add from a tag, select that option from the Add Members drop down menu. Subgroup/Tag filtering and updating or dropping selected members is now down via the down aritem menu to the left of the Name column header. The Drop and Update actions above will apply to members with a check mark by their names. You no longer need to filter first. There are now blue badges for Involvement Type (formerly Organization Type), Campus, and Status (Active or Inactive). Click on the badge to edit this information. When on a Meeting page, you can easily switch to another Meeting by selecting from a drop down list of existing meetings for that Involvement.

January New Features Webinar Recording + Giving Roundtables

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 17:23:00 GMT

Watch our January 2021 New Features Webinar below! This month's hosts were Chris.Dolan@touchpointsoftware.com (Chris Dolan), VP of Product and Strategy, and hayley.whitworth@touchpointsoftware.com (Hayley Whitworth), Director of Training. If you haven't yet made the migration from our old Online Giving Organizations to the new Online Giving Pages, we're happy to help with any questions you might have! Join one of our two Online Giving Roundtables: Thursday, February 4, 2021 @ 2:00pm Central Thursday, February 18, 2021 @ 2:00pm Central. {{cta('350e2bb1-f05a-4476-bcef-3b03b719403d')}}

Volunteer Tab Moved

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 16:11:00 GMT

In case you have not already noticed, the Volunteer tab has moved. Formerly under the Ministry tab, it is now located under the Involvement tab. In addition, the contents of the Volunteer tab have been slightly modified for ease of use and accessibility. Since the standard extra values on this tab are visible to anyone with the Access role—but not to OrgLeadersOnly users—if there are extra values that should have limited viewing, you can set that using the Limit to Roles feature on the individual extra value. In the process, we have also renamed two of the roles related to volunteer background checks: ApplicationReview has been renamed ManageApplication to better indicate the rights given by this role. ViewVolunteerApplication has been given the simplified name ViewApplication, matching the naming scheme of the role above.

Mobile-friendly, System-generated Templates Released!

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:06:00 GMT

We have pre-loaded editable email templates on all databases to replace the current system-generated emails. The new templates use the mobile responsive email builder and can be found under Administration > Special Content > Email Templates. Filter for the SystemEmailTemplates role. The following templates are available now: Confirm Subscriptions Continue Registration Link Default Confirmation Different Email Message Existing User Confirmation Forgot Password Bad Email Forgot Password Reset 2 New User Welcome No Email Message Notify Duplicate User on Mobile One-Time Confirmation Org Members Model Send Moved Notices Recurring Gift Failed Notice Recurring Gift Notice Send Link Message We encourage you to customize and activate these emails for your church today. (Until they are activated, the system will continue to use the default messages.) Customize by adding your own logo, colors, messaging, and branding. Important Note: Do not delete any necessary replacement codes. Activate by removing the word "Draft" from the template title an resave. Important Note: Once you remove the word "Draft" in the template name, the template will immediately be activated for system use. Do not change any other part of the name. Please see the following video for a quick review of the steps involved in customizing and activating a template.

Contribution Statements

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 17:47:00 GMT

Webinar RECORDING I December New Features

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 23:50:00 GMT

Watch our December 2020 New Features Webinar hosted by Chris.Dolan@touchpointsoftware.com (Chris Dolan), VP of Product and Strategy and Andrew.Triplett@touchpointsoftware.com (Andrew Triplett), Director of Consulting below!

Free Mobile App Update

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 21:29:00 GMT

For churches that don’t have our custom branded mobile app, our free app has been updated with some additional features. The app now has a similar look and feel to our Custom App profile page. With this update, the free app includes features that would be useful to congregants, in addition to the powerful, role-based tools for staff and lay leaders. The app has a new logo color and adds the following features: Profile Photo - Ability to view your profile photo and upload a new photo Information - Users can edit their profile information. Translations (Spanish & Chinese) - If users’ devices are set to Spanish or Chinese, the app will translate into the appropriate language. Giving - Includes summary, detail, and PDF statements for any year the person has made a gift. Also, includes links to make a one time gift, set up recurring giving, or manage giving statement preferences. QR Code Attendance - Staff and lay leaders can now take attendance by scanning a user’s QR code, creating a quick, contactless way to mark people present. Users can access their personal QR code in the upper right corner of the app. Quick Sign-in with Email - Users no longer need a username and password to log in. They can simply enter their email address and a six digit code will securely be sent to their email to complete the login.

December Tips & Tricks | Quick Ways to Collect Responses

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 16:28:00 GMT

As the holidays are officially upon us, church events are underway. Celebrations in 2020 certainly look very different than they have in years prior. Many are gathering via Zoom, and some are creatively exploring ways to implement sacred rituals from afar. Perhaps your church is planning an event, and you want to gauge interest or determine how many supplies you will need. TouchPoint offers Vote Links, which are a simple (for both the church to create and the churchgoer to use!) way of polling an audience. Our friends at Cross Church shared with us that they are offering churchgoers the option of participating in Communion at home. They need an easy way for their congregation to let the church know if they need Communion items or not. Creating a Vote Link allows for just that. Let’s explore this example further: Setup The setup necessary for sending out Vote Links is quite simple. We need to have an Organization that is set up as a Join Org registration. Lastly, we need to set the Online Notify Person and (optional) Confirmation Email. Emailing Vote Links To email the Vote Link, we need to create the Special Link, selecting the Vote Link option. We should specify the Org ID that points to our Online Registration. Next, we may customize the Message that we would like to appear as our on-screen message once the registrant clicks on the Vote Link. We may customize the Small Group/Sub-Group name and indicate whether or not we want to send a Confirmation Email once the registrant completes the voting process. We should create a Vote Link for every response type we need to capture (one for “yes” and one for “no,” for example). Manage Responses We may easily manage the responses using the Sub-Group Manager from within the Organization as people respond. Learn more here! Vote Link Create Vote Links In An Email

Three New Widgets

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 15:22:00 GMT

Three new widgets are available for your use. Contacts Trend This widget presents a bar graph showing recent contacts by type. The number of months to display and the contact types can be customized. To read more about the Contacts Trend Widget, read here. Giving Change Histogram The Giving Change widget displays a horizontal bar graph representation of the number of giving households in various change categories: those who have started, stopped, increased, or decreased their giving. A number of settings are customizable: fund, minimum amount, minimum percentage of change, and consecutive time periods to compare. Read more here. Special Links This Special Links widget provides hyperlinks to other pages within the database or, if desired, to pages external to the database. In addition to changing the URL for the links, you can also customize the button background and font colors. For more information, read here.

New Search Conditions

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 15:15:00 GMT

We have recently introduced two new search conditions. First Time Giver This new condition is similar to the Recent First Time Giver condition. But, whereas the latter condition looks back a certain number of days for first time givers, the new condition looks within a specified date range for first time givers. As with its companion condition, First Time Giver allows you to specify a fund and a tax status. Read more about this new condition here. Add Spouse This condition adds to the search results the spouse of any Primary Adults already in the results. The Add Spouse condition should be used in much the same way as Add Primary Adults. Both conditions should be considered the final condition of the query. Read here for a fuller explanation.

Touchpoint Releases a Powerful New Seat Ticketing Tool to its Church Management System (ChMS), Easing Event Planning For Churches While Saving Money

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 14:46:00 GMT

A Few New Giving Enhancements

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 14:17:00 GMT

We recently introduced a few enhancements in our new giving platform: Donor Covers Fee To accommodate the new Donor Covers Fee feature, the Transactions Log will now have columns for Base, Fee, and Total so you can easily determine how much has been given to offset fees. The same columns will also be available in the export results for the page. To read about enabling and configuring Donor Covers Fee, see Step 4 in the help article Online Giving Setup. Delete Giving Pages Maybe you have Giving Pages you used for testing but no longer need. Over time, you may accumulate special purpose Giving Pages that have served their purposes. Now you can delete unneeded Giving Pages. On the Online Giving Setup screen, Delete buttons are available for pages that are not default pages. Make Bank Account the Default Payment Method If you want to encourage your donors to give by bank account rather than credit/debit card, you can now make Bank Account the pre-selected method on payment pages. Toggle the setting SetBankAccountDefault to True to enable this feature. The setting can be found on the Finance tab, in the Online Giving section.

Special Giving Links

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 14:08:00 GMT

The Special Links button, for sending links in emails and SMS messages, now includes a Giving Page Link. This link builder will allow you to create a link to a giving page, optionally with any of the following pre-selected: Fund Giving Type (Recurring, One-Time, Pledge) or a recurring frequency Suggested Amount For a full explanation of the link options, see Step 7 in the help article Online Giving Setup.

Preparation for New Mobile Self Check-In

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 22:04:00 GMT

Our next custom mobile app release, coming soon after Thanksgiving, will include the option for your congregants to check-in on their mobile device prior to entering the church and then scanning a QR code at the check-in station to print their labels. This will save time, provide a contactless check-in experience (important today due to COVID), and reduce the number of check-in stations your church will need. In order to use the new self check-in option, your church will need to be using the latest version of check-in that was released at the beginning of the year -- Web Check-in. If you have not already set this up, you can watch this short video that includes an overview of the benefits and steps to setting up Web Check-in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grlyt3N-ZR8 You can also read about Web Check-in here in our documentation.

Now Supporting Local Time Zones!

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 23:14:00 GMT

Giving-Related Search Conditions Changing Tonight

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 14:35:00 GMT

Effective tonight (November 11), a few giving-related Search Builder conditions will be changing due to the underlying database modifications that support the new giving pages. These conditions are: Recent Has Failed Recurring Giving Has Managed Giving Managed Giving with Credit Card Credit Card Expiration Recent Managed Giving What this means for you The changes to these search conditions will allow them to work correctly for churches that have migrated to the new giving pages. Conversely, these conditions will no longer work for churches that have not yet migrated to the new giving platform. Migration Aids For an overview of the new giving platform and its benefits, see the help article Online Giving Overview and the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sojKuEeWOtU&feature=emb_logo For directions to configure the new giving pages, see the help article Online Giving Setup and the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2onMjaRMAnE&feature=emb_logo For instructions on how to migrate to the new giving platform, see the help article Migrating to the New Online Giving Pages and the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xqVquv8MZ4&feature=emb_logo

Hide Pledge Features

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 14:40:00 GMT

Two new controls are available for hiding pledge features. Custom Access Setting A newly-added custom access setting allows you to hide the Pledges tab on people’s profiles. This will be particularly useful for churches that don’t use pledges, avoiding confusion for their congregants. By default, the Pledges tab is set to show for all roles. To hide the Pledges tab from users with the given role, toggle the setting to Hide. For example, to hide the Pledges tab from all My Data users, toggle this setting for the MyData roll. For more information about configuring Custom Access Roles, read here. Administration Setting If you need to retain the Pledges tab but hide the Make a Pledge button -- perhaps because, while you do use pledges, there is no current pledge campaign -- you can use the administration setting ShowMakeAPledgeButton, found in Administration Settings under the Finance tab and in the Pledges section.

Recurring Pledges

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 21:13:00 GMT

With recurring pledges you can empower your donors to automatically renew their pledges. For example, a donor could set up a $1,000 pledge that is renewed each month. If the pledge fund is configured to allow an end date, the donor can specify when the recurring pledge ends. Otherwise it continues renewing until the donor cancels it. To support this new feature, two new email templates have been added to your database, available at Administration > Special Content > Email Templates: Recurring Pledge Setup - the email confirming the creation of a recurring pledge Recurring Pledge Cancellation - the email confirmation cancellation of a recurring pledge To learn more about Recurring Pledges, read here.

Online Giving Roundtables--This Week!

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 21:28:00 GMT

Are you getting ready to launch the new Online Giving platform? Do you have questions before you migrate or just want to dig into this new feature a little bit more before making the transition? Join us this week for one of our Online Giving Roundtables! We encourage you to watch these three short videos before you attend: Video 1: New Giving Features Overview Video 2: New Giving Setup Video 3: New Giving Migration Tuesday, November 3rd: 2pm - 3pm Central Join the Conversation Wednesday, November 4th: 9am - 10am Central Join the Conversation Thursday, November 5th: 3pm - 4pm Central Join the Conversation We hope to see you there!

ON DEMAND WEBINAR | OCTOBER NEW FEATURES

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 21:10:09 GMT

Here's an On-Demand replay of our October 29th Webinar to show you what's new, improved, and upcoming for the platform. Watch below!

Migration to New Online Giving

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 19:17:00 GMT

Our new giving platform is live! You can switch to it as soon as you are ready. After you have configured and tested new Giving Pages, the final step is to migrate your recurring giving schedules to the new platform. Please watch the video below for a demonstration of the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xqVquv8MZ4&feature=emb_logo If you do not currently have recurring giving schedules, please contact support when you are ready to begin using the new giving pages. We can activate the new pages for you. Information about how to configure the new Giving Pages can be found in the article Online Giving Setup. You can read more about the migration process here.

New Release for Online Giving!

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:36:00 GMT

We are excited to announce the release of our new and greatly improved version of online giving & pledging. The primary features of this new release have been previously announced and are outlined in the article Online Giving Overview. The video below highlights those new features. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sojKuEeWOtU&feature=emb_logo Information about how to configure the new Giving Pages can be found in the article Online Giving Setup. You can begin immediately with the steps for setting up your new Giving Pages. The video below offers a walk through of the steps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2onMjaRMAnE&feature=emb_logo Once your pages have been set up, any new admin settings applied, emails configured & customized, and your shell has been applied, these pages are ready to be tested and used *internally. It is recommended to not share the new giving pages externally until you migrate existing donors (see below for more info) so that donors with existing recurring gifts only need to go to one place to manage their giving. *Next week we will make available a simple automated process for migrating your existing recurring giving schedules and existing saved payment methods to the new format. Watch the blog for this IMPORTANT last step.

New Online Giving Template

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 15:28:00 GMT

A new online giving template, Recurring Gift End Date, has been added to all databases. This email will be needed only if you allow donors to set an end date for recurring gifts. To learn more about online giving templates and how to customize them for your church, read here.

Delete Scheduled SMS

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 18:02:00 GMT

Deleting scheduled SMS messages is now super easy. On the SMS Messages page (Administration > SMS Messages), scheduled messages are highlighted in green and have a Delete button to the right. To delete the scheduled message, simply click the Delete button and confirm. To learn more about the management of SMS messages, read here.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR | DATABASE CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO (DATABASE) GODLINESS

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 21:13:41 GMT

Data is more than rows on a spreadsheet. In your church database, data represents a person. A soul for whom Christ died. The problem is, most church databases are riddled with old, outdated, and inaccurate information about our congregants. And that makes it hard to minister to and serve them effectively. In this webinar, we want to equip and empower your staff with strategies and processes for keeping your database clean that will ultimately help you find more success engaging your congregation.

Filters for Email Templates

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 16:42:00 GMT

We have added two useful filters for Email Templates in Special Content. Roles Filter - This filter allows you to view all email templates that are limited to the selected role. For example, to view all templates for use with online giving confirmations, select the role GivingEmailTemplates and click the Set button. Types Filter - This filter allows you to view templates by type: Mobile Responsive (Unlayer) , HTML Editor (CKEditor), or both.

Email Templates for Online Giving

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 21:51:00 GMT

We have released email templates for use with the soon-to-be-released Giving Pages. They can be found in Special Content on the Email Templates tab. The four new templates are: One Time Giving - the confirmation email sent to donors when a one-time online gift is made Pledge Setup - the confirmation email sent to donors when they set up a pledge Recurring Giving Setup - the confirmation email sent to donors when they set up scheduled gifts Recurring Gift Cancelled - the confirmation email sent to donors when they cancel a scheduled gift In addition to the pertinent information about the giving event being confirmed, all four templates include helpful links to increase donor engagement. In preparation for using the new Giving Pages, you will need to customize these templates or create your own using the same replacement fields. For instructions on how to modify the templates, including a video demonstration, read here.

New Shells for Registrations and Giving Pages

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 21:45:00 GMT

Today we have placed on your database three new shells that can be used for registrations or for the soon-to-be-released Giving Pages. They can be found in Special Content on the HTML Content tab, with the names: StandardShell (contrasting background colors) StandardShellLight (uniformly light background color) StandardShellwBackground (background image) All three shells include a logo a link for the donor/registrant to check or modify their profile information social media icons as links footer with church information Two shells have solid color backgrounds and the third has a background image. For more information about the shells, including the HTML code and instructions on customization, read here.

Mobile Technology Trends 2020 & What They Mean for the Church

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:48:00 GMT

Update to Registration Questions

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 14:43:00 GMT

Earlier this week we blogged about a coming refresh for registration questions. Those enhancements are now live! The improvements include a simplified layout, both for registration creation and for the registration itself, and added elements such as new design features and question types. Read more about registration questions here. You may also notice new settings in the new Finance tab on the Administration Settings page and new columns in Fund Management. We will provide information about this in a blog post next week.

Registration Questions Changes Coming this Week

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 22:20:00 GMT

In case you were not able to join us last week at our Virtual TouchPoint Summit, we are excited to announce some changes coming to registration questions! Since these changes will be published this week we wanted to give you a quick heads up on what to expect. What’s New? The process for creating new questions on an Organizations Registration > Questions tab has a whole new look and some new features. Here’s what to expect: Simplified, sleeker design on the page and for each individual question type Add Questions panel reorganized to delineate between Free Form and Standardized Questions New design types: Divider, Instruction Highlighted, and Instruction Plain New question types: Radio Buttons and Single Line Answers (formerly Extra Question) Set individual questions to required/not required and enable/disable questions as needed. New preview button allows you to see a live version of your form. Questions have a cleaner layout for registrants, especially on mobile. When will it be available? This update will go live this week. We will release another post on the TouchPoint Blog when it is live. What do I need to do to prepare? Nothing! Once this feature is released you will see the updated interface on all registration organizations.

TouchPoint Summit Registration Closes TONIGHT - Monday, 9/14

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:33:00 GMT

If you haven't grabbed your spot for TouchPoint Virtual Summit yet, today's the last day to register. Learn about Summit, see the session descriptions, speakers, and more here. Register Here

COVID Health Screening for Your TouchPoint Registrations

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 01:35:00 GMT

As in-person worship services and other events are beginning to reconvene, churches are finding ways to ensure the safety of all in attendance. To assist, TouchPoint has created a new org registration called COVID Health Screening which will be loaded to your database upon request. Questions recommended by the CDC are included in the registration. Registrants that check any of the boxes (indicating health warnings) will be placed in subgroups, providing you an easy way to reach out to them with further instructions. The questions on the COVID Health Screening registration You can require that registrants complete the questionnaire before registering for onsite events by making this screening a Validate Organization for other registrations. To ensure health information is current, membership in the Screening organization will be automatically deleted 2 days after registration (or a number of days you specify). Therefore registrants will need to re-register if attending in-person events more than that many days into the future. To view registrant responses, run the new SQL custom report of the same name, COVID Health Screening, found in the section of the Blue Toolbar for each organization/registration. If you change any of the subgroup names, there will be required updates to the SQL report. If you would like to use the COVID Health Screening registration, contact Support and we will add the necessary files to your database. The suite includes the organization, SQL report, and Python script (for dropping aged registrations).

New Tools to Customize People Profile Pages

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 23:02:00 GMT

We have added new features that will allow you to further customize what is displayed when viewing someone’s profile. New custom access role settings allow you to hide even more tabs and sections. A new translations file allows you to change the name of several tabs and database fields. New Custom Access Role Settings Settings are now available to hide the Documents tab (Profile > Documents), hide the “Member Profile” label on the Profile > Member tab, and hide the following sections on the Profile > Member tab: Church Membership Decision Letter Status Baptism New Member Class Drop Additionally, changed settings are now highlighted, making it much easier to see which roles have been modified. You can read more about these new settings, or about Custom Access Roles in general, here. Translation File The new translation file allows you to change the names of several tabs and database fields. In the file, you map the default label to the new label of your choice. To read more about the translation file, including a couple of examples, see here.

New Attendance Reminders Features

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:21:00 GMT

Attendance reminders, automatically sent to leaders before scheduled meetings, now have a few new features. Did Not Meet Leaders can now indicate when a scheduled meeting did not take place. When this feature is enabled, the meeting can be marked as “Did Not Meet”. This is enabled by adding the administration setting UseDidNotMeetOption and giving it the value True. Attendance Reminder Email Template For attendance reminders that are emailed (as opposed to sent via SMS), the subject and body are now determined by an email template named Attendance Reminder Email. You will want to customize the template with your church’s logo and the desired wording, using replacement codes that are modeled in the sample template provided. The template is hidden behind the role SystemEmailTemplates which has been assigned to all Admins. Action Item: Modify the template as needed for your church. Updated Reports Several reports on the Organization Search page have been enhanced to include “Did Not Meet” information. These include: Export Meetings/Attendance Meeting Day Stats Meetings Meetings/Attendance Meetings For Month You can read more about the “Did Not Meet” feature here, and more about the new Attendance Reminder Email template here.

New Settings in Advance of Improved Online Giving

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 17:08:00 GMT

In case you missed the last new features webinar, we are close to releasing a new and improved version of online giving. To that end, you will start to see a few new settings, some of which are able to be used today and a few of which are in preparation for the new online giving functionality. The first change you will see is related to the card types you allow for your various payment gateways. Note that you still need to set what you allow and don’t allow through your gateway management. These new settings on TouchPoint replace the current settings on the Settings Page and allow you more granular control per gateway (if your church uses multiple gateways). The next change is a part of a new feature that will be released with the new giving functionality. This feature is related to allowing an end date being set on a specific fund. On the fund management page you will now see a column to “allow end date” per fund. You can go ahead and configure this for your funds but it will not take effect until the new giving pages are released and you turn them on for your church. There are some additional settings you’ll see on the settings page under contributions, and one for org registrations which we’ll talk about in a future post. Stay tuned for more on the giving project that will be releasing soon.

August Updates

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 16:44:00 GMT

Widget How-To Videos

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 14:38:00 GMT

Thanks to social distancing (and Netflix!), many of us have had the opportunity to enjoy some relaxing time streaming some of our favorite shows/videos. Add TouchPoint videos to the queue! As you may have heard us mention in our most recent New Features Webinar, TouchPoint is hard at work creating some YouTube content for your binge-watching pleasure. For now, whet your appetite with these short videos about our favorite new feature: Homepage Widgets! The short videos inside of the following help articles demonstrate how to customize each Widget for your church. Homepage Widget Overview Giving Sources Widget Giving to Budget Comparison Widget Recurring Giving Widget Giving Type Breakdown Widget Attendance Year Over Year Widget Division Comparison Widget Vital Stats Widget

TouchPoint Virtual Summit | September 17, 2020

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 18:55:00 GMT

After taking some time to recalibrate, we’re now thrilled to welcome you to register for TouchPoint Virtual Summit. What's TouchPoint Summit? Summit is a dedicated time when TouchPoint users gather to learn tips and tricks for maximizing the system, general best practices, and see what's on the roadmap for development. This year, Summit will take place virtually on Thursday, September 17 from 10AM to 3PM central. Learn more here.You’re going to jump with joy (okay… maybe that’s just us) when you check out the session topics our team has assembled for TouchPoint Virtual Summit. Check it out and register today! Learn More about Summit

Improved Management of Standard Extra Values

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 22:23:00 GMT

It’s now easier than ever to manage standard extra values. A new editing window allows you to rename, sort extra values in their current location, or move them to a new location. The StandardExtraValues2 file (in Special Content > Text Content) still determines the naming and placement of standard extra values for People, Family, and Organization, but the new editing window offers a user-friendly way to manage People standard extra values. To use it, simply go to one of the locations with standard extra values -- the Extra Values tab, Member tab, or Entry tab -- and click the Edit button.

Business/Entity Records

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 22:18:00 GMT

Business or entity records can now be created in TouchPoint. The records will have a Business Name rather than a First and Last Name and will display only the fields relevant to a business or other entity. Person records can be converted to business records and vice versa. The Basic Search page now has a filter for record type -- Person or Business/Entity -- and there is a Record Type search condition so that you can easily include or exclude types in your Search Builder results. For more information about creating and converting Business/Entity records, read here.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR ǀ NEW GIVING PLATFORM SHOW & TELL + MONTHLY NEW FEATURES

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 21:16:35 GMT

We have extended our monthly new features webinar to show off the new giving platform in addition to reviewing other new items that we’ve recently released. Watch the on-demand webinar to see more!

Enhancements for Email: Cloning and File Uploads

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 21:07:00 GMT

We have recently provided two enhancements for emails. File Uploads for Mobile-Responsive Emails Now the process for uploading files or images and copying the URL to an email link has been simplified. Click the Upload File button, select the file, then Copy and Close. The URL is copied and ready to paste into a link or button. For details, read here. Cloning Templates Email templates can now easily be cloned. This allows you to use an existing template as the starting point for others. It’s as simple as clicking a button. Read more here.

TouchPoint Monthly Newsletter- July

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 13:00:00 GMT

ON DEMAND WEBINAR ǀ DEEPLINKING: DRIVING APP ADOPTION AND MUCH MORE

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 21:18:57 GMT

Does your church have a mobile app or are they exploring the idea of getting one? If so, there's a key functionality that you need to know about. It's called deeplinking, and it's one of the most potent tools in your church's communications arsenal. In a nutshell, deeplinking allows you to send links to your congregants that open directly into the place in your app where you want the recipient to take action. In this on demand webinar, we’ll look at a new and extremely powerful feature called deeplinking. This tool is great for driving adoption to your mobile app and making giving, registrations, and more extremely easy. When paired with the new SMS tools it becomes even more powerful.

Update: TouchPoint Summit 2020

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 21:02:00 GMT

TouchPoint Summit 2020 is going virtual! Mark your calendar for Thursday, September 17. Based on your feedback, this year's Summit will be condensed into a half-day on Thursday morning. Summit in Memphis will convene in September 2021. We look forward to seeing you in-person then. We’re grateful to everyone who provided their comments in the survey. In August, you will receive pricing information, a new registration link, and an updated agenda that includes breakout session topics. If I’ve already registered myself and a guest to attend Summit, will I get a refund? If you have already registered for Summit, you will be automatically registered for the virtual event, and your registration fee will be deducted from what you have already paid. The remaining balance (including event passes and guest registrations) will go toward next year's Summit in Memphis. If you would like a full refund, please submit your request by Tuesday, September 1, 2020. Learn More

Deeplinks Redirect to Web for a Desktop User!

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 19:37:00 GMT

Recently we introduced deeplinks that allow you to take users to specific pages within the mobile app. But what happens if a user is on a desktop or laptop when clicking on a deeplink? Now, when possible, the link will redirect the user to the corresponding web page. There are a few deeplinks that have no corresponding web page (for example, the deeplink to the page for selecting a Location for the app). For these, when a desktop user clicks the link, they will be redirected to the App Store Promo page. Read here for more information about deeplink redirections.

Two New SQL Recipes

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 14:26:00 GMT

ON DEMAND WEBINAR | TWO-WAY SMS: IDEAS AND BEST PRACTICES

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 21:21:31 GMT

In this webinar, we’ll look at some of the fun and creative uses churches have found for the new two-way texting. We’ll talk about ways to roll this out to your church members, manage your lists, and other best practices. Come with your creative ideas to share.

TouchPoint Monthly Newsletter- June

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 20:55:00 GMT

Mobile App Updates

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 21:40:00 GMT

Identifying Duplicate Cell Phone Numbers

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 21:54:00 GMT

For a variety of reasons, your database may have cell phone numbers on multiple records. Maybe a couple supplied one of their cell phone numbers as contact information for both of them. Or children may have a parent’s cell phone number added to their record during Check-In. Ordinarily this may be no problem. But if an SMS reply with a Reply Word is received from such a cell phone number, we will not know for certain exactly who sent it. TouchPoint has an algorithm for picking the correct person but if the same cell phone number is used by multiple people there is no way to guarantee we pick the correct person. You can reduce the odds of a mistake by identifying and removing duplicate cell phone numbers from your database. We have a tool to help with that - an SQL report of duplicate numbers. For more information about how TouchPoint handles replies from duplicate cell phone numbers and for the SQL script to locate them, read here.

Additional SMS Features

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 15:28:00 GMT

As we continue to enhance SMS in TouchPoint, this week we have released the following new features: SMS Scheduling! Now you can schedule your SMS messages. When sending the message, simply check the box for Scheduled Text? and set the date and time it should be sent. Insert Special Links Special Links such as Register Link, RSVP, or Support Link can now be included in your SMS message. The familiar Insert Special Link button that is also on the email editor is available when you send a text. Read more here. URL Shortening Any URL, including the Special Links mentioned above, that includes the protocol (e.g., “http” or “https”) will automatically be shortened when the text is sent. If you do not want the URL to be shortened or if it is a deeplink, do not add the protocol and the URL will not be shortened. Blue Toolbar Functions The blue Toolbar on the SMS Messages page now allows you to send emails or text messages to the filtered list of recipients, export the lists on the Sent or Received tabs, or tag the filtered list of recipients. For full information, read here. Set a Default Message for Unknown Numbers With the DefaultReplyUnknownNumbers setting, you can define a default message that is sent in reply when a Key Word reply is received from an unknown cell phone number. For more, read here.

June/July Community Roundtables

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 00:32:00 GMT

Remote Deposit Capture Is Available

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 14:30:00 GMT

You can now enable Remote Deposit Capture for use on your database. Last March we announced that this new feature was in beta. It is now out of beta and available! As a reminder, Remote Deposit Capture allows a church to scan check images directly into TouchPoint, using the TouchPoint Check Scan application, and then download an X9 file to make a deposit directly to your bank account. This feature requires additional setup in order for the X9 file to work for your specific bank. When you provide us with some information about your bank, TouchPoint will complete the necessary setup for a minimal fee. If you are interested in using this feature, please submit your church’s info on this form and someone from our Client Success team will reach out to you with more information.

More Homepage Widgets!

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 13:01:00 GMT

TouchPoint Reopening Strategies

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

TouchPoint Monthly Newsletter + May New Features Roll-Up

Fri, 29 May 2020 14:42:00 GMT

Introducing Two-Way SMS

Fri, 29 May 2020 00:51:00 GMT

You may have noticed that the Email tab on people records has been renamed to Communications. This is a small indicator of big changes. Recipients of SMS messages sent from TouchPoint can now reply! Along with that, we have added the following features: Reply Words - When recipients reply with a keyword, an action is triggered. These reply words can be configured for each of your Twilio groups. For example, using reply words, text recipients can join an organization, RSVP for a meeting, receive a link to download your mobile app, and much more. Updates to the Twilio settings page - You can designate who in your Twilio group will receive emails about replies to SMS messages. Enhancements to the SMS Messages page - There are now three tabs. In addition to a log of sent SMS messages, there is a tab for Received, and another for setting up the Reply Words for each group. There are additional filters on these pages as well. Expanded Communications tab - Sent and received SMS messages can also be viewed on the newly-named Communications tab on each person’s record. Additional enhancements will be introduced in the coming weeks. To learn more, including what changes you need to make in your Twilio account in order to receive replies, read here.

Let Us Go to the House of the Lord | A Guide to Resuming Church Services in the COVID-19 Era

Tue, 19 May 2020 14:48:00 GMT

Two New Homepage Widgets

Thu, 14 May 2020 17:03:00 GMT

This week we have introduced two new homepage widgets. The Vital Stats widget offers a highly flexible listing of counts for people groups in your database by employing status flags and/or saved searches that define the groups. The purpose of this widget is to give an up-to-date, at-a-glance view of the people in your database. You decide what stats you want to see. For example, you might have searches or status flags for active members and inactive members, giving members and non-giving members. The possibilities are endless. For information about configuring the Vital Stats widget, read here. The Giving Sources widget displays a pie chart showing, for a specified fund or list of funds, what percentage comes from mobile giving, one-time online giving, recurring giving, or all other sources. You control the time period for the chart. You can also easily create multiple instances of the widget to display information about various funds. For help setting up one of more Giving Sources widgets, read here. Don’t forget! There is still time to enter your submission in our two widget competitions: Best Widget Idea – submit your idea here by May 22nd to be voted on at the May New Features Webinar. The winner will have their widget created. Best Widget Created – submit a widget that you create here by June 19th for the chance to win a free registration to the 2020 TouchPoint Summit. Winner will be announced on the June New Features Webinar.

Search Builder Condition Enhancements

Thu, 14 May 2020 00:27:00 GMT

Here’s a quick update on recent improvements made to Search Builder conditions. A Tax Status filter has been added to three conditions, so that you can now include donors of non deductible gifts in the results or search exclusively for donors of non deductible gifts. Those conditions are: Recent Giver to Funds Recent First Time Giver Recent Top Giver The former single condition NonTaxDed Amount History has been split into two conditions, one that returns only the individual donors and the other that returns both spouses when a couple gives jointly: NonTaxDed Amount History Donor Only NonTaxDed Amount History Both Joint Finally, a Recent Visit Number Orgs condition has been added. It functions as the companion Recent Visit Number condition with the addition of filters for program, division, organization, and organization type.

TouchPoint Monthly Newsletter + April New Features Roll-Up

Wed, 13 May 2020 18:09:00 GMT

May/June Community Roundtables

Mon, 11 May 2020 22:00:00 GMT

Why Churches Need to Segment Databases

Mon, 11 May 2020 16:50:00 GMT

New Labels for Web Check-In

Thu, 07 May 2020 19:39:00 GMT

This week we have added two new labels for use with Web Check-In. Birthday badge - This includes a birthday cake icon on children’s Main label for those with upcoming birthdays. Standard with birthday badge Background Check / Ministry Safe - For Name Tags, this includes a check mark icon for workers with expired background checks or a heart icon for workers with expired Ministry Safe certification. This label can work even if you only use one of these services. Name Tag with background check / ministry safe These are only available on 2-inch labels and require specific settings for the icons to be included: (1) one of the organizations being checked into must have a particular extra value and (2) the person checking in must have a particular status flag. To learn more about these new labels, including the precise method for setting them up, read here.

Data Center Upgrades

Mon, 04 May 2020 22:06:00 GMT

Over the next few weeks we will be upgrading our data center and cloud servers to better serve your church. Specifically, as new churches join the TouchPoint community and we add new features that are database intensive, this move will help us ensure your system stays fast and responsive. Admin users at your church will be receiving emails to notify them of the specific date that your database will be migrated. The migration is expected to take only a few minutes and you should not notice any change in service. On the day of your move, nightly processes will still be run as usual, including recurring giving. Additionally, the IP address for our server will change from 198.101.131.86 to 52.149.251.231. Please notify your network admins in case you have any special firewall rules (rare) for our servers.

Homepage Widgets

Fri, 01 May 2020 15:45:00 GMT

Yesterday we rolled out a new feature that will allow you great flexibility in customizing your home page -- Homepage Widgets. Each section of the homepage is now configured in a small application (a widget). You can edit them, rearrange them, enable and disable them, even create your own! Each widget is run by up to three scripts: HTML for the layout on the page, SQL to query data, and Python to tie them all together -- perhaps even provide a chart or graph. The scripts and other widget settings are controlled by a new option on the Administration menu. Admin users can go to Administration > Homepage Widgets to explore the widgets already available. Our developers will be introducing new widgets periodically and we can’t wait to see what your church develops! We are introducing two widget competitions: Best Widget Idea - submit your idea here by May 22nd to be voted on at the May New Features Webinar. The winner will have their widget created. Best Widget Created - submit a widget that you create here by June 19th for the chance to win a free registration to the 2020 TouchPoint Summit. Winner will be announced on the June New Features Webinar. To read more start here.

Auto Pull Batch Dates!

Fri, 01 May 2020 02:09:00 GMT

No longer will you need to remember to pull those batch dates before running a report or trying to issue a credit. Now batch dates will be pulled automatically overnight. This is controlled by two settings on the System tab, in the Contribution section: AutoSyncBatchDates to turn on the feature AutoSyncBatchDatesWindow to determine how many days back (7 days is recommended) Along with this, we have a new interface for the Transactions Log filters, gathering several in a drop down menu. The same familiar filters are still available, only now with a cleaner look and feel. We hope this new feature will save your finance users one step in the reconciliation process.

Web Check-In

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 01:15:00 GMT

In case you missed the announcement at our last new features webinar, Web Check-In is now out of beta and ready for you to use at your church as soon as your church starts meeting in person. This new version of Check-In has the same great features of the desktop version except it can be run on any device with a touchscreen and bitemser, it has a new and improved user interface, settings are managed through profiles, the background can be customized, plus much more. We are excited to be releasing a new print server that accompanies this new version of Check-In as well. You can read all about the new Check-In and print server in our documentation starting here.

Custom HTML Statements!

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 17:57:00 GMT

With the newly released HTML statements feature, you now have nearly total control over the content and format of your contributions statements. Using template files, you determine what goes in the statements and how it is laid out on the page. In addition to the existing Header and Notice files, new Template and Template Body files give you almost limitless power to customize. You can even include an optional Footer file. To create a custom HTML Statement requires knowledge of HTML and CSS coding. If you have the resources and have been itching to tailor your contribution statements to fit your church’s unique needs, this feature should thrill you! And you can make the switch with a single administration setting. If you’re not interested in this, the same statements and settings you have been using are still available. No action is required to continue using the familiar statements you have used in the past. For more information about HTML statements, read here.

Example Mobile-Responsive Template

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:45:00 GMT

We have placed on every database an example mobile-responsive template, created with the new Email Builder editor. You may find the template helpful as a model for building your own templates. You can also modify it for your own use. For suggestions on how to customize this sample template, click here. If you have not already, you may also want to review: The recent webinar Email Best Practices 101 The blog post Create Mobile Responsive Email Templates with Email Builder

Map Builder for Mobile App

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 15:00:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that an easy-to-use map builder is now available for the custom mobile app. This tool, accessible on the app portal, allows you to upload a building map and configure it for your custom mobile app. You can access the map builder tool immediately. An update will be required for your app before the map can be viewed by your users. Contact Support if you are interested in adding the map and updating your app. (The map can be configured in the portal before or after the app update.) Instructions for using the map builder tool can be found in the app portal’s Information section on the What’s New tab. If your church is not using the TouchPoint custom mobile app and you’d like to learn more about it, please email sales@touchpointsoftware.com.

Create Mobile Responsive Email Templates with Email Builder

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 14:30:00 GMT

We are now providing the ability to create mobile responsive email templates. Users with the Admin or Design roles will be able to use a mobile responsive editor (powered by unLayer) to create these templates. This tool enforces a mobile responsive design, so your emails will look great when read on a wide variety of devices. Go to the same menu location where you have been creating other email templates (Administration > Special Content > Email Templates). Simply choose the Mobile Responsive WYSIWYG when you create the template. The template you create will be marked with a mobile icon so you can easily distinguish between your standard templates and the mobile responsive templates. If you have already been using Email Builder, please note that the EmailBuilder role is no longer required. As noted above, users with either the Admin role or the Design role will be able to create templates with the new editor. Anyone will then be able to use those templates, provided they have the limiting role placed on the template but its creator. To read more about this new feature, click here.

EBOOK: CHURCH EMAILS 101

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 21:29:58 GMT

As a church staffer, you want to ensure that emails sent to your congregants are opened and read because they contain important information about the life of your church. But church members are bombarded with messages every day, and too often your emails fall through the cracks. We created this resource to help you reach your church members with timely, personal, and relevant emails. Free Resource: Church Emails 101 Download this mobile-first ebook on your device to learn: ✔ The three main types of emails and how they function ✔ Best practices for creating mobile-responsive emails ✔ Tips and tricks for ensuring consistent and clear branding Download and share this resource with your friends in ministry today! Complete the form to download the ebook today!

People Search Enhancements

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:35:00 GMT

We are introducing a couple of improvements to people searches that will both speed up and simply those processes. Start Now with a Simplified Search People searches that begin in context now start with a quick name search. This includes when you add: organization members guests to a meeting people to tasks and contacts a family member a donor when posting contributions The simplified dialog shown below will now be the initial search platform, with the option of switching to the previous, more advanced search dialog: To search, enter all or parts of the first name, last name, or both. As with the Quick Search available on the top Search menu, up to six matching results will be displayed. More Intuitive Searches We have also made changes to the following searches to make them more intuitive: The Basic People Search (Administration > Basic Search) The name filter box on an organization Now when you enter all or part of a name, with no spaces before or after, the results will include any name that includes your entry in either the first or last name. If you intend to search by first names, include a space after your entry (as before). If you intend to search by last name only, include a space before your entry. In summary, as is now shown in the on-screen help, you will have the following search options: Full Name Match First and Last name Part of First or Last name Starting letters of First and Last names People ID First Name Match First Last Name Match Last

Roundtables to learn & share best practices

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 21:23:00 GMT

Our team is hard at (virtual) work, thinking and praying for you and creating resources to help our church families stay connected and encouraged. We are standing with you! We believe the resources of TouchPoint are crucial for you, our partner churches, as you serve and care for those God has entrusted to you. We are taking extra steps to help you get the most out of TouchPoint and use it well. Our success team will be hosting Roundtables for you to come together, learn from each other and share best practices. The format of these Roundtables will be to come together and share ways that churches are pivoting to keep their people engaged and served. This could include churches that are best using the Mobile App, Registrations to take care of church members’ needs, and much more. Here are the dates/times we have set so far. Check this post for updates on future dates. Thursday, March 26 at 11:00am CDT Monday, March 30 at 3:00pm CDT Tuesday, March 31 at 3:00pm CDT Wednesday, April 1 at 3:00pm CDT Thursday, April 2 at 3:00pm CDT Friday, April 3 at 3:00pm CDT To join a Roundtable please email Brian.Bishop@touchpointsoftware.com (Brian Bishop) (brian.bishop@touchpointsoftware.com) and he will send you the link. We hope you, and your teams, can join us for one of these times.

Three Giving Improvements

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 20:58:00 GMT

We have recently added three new settings to give you more control over giving-related features in TouchPoint. The BundleEntryCampusCode setting adds the Campus Code for people in the search results when selecting donors while posting contributions. The code is displayed after the names of the people in your search results. The WC is an example campus code for the people in this search. The ContributionsCampusColumn setting adds a column for the donor's Campus Code to the results on the Contributions Search page. The campus code displayed is the donor's current campus, even if the contribution was made when the donor was in a different campus. The ContributionFilterDefault setting determines what default date range is displayed on the Giving tab of people profiles. When this setting is empty, the default is the current year (YearToDate). Other options are AllYears and PreviousAndCurrent. All these settings can be found in the Contributions section under the System tab on the Settings page. You can read about each in the help article on Administrative Settings.

Custom Involvement Tabs

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 21:38:00 GMT

In case you missed the December new features webinar, we have made available the ability to customize the Involvement tabs to control, per organization type, what is displayed on the tabs. You can find full documentation of this feature here. Here are some highlights of what this can do for you: You can display a link for your volunteers to easily view and manage their commitments. You can add an Unsubscribe button so that mail list subscribers can easily remove themselves from a list. Each organization type can be set uniquely to show the fields that are relevant to that particular type of organization. In addition, you can use the settings below to limit what organization types are visible to users on the Involvement tabs and in what order they are displayed: UX-DefaultInvolvementOrgTypeFilter (for MyData users) UX-DefaultAccessInvolvementOrgTypeFilter (for all other users) Both these settings take as a value a list of organization types separated by commas. Included organization types are visible on the Involvement tabs in the order in which they are listed in the applicable setting. Read more about these settings in the article on Administration Settings.

Remote Deposit Capture Is in Beta

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 22:59:00 GMT

This new feature allows a church to scan check images directly into TouchPoint, using the TouchPoint Check Scan application, and then download the X9 file to make a deposit directly to your bank account. Two benefits of using this new feature: Someone (a volunteer, for example) can scan and enter gifts into your system, and do everything to prepare the bank deposit, without needing access to your church’s bank account. A finance user can later, at their convenience, download the file to make the deposit with your bank. Using this feature will allow you to store the check images on the individual giving records for quick and easy reference. This new feature will require additional setup in order for the X9 file to work with your specific bank. We are working with our beta churches to streamline this setup in order to keep the setup costs as low as possible. If you are interested in using this feature after it is released from beta, please submit your church’s info on this form and someone from our Client Success team will reach out to you with more information.

Two New Recipes for Reports

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 21:34:00 GMT

eSPACE Integration

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 12:39:00 GMT

TouchPoint now offers an integration with eSPACE! Events in eSPACE can be linked to TouchPoint organizations, allowing future meetings to be synced to the organization. Setup is a breeze! Just a few settings in TouchPoint: Enter your eSPACE username and password, toggle a setting to enable the integration, and configure how many days ahead the synchronization should cover. Then, link organizations to eSPACE by selecting from a list of available events. One simple setting links your org to the eSPACE event. To learn more about eSPACE event management, click here. For more information about setting up the integration, click here.

More Custom Login Choices

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 15:45:00 GMT

We have expanded your available options for custom login shells. Now there are four templates from which you can select. Each of the four offers a different set of features, so now you can start with a template that more nearly matches the end results you desire. This template features a logo and a background image. If you have skilled HTML/CSS designers on staff, bitemse these templates for ideas. Then create a login shell that uniquely identifies your church. For staff that lack these skills, we provide instructions for customizing three to five features of each template. With minimal coding skills, you can still develop your own custom login page! For the descriptions, complete code, and instructions for customizing these four templates, start with the article Using a Custom Login Page.

Registration Details Changes

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 13:26:00 GMT

We have improved registration details in confirmation emails for increased clarity. The changes are designed to make it easier for registrants to understand the total fee, how much was charged at the time of the registration, and the balance still due. If a coupon was used, the amount applied will also be plainly displayed. Changes include: The payment summary has been moved in the confirmation email from the top of the {details} section to the bottom of that section. The items in the summary have been reoriented from a horizontal layout to a vertical. The information shown is now Total Fee, Coupon Applied, Amount Charged, and Balance Due. Below is a sample of the new layout.

Small Group Finder Enhancements!

Sun, 26 Jan 2020 13:00:00 GMT

A few changes have been made to settings and special content for the Small Group Finder to make it more flexible. The following settings have been moved from the Administration Settings page to the Small Group Finder XML file. If you use these settings, they have already been moved to your XML file(s). SGF-UseEmbeddedMap SGF-ExtraValueHost SGF-OrgTypes UX-SGFSortBy The setting that controls whether the map is displayed and the responsive layout is turned on has been split into two settings within the XML file. What this means for you: You now have the option to use the responsive layout with or without the embedded map. Prior to this change, the only way you could turn on the responsive layout was to embed a map. You now can create as many Small Group Finders as desired and can customize each differently. Previously you could create multiple Finders but, since the settings were universal, it required all the Finders to be very similar. Now, if you want a Finder for your community groups to have a map but a Finder for your women's ministry to exclude the map, you can do that. There are also other settings in the XML file that can now be set per Finder. For full documentation on the Small Group Finder, click here.

Showing Negative Pledge Balances

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:31:00 GMT

We have added a setting that will allow you to display the amount a donor has given beyond the amount pledged. The Pledge Summary on the Giving tab shows the amount pledged, the amount given, and the balance. By default, the balance is displayed as $0 when the amount given is equal to or greater than the amount pledged. You can now change the setting ShowNegativePledgeBalances to be True so that negative pledge balances are displayed. This new setting is found on the Settings page, under the System tab and in the Contributions section.

Giving Enhancements!

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 17:16:00 GMT

EBOOK: AUTOMATED MINISTRY PROCESSES: HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN GUIDE YOUR CHURCH TO GREATER ENGAGEMENT

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 22:15:55 GMT

Email Draft Versions

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 19:11:00 GMT

You now can choose whether to use email draft versions. Previously, after an email draft was initially saved, each subsequent saved draft had a version number appended to the name. This works well for retaining a history; you can easily go back three versions to the draft you saved in September. But, over time, the list of drafts can become overwhelming and may contain names such as My Email.v3.v5.v1! To avoid this confusion, now the default behavior is that each saved draft of an email will overwrite the previous draft. Simply locate the draft you want to use, and you can be sure it is the latest draft saved. Keep in mind that you can always recover an email you sent a few months ago by opening the Email Details and copying it as described here. You can also clone an email draft, giving the clone a new draft name. From the blue Toolbar, select Create/Edit Saved Draft, find the draft you wish to copy and click on the Clone button to the right. When prompted, give the copy an new draft name. Then make any desired modifications to this newly named email draft. Action Item: To retain draft versioning, you will need to adjust an administration setting. Because email draft versioning will now be turned off by default, if you wish to continue using the previous scheme you must add the administration setting UseEmailDraftVersioning and give it a value of true.

Special Links

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 21:44:00 GMT

A Special Links builder is now included on the email editor. It can be used in place of the Gold Link icon on the editor’s toolbar and will soon replace it completely. The button for the new Special Links builder sits above the toolbar. It functions dynamically. Unlike the Gold Link, the Special Links builder will prompt only for the information appropriate for the type of link selected. The Gold Link has a generic set of fields designed to accommodate any type of link. The Special Links builder will adjust the fields based on the link type. For example, when creating an RSVP link, the Gold Link presents the generic prompt OrgId / Meeting Id, leaving confusion about which ID was needed. In contrast, the Special Links builder will prompt specifically for Meeting ID. Side-by-side Comparison of Links Builders It will also enable more options for linking to images or buttons. The Special Links builder will create the URL for the link. You then copy the link and add it to your email using your choice of methods: within Source mode, add the link directly to the HTML code, or use the editor’s regular link icon (the black link icon, not the gold link) to add the link to your selected text or image

Store Finance Documents on Donor Records

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 17:50:00 GMT

Now there is a dedicated place for storing finance documents on a donor’s record. Stock receipts, communications from the donor regarding financial matters, or any other sensitive document can be stored here securely. The new Giving > Documents tab can be viewed and accessed only by Finance users. The profile’s owner will not see this tab unless they also have the Finance role. A new Search Builder condition, Has Finance Docs, has been added so that you can easily find people who have finance documents on their records. To read more about how to manage documents on this tab, read here.

New Password Option for Admins

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 20:03:00 GMT

Admins now have a new option when setting account passwords. Previously, whenever a TouchPoint Admin set an account’s password, the user was prompted to change it the next time they logged onto the web interface. But now the Admin can choose whether an immediate password change will be required. The new option Must change password at next login will determine what is required. If the option is checked, the user is required to change their password the next time they log onto the web interface. The user will be required to enter the existing password and then create a new password. It is important that the user complete this password change before trying to use the mobile app or Check-In. Info displayed with this option Why has this been made optional? When Admins are setting up Check-In accounts shared by staff and volunteers or accounts for API use, they likely will leave this option unchecked, not requiring a password change. They also may choose to leave this option unchecked when helping a user troubleshoot login problems. However, for most cases dealing with accounts for individual users, the Admin may choose to enable this option, requiring the user to immediately change their password. The password the Admin sets can be communicated to the user or, as in the past, the Admin can enable the option to Send welcome email so that the user can simply follow a link to select a new password (without the need for knowing the password set by the Admin). The Admin now has the option to select the appropriate requirement.

New Settings Page Layout

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 22:28:00 GMT

Working with Tasks Is Now Easier!

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 22:24:00 GMT

Now working with Tasks in TouchPoint is easier than ever! The Task details screen has been streamlined to remove extra steps and allow you to accomplish your work faster. The screen now provides for inline editing. No need to click the Edit button. No more need for an Actions button. You can go to work right away, modifying information, selecting delegates and setting due dates. Here is a summary of changes: The cell phone number of the person to contact has been added. A toggle switch has been added for quickly enabling or disabling the Force Complete with Contact feature. Mail icons have been added by Owner and Delegate names to facilitate quick communication with them. To change Owner or Delegate, simple click on the existing name, search for, and select the new person. To enter Notes, simply click on the notes and begin typing. To enter a Due Date, click the date and select from the Date Picker. To set Status or Limit To Role, click and select from the drop down list. Below are Before and After screenshots of a new Task. The old interface for a Task included Edit and Actions buttons. The new interface eliminates those buttons and allows you to go straight to work on the Task. The Old Tasks Interface The New Tasks Interface You can read more about Tasks here.

TouchPoint Welcomes New Vice President of Product & Strategy

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 09:15:00 GMT

Scan Contributions into TouchPoint!

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 23:10:00 GMT

Tired of manually entering contributions each week? Would it be helpful to have the check image stored with its contribution entry? Now you can scan check information and images directly into a TouchPoint contribution bundle. This has been available in beta version for some time but is now ready for general release. The check image is displayed as an aid when the donor is assigned. Best of all, after the donor is assigned once, in future bundles the system will automatically match the donor to that particular bank routing/account combination. And coming early next year, you will be able to export a remote bank deposit. Scan the checks directly into TouchPoint, export the file, upload the remote deposit to your bank, and the work is done! Our thanks to those who have been using this feature in its beta version. You can read more about it here.

Two Factor Authentication

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 19:48:00 GMT

TouchPoint now supports 2FA (two-factor authentication)! This feature adds an extra layer of security to ensure that people trying to gain access to their account are who they say they are. Once you enable 2FA on your account, you will enter your username and password, followed by a time-sensitive code (the second factor) supplied by an app. You can make this security feature available as an option for your staff or you can require it for specific user roles (e.g. Admin and Finance users). 2FA Prompt for Code on Login Use of 2FA requires a mobile device with any TOTP (time-based one-time password) authenticator. These are usually free and are easily obtainable. Common authenticators include: Google Authenticator Microsoft Authenticator Authy To read more about system setup and individual use, click here.

EBOOK: 5 HIDDEN COSTS OF (THE WRONG) CHURCH MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 22:29:02 GMT

Partner: TouchPoint Software and OnlineGiving.org

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 15:25:00 GMT

Attendance Reminders for Leaders

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 18:14:00 GMT

Are your group leaders frequently forgetting to take attendance? Is too much of your time consumed with contacting these leaders, prompting them for the umpteenth time to enter attendance? Now you can configure automatic reminders to be sent shortly before scheduled meetings! Group leaders will receive these via text message or email and can click on the included meeting link to quickly and easily begin recording attendance. This useful feature can be set up, per organization, in just a few simple steps. To read more, click here.

Pledge Summaries When Posting Contributions

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 21:19:00 GMT

We recently released a new aid for keeping track of contributions toward pledges. If you would like to see a pledge summary when posting a donor’s gift, the simple addition of an administration setting will enable this new feature. You can designate exactly which pledge funds to include in the summary. Once enabled, the summary will be displayed whenever you are posting a contribution from a donor who has pledged to one of the designated funds. To read more about this new feature, click here. Our thanks to Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church for sponsoring this project.

Status Updates During the Scheduled Outage

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 12:20:00 GMT

As this weekend’s scheduled outage approaches, I want to make sure you know how to receive status updates. Before and after the outage, you can find information in your TouchPoint database. Look for the red notification bell icon in the top menu, just left of the Help menu. Notification Icon The notification icon will be displayed whenever there is a status message available to view. Click on the bell icon to see the notification. Sample Status Notification You can find this same information at any time—even while the servers are unavailable—by going to our Status Page (http://status.touchpointsoftware.com).

EBOOK: 5 THINGS EXECUTIVE PASTORS NEED IN A CHURCH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 22:32:49 GMT

New Pledges Tab!

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 15:53:00 GMT

You may already have noticed that we recently added a Pledges tab to the Giving page of each person’s record. Now pledge information is easily available for donors and for your Finance admins. When there is pledge information for a person, the tab will show two sections: A pledge summary section at the top Pledge details beneath the summary section The Pledge Summary Section For each fund to which the donor has pledged, the pledge summary section will show how much has been pledged, how much has been given toward that pledge, and the balance remaining. If any pledge has not yet been fully met, there will be a Fulfill Pledge button, making it easy for the donor to make an online gift toward the pledge. The Pledge Details Section The pledge detail section shows each individual pledge entry that has been made. The image above shows the section as seen by a Finance admin. For them, there will be three buttons allowing the Finance admin easily to adjust the entries: Merge, to combine two pledge transactions Edit, to adjust the amount of a pledge transaction Delete, to remove a transaction that was entered mistakenly To learn more about this new feature, read here. Our thanks to Highland Park United Methodist Church for sponsoring this project!

External Giving Links

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 12:30:00 GMT

If you direct your donors to a giving site external to TouchPoint, now you can configure the links on their Giving tab to point to that site. You can control the URL for those links through a couple of administration settings—one for recurring giving and the other for one-time gifts. These links on the Giving tab can now be customized! You can read more in the External Giving Links section of our Online Giving help article. With help from your giving service, these links can be customized so that donors who use the links are automatically authenticated on the giving site! If your giving service is interested in enabling this feature, direct them to our help article on Token Authentication. While you have their attention, mention to them that contributions made on their site can be transferred to your TouchPoint database using the API calls specified in our Push Post API article.

Add a Map to Your Small Group Finder!

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 15:13:00 GMT

If your group finder has groups meeting in various locations, add a map so that registrants can more easily find a suitable group. Map pins will indicate where your groups are hosted. Additional settings allow you to customize both your finder and its embedded map. Sample Group Finder with Embedded Map Our thanks to Redeemer Presbyterian for developing this great feature! You will need a Google Cloud account to activate the map and we walk you through account creation. In addition, map activation requires several configuration changes from the standard Small Group Finder setup so, if you are interested, be sure to carefully read the recently released documentation.

Take Control of Your "Find" Questions

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 19:07:00 GMT

Yesterday afternoon, two new settings were added to the Registration page of organizations. When registrants are not logged in, by default they are asked for identifying information that includes their date of birth and phone number. These new settings allow you to omit either or both of those questions if you desire. The new settings are found on the Registration > Registration page in the Relaxed Requirements section and replace the use of the little-known extra value NoPhoneEmailOnFind. Read more about these setting here.

Custom Contacts

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 12:30:00 GMT

Here is your TouchPoint trivia question for today: How can you customize contacts for your church? If you know the answer, you get extra points for sure! Contacts can be customized by adding standard extra values. Yes – standard – which means that they will appear on all contacts of the type you define. For instance, suppose you want all your church’s pastoral care contacts for personal visits to hospital to have predefined fields for the hospital name, room number, and expected release date. You can configure these extra values to appear on all contacts where the Ministry is Pastoral Care, the Contact Type is Personal Visit, and the Contact Reason is Hospital, as illustrated in the image below: Contact with Standard Extra Values To learn more about this feature, click here.

Less is More with Finance Roles

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 12:30:00 GMT

Important Check-In Reminder

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 15:22:00 GMT

Check-In 1.0 is expiring and your action is required. On April 12, we blogged about the release of Check-In 1.1 with an important security update and provided directions for how to upgrade your PC devices used with Check-In. If you have not already upgraded, it is imperative you do so right away. The older version of the Check-In application for devices running the Windows operating system will expire Monday, July 8. Please note that this update only applies to PC devices running the Windows 7, 8, or 10 operating systems. Windows XP is no longer supported. You do not need to upgrade the app on tablets running iOS or Android. Click here to install the new release. For details, see our article on Installing Check-In 1.1.

Managed Giving Simplified & Enhanced

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 19:45:00 GMT

We now have a simplified managed (recurring) giving page! To avoid confusion for donors, there are now four simple schedule options: Monthly Twice a Month Weekly Every 2 Weeks If you currently have managed givers with some other schedule, that’s no problem—they can continue to use their existing giving schedule. Any new or modified schedules will use the options above. We hope donors find this easier to use. Two enhancements to the managed giving page are also now available. First, you can specify what funds will be highlighted on the page. By default, no funds will be highlighted but all funds with a sort order will be available in a drop-down list. If you desire to have certain funds displayed as soon as the managed giving page is accessed, you can include them in the URL you post on your church’s website. For details, see the final tip in this section of our Online Giving help article. By default, all funds are accessed from a drop-down list. If your church has multiple campuses, you can also configure custom shells for the managed giving pages of each campus. This also is done by means of the URL you post on your website. Click here for details.

Before You Send That Email...

Fri, 24 May 2019 21:11:00 GMT

Oops! Have you ever clicked the Send button and almost immediately realized your email wasn’t complete yet? Or worse, realized that what you wrote in the email was not accurate – or had an embarrassing typo? Sometime, an extra second to think would be helpful. That is why we have provided an optional “Are You Sure” prompt that can be added when you click the Send button. To enable this feature, add the administrative setting EmailPromptBeforeSend with a value of true. If you would rather not have this extra prompt, there is no need for you to do anything. Without the setting, sending emails will continue to work as it has – click Send and you’re done. To read more about sending emails in TouchPoint, including information about this new feature, click here.

EBOOK: 5 SIGNS IT'S TIME TO BREAK UP WITH YOUR CHMS

Tue, 21 May 2019 22:36:42 GMT

Mission Trip Funding Pages

Fri, 17 May 2019 20:29:00 GMT

This nifty new feature gives mission trip participants and supporters a single page with all the information needed about the funding status of trip participants. The page features a progress bar visually depicting the current funding status, a list of supporters, and links that vary depending on who is viewing the page. You can configure whether the page is available for participants only or for potential supporters also. For additional information about this useful new feature, read more. Our thanks to Rush Creek Baptist Church for sponsoring this project, and to Cottonwood Creek Church for their valuable input.

New TouchPoint Status Page

Thu, 09 May 2019 14:15:00 GMT

Alright. We hope you never encounter this scenario, but let's imagine the worst has happened: You have trouble reaching your TouchPoint database. What is the problem? Is it trouble with the internet? Is there something wrong with your specific database? Or are the TouchPoint servers down? You could contact TouchPoint Support to check, but since you are having trouble reaching your database. . . Now there is a quick way to check the status of the TouchPoint servers! Check our new TouchPoint Status Page. On the color-coded graph, you can see at a glance if there are problems with our web servers, or with our documentation or public sites. We will also announce any major issues at the top of the page. You can certainly continue to contact Support for more information, but now you can quickly get answers on the status page.

Mission Trip Support

Thu, 02 May 2019 17:05:00 GMT

TouchPoint has always offered the option for a supporter to donate to a mission trip in general. Until now, supporters were required to donate to a specific mission trip participant before they could give to the trip in general. Some of you have questioned why that requirement exists. We listened to your feedback and we are happy to announce that the requirement has now been removed! Supporters can give to the mission trip in general, even if they do not first give to a specific participant. If you prefer, you can add a setting to retain the old requirement. Otherwise, the requirement has been removed with no action necessary on your part. For more information about enabling supporters to give to your mission trip read here.

Important Check-In Update Notice

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 19:05:00 GMT

Check-In 1.1 for Windows PCs has been released! While this update will not provide new functionality, it is a vital step forward in security and in laying the groundwork for coming new features. Because of the internal changes made, this new release will not upgrade your current Check-In. Instead it must be installed as a new application. You will not need to uninstall the previous application. Please note that Windows XP is not a supported operating system for this new version of Check-In. It must be installed on systems with Windows 7 or Windows 10. We encourage you to download and install this new release as soon as possible. For a time, you can have both the previous and new versions simultaneously on your Check-In PCs. This will allow you to migrate settings and to test the new release before you start using it. At the end of April, the previous Check-In application (version 1.0) will no longer be supported and will no longer function. Click here to install the new release. For details, see our article on Installing Check-In 1.1.

Custom Login Screens!

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 13:47:00 GMT

TouchPoint Software aims to be a resource for every person that steps foot in the doors of your church. Your staff use it to track attendance and giving, your lay leaders use it to manage groups and communicate with their teams, and your congregant members use it to view their resources and access giving statements. So why is our branding all over your ministry tool? These are your tools and we want you to make them your own! Many of you already know that you can replace the TouchPoint Logo in the database with your own using a custom header. We’ve now also made the login screen available for rebranding as well! This enhancement will make your login page look more familiar to your congregation. It can even be customized for each campus! Here’s what a few of our churches are already doing: So please make the login page your own and show us what you can do! Our new Custom Login Pages help document will walk you through getting it set.

New Search Builder Features!

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 19:36:00 GMT

A few enhancements have been made to Search Builder. Some are behind-the-scenes improvements, but there are a couple of new features you should know about. If you are new to Search Builder or simply need to refresh your understanding, read our article on Basic Search Builder Searches. Then read on to learn about the enhancements. A great new addition, useful for creating and troubleshooting queries, is the Disable Condition feature. Select this from a condition’s gear icon menu to temporarily disable the condition. The condition and its settings remain available but, while disabled, are not used to calculate results. This allows you to quickly compare results with and without the condition. For more, see the article on Search Builder Facts and Tips. The other enhancement is a new Group condition. The option to Match Not All completes the existing set of Group conditions. With this, matches are found when at least one of the conditions in the group is false. You likely won’t use this often. But what you should know is this: It is the opposite of the Match All group condition. Use it to find everyone who is not included in a Match All group. For a more complete description, see the article Using Groups in Search Builder. Happy searching!

BIG New Feature: Downloadable Resources in TouchPoint

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 16:00:00 GMT

EBOOK: WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU SWITCH: TOP 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE CHOOSING A NEW CHURCH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 22:41:34 GMT

Finance Roles Limited to Certain Funds

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 21:36:00 GMT

With Fund-Based Finance Roles you can give a user access to contribution data limited to a specific fund or group of funds. If you have an administrator who works only with a specific ministry such as a day-care or an inner-city rescue mission, you can use one of these special roles to limit access to only the needed funds. Our thanks to Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church for sponsoring this project. Read more…

WEBINAR: 5 PROCESSES TO DEFINE BEFORE SWITCHING YOUR CHMS

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:36:43 GMT

Discipleship depends on key people being in the right place, at the right time. Technology is a great way to trigger those critical connection points -- if you have the right system. If you don't, you could be missing opportunities to engage with your church members. But choosing a new church management system can often feel like a thankless chore. It's an even more difficult task when you don't have a roadmap for comparing different systems. You shouldn’t have to feel stuck. In this on-demand webinar, "5 Essential Church Processes to Define Before Switching Church Management Systems,” church technology consultant Corey Kirkendoll will outline key operational areas you need to consider before evaluating a new church management system.

Fund Order When Posting Contributions

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 21:36:00 GMT

Now you have a choice. At the request of several churches, we recently changed the way funds are listed in the Fund(s) drop-down on the Bundle Post/Edit page, sorting the funds alphabetically. We then heard from others of you expressing your preference for the original listing, sorted by fund ID. Whatever your preference, you can now control how funds are listed. We have added an administrative setting, allowing you to specify whether to sort by Fund ID or by Fund Name. For details, see Controlling How Funds Are Listed.

MOBILE GIVING MADE EASY: EQUIP YOUR CHURCH FOR THE WALLET-LESS GENERATION

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 21:40:20 GMT

Our culture has shifted toward mobile giving in a big way. Times may have changed, but people still want to be generous. Want to encourage your members to give more? Make it as easy and convenient as possible for them. In this webinar, we be explore the ins and outs of mobile giving. WEBINAR: Mobile Giving Made Easy: Equip Your Church for the Wallet-less Generation In this special presentation, Chad Boyd, the founder of Txt2Give and host of the Cause Driven podcast joins our own Scott Romig, vice president of sales, to unpack: - Current trends in mobile church giving - How to implement a text-based giving option into your church tech suite - Ways to encourage adoption of mobile giving - How to use mobile giving to drive recurring giving (and why you should have a sustaining giving program)

Partner: TouchPoint Software and Txt2Give

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 20:01:00 GMT

Open Person in New Tab Now Works for Birthdays List

Wed, 30 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

You may have already discovered this yourself. Now when you click the name of someone in the Birthdays section of your Home Page the people record will open in a new tab, leaving the Home Page in the original tab. You can return to the previous tab, click the name of the next person in the list if you are contacting those with birthdays that day. This works if you have the Open Person in New Tab toggle set as active. If you are not familiar with the Open Person in New Tab feature, just click where you see your name the top right corner of the page. Then make sure that the toggle beside Open Person in New Tab is green. That means it is active and this feature is turned on. I love this feature! Here are the places where it is active: Home Page Birthdays list Organization people list People > Search/Find Tag list Search Builder results list If you are like me, the simple things in life bring a lot of pleasure. And Open Person in New Tab is one of those simple things. Enjoy!

Customizable Directories

Tue, 29 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

We often hear from clients that want to add or remove information from one of our standard directories. That is why we created what we call the Custom DocX Directory. There are actually 3 directories you can choose from: Picture Directory (4-per page) Picture Directory (24-per page) Family Picture Directory (12-per page) If you can follow directions, you will be able to take one of these templates and customize it yourself. You must be using the version of Word that creates a Docx file type. The help documentation has everything you need, including a list of available replacement codes if you want to add information to the directory. NOTE: Be very careful when creating this, as the line of code you will add to Custom Reports must be exactly like what we have in the documentation. Read more...

Donor Total Summary Export

Thu, 24 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

This report has been in TouchPoint for a long time, but you may not have ever noticed it. This is an Excel export that compares giving over a period of years (that you specify) and can be limited to a specific Fund and/or a Campus. You will find this report under Administration > Reports > Donor Total Summary Export. This is a summary report, so it does not contain individual's donations. Also, it combines giving by family unit. It is a great way to compare giving over a number of years and by categories. The report itself has 3 tabs in the Excel workbook - one to compare giving for Members vs Non-Members; one to compare by size of gift; and one to compare by age. For more information about this export and sample report screenshots, take a look at the help article. Read more...

Custom Statements for Multiple Entities in your Database

Tue, 22 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

This option is for churches that have separate ministries and receive and track contributions for those ministries in their TouchPoint database. In other words, the donors for both the church and this other ministry are in the same TouchPoint database, as are the contributions. The Custom Contribution option allows you to separate these into separate statements, one for each ministry with the statements including only funds for that ministry and a Standard Statement for all other funds. This requires very little setup and we give you the sample code to use as a copy and paste recipe. If this sounds like something your church needs, just take a look at the help article. Read more...

TIP: Add or Update Extra Values in Bulk

Wed, 16 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

Extra Values are just what they say they are - something 'extra' that adds 'value'. TouchPoint displays these on people records and on organizations. But did you know that you can update existing Standard Extra Values from the blue Toolbar? You can. You can also create new Ad Hoc Extra Values there as well. This is a great time-saver. Imagine updating the records of 40 people with just one action instead of going to 40 different people records and performing that action for each person! Yeah, I like the first option, too. Example Use Case: You have a Standard Extra Value to record when a person completes all the multiple required classes for membership. You create a saved search to find everyone that has attended all the meetings. That gives you the list of those needing to have that Extra Value updated to 'true'. You can, of course, click on each person in turn and go to Profile > Extra Values and click the box to make that value 'true'. Or, you can select Add Extra Values from the toolbar (it's under the gear icon), select the Type of EV, enter the exact name of the Extra Value, and then enter the value and click Save. Voila! That will update that Standard Extra Value on the records of everyone in your search at one time. You must be exact when you do this - meaning, you need to know what type of EV and the exact name - so you should take a look at the help article that explains what you need to know in order to be successful using this batch process. Also, there is some specific information you need to know if you are updating the check box type of Extra Values. So take a couple of minutes and read up on this. It is not a time-saver if you do it incorrectly. Read more...

New Org Extra Value - You Must Agree Statement

Mon, 14 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

Online registrations are probably the most used feature in TouchPoint. Churches use registrations for everything from VBS to Soccer to Bible Study to Volunteers...and much more. One of the options you can include is an 'agree to terms' checkbox and the text of the Terms to which you expect them to adhere. If you add Terms, the registrant must check the box agreeing to them in order to complete and confirm his registration. You create the Terms on the Messages tab for the registration, and we have a default statement that displays near the checkbox. The new feature we created recently is the ability to customize that message by adding a special Extra Value to the organization and entering whatever text you want to display. The default statement is this: "You must agree to the terms above for you or your minor child before you can continue with confirmation.” For a registration that is for children's camps, you might want it to read "By checking this box you are agreeing to abide by the Terms below as they apply to your child during camp." Because this is an Extra Value you add directly to the registration organization, you can make the statement different for every registration if you want. You can also add some specific html code if you do not want this statement to display at all. In that case, only the Terms and the checkbox with "I agree to the Terms" will display without this extra statement. The help article below has what you need to know in order to use this feature. Read more...

Alternative Donor Details Export

Wed, 09 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

The normal Donor Details export contains a lot of information - all the 'details' about the contributions for individuals for a date range. This alternative version still contains all the same columns, but with several more added. The added columns have the address in separate fields, includes the First and Last Name of the donor (in addition to the original fields for Head Name and Spouse Name), and adds the Family Name. The Family Name is on the item for every person in the family. Example: John and Mary Smith. This was created to help those churches that are doing external evaluation of their donors. This gives them what they need in order to create a Word Merge and send letters based on specific criteria. This does require that you add 2 Administration Settings to your database in order to produce this alternative version of the export instead of the default version. So take a look at the documentation if you are interested in this. Read more... Thank you to Redemption Church in AL for sponsoring this project.

Giving Change Quarters Report

Mon, 07 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

This new report is a SQL recipe that you can run from the Totals by Fund Report page. It is designed to allow you to specify a date range, such as the 1st quarter of your fiscal year and compare individuals' giving with the same time period the year before. Because the report is looking at individuals (or couples that give jointly), and not just summary numbers, each donor/couple will be on a separate item with their total giving for the time specified and the total giving for the prior year for the same time period. And the report will display either Stopped, Decreased, Increased, or Started and will sort with the givers that have stopped giving at the top. Like all of our SQL reports, you have the option to download as Excel. Sound like a report you'd like. Then take a look at the documentation, where you can also find just what you need to create this report in your database. Read more... Oh, by the way - the new Custom Fund Sets will work with this report, too. That option was highlighted in a previous blog post.

Extra Value for Online Registration Shirt Sizes

Thu, 03 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT

Originally (back in the dark ages), we created the option to ask for Shirt Sizes and also to Allow Last Year's Shirt, because the only online registrations we were doing in TouchPoint (then BVCMS) were for Recreation teams. They always ask the person's shirt size, but they also will allow them to use their last year's shirt if they want to. If the person chooses that option, they are not charged the shirt fee. Well, we very quickly moved on from those early days and now online registrations are suitable for just about everything under the sun. And many of those registrations offer shirts for sale that can be purchased during the online registration. But what about when you want the shirt to be optional, and you still want the benefit of using the Shirt Size Report, but displaying 'Use Last Year's Shirt' is not appropriate. We came up with a solution. It is an Extra Value you add to the organization that allows you to enter the text you want the registrant to see in the shirt size drop down. Instead of Use Last Year, they could see No Shirt or Not Buying a Shirt. This option is just in time for VBS registration or summer camp! Check it out. Read more...

New Monthly Giving Analysis Report

Tue, 01 May 2018 11:30:00 GMT

We just completed this new Monthly Giving Analysis Report, which is a SQL recipe, so you can easily add it to your database if you are interested in it. The report is run from the Totals by Fund Report page and appears as an option under Other Reports. It returns a monthly total giving for Primary Adults and combines their giving. The report also includes the Last Gift Date and the Last Attended Date that was within the date range selected. The report will combine all funds. However, if you have created Custom Fund Sets, you can select one of the sets and the report will run for just the fund(s) included in the specified set. Like most reports, you also have the option to download it to Excel. This is a great way to analyze month by month giving. If this sounds interesting to you or you'd like to see a sample, check it out. Thank you for Mount Pisgah UMC for sponsoring this report. Read more...

5 THINGS EVERY EXECUTIVE PASTOR NEEDS IN A CHURCH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 21:44:14 GMT

Executive Pastors play a vital role in today's churches. They connect leaders' vision to everyday operations. They find strategies to keep everyone in the church engaged and on mission. That's a lot of responsibility. As an executive pastor, how can you be sure your decisions are the right ones for your church? Having the right church management system is one of the best ways you can be more effective in your calling. So, how do you choose one? In this webinar, we unpack: - Common challenges facing Executive Pastors and how to address them - What features your church management system needs to help you make informed decisions - Metrics you can use to measure your church's health - How to overcome the barriers of connecting vision to resources

New - Custom Fund Sets for Finance Reports

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 14:41:00 GMT

All of you finance users will be interested in this feature if you have ever wanted to see financial reports for just one Fund or for a combination of Funds, instead of having all Funds combined. We call this Custom Fund Sets, and you determine how many sets you need and which Funds make up each set. These will display in a drop down named Fund Sets. Select the set you want and run the report. Use Case 1: Your church has multiple Funds for each of your Campuses and you want to see reports for those Funds. Enter the Funds for each Campus as a different set. Be sure to name each Fund Set to identify it with the Campus. Use Case 2: You have a yearly pledge drive and you always like to see reports for both your General Budget Fund combined with that Pledge Fund. No problem! Create a Fund Set that combines those 2 funds. We have step-by-step instructions for how to set this up on your database and a list of reports where this is used. Read more...

EBOOK: THE FIELD GUIDE FOR DATA-DRIVEN MINISTRY

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 22:46:14 GMT

New Setting to Hide Member Status for My Data Users

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 16:44:00 GMT

We have recently added a new setting that will prevent a My Data user from seeing the specific Badge displaying his Member Status as well as the Member Status that normally displays in the list of Family Members. See the image below for the places a My Data user would normally see the Member Status. These will be removed if you add the Setting named HideMyDataMemberBadge = true. This new Setting goes hand-in-hand with another Setting that will hide the Profile tab for a My Data user. You would probably want to also use that Setting in conjunction with this new Setting. It is named HideMemberStatusFromMyData = true. Thank you to our friends at Cokesbury UMC in Knoxville, TN for sponsoring this new Setting. Read more...about Settings. Read more...about My Data users.

Absents Report - New SQL Recipe

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 14:28:00 GMT

Thank you to our friends at Hunter Street Baptist Church in Alabama for sponsoring this new report. As with our other 'recipes', these reports are easy to add to your database if you decide you want it. Because the Absents Report can be added to the blue Toolbar on the Organization Search/Manage page, you can filter for a set of organizations for which you want the report. When run, the report will list every member of those filtered orgs that was absent for the most recent scheduled meeting. The report has links both to the person's record and to the organization. It also contains the person's Position in Family, cell and home phone numbers, and email address. His most recent attend date is listed along with the number of consecutive absences. As with all the SQL reports, you can download to Excel for further filtering and sorting. This is one more tool to help you find those absent members and minister to them. Once you identify the people, then what? You can use Tasks and Contacts for a very effective way to divide the work load and to ensure people do not fall through the cracks. Plus, it leaves a record in TouchPoint so other staff and lay leaders will know what ministry touches been made. If this sounds like a report you would like, just click the link below for more instructions, a sample report, and for the SQL code to copy and paste into your database. Read more...

New Search Builder Condition: Join Date Months Ago

Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:51:00 GMT

I really like this Condition, because it makes it so easy to find people that joined anytime during an entire month when you specify how many months to look back. The Condition is located on the Membership category tab and is named simply JoinDateMonthsAgo. One of the best use cases for this is to find people that are approaching their 1 year anniversary as a church member. Use 11 as the number of months to look back and you will find everyone whose 1 year anniversary is going to be in the next month. Save the search and run it each month. You can send the people a note acknowledging the anniversary. However, you can also encourage them to get more involved and volunteer. Most churches require that a person be a member for a year before they can teach a class or volunteer for other positions within the church. This is a great Condition to use to find those folks. Read more...

WEBINAR: 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE YOU SWITCH TO A NEW CHMS

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 21:47:23 GMT

Choosing a new church management system can often feel like a thankless chore. Is it worth the effort of switching from your current solution — even if what you have isn’t sustainable? You shouldn’t have to feel stuck. In "What to Know Before You Switch: 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a New Church Management System,” our church technology experts unpack the top things to consider while you’re evaluating a new system. Complete the form to watch the webinar replay.

First Time Givers in 365 Days

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:30:00 GMT

NOTE: I updated the bad link below. We have a new SQL recipe for a report that returns all donors whose first gift to the church was in the past 365 days. You can add it to the Toolbar and run it from Reports in the main menu. You can also download it to Excel. The report will list each individual donor, his PID# (which links to his people record), the date of his first contribution, and the total number of contributions during the 365 day period. It is sorted by date with the most recent at the top. Those with both a date and time are from online giving. Here is a sample report: Like all of our SQL scripts, this is a recipe you can copy and paste into your database. Read more...

Giving Reports for Three or Five Years

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 12:30:00 GMT

We have 2 Python scripts that are great for comparing individuals' giving over a number of years. These scripts are the same except that one looks back over the last 3 complete years and the other looks back 5 years. Once you add one or both of these to your database, you have the option to Add Report to Toolbar. This will place it everywhere you see the Toolbar for an individual, a Tag, an Organization (filtered or not), or a Search Builder results. Suggestion: You might want to run a search of all members that joined in the last year of the report, either 5 or 3 years ago and then run the giving report. This will let you see a pattern of their giving since they've joined the church. Here is a sample excerpt from a Five Year Giving Report These are recipes so you just copy and paste one or both into your database.Our help articles have the step-by-step instructions and the script to copy. Read more...about the Three Year Giving Report Read more...about the Five Year Giving Report

Important: New User Role for Manage Org Members Page

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 16:30:00 GMT

This morning, Feb. 7, 2018, we added a new user role that is now required for a user to access the Manage Org Members page. This is the page that is accessed under Organizations > Manage in the main menu. This is more of an advanced use page for special use cases such as Promotion or moving a lot of members when a class is closed or when you have an online registration and then need to separate everyone into smaller groups. Also, this page is designed to remember everyone that has been moved so you can email a room notice letting people know their new class and room number. Once you send the email notice, the count starts over with those that are moved after you send the notices. You can also manually reset the count. The new role is ManageOrgMembers. When you edit a user's account to assign the role, it is listed in the Advanced Roles section. Assign this only to those users that really need to use it, not all of your users. Remember, most moves can be handled using the Move Members process and do not need the email notices. This feature is accessed via the Member Dialog and does not require this special role, just Edit and Access. Read more...

Contribution Basics Report

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:30:00 GMT

Even though I do not have a really good use case for this report, I still wanted to let you know that it is available. It might be just what you've been wanting! It is a SQL recipe so it's very easy to add to your database. The report is a list of all the contributions during the range specified, sorted by Fund with a sub-total at each change of Fund, and a grand total at the bottom of the report. You also have the option to Download to Excel. If you want to add this to your database, just copy the code and paste it into a new SQL Script File. To run it, just go to the Totals by Fund Report, enter the date range and select Contribution Basics Report under Other Reports. Below is an excerpt from a sample report. Read more...

Recipe Revision - Added Bundle Type to Bundle Report

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 12:30:00 GMT

One of our client churches asked about us revising the script for the Bundle Report to include the Bundle Type in the header of this Bundle Report. That seemed like a good idea to us. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why we didn't do that in the first place! I've revised the recipe to include this change. So, if you are currently using the Bundle Report (not Bundle Report 2), you might want to replace your Python script with the new one. You do not need to create a new script, just remove your current code and replace it with the code you copy from the recipe and save the script. Click HERE for the new code. By the way, if you are not familiar with either of the Bundle Reports (the original Bundle Report or Bundle Report 2), click that same link and read about them.

Revision to Average Attendance for Organizations

Mon, 05 Feb 2018 12:30:00 GMT

We blogged about this SQL recipe last year, but we recently made a change to the recipe. It now includes the Program and Division in addition to the name and ID# of each organization. Of course, it also displays the total number of attends (how many attendances were recorded for all the meetings), the total number of meetings, and the average attendance for those meetings. If you remember, you can run this from the blue Toolbar on Organization Search, and you supply the date range. So, you can run it for a month, a quarter, a year - whatever you want. And because it is on the Toolbar on Organization Search, you can filter for whatever groups of organizations you want. Here is a sample report: Interested in this recipe? Or perhaps you want to update the recipe in your database if you added the original version. Then check it out below. It's so simple to add to your database. Read more...

New Python Script: Morning Worship Graph

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 12:30:00 GMT

This Python script will display a line graph based on the meetings in a specified Program. This is a recipe, so you just copy the code, paste it into a new Python script file, edit the Program ID and the Start Date and you're good to go. Here's what it looks like: If you want this graph in your database read more...

New Setting for Register Someone Else Text

Mon, 29 Jan 2018 12:30:00 GMT

This is a simple change. But if you want to change the text of the button a registrant sees just before completing his registration you can do that with this new Admin Setting. The button default text is Register Someone Else and is offered along with the Finish Registration button. The only exception is when you have Allow Only One selected for that registration. Then the Register Someone Else option is not available. Here's what the default looks like. Here's what it looks like when I added the new Setting and created a different text: If you add this Setting to your database it will change the text of that button for all online registrations. So, be sure to keep it fairly generic. Also, notice in the image above that the button with the text from the Setting is a bit wide. Keep that in mind and don't use a text that is very long. The Setting name is RegisterSomeoneElseText. Read more...

New Mail Chimp Integration with TouchPoint

Thu, 25 Jan 2018 15:16:00 GMT

Several of our clients have asked us about creating an integration between TouchPoint and Mail Chimp, and now we've done it! The reason behind this is to allow you to very easily create beautiful newsletters using Mail Chimp's templates and still send to a targeted list created in TouchPoint. This is not intended to be used for your everyday emails, but just for those special weekly or monthly newsletters or a one-off special announcement email. One reason you would not use Mail Chimp for all email is that once you leave TouchPoint and your email is in Mail Chimp you lose the ability to include Email Replacement Codes such as Register Links, Vote Links, and more. Also, you cannot track these emails inside TouchPoint, and you do not want to lose the ability to look at a person's record and see which emails he has been sent. That said, we think this integration will be a very valuable tool when used for its original purpose - newsletters. In order to use this, your church must create an account in Mail Chimp, add 2 SQL scripts and 1 Python script to your database, and create an organization(s) to use as your mailing list(s). We have step-by-step instructions to guide you through the process of setting up this feature, including the SQL and Python scripts in recipe-form for you to copy and paste into your database. Check it out if you are interested! Read more... PS Did you notice that we used Mail Chimp for our January Newsletter?

Custom Transaction Report - Recipe

Mon, 22 Jan 2018 12:00:00 GMT

NOTE: Since I posted this on Jan. 18.2018, we have added a 2nd Transaction Report: the original one that uses Contribution/Transaction Dates and a 2nd one that uses Batch Dates. This new Custom Transaction Report is just the latest SQL recipe that we are making available for you to add to your database. This report is a listing of all online transactions for a date range and has everything you always wanted to know about a transaction! This report can also be downloaded to Excel. Because this is a SQL recipe, you just need to copy the code from our help article and paste it into a new SQL file in your database. Not every church processes their online transactions the same way, so we give you options. This is just one of those options if you are interested in using it. When you add this to your database, it will be available on the Totals by Fund Report page, under Other Reports. Thank you, FBC Millington, TN for sponsoring this report! Read more...

WEBINAR: USING FEEDBACK TO MAKE SMARTER MINISTRY DECISIONS

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 21:51:36 GMT

The new year is a great time for looking back at what worked and what didn’t in the past year. But if you’re like most church leaders, you may be looking for a more manageable way to collect feedback from your congregation, in order to drive more informed discipleship. The key to a data-driven ministry lies not in asking more questions ― it’s asking the right ones. We want to help you learn the art and science of smarter ministry in 2018. WEBINAR: Using Feedback to Make Smarter Ministry Decisions This webinar is loaded with tactics, tips, and tools you can use to get a 360-degree view of your ministry. During the webinar, you will discover: How to conquer your fear of negative feedback and cultivate a growth mindset Questions the most forward-thinking churches are asking their members Tools you can use to gather member feedback Strategies for becoming a data-driven ministry To disciple others well and make important decisions for our churches, it’s crucial to ask the right questions.

More Features re Alt Name

Mon, 08 Jan 2018 12:00:00 GMT

Thanks to West Houston Chinese Church who sponsored this project, you can now have a person's Alt Name display in the results list for both Quick Search and in Post Bundle Edit. As you probably know, the Alt Name was created to be used by Chinese congregations that want to store and use both the American version of the name as well as the Chinese characters. However, this additional name can be used by English-speaking congregations as well. In order for the Alt Name to display as mentioned above (whether Chinese or English), you must add the Admin Setting ShowAltNameOnSearchResults with a value of true. Here are all the places that the Alt Name now displays: Basic People Search Quick Search Search Builder results list PostBundleEdit Remember, if you want to search using Chinese characters and be able to enter part of the Alt Name without necessarily using the first character in the name, you must add the Admin Setting UseAltNameContains with a value of true. It is probably best if you just read all about the Alt Name in this help article.

Contribution Statements and Electronic Only Option

Fri, 05 Jan 2018 22:54:00 GMT

It's about that time! Time to send out your annual contribution statements. What about the Electronic Statements Only flag? Good question! If you do not mail statements to those donors whose Electronic Statements Only flag is set, then you will run a search to find those people using the Condition Wants Electronic Statement equals true. And all you do is simply send them an email reminding them how to log on and get their statements from their Giving tab. For those that still prefer a paper statement, check the box Exclude Electronic Only when you generate the statements. Remember, TouchPoint's statements are designed to fit in a number 9 window envelope, with either single or double windows. You just fold, stuff, and mail them! Also, we generate all statements for the same family together, so you can look at the page count to know when you come to the next family. For example: You will see page 4 of 4 on the last page for a family with 4 pages of statements. PS If this is your first time to send statements via TouchPoint make sure you have set up the Statement Header (return address) and the Statement Notice (disclaimer) in your database. All you do is revise the sample data that is already there. Read more...

Custom Reports - Spouse Alt Name Added

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 17:25:00 GMT

This is a small change, but very important to Chinese churches and other churches that use the Alt Name field. We added the Spouse Alt Name as an option for Custom Reports. If you are not familiar with Custom Reports, you should check out this help article: Custom Reports. This feature is a perfect way for users to create their own reports using just the fields they want to display. You can even limit a report to a specific organization if you want.

TouchPoint Christmas holiday office hours

Wed, 13 Dec 2017 21:22:00 GMT

Please note that TouchPoint offices are closed December 25 - January 1. Only issues deemed by TouchPoint as critical will be worked on during this time. Issues considered critical include: errors processing contributions, event registration errors, TouchPoint system or server outages, etc. Non-critical issues will be worked on when TouchPoint offices open again on January 2nd. We appreciate your patience during this busy time. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Blessings from your TouchPoint Team

One-Page Giving Just Got Even Better

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 15:47:00 GMT

Yes, that's right. We have updated the one-page giving with some cool new features. Your list of funds available for online giving will display in a drop-down list (see + Additional Fund in the image below). You can still specify one fund to display as the primary fund that displays above the link for the drop-down list. Even when logged on , you will still use the one-page form with your payment information at the bottom of the page. One-Page Giving Form No Drop-Down List of Funds If you prefer to have one-page giving without displaying the drop-down list of other Funds available for online giving, no problem! Just add the following Extra Value to your One-Page Giving organization - DisableFundsDropdown as a Code type with the value as true. With that added, only one fund will display when you select the link for One-Page Giving. Just be sure you have entered the Fund ID on the Fee tab of the Org. Read more...about One-Page Giving and all Online Giving Read more...about the Ad Hoc Extra Value

New Bundle Report Option - Python Script

Mon, 11 Dec 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Some of you may be using the original Bundle Report that gives you a breakdown by Cash, Check, Coin and then displays the details also separated by those categories. The link to the report displays on the blue banner when viewing an individual Bundle. Now we have a newer Bundle Report that we are calling...wait for it...Bundle Report2. We are nothing if not creative! That's what we named the Python script, but Bundle Report2 displays in the same location as the original one using the name Bundle Report. This new report provides a header with the Church Name, Bundle ID#, Deposit Date, and Bundle Type. Beneath the header is a list with each contribution grouped by Fund, with a sub-total for each Fund, and a grand total for the entire Bundle. Each item contains the donor's name, Fund Name, Contribution Date, General Ledger account number, and the Total. So, you decide. Which of these reports, if any, do you want in your database? Did I mention that this is a Python script? We have the recipe for you to copy and paste into your database - easy peasy! Read more...about Bundle Report2 Read more...about Bundle Report

New Address for Payments

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 20:33:00 GMT

A word to the wise is sufficient, so thank you in advance for taking care of this little housekeeping task. Those of you that are responsible for making your TouchPoint payments should get with your Accounts Payable team and have them change the address for TouchPoint in their accounting software. We are no longer accepting payments at Bellevue Baptist Church on Appling Rd in Cordova, TN. Our new address for all payments is as follows: TouchPoint PO Box 203421 Dallas, TX 75320-3421

TouchPoint Support - What about My Data Users?

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Most of you know that when you need to ask a question of our TouchPoint Support Team, you click ?Help in the top right corner of your TouchPoint database. At that point, you have the option to search our Help Documentation prior to submitting a request in case you can find the answer there. But what about My Data users? When they click the question mark icon they do not have an option to search the documentation. However, they can submit a Support Request. Unlike all other support requests, these go to the Admin for that user's database. It uses the email address in the AdminMail setting. Because those go to the Admin Mail for the church, that means that the person with that email address is also the one to answer those questions. Why do we handle these requests like that? It is because the vast majority of the My Data requests relate to issues that someone at the church must handle for that person. The requests are usually things like "how can I add someone to my family?" or "I'm supposed to a church member, but it shows I'm not a member". So, obviously, these are questions that we cannot take care of for that individual. So, if you are a system admin for your church and you receive these types of emails, please be sure to answer them. TouchPoint Support is not going to do that. However, if you need help answering the question, by all means, let us know by submitting your own support request. Then we will be happy to answer! Read more...about support Read more...about documentation

EBOOK: RESOURCE: KEEPING YOUR CHURCH'S DATA SECURE IN THE CLOUD

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 22:49:36 GMT

WEBINAR: ROUNDTABLE WITH REDEEMER PRESBYTERIAN NYC

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 21:57:13 GMT

You want to use data analysis to help you make informed decisions about your church. Church leaders today have the opportunity to apply God-given wisdom to a wealth of new knowledge about what individuals value, how they behave, and what drives them to commit to something bigger and more important than themselves. Most church leaders don’t have a background in data analytics -- but that shouldn’t be a barrier to using this information to strengthen your ministry. WEBINAR: Becoming a Data-Driven Ministry: Roundtable with Redeemer NYC In this roundtable-style webinar with Redeemer Presbyterian NYC, we explore practical ways that churches can leverage the data to deepen engagement with church members, enhance discipleship, and make better, more informed decisions for the future of their ministry. You’ll learn… What it looks like to be a data-driven church How to listen to your church and use data-based feedback to make important decisions How to break through old models of thinking and more effectively se

Class Lists - 2 New SQL Recipes

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 12:00:00 GMT

These 2 scripts are designed to be run from Organization > Search as a Custom Report after you filter for a list of orgs by Program and Division or some other filters. The reports will give you a list of everyone enrolled in each of the orgs in your filtered list along with their contact information. One report, Class List, is designed for printing, so there is a page break at each org. The name of each org is the header for that page. The report includes the person's name, member status, email, phone numbers, and address. This is a great report to print and give to class members if they do not have access to an online directory for their class. Because you access it from Organization Search, you can print the report for multiple classes at one time. The 2nd report, Class List 2, is designed to be an on-screen report. It does not have page breaks. It does include the org name and org ID in the report and sorts by the org name, then by the last name of the individuals. Both the Org ID# and the People ID# are links taking you to the organization or the people record respectively. As with all of our SQL Reports, we have the recipes in help articles for you. Basically, all you need to do is copy and paste. Also, because they are run as Custom Reports, you will also need to add the names of the reports to Custom Reports text file in Special Content. All you need to know is spelled out in the help articles where we also have the recipes for the scripts. Thank you to Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville, FL. for sponsoring these reports. Read more...and get the Class List recipe Read more...and get the Class List 2 recipe

Settings for Hiding DOB/Age for Specific User Role

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 13:00:00 GMT

Some of you have expressed an interest in hiding the birth year and age of adults from lay leaders, i.e. those with the user role OrgLeadersOnly. We just created 2 new Settings that will allow you to do this on your database if you like. NoBirthYearRole - If you add this Setting, you will specify a user role, such as OrgLeadersOnly. You can specify any user role, but remember that your staff should be able to see the complete DOB in order to validate records and prevent duplicates. When using this Setting, the default is to display the birth year and age for those 18 and under, but not for those that are over 18. If you want to change that age, you can use the Setting below in conjunction with this one. NoBirthYearOverAge - Enter an age either less than or greater than 18 to display birth year and age for anyone that age and under. Remember, you must also use the previous Setting NoBirthYearRole if you want to use this one. Thank you, Rutgers Community Christian Church in New Jersey for sponsoring this project. Read more...about these and other Settings.

Another Recipe for Top Givers

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 13:00:00 GMT

We already have a recipe to give you a list of the top donors, but this one is a bit different. This report allows you to specify a start date (the default in the recipe is 1/1/17), and end date (or leave it to run through the current date), and a Campus ID. Instead of the usual 100 top donors, this one returns the top 200. It will give you a list sorted by the total dollar amount (which is listed) with the donor's name, PID#, and Email Address. It also gives the donor's church Member Status and the name of his Main Fellowship Class. If couples give jointly, both names and emails will be listed. This might be just the report your finance committee or your church administrator has been waiting for! Like all recipes, the report is protected by the user role Finance. Also, these recipes are as simple as copying and pasting to get them into your database. Read more...and get the recipe for Top 200 Donors with Email

New Search Builder Condition - Recent Family Adult Last Attend

Mon, 06 Nov 2017 13:00:00 GMT

The use case for this was to find adults that did not attend a specific worship service in which the church's newsletter was handed out. Then the church could mail the newsletter to the families who did not receive it during the service. The Condition asks for a number of lookback days and a Program, Division, Organization (either 1,2 or all 3). When using this Condition in the negative (i.e. = false), and specifying the worship organization, you would add the Condition Is Member Of and specify that same worship org. This will return those adults that are enrolled in the worship org, but who did not attend in the number of lookback days. You can also add Is Head of Household to reduce the results to just one Primary Adult in each family. You can also use this Condition to find adults that did attend a specific Program, such as Life Groups. Use your imagination and see how you might use this new Search Builder Condition. Read more...

Recent Visitors to a Division-SQL Recipe

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 12:00:00 GMT

TouchPoint is all about ministry to people. So, when we add reports it is usually to help you do your ministry better. This report falls into that category. It is a SQL recipe that you can copy and paste into your database. You will specify a Division when you run the report. All recent guests (new and repeat guests and visiting members) will be listed, with a link to the person's record as well as to the Organization. The report below is sorted by the Organization, but you can choose to sort by the name if you prefer. The report shows the date the person last visited that Organization and the number of visits during the time period referenced in the script. Use Case: A minister that is responsible for the Young Married Division in the church's Life Groups Program wants to see all the people that have visited any Org in that Division in the past 90 days. He could run a search in Search Builder to find these of course. And if you are going to send an email that is exactly what you will want to do. However, if you want to analyze the Division based on its guests, this report is very helpful. Plus, it is interactive and contains the information you need about the person's visit. There are links to the individuals so you can easily work from this report to make Task assignments so the person receives a Contact from the church. Remember - turn on that toggle to Open Person in New Tab and you can move back and forth from the report to an individual and not lose the report. Sample Report Read more...and get the recipe for Recent Visitors to Division.

SQL Script: Last Donation and Last Attendance

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 12:00:00 GMT

This SQL recipe will result in a report that will display everyone in the database that has either made a donation or attended something in the past 365 days. The report will list the date of the last gift/donation and the last attended date. There is also a count for the number of attendances for each person during those 365 days. Because this is an on-screen report, the People ID# is a link to the person's record. If you have a very large church, this might not be very useful as you will have many thousands of records. However, for most churches, this will be a useful look at your attendees and donors for the past year. The report is restricted to just users with Finance role. Click here...to read more and get the recipe.

New Search for TouchPoint Documentation

Sat, 28 Oct 2017 21:58:00 GMT

You probably noticed recently that ads started appearing at the top of the page when you searched our documentation. We have fixed that now by installing a new search engine - SearchIQ - and your search will be totally ad-free! You will still get the same great search capability as you did previously, but you will notice some changes. The search will include only help documentation, not the TouchPoint blog. Blog posts can easily get out of date, whereas the help documentation is kept as up-to-date as possible. You will not run the risk of the search finding an old blog post and wasting your time with information that it out-dated. Search now has a Quick Search box. After you either click the button for the Documentation Website or you make an initial search, the Quick Search text box will appear. Also, as long as you are inside the documentation Quick Search will display in the top right corner, saving the effort of returning to a previous tab in order to search again. When you click ?Help inside your TouchPoint database, the Search page will open first. Then you can enter a keyword and search. At that point, the results will open in another new tab. To submit a Support Request, just click that first bitemser tab that opened, select contact Support and submit an email as you have always done. Check it out...

Member Type in Organization SQL Script

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 16:00:00 GMT

We created this script to make it easy for a church leader to find which classes have (and do not have) specific Member Types within their set of Organizations. For example: at our church, we want each adult class to have someone designated as a Missions Leader. This SQL report displays which classes have these leaders, who they are (even if there are more than one) and then see which Orgs do not have a Missions Leader. Notice in the sample below that those classes without a Mission Leader have nothing in the Name and Member Type columns. Also, note that some classes have more than one Missions Leader. The SQL report is designed to be added to the Toolbar on the Organization > Search page. Remember, you can also download these as Excel after running them. Sample Report: Missions Leader in Org Read more...and grab the recipe and paste it into your database.

New User Role: FinanceViewOnly

Thu, 19 Oct 2017 18:30:00 GMT

This new role is designed for staff who need to view summary reports for contributions, but not perform data entry or view contribution data for any individuals. You assign this role - FinanceViewOnly - without the Finance role as that will override the ViewOnly role. This will simplify the view for your church staff members that do not need (or want) all the other options that are available for someone with the normal Finance role. With this role, they will just see those reports. This will also allow you to give this role to staff members who previously have not been able to access financial reports because it was not appropriate for them to have full finance capabilities. This is perfect for a minister that needs to see the income/contributions for various funds but does not need to see individual contributions. This is the list of reports this user will see.These are under Administration in the main menu. Read more...about the roles related to Finance/Contributions.

A Minister's Story - How TouchPoint's New App Engages Your Church

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 16:57:00 GMT

Running an effective ministry is all about teamwork. No one person can do it alone. In order to effectively tend to your flock and give them the support and attention they need, you must have a team of people working together. That’s why ministry staff and lay leaders are such an essential part of your church community. They allow you to accomplish more, to reach more members, to enable people to become disciples who make disciples. In order to help your support staff and lay leaders be as effective as they possibly can you want to equip them with the tools they need to succeed. That’s where technology comes in. Watch the video below to see how TouchPoint's all-new mobile app can help you boost discipleship efforts at your church. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Pie Chart - Member Statuses

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 12:00:00 GMT

We created this as a Python script and have the recipe for it in our documentation. it is a simple chart showing all current Member Statuses presented as a pie chart. When you hover over each section you will see the total number of people and the percent of the whole each represents. Here's a sample: If you are interested in adding this to your database, click below to get the recipe. Read more...

New Batch Process on Task Search

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 12:00:00 GMT

Normally, you will want to mark your Tasks complete individually. However, if you have certain Tasks that do not need any Comments (such as New Person Data Entry Tasks), we do have a new option on the Task Search page that allows you to mark them complete as a batch. Check those Tasks you have completed. Then select the down aritem beside Search and select Mark Tasks Complete. This will trigger a prompt asking if you want to mark X number of Tasks Complete. Answer 'yes' and they will all be marked Completed. Read more...

Zip Count Report - SQL Recipe

Mon, 16 Oct 2017 12:00:00 GMT

This is another SQL recipe your Admin can add to your database and then make available on the blue Toolbar. It is really helpful if you send bulk mail. You can run a search, export an Excel file, or print labels or envelopes, and then select this report from the Toolbar. It will give you a breakdown of how many addresses are included in each zip +2. We recommend that your search contain only one person per household (such as the Head of Household), so couples are not counted twice in the report. Read more...and get the recipe.

Giving Change SQL Script for One Fund

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 13:08:00 GMT

This new recipe lets you specify a Fund in the script, so you can track giving changes for donors to just that Fund. Our other Giving Change SQL script looks at giving to all Funds. This new SQL report is named Giving Change Fund. Belew is a sample. Notice those whose giving has stopped are at the top, next are those whose giving as decreased, followed by those whose giving to that Fund has increased. Sample Giving Change Fund Report Read more...and get the recipe for this report.

Revised SQL Script to include Main Fellowship Stats

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 12:00:00 GMT

I recently blogged about a new SQL Recipe named Org Search Member Stats that displays attendance stats for individuals in a filtered list of orgs. Not long after that post, we discovered a need for that same report, but with more information - stats about the individual's Main Fellowship Class. Being good stewards, we took that existing recipe and added to it. It's kind of like realizing a cake needs icing...and adding a recipe for the icing. That's what we did! Main Fellowship Stats is the icing on the existing Member Stats Report. We also added the Org Enrollment Date for the filter org, too. The reason I like this revision so much is that it gives you an opportunity to evaluate members of one type of programming, such as a Women's Ministry class, and view the members' attendance in their Main Fellowship Class...all in one nice report. Of course, the most convenient aspect of this report is that you run it from Organization > Search. That means you can filter for an entire Program and Division to view attendance for all the current members in those orgs. That's pretty sweet! Our church needed it for our DiscipleShip > DiscipleMakers Program and Division, which contains over one hundred small orgs. What a convenient way for a minister to oversee those orgs and see if those being discipled are attending a Main Fellowship Class! PS If you copied the script we featured in the previous blog post and you like this new revision, no problem! Click the link below, copy the new, revised script, and paste it into your database to replace the existing script. If you are using the older version and like it, no problem either! Just leave it as it is in your database. Read more...

New TouchPoint App for Churches Provides Increased Engagement, Mobile-First Experience

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 14:26:00 GMT

SQL Recipe for Previous Members' Sub-Groups

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 12:00:00 GMT

This is one of those recipes you think you may never need or you have needed it and you wish it had been available. The purpose of this report is to find out which sub-groups the previous members of an organization had been in when they were members. Why would you need this? Well, if you accidentally dropped all the members of an org and needed to recreate the org as it had been prior to doing that, this report would be just the thing if that organization had sub-groups. This is a little different than most SQL reports. Your system Admin can add this to your database as usual, but to run it you must specify an organization ID# in the URL. We explain all the steps in the help article. To make this available for other users, you might decide to add it to your Main Menu, so it is there whenever someone needs it. Then that user can just run it from Reports, and then add the org ID# at the end of the URL, and hit enter. Voila! The report returns only Previous Members. So, if you drop everyone by mistake, run this report before you add them back as Members. You will probably want the Excel version. That way you will have all of their sub-groups in a report and can add the individuals to the appropriate groups as you add them back as Members. Read more...

One Page Giving with a Twist

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 12:00:00 GMT

If you are familiar with our One Page Giving option for online giving, you know that this presents all fields on one page - the person's name, email address, street address, zip, and country and a field for a donation to just one fund - and the person's bank/credit card information. They never leave this page. See the sample below. We have added a new dimension to One Page Giving! By adding an integer type of ad hoc Extra Value (named LoggedInOrgId) to your One Page Giving org, and using the Org ID# of your normal One-Time Giving org as the value, you can post the One Page Giving link on your website; but when your regular donors who have user accounts use the green Login Here button, they are taken to the normal online giving page that presents all the funds you have displaying for normal online giving. This is like the best of both worlds. Post one link and have the streamlined one page presented to your new donors. But also give your normal donors the option to log in and give to any of the multiple funds you make available for online giving. Sample One Page Giving By the way, if you use the normal One Page Giving without adding the special Extra Value, when a donor logs in, he is able to give only that one fund you associated with that giving page. So, if you want your logged in users to be able to use the same link as those accessing the One Page Giving but give to more funds, just add this special Extra Value. Read more...and look at the last two types of online giving in the list.

New SQL Recipe: Org Search Member Stats

Mon, 25 Sep 2017 12:00:00 GMT

We recently created this new recipe to give you a look at attendance for multiple orgs. The report is generated from the Organization > Search Manage page and gives attendance statistics for the members of those orgs. That is why it is named OrgSearchMemberStats. The report displays the ID# and name of each organization included in your filters on the search page. Each member is listed and presents not only the person's name, but also his church join date (blank if not a church member), and the following relating to his attendance in that org: date last attended, attendance percent, and the attendance string. You can also download it in Excel. Remember, these SQL reports are super-simple to add to your own database. Create a new SQL report, then copy and paste the code, save the script, run it, and then add to the toolbar. Read more...

New SQL Report Recipe on Totals by Fund Report

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:28:00 GMT

This new report is a SQL recipe named Totals by Fund Payment Type. The purpose is to give you a breakdown of your online giving to distinguish between ACH and Credit Card. It also displays the Income Account Number for each Fund. Because this is a recipe, you can copy and paste it directly from our documentation right into your database very easily. Once that is done, you run the report from the Totals by Fund Report after you select the date range and other filters. Then, you select the new report from the Other Reports drop-down menu. Remember, this is looking at the 2 types of online transactions - either ACH or Credit Card. We recommend that you select Online as the Source in order to view only those transactions that will have a type of either ACH or Card. Thank you to Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, TN, for sponsoring this project! Read more...

The Harmful Technology Flaw Thatâ€™s Holding Your Ministry Hostage

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 18:28:00 GMT

The Harmful Technology Flaw That’s Holding Your Ministry Hostage

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 18:28:00 GMT

AltName Search & Display Features

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 14:30:00 GMT

Chinese Alt Name example Last year we added two new Settings specifically to help our Chinese congregations that use Chinese characters in the AltName field on a person's record. ShowAltNameOnSearchResults Add this Setting = true and the AltName (both English or Chinese) will display under the last name in the results. This works in People Find > Basic Search (not Quick Search) and in Search Builder results. UseAltNameContains This Setting, when added to your database, will allow for Chinese character searches using part of the Chinese name instead of the entire string. When searching for AltName like this use only characters from the AltName and not First or Goes By. We also have a Search Builder Condition to allow for AltName 'Contains'. Thank you to our friends at West Houston Chinese Church in Houston, TX for sponsoring these projects. Read more...about adding new Settings Read more...about People Search and AltNames Read more...about Search Builder's AltName Condition Please continue to pray for all those in Texas, Florida, Georgia and other states and territories that have been hurt by the devastation of 2017 hurricanes.

Customizable Word Directories and the Return of the Jedi

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 15:30:00 GMT

Ok, just kidding about the Jedi. We actually returned the Picture Directory 4/page. You will find it under the cloud icon in the Directories section. This is the older directory that we replaced when we redid the directories recently. However, when we found out that some of you really loved that directory, we put it back..and it's even better. Keep reading to find out about the improvement as it affects other directories as well. Recently, we updated our directories (see this blog post), then we added a new family picture directory (see this post). Now, you have more options! These directories were rewritten so that we now have Word templates that you can use and add to your database as a Custom Report after making any customizations you would like. These are not SQL or Python recipes. They are actually Word templates and function as Custom Reports. We currently have 3 different directory templates: 24 per page picture directory 4 per page picture directory 24 per page family picture directory Click the link below to view the instructions that make it easy for your system Admin to add (and customize) any of these 3 directories. Read more...

ON-DEMAND WEBINAR: MAPPING THE MOBILE FUTURE OF YOUR MINISTRY

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 22:04:34 GMT

If you don't have a church engagement app for your ministry, you could be missing out on some big discipleship opportunities. In this webinar, we'll give you a special sneak peek of TouchPoint's new mobile experience. Along the way, you'll be inspired by all the new ways to empower your ministry on-the-go. Watch the on-demand webinar to learn: How to equip your staff and lay leaders for a mobile-first world Best practices for managing your ministry through mobile Ways to deepen engagement at your church through mobile communication How to equip your church media team with tools to plan ahead We dive into these topics and more. Don't miss out on the chance to set your church up for success in today's mobile-first reality.

Toggle Options - Sadly Overlooked

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 19:08:00 GMT

WEBINAR: NEXT-LEVEL MISSIONS

Fri, 04 Aug 2017 22:07:53 GMT

Technology has made it easier than ever to deploy and deepen the impact of your mission trips. We want to show you how to use these new tools to support your missions efforts. In this webinar, we show you the ins and outs of how to plan and resource your short term mission trips. Salem Alliance Church's Penny Bidwell and Bellevue Baptist’s Karen Worrell explain: The who, what, when, where, and how of mission trip planning Systems for making sure you stay on track and organized Tactics & tools for fully funding mission trips Create immersive and transformative experiences at every stage of the journey

New Online Registration 'Find' Feature

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 09:00:00 GMT

This is a totally cool new functionality! When a parent is registering a child online (without being logged in or using a Register Link) they are asked to enter the First and Last Name, DOB, Phone, and Email Address of the child. In order to be considered a match and find an existing record, the Name and one of those other 3 fields must match what is on the child's people record. If they do not match, a new record will be created which is sometimes a duplicate. With this new feature, it works like this: If the parent (or whoever is registering that child) enters an email address that is not on the child's record but is on the record of another family member, we now consider that a match and will find that child's record. How easy is that?! Of course, they still must enter the child's name correctly. You should take a look at our Online Registration Basics and FAQ help article. We just added a section to explain the basics of how online registration works - what the user sees, what is actually required when a person registers without logging in - including this new feature, and more. Read more... PS You know...if you email a parent a Register Link2 he doesn't have to enter anything to find the child; he just selects the child from his family list. Now, that's super easy!

New SQL Recipe - User Roles Report

Mon, 31 Jul 2017 11:00:00 GMT

If you have ever wanted run a report for people in a specific Organization, or a Tag, or Search Builder results and see of all those that are TouchPoint users and see their roles, then you will be very happy about this new report. This is one of those "Recipes" we've told you about before. That means that we wrote the SQL code for you and all you need to do is copy and paste it into your database. Of course this must be done by the System Admin user. However, once it is created and added to the blue Toolbar, any user with Edit role can run the report. Read more...

Sub-Group Filter for Recent Absents Report

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 13:51:00 GMT

This is a terrific new feature, especially for lay leaders. Before generating the Recent Absents Report for an organization, you can filter for a sub-group. Then the report will contain only those within that group with consecutive absences. This is so much easier than having to look through the entire class if you are a group leader and are responsible for just one group. Remember, we also have a Recent Absents Report 2 for those of you that track individual attendance in your worship service. When you put the org ID# of your worship org in the Settings, you will get an extra link at the top of the Recent Absents report that takes you to the same type of report, but for the worship org. We blogged about this and another worship report back in 2014. Click here for that post. This new sub-group filter option will maintain that same filter when you move to the worship report. Thank you to 2nd Presbyterian Church in Memphis for sponsoring this project! Read more...about the Recent Absents Report Read more...about the Recent Absents Report 2 PS Don't assume your lay leaders subscribe to this blog... let them know about this new feature!

EBOOK: 4 WAYS DATA CAN HELP YOU MAKE BETTER MINISTRY DECISIONS

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 22:58:32 GMT

EBOOK: 4 WAYS TECHNOLOGY CAN ENHANCE DISCIPLESHIP IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 22:53:03 GMT

WEBINAR: 4 WAYS TECHNOLOGY CAN ENHANCE DISCIPLESHIP IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 22:09:49 GMT

In this webinar, we show you how technology can help you create an environment of intentional discipleship in today's chaotic world. TouchPoint Software’s Derek Hazelet and Bellevue Baptist Church’s Karen Worrell unpack: Ways to encourage people to connect and assimilate more quickly into your church How to create systems for ensuring people don’t slip through the cracks Engage people in more personal, relevant, and timely ways Define and monitor your discipleship pathway If you’ve ever wondered what tools and strategies will help you make disciples in an increasingly distracted and scattered church environment, this is one webinar you don’t want to miss!

Replacement Code: FirstOrJoint

Mon, 03 Jul 2017 06:00:00 GMT

This new email replacement code can be used if you are emailing the Head of Household and would like the greeting to include the spouse's name if the couple gives jointly. If the couple does not give jointly only the first name of the person in your list will be used. EXAMPLE: John and Mary Smith's Contribution Statement Types are Joint. So, if you email John and use this email replacement code - {FirstOrJoint} - the greeting will be John and Mary. George and Susan Jones' Contribution Statement Types are Individual. So, using that same replacement code, the greeting will be just George or just Mary, depending on which one of them is in the list. This is just the newest of many replacement codes that you can use in emails. Check them out! Read more...

Recurring Gift Notice - New Options

Mon, 26 Jun 2017 06:00:00 GMT

We recently made a change to how these notices are generated in order to give you more choices regarding the look and available content for this email. Previously, this notice was basically intended to let the donor know that his recurring gift had processed that morning and it displayed only the total amount of the gift that was processed. Now, with this new change you can make this email look like the confirmation the donor receives after setting up or managing his recurring giving. By that, I mean that you can include replacement codes so the donor see the exact breakdown of his donation by fund. These types of email notices are stored in Special Content > HTML Content on your database, and this specific notice is named RecurringGiftNotice. If your database already has this notice in Special Content, you can just edit it. Otherwise, you will create a new file. Thank you to Redeemer Presbyterian in New York for sponsoring this project. Read more...to see how to easily create or modify this notice.

Facebook Ads and your Online Registrations

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 06:00:00 GMT

Most churches nowadays have a Facebook page. Here is a great tip for making the most of Facebook when you have a special event coming up! You can purchase a Facebook ad for a special event that has a registration and embed a pixel (that you get from Facebook) in your TouchPoint Online Registration. This lets you track how many people click on your ad, and even better, how many people actually go further and register for the event through that Facebook ad. Our church just did this for our VBS registration. We reached several thousand people in our area with that ad, and we saw 78 people register via the ad. Those cost us only about 83 cents per person. That's a fairly small price to pay when you consider that these could be people that otherwise might not have known about our VBS - which is where most children come to know Jesus. I'm not trying to persuade you to use Facebook. I'm just saying that if you use it, you might want to take advantage of this TouchPoint feature (called a Confirmation Tracking Code) that pairs with Facebook. Read more...

The Party's Over...

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 06:00:00 GMT

Best Practices-Managing User Accounts

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 20:16:00 GMT

Every church has a certain amount of turnover, whether it is staff members, seasonal interns, or even lay leaders. So, the questions become these: What do you do as the System Admin when someone leaves their position? What should you do as a staff user before a new user account can be created for your new hire? We get questions about this (and more) from time to time, so we created a help article to offer some advice in this regard. We have a sample email you might want to use as a guide to create an email draft. Then you can send that additional email to new staff members (apart from the New User Welcome). You can give them basic information a staff member needs to know about TouchPoint, links to some help articles that pertain specifically to their jobs, and what ever you think they need to know. The article outlines the information a staff member needs to provide to the Admin user when 1) you need a new user account created, or 2) when one of your staff members is leaving. Read more... PS Speaking of new staff members...we are working toward creating a series of lessons for potential clients to receive when they get a TouchPoint trial database. We plan to make these lessons suitable for, and available to, your new staff members as well. Be patient, but be watching. It's a work in progress.

Directories - New and Improved

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 16:19:00 GMT

We all know that Directory Assistance has changed dramatically through the years. Well, some of our directories (on the blue Toolbar) have changed, too. We did this in order to make these function better, look better, and, by rewriting them in Word, to give us the ability down the road (maybe later this summer) to create recipes for all of these. When we have recipes churches will be able to customize the directories. Let's talk about what is available on the blue Toolbar under Directories: Compact Directory - This is the only one of the three that does not contain pictures, and it is the only one that has not yet been rewritten. Stay tuned for that. Picture Directory - This directory uses the individual photos and will print 24 per page. Along with the names, it includes the person's email address, birthdate (month/day), spouse's name. and names of children in the family. Family Picture Directory - This uses the family photos and can be run from anywhere you see the toolbar. However, it works best if you run it from Search Builder, where you can add the Condition Is Head of Household. This prints 12 per page and includes the names of the family members and the home phone number. Thank you to First Evangelical Church, Memphis, TN, for sponsoring the Family Picture Directory! Stay tuned! We have another directory coming shortly. Read more...about other options on the blue Toolbar.

New Options for Editing "Campus"

Tue, 30 May 2017 11:00:00 GMT

The default requirement for editing the Campus selection on someone's people record is for the user to have Access and Edit roles. However, we have just added a new user role with an accompanying Setting and another new Setting - all of which relate to which users can edit the Campus on a person's record. If you add this new role named EditCampus to your database and the Setting EnforceEditCampusRole = true, only a user with the role EditCampus can edit a person's Campus. If you add the Setting MyDataCanEditCampus = true a MyData user (and any other user) can edit his own Campus. So, you have some options: If you like the user roles as they are currently, do not do anything. If you want users (My Data included) to be able to change the Campus on their own records, add the Setting MyDataCanEditCampus = true. If you do not want all users with Edit role to be able to change the Campus on other people's records, then add the user role EditCampus to your database and assign it to those few users that you want to be able perform this function. Then add the Setting EnforceEditCampusRole = true. If you want people to edit their own Campus settings and you want to limit which staff can edit someone else's Campus settings, then add both the new Role and both Settings. Thank you to Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City for sponsoring these projects. Read more...about User Roles Read more---about Settings

New Role for Finance Data Entry

Thu, 25 May 2017 11:00:00 GMT

Thanks to our friends at Rutgers Community Christian Church in New Jersey who sponsored this project, we now have a new user role available. It is named FinanceDataEntry and in order to use it, your System Admin must add it to your database in the Lookup Codes. PURPOSE: The reason for creating this role is to allow for a someone to perform the duties of creating bundles and posting individual contributions, but without having other Finance permissions. This user cannot view bundles that are closed and he cannot view an individual's contributions other than those he is currently posting. This is a great way for you to have a separation of duties in the finance office without giving extra staff members or volunteers access to sensitive financial information. Thank you again RCCC! Read more...

New Optional Setting Affecting My Data Users

Tue, 23 May 2017 11:30:00 GMT

We have several clients that use TouchPoint for a ministry which is not a church per se. These would be considered para-church organizations. Therefore, there is no need for the membership information on the Profile tab of the people record and it might be confusing for My Data users. So, we have added a new option that allows you to prevent a My Data user from even seeing that tab. When this Setting - HideMemberStatusFromMyData - is added to the database and set as true, My Data users will not see the Profile tab. This is the tab where we store membership information, Thank you to Community Impact for sponsoring this project.

Master Pager List Report - SQL Recipe

Thu, 18 May 2017 11:30:00 GMT

You don't use pagers? Keep reading, as you may have other uses for this new SQL recipe that uses Extra Values. This script was created for and sponsored by our friends at Salem Alliance Church in Oregon to provide a list of children enrolled in the nursery, name of the child's mother, her Bible Study leader and the pager number. Both the leader's name and the pager number are Extra Values on the mother's record. You can use this for any Extra Values that are on the record of a child's mother by just changing the EV names in the script. Thank you Salem Alliance for sponsoring this report! Read more...

All Digit Option for Check-In Security Labels

Tue, 16 May 2017 11:00:00 GMT

Some of you have asked about having a Check-In Security Label that prints only digits, instead of the default that is a 3-character code with at least one number and at least one letter. Now you have that option! Add the Setting UseFourDigitCodeForCheckin equals true to your database and the codes will then be all numbers and will be 4 digits long. This will affect all Security Labels for Check-In whether you use the TouchPoint Mobile Check-In version or the standard TouchPoint PC Check-In. This is great for those churches using a messaging system that allows only numbers when you want to display a message on-screen for a parent during a church service. Read more...

EBOOK: 5 WAYS THAT MOBILE TECH CAN TRANSFORM YOUR MINISTRY

Wed, 10 May 2017 23:01:27 GMT

Replacement Code for Drop from Org

Tue, 09 May 2017 11:30:00 GMT

Thank you to our friends at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York for sponsoring this new email replacement code. The code can be placed in an email to an individual, a Tag, an organization, or Search Builder results. The code itself has the org ID# in it, so you do not have to use it only when emailing from an organization. When someone clicks on the link he will be dropped from the organization indicated. Use Case 1: Send an email to everyone enrolled in a newsletter organization and insert this code so people can very easily remove themselves from the org, instead of using the unsubscribe link. Use Case 2: If people have signed up for a work day and you want to remind the members about it. You can insert this code and ask them to please click the link to drop themselves from the org if they will be unable to participate. You are creative people! I'm sure you will find other use cases for this new code. Thank you again, Redeemer, for sponsoring this. Remember, every new feature goes into the open source project so all TouchPoint churches will benefit. By the way, this is not the same format as our normal email replacement codes, so you will need to read more about this so you will know the correct form. Read more...

Attendance Comparison for a Division

Mon, 08 May 2017 11:30:00 GMT

TouchPoint has a recipe for a sweet SQL script that will let you look at one or more Divisions and compare the average attendance in each organization with the previous 365 days. It lists the number of people present for each period (current and previous 365 days), the number of meetings for each period, and then the average attendance for each period. Here's a sample report showing just a few organizations in the same Division. If this is something you are interested in keep reading. This is not a script that I would add to the menu. But that's just my opinion. The reason is that if you have a lot of Divisions you would probably be better off declaring(in the script) the specific Division(s) you need just before running the report each time. That's very easy to do and will always give the minister what he's expecting. For example: the Young Married minister would like to see the report for all 3 of his Divisions, the Senior Adult minister just needs to see his 1 Division, and other ministries only are interested in their own Divisions. I would rather run the report for each ministry as needed, changing the Division each time, than to create a monster report including all of our Life Group Divisions. That would be more than 350 Organizations, each having one line in the report. Like all our SQL & Python scripts, we have the code in the help article for your System Admin to copy and paste into your database. Read more...

Deceased This Month Report-SQL Recipe

Thu, 04 May 2017 11:30:00 GMT

This report is not just showing those that have passed away during the current month and year. It is a report that finds everyone in your database that has a deceased date with the current month - for all years. It it for a specific type of ministry. The purpose is to give you a list of those whose deceased anniversary is in the current month, so that you can reach out to any surviving family members to let them know you are praying for them. The report itself has the deceased person's name and a link to the people record (so you can find their family members) as well as the deceased date month/day/year. It sorts by the most recent date. So, it will include any people that have passed away in the actual current month/year. This may not be something that every church will be able to use, but we know some churches really try to reach out to those surviving spouses or children somewhere around the first anniversary date of their loved one's passing. If you are interested in this report, just follow the instructions in the help article. We have everything you need - just copy and paste. As with all SQL and Python scripts, these must be added to your database by someone with the Admin user role at your church. Read more...

New Support System

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 23:19:00 GMT

If you have submitted a Support Request in the few weeks you will have noticed that our replies have a different look. That's because we were testing a different support software. Well, after trying it for a few weeks we decided to go with yet a different product. That means that you will see an even different look. Same service; slightly different look. Why? We value our clients and really try hard to provide outstanding service. That's why we are doing this - so we can keep providing excellent support as we gitem our family of churches. As TouchPoint gitems, our support system needed to gitem as well. As always, let us know when you need something - and please use the Help? icon in your database when sending requests of any kind. Thank you for your patience as we go through these changes.

Check-In Activity Chart

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 11:30:00 GMT

A picture is worth a thousand words, so a chart is probably worth quite a few as well. This chart (really a line graph) shows how many people checked-in (using TouchPoint Check-In) during 20-minute segments on a Sunday morning. You might be surprised at how many people are checking in during a very short period of time. Take a look at this chart. You can see very clearly when our check-in kiosks are the busiest. Why would you want to see this? One reason is to know when you will need to most volunteers. Also, this clearly shows you what time of the morning you should probably observe what's going on, in order to determine if things are going smoothly. You might find that you need another check-in station. How can you add this to your database? It's very simple. Take a look at the help article and follow the instructions. We have all the code right there for you to copy and paste into a Python Script in your database. Read more...

Giving Percent Report for Organizations

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 11:30:00 GMT

The OrgGiving report is a SQL script for which we have a recipe in our documentation. It is designed to give your finance leadership (it is locked down to only Finance users) an overall view of what percent of members in specific groups of organizations, such as adult Life Groups, are givers to the church. This is also a nice report to use for a Division containing orgs that teach financial planning, such as Financial Peace University. You determine which Division(s) to include and you determine the criteria for a Status Flag to use in the script to denote givers. For example: Those who have given more than $1000.00 in the past 365 days. Here's a sample: This is very simple to create in your database - just follow the recipe! Read more...

Family Events and Online Registration

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 11:30:00 GMT

As we get closer to spring and summer, you will probably be planning family outings for your church. If so, you will probably use an online registration to get everyone registered and collect the fees. And, you may want to collect a Family Deposit fairly early so you can better secure the facilities you will need. In that case, TouchPoint has just what you need - an option to collect only a family deposit (the same amount per family), and still get everyone in the family registered early so you will know how many people for which to plan. Most families plan ahead for events that have fees, especially families with several children. By offering a registration for which the family initially pays only a family deposit is really a nice feature. Normally, a Deposit for an online registration is on a per person basis. You have a set per person Fee, you allow for a Deposit, and you might even have other fees based on extra options the person selects during the registration. But for a Family Campout or another type of family event, you really just need the same deposit regardless of how many family members are planning to attend. That's when the Family Deposit feature comes into play. It allows someone to register both adults and all 5 children in the family and pay the same deposit as a family with only 1 child. They will pay the full amount per person later using a paylink, but they do not have to do it at the time they register. Read more...

Campus: Set Custom Sort Order

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 11:30:00 GMT

Many of our TouchPoint family of churches have multiple Campuses. That is, they have what are almost separate churches under one umbrella and in the same database. For example: Our home church Bellevue has a main Campus we call Appling, another named Arlington, our Hispanic ministry named Bella Vista, and our north Campus named Frayser. Our friends in New York at Redeemer Presbyterian Church also have multiple Campuses and recently sponsored a project to allow you to set the order you want the Campuses to display in the drop down menu. We have added this feature and it's working great! Thank you, Redeemer for sponsoring this. If you have multiple Campuses at your church, take a look at the help article mentioned below. Also included in that article are other several other Settings that relate to Campus that you may not be familiar with. So, it's worth the read. Read more...about how Campus is used in TouchPoint and the many Settings you can add relating to this.

Word as an Option for Roll Sheets

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 21:30:00 GMT

The next time you generate a roll sheet for either one class or a group of classes, you will have the option to print the roll sheet in the normal PDF version, which is the default, or you can elect to Use Word. Just check the box before clicking Create if you prefer Word (or whatever word processing program on your computer). Why did we make this change? There are a couple of reasons. The main one is so our Chinese churches can use the Alternate Names on the roll sheets and have the Chinese characters print correctly. This just does not work right with the PDF version. So, if you are using the Alternate Names on roll sheets, be sure to check Use Word. Secondary reasons are that the Word version is going to give us much more flexibility. We already have plans in the future to create a roll sheet template that will allow churches to design their own roll sheets. So, making this move to allow printing in Word is a very positive thing. Watch this blog post for more about this roll sheet template sometime in the next few months or so. Read more...

Newsletter Subscriptions

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 11:30:00 GMT

Many of you send email newsletters at your church. If you do, and if you have more than one newsletter, you should probably set up a Manage Subscription type of registration like the one below. This is very simple to create. It is very much like a User Selects type of online registration in that it uses a Master Org with the actual newsletters being the 'pick list' orgs. You do not need a confirmation email on any of the orgs, as the confirmation for this type of registration is contained in the Special Content section. Your System Admin can modify it if you want to make any changes to it. You advertise one link and your subscribers can manage their own subscriptions and check only those newsletters they want to receive. You can even include a Register Link in each of the newsletters making it very convenient for subscribers to Manage Subscriptions. Read more...about setting up your newsletters as a subscription service.

SMS Message Log - Available to SMS Users

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 20:06:00 GMT

Previously, only Admin users could view the SMS log - that list of all text messages sent via your TouchPoint database. Now, any user with the Send SMS role can view the report and drill down to the details. Go to Administration > Communication > SMS Messages. The Details section has your entire text message, all the people that you sent it to and information letting you know if they received it, and if not, the reason why. This is a great way to see if your texts are getting to those you need to reach. Based on the details of this log, you can followup with anyone that did not receive the text and ask for a good cell phone number to add to his record and ask permission to set his SMS Opt-In? flag to Yes. We hope you find this nice little report very helpful. Sorry we've kept it hidden from you SMS users for so long! Read more... If you are not already using our texting integration with Twilio you will want to start by reading this help article - Texting from TouchPoint Overview

Smile! You're...not on Candid Camera

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 11:30:00 GMT

Prepare for Vacation Bible School Now

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 11:30:00 GMT

Most churches have some type of Vacation Bible School during the Summer. Some have it at night, while other have it during the day. Some make it a family affair and offer supper prior to the classes, while other churches have VBS at various homes instead of at the church. Whatever type of VBS you will have, I'm sure you are already planning for it. This post is to remind you of a few tips for making this easier for both the families and the church staff. Remember, tracking enrollment and attendance in VBS for your guests and members helps you minister better to the whole family. Use that data for that 3rd bullet point! Use online registration to enlist your teachers and other volunteers. Worker Enlistment Use a Compute Org by Birthdate online registration for the children and send RegisterLink2 in an email. Registration Tips for VBS Follow-up with your guests' families after VBS has come and gone. Follow-Up Tips for VBS Praying you all have a safe, happy, wonderful VBS and touch the lives of many children and their families with the love of God. That's what it is all about (apologies to the Hokey-Pokey).

Failed Recurring Giving

Tue, 21 Mar 2017 10:30:00 GMT

If your church is using online giving, there will be times that a donor's recurring giving will fail. This will be due to one of several reasons, such as an expired credit card, an incorrect account number, insufficient funds, or some other reason. When that happens TouchPoint will notify via email both the donor and the finance office at your church. Notice to the Donor The email sent to the donor will contain the failed message (the reason it failed) that TouchPoint received from the payment processor with a suggestion that he contact the church. What does that mean for the donor? This means that whatever amount he had specified will not come out of his bank account or be charged to his credit card, nor will the amount be added to his giving record. The donor can go online to his people record (Giving > Statements tab), select Manage Recurring Giving and revise his recurring giving settings. Depending on the reason for the failure, he may need to contact his bank to resolve the issue. Notice to the Church The email to the Finance user at your church will also indicate the reason for the failure but also has a link to the failed transaction. What action should the church take? Even though the donor should have received an email notification, too, we recommend that you contact him as a courtesy and be prepared to assist him in making whatever changes are necessary to ensure that his online giving will successfully process. You may also want to go to your processor's website to find out more about the codes they use for failed transactions, so that you understand exactly what the problem is. Read more...about managing who at the church receives notices and how to create a custom email notice for your donors.

New Bundle Report Recipe

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 10:30:00 GMT

It seems we have been blogging about new features for finance users a lot lately. Sometimes that is just the way it goes. This post is about another feature for finance users - a Bundle Report. If you like to keep track of cash and check sub-totals by donor using a printed report, we have a recipe for you. This report will put a summary at the top of the report, then a list of donors below. The list will display the cash donations first followed by a sub-total and then the list of check donations also followed by a sub-total. After that is a grand total. Because this was designed to be printed, we also included a signature line where your counters can sign off on the bundle. This report is probably more suited for smaller churches with one or two bundles per day. It is a per bundle report. If you want a report of your total bundles for the day with a cash/check breakdown per bundle (without the details), you will use the Deposit Report. If this seems like something you would want, check out the recipe! It's as easy as copy and paste. Then, voila - you have your report link displaying on the bundle page ready for you to click on it and then print from your bitemser. Thank you to First Baptist Church, Springfield, LA for sponsoring this project. Read more...

Self-Support for Mission Trips

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 10:30:00 GMT

In recent weeks, we noticed several mission trip participants making payments toward their trips by using Support Links instead of their paylink or the make payment link on their people record. This can cause some confusion and cause payments to get recorded incorrectly. We decided to do something about that. We added 2 new prompts and now prevent someone from making these mistakes. 1) If a Goer (a participant in a mission trip) attempts to make a self-support payment using a Support Link that is configured with his people ID # on the end of it, he will receive a prompt saying "You cannot self-support from this page." 2) If a Goer tries to use a generic Support Link (such as one posted on your website) that allows someone to select a Goer from the list, he will not see his name in the list. He will also see a prompt reminding him to either use a paylink or the make payment link from his people record in order to make a self-support payment. We do pay attention to how people use the features in TouchPoint. This is a case in point. Once we realized that there could be confusion, we took steps to prevent that from happening. Read more...

Pictures - not worth 1,000 words when upside down!

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Contributions: 3 time-saving tips

Mon, 06 Mar 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Over a year ago (Jan. 2016) I blogged about 3 changes on the post bundle page that make posting contributions easier for you. We have added quite a few new clients since then and some of you may have missed it the first time. So, I am reposting about these 3 helpful additions. Split into Multiple Funds - When you have a dollar amount already entered for a donor and you need to divide it among several funds, just click Actions > Split and enter the amounts separated by a space. If you have 3 funds, enter only 2 amounts. The third fund will be the initial entry. Now just select the correct fund for each amount. Adding Missing Check Numbers - If for some reason your bank import misses a check number, you can easily add that to the contribution. The word Empty will display where the check number should be. Just click on that and enter the check number. Access a People Record - When you posting contributions, sometimes you need to view a people record to make address changes or verify something. Once you enter the PID# or the person's name and add that entry, you can click on the person's name which will open the people record in a new tab. This makes it so easy for you to update an a record without losing your place posting contributions. All 3 of these time-savers are demonstrated in this short (under 2 minutes) video. https://youtu.be/N4egyIIWOCQ Read more...

When Is Empty not Empty? When it Is the Empty Template!

Mon, 27 Feb 2017 12:30:00 GMT

We call it the Empty Template, but it has a very important use and should be in every TouchPoint database. It presents your senders a template option that does not have anything already added such as a logo or a footer. It is also a blank slate for you to copy when creating new templates. Every database starts out with several templates, one of which is named Empty Template, which, as previously stated, is sort of empty. It contains some code and the words "Click here to edit content" in the body of the email. These words disappear the moment the person follows that instruction and clicks in the body of the email. The are there just to show the user where to click. We have noticed that quite a few of our churches no longer have an Empty Template in their databases. That is because someone has deleted it, not realizing that it needs to remain in your database. So, we have created simple step-by-step instructions (along with the necessary code) for you to add this back into your database. Remember, only a user with Admin or Design role can create, edit, and delete templates. If you do not add this template back into your database, the system will automatically present what is named Blank Template as an option for your users when they are sending an email. While you may hope that they will select a nice template, they might just select that Blank Template. That pseudo-template does not have all the features of the Empty Template, so you really should go ahead and put this Empty Template back into your database to avoid any issues. Click here for simple instructions and the code. Click here to read more about creating email templates. Click here to read about using email templates.

Managed Giving Report

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Finance users - did you notice a few little additions we recently published to the Managed Giving Report? You can now see more information about a donor's Recurring Giving without drilling down to the details. Also, we have added more information on the details page. One purpose of this report is to help you troubleshoot when a donor calls and has questions about his recurring giving. The additional information we are now displaying is to give you more assistance with this. We now display the total amount of the donor's giving on the Managed Giving Report. This is the actual amount being deducted from his bank account. Also new is a column labeled Inactive. If you see an amount in this column that means that the donor still has recurring giving toward a fund that has been made inactive. So, the amount you see in that column is the amount no longer coming out of the donor's bank account. When you click the donor's name to drill down, you can now see the Fund ID (instead of just the fund name) of the funds to which the donor is giving. If an amount beside a fund is red, that means the fund is inactive and the total amount the donor originally set up to give is reduced by that amount (the amount designated for the now inactive fund). Best practice: If you intend to make a fund inactive, plan ahead and notify your donors - especially those who have recurring giving to that fund. You can find these people by using Search Builder's Has Managed Giving Condition. Then you can send an email giving the date the fund will be made inactive. The donor can then go to his Managed Giving page and remove the amount going toward that fund. Frequently, these are yearly pledge funds, so the donor will probably want move the amount to the new fund. Read more...

Change re Batch Dates & Reports

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 16:15:00 GMT

We recently made a slight change in how the Totals by Description and the Reconcile Reports work on the Transactions Log. Now, if you do not select Use Batch Dates and select one of these reports, that report will not use batch dates either. Of course, if you select Use Batch Dates those reports will also use the batch dates. In other words, these reports are using exactly what you select as a filer. Previously, even if you did not select Use Batch Dates, we were actually using batch dates behind the scenes for the Reconcile Report. That is because we assumed you would not want try to reconcile transactions that have not yet received a batch date from your merchant provider and have settled at your bank. We made the change because some of you do want those reports even without that element. Bottom line: If you want the Totals by Description and the Reconcile Reports to use batch dates, be sure you check that option before selecting one of those reports. Read more...about the Transactions Log and the available reports.

Reusing Emails

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 12:30:00 GMT

TouchPoint has a couple of methods you can use when you want to copy an email that you have already sent. You have a beautiful template, just the perfect message and now you want to send it to another group of recipients. Or, perhaps you want to start with that really nice email, make a few changes and send it to either the same group or a different group of recipients. We have simple methods to help you do that. You can either click once to create a new draft or click to view the HTML source code so you can copy and paste it. You can access both of these options on the Email Details page. Read more...

Better Communication via TouchPoint Email

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 12:30:00 GMT

As a followup to my article about spam, I want to give you a few tips for emailing newsletters, daily devotions, announcements - whatever it is that you are sending via email through TouchPoint. The goal is to make your emails compelling enough that recipients will want to read them. What you don't want to do is make people stop looking at your emails altogether - or to get mad and click Spam. They are more likely to do that if you are sending to the wrong group of people. For example: You don't want to email the entire church when you are advertising an event for women. So, here are just a few tips that you might find helpful: Tell the recipient what he needs to hear, not what you want to say. Do not send all emails to everyone in your database! Use Search Builder to find your target group for that specific email and save the search for the next time. Always insert the Unsubscribe link. Take advantage of the Tracking feature to see how many people are opening your emails. Consider creating users records in your database just for sending certain types of email - such as Moral Concerns, Children's Ministry or Recreation Ministry - and send on behalf of that user. Create a people record for each ministry. Use Templates to visually brand your emails. These are just a few simple tips for more effective email communication through TouchPoint.

TouchPoint Emails - Where are they?

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Export Contributors with Statements

Thu, 02 Feb 2017 12:30:00 GMT

We designed the contribution statements to fit in a #9 window envelope to make it easy for churches to fold and stuff them without having to match the envelope to the statement. However, some of you have asked specifically for the ability to generate labels. Also, we've had requests to be able to find out which donors did not have a statement generated for them. With one little check box, we've done both! On the page where you generate the statements each quarter / year there is a check box labeled Export Contributors Only. This will give you an Excel file that will match the list of donors that will receive a statement for that date range. This is documented in the help file for Contribution Statements with a couple of use cases outlined. Read more..

Tip: Email from a Ministry not an Individual

Tue, 31 Jan 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Here is a great tip for sending email newsletters or other informational emails for a specific ministry. Create a people record for each of your ministries and have your IT Dept. set up email addresses that match the ministry name. For example: Youth Ministry - YouthMinistry@YourChurch.com After those records are created, have your System Admin assign each of them a user account and then designate one or more staff members to email on behalf of that ministry. This method of emailing via TouchPoint has a number of benefits. Read more...

New SQL Recipe: Average Att. for Orgs

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 12:30:00 GMT

This may seem like more of the same, as we have recently published several other reports that present attendance for organizations. However, this one is just a bit different. For this report, you enter a date range, and the report will display one item per org (for your filtered group), with the total number of attends, the total number of meetings and the average attendance.It is designed to be an option on the blue Toolbar on the Organization > Search page. As with all of these SQL recipes, your system admin can copy and paste the script from our help article into your database, run the report and then select Add Report to Toolbar. Once that is done, you can select a group of orgs by using the filters on the Org > Search page. Then select Average Attendance for Orgs from the Toolbar (under the code icon), select a date range and get a nice concise report giving the average attendance over that date range. The org ID is a link to take you directly to the organization. I added this to our church database, and I think our ministers will love it! Read more...

SQL Recipes: Attendance Change Reports

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Last month our friends at Hunter St Baptist Church in Alabama sponsored 2 new SQL reports. We created them and added the recipes to our documentation. They are Attendance Change for Orgs and a companion report named Attendance Change Detail for Orgs. Both reports are run from the Organization > Search page after you filter for a set of organizations. You will be asked to specify a date range. The Change report looks back the same number of days preceding the date range you specified and will list everyone that was enrolled and give their attendance percentage for the date range your entered as well as the date range preceding that. Then it indicates the percent of increase or decrease, whether they have stopped coming altogether, if there was no change, or that they just started attending. The companion report, the Change Detail report will give you all the necessary details that were used to compute the Attendance Change report. You can see each individual, each meeting date for the org, and wether or not the person attended that meeting. If these reports sound interesting to you, have your System Admin add them to your database. Note: because these are resource intensive, we recommend that when you create them (copy and paste the recipes), you leave the line of code that restricts them so only an Admin can run them. You would not want multiple users running these at the same time on your database! Read more...about Attendance Change for Orgs Read more...about Attendance Change Detail for Orgs

Tip: Make Reusable Coupons Expire

Mon, 16 Jan 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Coupons in TouchPoint are a great way to allow a person to pay with cash or check and still register online. However, another use it to give certain people a partial discount or a coupon for the full amount. If the discount is going to be given to multiple people, perhaps as an incentive to register early, you will want to create a Reusable Coupon and email that Coupon Code to them. If you are using the Coupon as an incentive to register early, how do you make the Coupon expire? It's really very simple - at the time you want the Coupon to expire, go to the Coupon List, use the filters to find that specific Coupon, and then click the Cancel button. Yep, that's all you have to do. After that, if someone tries to use the Coupon, they will see the message "Coupon Cancelled". Read more...about Coupons.

2016 Year-End Giving Statements

Fri, 13 Jan 2017 20:01:00 GMT

You probably do not need reminding that it is time to send out the annual contribution statements. Giving is an act of worship and not something to be taken lightly. Not only are these statements something we must do by law, but it is also a good time for us to thank our donors. While they are not giving to us, but to the Lord, as employees and staff of the ministry we do benefit from their generosity. Suggestions: Consider adding a letter from the pastor along with your statements. In it, he can highlight ways their contributions have been used for ministry throughout the year and perhaps mention new programs or ministries that are planned the new year. Or, instead of a letter, you can print a card that can easily be inserted in the envelope with the statement. Some churches send out an email about the time the statements have been mailed letting donors know they should be receiving their statements soon. The email can also include instructions regarding what to do if they notice any thing missing from their statement. If you do not mail statements for those that are flagged Electronic Statements Only, then now is the time to email those people reminding them to log on and print their own statements. Remember, TouchPoint's statements are designed to fit in a number 9 window envelope, with either single or double windows. You just fold, stuff, and mail them! Read more...

Background Check Report-SQL Recipe

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Last summer we created a new SQL Recipe for a Background Check Report. This was sponsored by our friends at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. We think you might like to add this report to your database, too. We have a help article containing the recipe so that your system admin can copy and paste it into your database. Once he does that, saves it, and runs the report for the first time, he can select the option Add to Toolbar. Once the report is added to the Toolbar, any user with the proper permissions (Access and BackgroundCheck roles) can generate this report from an organization, a Tag or from Search Builder. It is a very nice report in that you can see all the information relating to the Protect My Ministry Background Checks right there in one report. It has one item per person with columns for all of the pertinent information. You can read more about Protect My Ministry and how it integrates with TouchPoint in this help article, where there is a Tip regarding this report. Or you can go straight to the SQL Recipe here. Here is a screenshot of a sample Background Check Report. Notice the column headers and the download as Excel button. Thanks again to CSPC!

Tip for User Selects Registration

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 12:30:00 GMT

This situation came up recently at our church. We had an online registration using a Master Org and the Registration Type User Selects. This presents a list of the 'pick list' orgs so registrants can select the one they want. Problem: Some people were registering for one org, returning and registering again for a different org. They all meet on the same day and time, so it is not possible to attend more than one. We want to keep them from registering for more than one. Solution: Use the Other Org ID to Join feature on the Registration > Registration tab of each of the orgs in the pick list. Enter the org ID # for the Master Org (the one in which you normally do not want people enrolled). When someone registers, he will be enrolled in both the pick list org he selected as well as the Master Org. Then, if he tries to register again and make another selection, he will see a message that he is already enrolled. Note: If someone wants to change his selection he can contact the church. You can move him to the other org. Or you can drop him from both the org he selected as well as the Master Org, and he can register again. Read more...

Menu Addition: People > All Records

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 12:30:00 GMT

Those of you with eagle eyes will have already spotted this little addition to the People Menu under the Search Builder Query sub-heading. You now have an option named All Records. When you select that, without any other clicks, you will be taken to a Search Builder query that will run automatically (even if you do not have Auto Refresh selected) and the results will be everyone in your database. Why do you need this? You probably don't. However, some of you on very rare occasions will want to email everyone in your database. By adding this link we have saved you a couple of extra clicks. The reason I said you probably would not need this feature is because we always encourage you to find your target audience instead of emailing everyone in the database. If you want some tips and suggestions regarding emailing, click HERE. Lay Leaders: Just because that link is named All Records does not mean that you can now miraculously view all records in your database. Au contraire! This link will observe the restrictions of your OrgLeadersOnly user role and display only people who you can already access. Check out the help article about the Home Page if you are not familiar with the menu options located there. Read more...

Email Warnings: Embedded Images, Grammarly

Fri, 16 Dec 2016 15:00:00 GMT

Some of you have noticed a new warning message when you try to send an email via TouchPoint. We have 2 new messages: 1) when you have an embedded image that will make the email too large; and 2) when you are using Grammarly. Each warning message has a link to more information about that specific problem. We are giving you the warning so you can edit your email so it will not have problems when sent. With Grammarly (which we have blogged about before), a lot of extra code is added to your email and causes all sorts of problems. You do not see this code unless you view the Source. With images, sometimes you do not realize how large that image will make your email...until your email takes forever to send. So, we are heading these problems off at the pass. You may see the warning even if you are not using Grammarly. That will happen if the person that created or edited your template was using Grammarly at the time they created it. In these cases, you will need that person to recreate the template with Grammarly turned off. An email must be less than 400,000 bytes. These new warning will help you make sure yours are smaller than that before you try to send them. Read more about emailing images. Code If you click the Source button in the email body, you will see data.image somewhere in your email if you have a pasted image that is too large.If you see btn_Grammarly that indicates that either you had Grammarly turned on while editing your email or the person that created the template used Grammarly when creating the template.

Solutions for Check-In and 2 Sets of Parents or Grandparents

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 12:00:00 GMT

We are quite often asked if a child can be in more than one family so that Check-In is easy for both parents. The answer to that is "No". However, we do have several ways to make Check-In easy for parents (both custodial and non-custodial), grand-parents, and other family members that bring children to church. Parent Extra Value This Ad Hoc Extra Value is placed on a child's record and the value is the People ID number of the non-custodial parent. So, if the child lives with Mom and is in her family in the TouchPoint database, use Dad's People ID# as the value of the Parent Extra Value. This will cause emails sent to the child's parents to go to the Dad as well as the Mom. Read more... If you want the Dad to be able to use his phone number when checking in his child (that is in the Mom's family), use the Parent Extra Value and the setting below. ShowChildInExtraValueParentFamily Setting Add this setting to your database, with the value set to "true". Then any parent whose child has their PID# as the Parent Extra Value on his record will be able to enter his phone number (not the Mom's) and that child will display with his family. Read more... PIN# TouchPoint also has a PIN# that can be added to the record of anyone in a family. This PIN# can be given to those who frequently being a child to church. That could be a grandparent, aunt or uncle, or even a neighbor. These people may not remember the child's phone number, but they could remember an easy PIN# that they can use to check-in any child in the family. Read more... If you are not currently using TouchPoint's PC or Mobile Check-In you should check it out. Read more...

SQL Recipe: Avg Monthly Att for Orgs

Mon, 05 Dec 2016 12:00:00 GMT

We keep adding to our recipe box! Our latest recipe is for a report that presents the Average Monthly Attendance for Organizations. After your System Admin adds this to your database (in Special Content > SQL Scripts), you will be able to filter for a group of organizations on the Organization > Search page, and then select this report from the blue Toolbar. All of our SQL reports are under the code icon. You select the date range and the report will list every org once for each month included in the range, along with a total. If the report spans multiple years, each year will have its own total. Each org will have the number of meetings included in each month, the total number of people attending, and the average attendance for that month. Sample: I added this report to our database. If you want this in your church's database, be sure to ask your System Admin to add it for you. Read more...

Search Builder Condition - First with Same Email

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 12:00:00 GMT

We created this Condition for our own use when sending out our monthly TouchPoint Newsletter, so that if any of you had multiple records in our database (with the same email address), you would receive the Newsletter only one time. The new Condition is named First Person Same Email and is located on the Miscellaneous category tab in Search Builder. When you add this Condition to any search and run the search again, the results will change so that only the first person it finds will be included in the new results. In other words, once it finds someone with an email address, anyone else with that same email address will no longer be included in the results. This is a very handy new addition to Search Builder especially because you can use Email Replacement Codes in the email and they will apply to whichever person actually receives the email. I'm sure you can think of many uses for this new Condition, but we've outlined a few examples in the help article. Read more...

Email Replacement for Birthdate

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 12:20:00 GMT

TouchPoint has quite a few email replacement codes that you can put inside emails sent via TouchPoint. We just added one more - {birthdate}. Here is a possible use case for this one: You would like to verify the personal information that's in the database for your Life Group Members (or any group of people for that matter). You can send an email using several of the replacement codes such as the following and including the new one {birthdate}: {name} - First and Last Name of recipient {first} - First Name of recipient or preferred name if there is one {last} - Last Name of recipient {address} - Line 1 of Street Address {address2} - Line 2 of Street Address {city} - Primary City {state} - Primary State {csz} - City, State Zip as a single replacement {homephone} - Home Phone {occupation} - Occupation {cellphone} - Displays the cellphone number on a persons’ record. Helpful if you are asking people to opt-in for texting. {receivesms} - Current setting for receiving text messages - either Yes or No. Better yet, why not encourage your members to create a My Data account so they can correct or add this information themselves? We have a sample email in this help article about My Data Accounts. If you are not familiar with Email Replacement Codes, you will want to check out the help article that lists the possible codes and the context in which you can use them. Those listed above are just a few of those that are available. Read more...

New Task Search/Manage Page and New ManageTasks Role

Tue, 22 Nov 2016 03:00:00 GMT

Similar to the existing Contact Search page, we now have a new Task Search page that has a lot of filtering and features that will greatly improve the job of managing Tasks. This was designed for ministers or other staff to have the new role ManageTasks, so they can easily filter by the Task Name, any of the people connected to the Task, date ranges, and more. However, this is the same page everyone will use when managing their own Tasks. The only difference is that most users will see only their own Tasks. You access this new page the same way you did the old Task List. Just click My Tasks or go to People > Manage People > Tasks in the header. Whether you are managing your own Tasks or if you have the new ManageTasks role and oversee the Tasks assigned to others, this will make your life easier. There is too much to say about this page to fit in a blog post, so you will want to read more about this. Remember, a big part of this new search/manage page is the new user role. Instead of using Search Builder to find incomplete Tasks, whoever you assign the role ManageTasks, can now perform that job right there on the search page. We want to thank our friends at Redeemer Presbyterian in NY, NY, for sponsoring this project. Read more...

ATT/Bellsouth Email Issue Resolved

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 17:47:00 GMT

We know that many of you have experienced a number of bounced emails over the past 2 weeks. The problem started around Nov. 1st and was finally resolved by ATT on Nov. 15., 2016. The problem was that for no reason that we could see, ATT was blocking emails to your recipients when sent via TouchPoint. We believe it was a mistake on ATT's part. In fact, our sender score is over 97% deliverability and our reputation as a mass emailer is pristine. We send over 16 million emails every year for our clients. Our developer contacted ATT several times following their outlined procedures to resolve this. But nothing happened. We asked those of you that contacted us to tell their members who use ATT/Bellsouth to contact ATT directly. After all, those members are the actual clients of ATT. We are just the email sender (sometimes considered that we are the "bad guys" by your Internet Service Providers). We know for a fact that at least 2 Bellevue members took the time to talk with ATT and it was after those contacts that the problem was finally resolved and we finally got notice from ATT that "it looks like the issue has been resolved." The moral of the story is this: big companies listen to their clients, those who are paying for their service. However, they do not always listen to those who are just using their services to email their clients. We hate that this happened and we did all we could to fix it. But at least now we know that when the people speak, ATT listens.

New DocX Merge in TouchPoint

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 12:30:00 GMT

Once again, a developer working for one of our TouchPoint churches helping them automate some of their tasks has collaborated with us on an excellent new feature that we have added to the open source project. It is a Word merge inside TouchPoint. This requires initial setup by your System Admin for your specific letters, but the merge letters themselves will be on the blue Toolbar as Custom Reports for use by your staff. In very simple terms, here is how it works. Create a letter using email replacement codes and save it as a Word document (docx). Upload the document to our TouchPoint servers. Create a special Custom Report that will be a URL link to this document. Run your search, select your merge report from the blue Toolbar, then print and mail your letters. This is perfect for sending letters to first-time givers, new members, letters requesting updated information...or many other scenarios. Your System Admin can follow the instructions in our help article to upload your documents for easy access when you are ready to create a mail merge. A user role is built in to the Custom Report, so only users that need to use these documents will see them as options. You determine what that role should be. Thank you to our friends at FCC Hudson and Keith for the idea behind this and for collaborating with us on this new feature. We are always thrilled when developers at a church solve a need for the ministry and offer their work product back to the TouchPoint community. That is open source at its best. Read more...

Multi-Page Contribution Statements

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 12:30:00 GMT

It's already November, so I'm sure there are some of you that are already thinking about those year-end contribution statements. If you are in that group, you will be very pleased to know about the latest change we made. Many of your donors will have contribution statements that are more than one page, especially at the end of the year. If you mail statements, you know that you must be careful to keep those printed pages together. To help you with that, we have added the People ID # to the footer on every page. It displays beside the page number/page count in the bottom left corner. This is a small thing, but it will be very helpful, especially if you ever get those pages separated! Read more - about Contribution Statements

Managed Giving Report-Delete Giving

Wed, 02 Nov 2016 16:57:00 GMT

We just made a change that allows a user with Finance role to delete someone's Managed Giving from the Managed Giving report. This is located under Administration > Manage > Managed Giving. Previously, this ability was locked down to just users with both Admin and Finance roles. Of course, any user can delete his own Managed Giving by going to his record, selecting Giving > Manage Your Recurring Giving. This will present his giving page where he can then press the red Stop Recurring Giving button. So, a Finance user will only need to delete someone's giving if he is unable to do so for himself. We think opening this ability up to Finance users makes sense. Read more...

Contacts: Limit to Role Setting

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 13:19:00 GMT

TouchPoint has a feature that allows you to limit the visibility of a Contact by selecting a user role from the Limit to Role drop down. When you select that role, only a person with that user role will be able to see that the person has had a Contact. So, you want to think very carefully about how you use that feature. Because most databases have a lot of user roles, we have created a new Setting named LimitToRolesForContacts that, when added to your database, lets you (the System Admin) enter just the names of the roles that you want to display in that drop down. Example: If the only Contacts that really need to be protected are the ones made by your Pastoral Care staff, then create a role name Private or Pastoral Care and enter only that role as the value in the new setting, making sure you assign that role to the appropriate staff. You can enter as many roles as you really need for that purpose, but you probably want to limit this to only a handful at the most. If you need a new role for this purpose, create the role first, and then add the Setting and enter that new role as the value. Be sure you assign that role to every user that will need to view these private Contacts. Thank you Redeemer Presbyterian for sponsoring this project! Read more...about Contacts Read more...about Administration Settings

Cracking the Code of Reusable Coupons

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 11:30:00 GMT

When we realize that more than one user makes the same error when doing something, we try to make that process more bullet proof if possible. Case in point: Codes for Reusable Coupons In TouchPoint you can create a Coupon for someone to use one time. It cannot be used again and, if it is not used, it will expire. You can also create a Coupon that can be used multiple times by anyone and will never expire. The difference between a one-use Coupon code and a reusable Coupon code is twofold: Number of characters: A one-use Coupon code will have exactly 12 characters and a reusable Coupon code cannot have exactly 12 characters. Creating the code: The system generates the normal one-use code, whereas the user creates the multi-use code. And there's the rub! Users sometimes use the wrong number of characters for the code which will cause a Coupon to be a one-use Coupon when they intended it to be a multi-use Coupon. How did we bullet proof that process? Now you can enter no more than 11 characters for a reusable Coupon code. You can keep typing, but only 11 characters will ever display as the code! So, we are now preventing you from inadvertently creating a code with 12 characters, which would make it a one-use Coupon. Not sure what this is all about? Never used Coupons before? Check it out! We have 2 user roles related to Coupons. Coupon role lets you create normal Coupons; Coupon2 role lets you create reusable Coupons. Read more...

New Main Menu - Small Changes

Tue, 25 Oct 2016 16:00:00 GMT

You probably noticed that we have made a few changes to the Main Menu. We did this for several reasons: 1) we needed a place to put a link to the new Church Picture Directory; 2) we wanted to add another way you can access Search builder; and 3) we just wanted to arrange everything better and make the menus look better. Other than the addition of the items on the People Menu, the other changes are mainly cosmetic. But those little cosmetic changes were designed to make the options easier to find at a glance. So, a few colors have changed, some unnecessary lines have been removed, and some sub-headers have been added and/or changed. We do pay attention to the little things and those little things are typically what make a good product a great product. Check out the new Main Menu by clicking on the headers - People, Organizations, Reports, and Administration. We hope you like the changes!

Online Picture Directory - Yes!!

Tue, 25 Oct 2016 11:30:00 GMT

This is it - the new feature we've been hinting about. It is the new Online Picture Directory. Thank you to Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville TN for sponsoring this project. As with all of our new features, regardless of whether they are sponsored or not, all TouchPoint churches reap the benefits, because the code becomes part of the Open Source Project. We created this directory to be flexible, knowing that each church will have different requirements for who is included in the directory and how much information is displayed. You can create a Member Directory using a Status Flag and even have the option to add a Custom Link on your branded TouchPoint app. The directory will also appear as an option on the People menu header on your database. You can create multiple online directories for a number of different organizations or for just one organization in which you enroll those you want included in the directory. Use Case: Getting to Know You One church is using the directory to help their congregation learn each others names. So, they use a Status Flag that includes active members, and the directory template is set up to include only the person's picture and name. Whichever method you choose, rest assured that only those who are included in the directory will be able to access it. And only those who can already access the person's record will be able to use the links to actually view that record. There is way too much to say about this than will fit into a blog post. So, be sure to read about it and let the appropriate staff at your church know about this great new feature, so your church can make use of this online directory. Read more...

Relaxed Settings-Admin Only Option

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 14:51:00 GMT

You can now add a new setting to your database if you would like to lock down the Online Registration options referred to as Relaxed Requirements. These are located on the Registration > Registration tab for an organization and without this setting can be edited by any user with Edit role. The new setting is named RelaxedReqAdminOnly. When you add it to your database under Administration > Setup > Settings and set the the value to true, only a user with Admin role will be able to view and edit these options. With this setting, an Admin user can select any of the relaxed options to use for an online registration, but no other user will be able to access these. The addition of this setting will reduce the number of users that can make decisions regarding the information you require when a new record is added during an online registration. Read more...about TouchPoint Admin Settings Read more...about Online Registration Settings

Compact Family Report - SQL Recipe

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 11:30:00 GMT

In Oct. 2016, we added a new SQL recipe to give you a Compact Family Report that can also be downloaded as Excel and that uses the basic format of the Family Directory. By that, I mean that the family members are grouped together with the adults listed first followed by their children. If any member of the family is included in your organization or search results, the entire family will be included in the report. This is a compact report, so it lists only the name, age, email address, and cell phone numbers of each family member. If you are interested in this report, your System Admin can copy the SQL from our recipe and paste it into your database. Click here for the recipe.

New Role to View Member Docs

Thu, 13 Oct 2016 07:00:00 GMT

If your church is like ours, you have your prospective members complete a form giving information about the type of decision they are making, the name of their previous church (if they have one), and other necessary information. And you upload those forms to the person's people record in TouchPoint. These documents have until now been uploaded and viewed by only those with the Membership user role. We now have a new role - MemberDocs - that will allow ministers (or other staff) to view the membership documents. This role does not allow the user to upload (or delete) the documents or edit anything regarding membership. Those functions still belong exclusively to the user with Membership role. Thank you to Eric and good folks at Hickory Grove Baptist Church for presenting a good idea and sponsoring the project.

Easier Way to Create a Sub-Group

Mon, 03 Oct 2016 11:30:00 GMT

This new feature is a precursor to an even bigger feature that we will tell you about in the next week or so. Not to take anything away for this little gem; it is super handy! If you have Edit role, click on the Member Dialog for one of the members in one of your organizations and then click the Groups tab. You will notice a new text box and a green Add New button. This is where you can create a new sub-group and place that person in that group all in one fell swoop. Pretty nifty, huh! You can also do that same thing using the Update Members option on the Member tab of the organization if you have the Manage Groups user role. Filter for those you want to add to this new sub-group, click Update Members and select the Groups button. You will see the same option to create a new sub-group and a reminder that everyone in your filter will be added to that group. Read more...about Member Dialogs and Sub-Groups Read More...about Update Members and Sub-Groups Sometimes we create something because people are clamoring for it, or it's been on our list and we have finally been able to get to it, or a church wants to sponsor the new feature and we know it will be useful. However, other time we create or revise a feature because we know it will be useful for another feature that we are working on. That is the case here. So, keep watching the blog for an unveiling of this other new feature!

New Email Replacement Codes for Pledges

Mon, 26 Sep 2016 11:30:00 GMT

We just published two new email replacement codes. One is for the amount of a pledge to a specific fund. The other is for the balance still due on that pledge. You do not have to wait until you send out contribution statements for you to update a donor regarding his pledge. If you are nearing the end of the life of a special fund or campaign, using these replacement codes will let you email everyone with a pledge for that fund, reminding them that the end of the campaign is drawing near. Or you could email all of your members or donors, not just those that have made a pledge, and remind everyone about the campaign and when it will end. Those without a pledge for that fund will just see zeroes in both places - the amount and the balance. If someone has given more than their pledge, they will see the difference as an overage (in parentheses). Check out all of our email replacement codes and see how you can make good use of them! For these new codes, look under the header All Emails and the paragraph titled Pledge Replacements. Thank you, Redeemer Presbyterian Church for sponsoring this project. Read more...

Compose Email on Mobile Devices

Wed, 21 Sep 2016 12:00:00 GMT

Several of you have been in the habit of using your phone for sending TouchPoint emails and were disappointed to see that the email, once it was sent, did not look the same as what you were seeing on your phone when composing it. Well, no more! Until recently, the text editor (CKEditor) we use in TouchPoint for composing emails and other formatted text items did not work on a mobile device the way it does on a normal computer. The reason was the CKEditor was incompatible on Mobile bitemsers. That has changed. As of Sept. 2016, you can compose your emails on your iPhone or Android phone and still have the same formatting options as on your computer! That means that when you put a line break, it stays there and your paragraphs do not get smashed up together. We are happy about this change and we hope you are too!

Email Recovery

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 13:00:00 GMT

Over the past few months, we have heard from some users that, on occasion, they have lost their work while composing an email. These users were writing newsletters that take a long time to compose. The problem happened when they went to Save Draft--they got an error message with no way to go back to their work. While we have been unable to replicate this, we suspect this happens when their Internet connection is interrupted. Rather than trying to replicate the problem and prevent it, we have instead provided a way to recover your content locally. This new feature is now available. Every time you click Save and close the CKEditor (this is the editor you use when writing your email), it saves the HTML for the email into a local storage area available in your bitemser. This local storage is reused so it only works for one email at a time. When you have a fatal error (like your network being unplugged while you are editing), you will now be able to recover your work. You just start to compose an email over again. And you can pick the empty template this time because you are going to be using the previously saved template and content. When the compose page appears this time, don't click in the area to load the editor, but immediately scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Recover button. This will bring back the content you lost complete with the template you were using. You will be ready to Save Draft, Send or Send Test to Self. We hope you find this helpful.

New 'Registered Only' for iPad Attendance

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 18:52:00 GMT

TouchPoint's iPad Attendance feature is a perfect way to use an iPad (or multiple iPads) to take attendance for an event when you do not want to use self-check-in or roll sheets. And now that feature has gotten even better with the addition of the new iPad Attendance Registered Only option. When you select this option from the Toolbar cloud icon under Special Pages, only those who are registered to attend will display. This makes your list a lot shorter, which is nice if you use this for a large organization. This is perfect for use with the Volunteer Calendar as well. Only those who are flagged as Attending, Substitute, or Find Substitute (those who tried to find a sub, but haven't) will display in the list. In other words, you will see just those that would print on your roll sheet for that meeting - those who should be there. Thank you, Redeemer Presbyterian Church for sponsoring this project. PS There is a bonus as well - when you have more than one tab opened on the bitemser of your iPad and are using iPad Attendance, the name of the org will be displayed as the name of the tab. This means you can take attendance for more than one org using the same iPad and always know which org you are viewing. Read more...

Check-In Issue on iPads/Androids

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 22:25:00 GMT

UPDATE: The latest version of the Check-In app which corrects the issues mentioned below is now in the App Store as of 8/26/16. If you have tried using the new Check-In app and you had problems, it was probably related to a bug we found that relates to Campuses or another one relating to printing labels for a person without a date of birth on their record. Some churches have experienced a problem while others have not. Even churches without any campuses may have had issues that were caused by one of these bugs. Even though not every church was affected - some churches used the app and everything was just fine - we wanted to express a public mea culpa and not just email those that reported a problem. We have published a fix, and the update for the Android is already in Google Play. It is v 1.0.4. The update will appear in the App Store in the next couple of days. The new iPad version will be v. 2.0.2. Please accept our apology for the inconvenience. Also, we recommend that you turn on automatic updates for the app so that you don't miss anything!

Where Did the Magic Button Go?

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 16:17:00 GMT

If you are using the new iPad or Android app for Check-In, you will notice that there is no 'magic button'! Why? Well, on these platforms we have other ways of doing things that are more appropriate for the device you are using. We are using press & hold to take you into what we call Administration Mode. This gives you the same options as the magic button does on the PC version of Check-In. Each process for mobile Check-In is described in this help article. If you have not already looked at the TouchPoint Check-In app, you should check it out! It is free from the App Store and Google Play. Read more...

Search Builder - View Code

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 12:00:00 GMT

If you use Search Builder (and I sure hope you do!) you probably noticed the new View Code link under your search. If you are brave, you probably even clicked that link. And if you clicked the link, you would see that we are giving you a way to view your entire search all at one time, that is, without having to click on each Condition to view the elements. We have a couple of reasons for adding this link: To give you, the user, an easy way to look at everything in your search in order to review it. Even though this is code, it is still a user-friendly way for you to examine the Conditions that make up each search To give an Admin user the ability to copy and paste the code directly into a Python script, instead of referencing a saved search I especially like this feature when I have used a One Of option in a Condition. I see all of the selections right there. And if I have a couple of Conditions that use that option, I can look at all of them in that one text box. I just think it is a very nice feature and a great way to really look closely at a search to ensure you are using the correct Conditions. We will add more about the Python use of this code at a later date. Read more...

Avg Monthly Attendance for Org Report

Mon, 22 Aug 2016 12:00:00 GMT

This is a new SQL recipe that your Admin can add to your database. The report will run for the current organization and will be for the life of the organization. The total attendance for the month, the number of meetings, and the average attendance will display in columns, sorting with the most recent at the top. You can run this for an org that tracks individual attendance (Life Group) or for an org that tracks only a headcount (Worship). This is a sample: Remember, we have the SQL script in the help article. You just copy and paste it into your database. After you run the script, you can select Add Report to Menu (this is the main Reports menu in the header). You also have the option to open the report in Excel. Read more...

New iPad Check-In App Available

Tue, 16 Aug 2016 11:00:00 GMT

It's out there, now! Download it from the App Store - TouchPoint Check-In for iPad. We published the Android version a few months ago, and you can find it at Google Play. This is a completely new check-in app which replaces BVCheckin as of August, 2016. It works almost identically to the Android version. The basic differences are just the differences between Android and Apple products. If you currently use BVCheckin, replace it with this new app. It is named TouchPoint Check-In. And, of course, the Android and Apple apps are totally free! If you missed the blog post about the Android version, click here. These mobile check-in apps put attendance-taking literally in the palm of your hand. You can mount the tablet on the wall, use a free-standing tablet holder, a desktop holder, or even one that straps to your hand. Check-In has never been easier! And yes, you can print labels even when you use a tablet for check-in. You will want to read more about how check-in works on a tablet and how to print labels when using the app. Thank you, Steven, for making this happen! Read more...and don't forget to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Batch Updates - Grade and More

Mon, 15 Aug 2016 12:00:00 GMT

TouchPoint has tools for making updates to multiple records at one time, using a Tag or a Search Builder results. We continually add new options, so I wanted to mention this in a blog post again. Only your System Admin can run these batch processes and he must do this with fear and trembling! Maybe that is a bit extreme, but he must use extreme caution as there is no undo button and these batch updates immediately update fields (or perform other actions) on all the records in your Tag or Query. Example: Updating the Grade field Now that Promotion has ended for most churches you might be interested in updating Grades. Remember, for Main Fellowship classes with a Grade on the organization, anyone enrolled in that org will automatically get that Grade put on their people record at the time they are enrolled or promoted. In these cases, you do not need to update the grades. However, some churches have Main Fellowship classes that span multiple grades, or perhaps you may NOT have entered a Grade on the organizations prior to Promotion. In these cases you could use the batch process to add the Grade after the children have been promoted. A few newer options for the batch process for Grade are Remove Grade, Custom Grade, Add 1 Grade Level. There are quite a few options for Grade, so you would want to read more about this. The Grade field is only one of many fields that can be updated. Check out the entire list in the help article. The article also contains explanations for the various Grade options. Read more...

Registration History & Summary

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 12:00:00 GMT

These two reports for Admins are very helpful not only to see how many registrations you have for an event (on the Summary) but also to help you troubleshoot when someone has a question about his registration or a problem registering. The Registration History is a list of every registration whether it was ever completed or not. That page, which is actually a registration search page, has various filtering options as well, which will help you find a specific person's registration. You can even filter to find only registrations that originated from the TouchPoint mobile app! Whereas the Registration History is a list of every individual registration, the Registration Summary is just that - a summary of registrations by Description. The Description is actually the name of the organization used for the registration. Both of these reports were created to be tools to help you evaluate and troubleshoot your online registrations. That is why only an Admin user can view these. Each one has links to more information. The Registration History should be your first stop when trying to answer questions for someone about an online registration. You can view what the registration page looks like for a registrant as well as drilling down to specifics for an individual who has tried to register, whether they succeeded or not. Read more...about the Registration History Read more...about the Registration Summary

Recurring Gifts Report

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 12:00:00 GMT

This is for Finance and Admin users. It is a new SQL script you can add to your database so that, instead of drilling down to a specific donor to see the details of his giving when troubleshooting, you can see both the list of donors as well as the details of their giving all on one report. Once again, we've come through with a simple-to-follow recipe for an SQL report that you add to your database. If you want, you can click the button to add it to your Reports menu. Also, you can download it as Excel. This report is a great way for you to evaluate your online giving. Once you export it, you can use the tools in Excel to filter and sort any way you want. You will be able to see how many donors give Monthly vs. how many give Weekly, and so much more. Read more...

Correction re Batch Update for Addresses

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 19:41:00 GMT

In my blog post earlier this week regarding the batch update for address in TouchPoint, I had forgotten that, for some very good reasons, we have that locked down so only our TouchPoint Support Team can run that process. Oops! I'm sorry for any confusion that caused. Sometimes, I just don't know everything I know - if you know what I mean :-) I have amended that post to indicate that if you want that process run, just send a support request along with the shared Tag or the saved search for which you want it run. Here's the updated post, and here is the help article about this process. Again, please accept my apologies for the mistake and confusion.

Batch Address Verification & Zip + 4 Condition - Revision

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 16:45:00 GMT

UPDATE: The batch update process is restricted for now. So, when you want that to be run, just send a support request and we will do it for you. Just give us access to your Tag or send us the name of your saved search. TouchPoint has some great tools to help you keep your database well-oiled and squeaky clean...so to speak. Those I want to mention today related to address verification: the Search Builder Condition "Has Zip +4" and the batch process "Validate Addresses for a Tag/Query". By using both of these, you can clean up any addresses that have not been validated for some reason.They might be old records, or they might be brand new records that were added during an online registration. When you add a new record to the database you will validate the address at that time, and the +4 will get added. Also, when you verify new record to remove the Just Added status you should be validating the address. But sometimes that does not always happen. Also, if you have TouchPoint import any records using spreadsheets these records will not be validated. You can run a search and find addresses that have not been validated by using the aforementioned Condition "Has Zip +4" equals False. These addresses do not have a zip +4, which is the best indicator that the address has not been validated. Tag everyone in your search results and then get our TouchPoint support team to run the batch process "Validate Addresses for a Tag/Query". This will validate all these addresses if they are in the USPS database and contain enough information to be validated. These are just a couple of tools to help you keep you data is good shape. If you cannot contact someone you cannot minister to him! Read more...

Credit Cards and Expiration Dates

Thu, 04 Aug 2016 12:00:00 GMT

This is a reminder that you can run searches to find those who are using their credit cards for managed/recurring giving. You can add to that search another condition to find those whose credit card is going to expire soon. This is not new, but it's one of those things that bears repeating - both as a reminder for long-time clients as well as a 'did you know' item for newer clients. By saving a search like this and running it each month, you can help your donors by alerting them to the fact that the credit card they are using for recurring giving is going to expire soon. Give them brief instructions on how to go to their own record Giving > Statements tab and click Manage Recurring Giving. Then they will re-enter all of their credit card information again making sure to change the expiration date. You can run the search for expiration dates for anyone in your database that has saved their credit card information, whether or not it is for managed giving. Then you could send a nice email reminding them to update their credit card before they need to register online for anything. Read more...

Recreation Teams Made Easy

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 11:00:00 GMT

TouchPoint has a feature that churches with large recreation ministries will love! It allows you to upload a spreadsheet with a score for each person, which is based on their experience and ability. Then TouchPoint can divide the members of the org into well-balanced teams with a mixture of experienced and non-experienced players. At our church, we use an online registration with one org per age and gender to enroll the players. Then the staff performs an evaluation to determine everyone's skill level. These scores go into a spreadsheet which they then upload. Then with a push of a button all the members are divided among the existing sub-groups that you have created for your teams. This uses an added feature in Sub-Group Management when Is Recreation Team is set to true on the organization's settings. Read more...

Emails-Public and Private

Mon, 25 Jul 2016 12:06:00 GMT

No, I'm not talking about anything political! I just wanted to mention that with TouchPoint you can make those beautiful emails of yours - those newsletters or ads for an upcoming event - public so that you can post the links on Facebook or Twitter, on your website or in a blog post. When you do, it looks like a web page, not like an email. This is not new, but it is something that some of you may not know about. In today's society, chances are that when you post something on Twitter or Facebook, your target audience will see it before they read your email. That is why TouchPoint has a simple method to allow you to turn that private email into, basically, a public web page. If for some reason you make an email public and decide later it should remain private, No problem. You can easily change it back to a private email. Read more... PS Just a reminder - emails are never really private, which is why we discourage you from sending confidential information in them.

New SQL Report-Org Attend Counts

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:00:00 GMT

Once again, we have a new SQL recipe to share with you. This recipe is for a report we call OrgAttendCount. We have our good friends at Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church in Allen, Texas to thank for sponsoring this report. The purpose of the report is to evaluate attendance for children, for a specified date range but it can be generated for any age group. It has a column for each schedule with the person's attendances at each hour listed as well as the total. The mother and father's names are listed as well. The script itself contains the specific hours for which you want to see columns and attendance. The sample has Sundays 9:30 and 11:00. I added Sunday 8:00 to our script. Use Case: You could generate this for a division of children's orgs for one quarter of the year. And then open another tab and generate the report for the same groups of orgs, but for the following quarter. By viewing those tabs side-by-side, you can easily evaluate a child's attendance - is it better or worse, are they switching to a different hour. After generating the report, you have several links available. Click the link for the person's total attendances and view his Attendance History. Click on a name and view that person's people record. Click the org name and view the organization. Like most reports, you also have the option to export it to Excel. I added this report to our church database, so our staff and leaders can generate it from the blue Toolbar after filtering for a Program and Division (Schedule is optional). Check with your System Admin if you want this in your database. It's really quite easy if you follow the recipe! Read more...

Solution: Checkboxes with Date/Time

Tue, 19 Jul 2016 13:40:00 GMT

Allergy vs Medical: Allergy Won!!

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 20:44:00 GMT

Custom Reports: Spouse Info

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 11:30:00 GMT

A little more than a week ago, we blogged about a new addition to the list of available items you can use in Custom Reports; and now, here we are again, telling you about yet another addition! This time, we added spouse information. You can now include the following fields in a custom report: Spouse ID (this was already available) Spouse First Name Spouse Last Name Spouse Cell Spouse Email Use Case: Gender-Specifc Organizations Your Women's Ministry Bible Study has a Custom Report so that you can see information about the women's church membership (or any of the other items you can include in a Custom Report), and, if she is married, you would also like to see her spouse's name, and contact information. That is just one use case. I'm sure you will find many other uses for these available fields in your Custom Reports. Read more... PS If you do not need a Custom Report, we have a Family Export that is available on the blue Toolbar. It contains information about a spouse and children.

Background Check Report

Fri, 15 Jul 2016 13:02:00 GMT

By now, you should be familiar with the terms SQL and Python. I hope so because I'm here today to tell you about a new SQL report you will probably want to add to your database. This new report is for churches that use the Protect My Ministry integration with TouchPoint for their background checks. Like all of our SQL reports, we have the recipe in our documentation for Programming Using Python and SQL. For these recipes, all you do is copy and paste it into a new SQL Script File that you create in Special Content. By you, I mean your System Admin. Anytime something is in Special Content or in Settings, the user with the Admin role is the one to handle it. Thank you to Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN, for sponsoring this report. Like all new features in TouchPoint, regardless the sponsor, it is added to the Open Source project and we all benefit. Our TouchPoint churches truly are a community! Use Case for the Report: I created a saved search to find everyone for whom we ran a background check in the past month. Then I wanted to see a report giving me the details for each person. The report gives me a perfect way to check what is in TouchPoint against my PMM billing, especially if I need to assign these to different GL accounts. It also provides a way to verify that all submissions have been completed. Like most of our reports, the PID# is a link to the person's people record, and you have the option to download to Excel. If you want this report to be available on the Toolbar under the icon, add the script to your database, run the report, and then select Add to Toolbar. The SQL recipe contains code to restrict the report to those with Application Review role. Read more... and get the recipe. Read more... about Protect My Ministry and its integration with TouchPoint. Read more...about the Search Builder Condition mentioned above.

Custom Reports Can Now Include `Request`

Thu, 07 Jul 2016 11:30:00 GMT

The list of items you can include in a Custom Report is quite long. So, we don't even try to list everything in the documentation. The best way to find out if what you need can be added to a Custom Report is to look at the list by clicking this icon in the blue Toolbar and selecting New Custom Report. Then you will see everything that is available to you. That said, we do want to let you know when we add items like we just did. We added Request which comes from an online registration. It is the question option of the same name. It allows a registrant to enter a name of a preferred coach, a roommate, or whatever you choose to use it for. So, now you can include that in a Custom Report. You should check out all the other things you can include. Read more..

Create Sub-Groups Using Batch Process

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 19:08:00 GMT

Here was the issue: We want to track the Bible Memory Club progress for our children enrolled in Life Groups from 4 yr olds to 3rd grade. We determined that we could do that using sub-groups. But that left us needing to create 12 or more sub-groups in more than 30 organizations. Not difficult, just time-consuming. Not anymore! You can now use the Excel spreadsheet that you export from TouchPoint to enter the names of the sub-groups (separated by commas) into a new column that you add to the spreadsheet. Then just import it using the Batch Update Organization Settings. Voila! Each org listed will now have all of those new sub-groups added. Pretty easy, huh? I thought so. This is a great new feature when you need multiple organizations to have the same sub-groups - whatever the reason or type of sub-group. Read more..

Advanced Search for Organizations

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 22:41:00 GMT

TouchPoint has a lot of ways to filter for organizations on the Organization > Search/Manage page. You can mix and match various drop-downs: Organization Type, Program, Division, Status, Campus, Schedule, and Online Registration. You can also search using the Name field using a partial match for the organization name or the leader's name, or an exact match for location or org ID#. But we have much more! TouchPoint also has an advanced search using the name field. You can enter a prefix for Extra Values, Parent/Child Orgs, and Online Registration setting elements followed by specific EVs, Org ID#s, or registration element names. This is really nice if, for example, you want to find out which of your orgs that are set up for online registration are allowing for deposits, or that allow the registrants to save their progress. We have a very long list of items such as these. You really need to check out the help article and even bookmark it for later reference if these types of advanced searches appeal to you. This is really a very nice feature. Read more...

Help us find a Developer

Mon, 27 Jun 2016 22:07:00 GMT

TouchPoint is currently looking to add a qualified Full Stack Developer to our team. We would love to find someone who is connected to one of our TouchPoint churches and perhaps is already familiar with us and our software. If you are a developer and are interested, please take a look at the job description. Click HERE. Or, if you know a developer that would be interested in working with us please send the link to the description to him or her. This job allows for telecommuting, so the person would not need to relocate. We appreciate any help you can provide! After reviewing the job description, if you are interested in applying for the position here are your next steps: Email your resume to info@TouchPointSoftware.com Include your contact information - full name, phone number, street address Twitter handle Links to any open source code you have produced

Email Replacement Code - ChurchPhone

Mon, 27 Jun 2016 15:51:00 GMT

We have a new email replacement code that is named ChurchPhone. As with all of these types of codes, you use it in an email from TouchPoint by putting it in curly braces, like this: {ChurchPhone}. You can use this code in any type of email. It is really useful when you want to direct the recipient to call the church if they need assistance. In order for this to display a phone number, you must have the Setting ChurchPhone in your database with the value being the main number for your church entered in this format: 901-555-5555 The Admin user for your church can add and/or edit the Settings in your database. We also have an email replacement code named contactphone. This one uses the phone number in the settings of an individual organization. Read more about Email Replacement Codes. Read more about the Settings available in TouchPoint.

Big Improvements to Manage Org Members Page

Tue, 31 May 2016 11:32:00 GMT

Just in time for Promotion or for managing Vacation Bible School, we have just rolled out a new version of the Manage Organization Members page. This page is what most churches use for their yearly promotion and also the page used to move registrants into smaller classes from an online registration for VBS or any other large event. I'll summarize the main changes: Target Division - so you can now select a Target Org that is in a different Division from the Source Division. A drop down menu for Grades, allowing you to select one or more Grades to filter for members. Age filter that allows you to enter a single age, an age range, or even symbols for greater than/less than and equal to specify just the ages you want included. Sub-Group drop down menu based on any sub-groups in the organizations. Change Member Type when moving. This is useful if you have potential volunteers register online and then you move them to a specific volunteer org. You can set their Member Type to VIP or Volunteer at the same time. You will want to read more about how to use Manage Org Members and Manage Org Members for Promotion. Also, take a look at this video demonstrating Promotion using this management page. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewHOEkzgF5Y?rel=0&w=560&h=315] Read more about Promotion Using Manage Org Members. Read more about Manage Organization Members. Once again, we have our friends Heath and Nathan from one of our TouchPoint churches to thank for this contribution to the open source project. You guys are awesome! Thank you so much!

New SQL Report for Parent Child Orgs

Fri, 13 May 2016 20:45:00 GMT

Our 'recipe book' for SQL and Python reports just keeps giteming. We just added a new recipe for a SQL report that lists all the organizations in your database that have a Parent Child relationship. You also have the option to download the report to Excel after running it. I added this new report to our church database and also added it to the Reports Menu, so it is available from the Reports header. The report must be created by an Admin user, but it can be put on the Menu (in Special Content > Text > Custom Reports Menu) so other users at your church can run it. Remembering all of these of orgs can be difficult, but with this new report, you don't have to rely on your memory. The report lists all Parent orgs with their Child orgs next to them - one item per org. Like all of our reports, the org ID # is a link to take you to the org itself. That is just one reason I love this type of report so much more that reports that you have to print! Read more...about the recipe for this report. If you are not familiar with Parent Child Orgs, you may want to read about those first. They are quite useful. Read more...about Parent Child Orgs.

Exciting New App: Mobile Check-In for Android

Wed, 11 May 2016 22:44:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce our newest app: TouchPoint Check-In for Android tablets. This new app is the first release in our project to rewrite Mobile Check-In. We will later release a version for iPads, which will replace the older BVCheckin app. Why is this so exciting? It is exciting because this is our first Check-In app designed specifically for Android devices. This will allow you to make Check-In happen anywhere you want it. These can be hand-held, locked in a stand, mounted on a counter - the choices are yours to make. These devices can be purchased relatively inexpensively, but will do the same work as the standard TouchPoint Check-In. What about printing labels? You can print labels using this app just like you can currently from the BVCheckin app on an iPad. We have step-by-step instructions to guide you in setting this up at your church. Download it now at Google Play. Look for TouchPoint Check-In. TouchPoint Check-In is also in the Amazon Appstore and this app will work great with their Amazon Fire tablets. These can be purchased very inexpensively. We actually have a little 7" Fire tablet and it works great! Read more... [gallery ids="3851,3848" columns="2"]

Check-In: User Roles

Thu, 05 May 2016 19:44:00 GMT

Ministry: Prospects, Guests, and Members

Wed, 04 May 2016 13:30:00 GMT

A while back (probably more than a year ago), we added a tab on the organization page named Prospects. We already had tabs for Members and Guests (as well as a few other tabs which are not part of this conversation). There was so much to talk about around that time (new filtering and sorting options, new UX, and more ), I'm not sure we ever fully explained the purpose of the Prospect tab and how it was intended to be used for ministry. We want to correct that now. We have defined each of these types of people associated with organizations as they relate to their use in TouchPoint. Also, we have explained more about the why and how of using Prospects, and how Guests and Prospects are different (and how they sometimes are alike). If you are not using Prospects or if you do not really understand the Guest tab or if you just want to see what you might be missing, please click the link below and read the article. Read more... You might also want to take a look at this other article that explains everything you see on an organization page. How many of you know you can view people on multiple tabs of an organization all in one list? You can! You can also use checkboxes or sub-groups to filter the list of people on the organization. Read more...

One Page Giving Option

Tue, 03 May 2016 17:06:00 GMT

We now have another option for online giving. It is One Page Giving. It works like the normal Special Giving, in that you have an organization with one Fund ID associated with it. However, now there are 2 links presented when you click Try Registration. One is the normal link and the other one takes you to the One Time Giving page. If you select the later, a donor still has the option to Log In and give. However, anyone that needs to find their record or create one will have everything presented right there on the same page. This is a great feature to use especially if you expect donations from those not in your database. It is a very simple form that removes any barriers they might feel with normal online giving. There are some factors to consider. In order to make this so streamlined and attractive to donors who do not already have a user account, any new records will be created without a Gender, DOB, or Marital Status. Those are not asked for on the one page giving form. Take a look at a short demonstration. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbsp3dszR_A?rel=0&w=420&h=315] Thank you, Redeemer, for sponsoring this project! Read more..

Sub-Group Attendance for TouchPoint Mobile App

Mon, 02 May 2016 11:00:00 GMT

We have a new feature for those of you using the TouchPoint Mobile app for taking attendance. You can now flag leaders for sub-groups and when they take attendance on their mobile phone each leader will see only his own group, along with any guests to the class. This is a great way for you to divide and conquer when it comes to taking attendance and is especially useful for large classes or for churches taking individual attendance in their worship services. Another benefit is that your group leaders will be much more intentional about keeping up with their group members if they are responsible for marking their attendance. Thank you, Joel, for this great new feature! Joel is on staff at one of our TouchPoint family of churches and is also a computer programmer. We are grateful for his contribution to our open source project. Read more... A word about the app: If your church is not using the TouchPoint Mobile app, you should check it out! The basic app which includes People, Attendance, and Tasks & Contacts is available at no extra cost to your church. Just download it to your smartphone. If you want to customize it for your church (which we did here at Bellevue and so have other churches) and add more features you can do that as well. Just contact us for more information. Read more..

Why Did That Happen?

Fri, 22 Apr 2016 11:00:00 GMT

This post is not about something new. It is to answer a question we get from time to time. "Why did I get logged off?" It is because your session timed out. Which then begs the question "Why did my session time out?" There are a couple of different answers for that which depend on what you are doing at the time. Your session times out when you are inactive for 120 minutes (2 hours). That's a long time to just sit there staring at your computer! But you probably have moved on to something else or walked away. So, it's good that the session just times out. You can also lose your session if you have more than one tab open for TouchPoint and one of them is open to a registration page where you were probably testing your online registration and left it without completing the registration. As a security feature, that page will time out sooner than our session timeout. And when it does, it will close your session - on all tabs that are open on TouchPoint. Which is why we display the following message when you click "Try Registration". There you have it! The answers to life's persistent questions - at least one of them.

Family Deposit for Online Registrations

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 11:00:00 GMT

Our latest innovation for online registrations is an Ad Hoc Extra Value that you add to an organization to allow an entire family to register and pay just one deposit for the family. Use Case: One use of this would be a Family Camp. You want every person in the family registered, but you need only one deposit for the family, whether there are two members or six members. By adding the Ad Hoc Extra Value to the organization, you can set the deposit to whatever amount you want for each family to pay in order to reserve their spot. Read more...

Seeing Red-It's a Good Thing!

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 16:08:00 GMT

Finance users, this is for you! We found one more thing that slipped through the cracks with the new UX last year. Previously, on the Contribution Search page, all Returned and Reversal items displayed in red type, making them easily visible. But, oops - that piece of code just went up in smoke! Well, not literally, but it did somehow disappear. It's back now, making it visually easier to spot those types of items, not only on the Contribution Search page but also in the Bundle as well. One more thing - the Contribution Type that displays beside each contribution now more accurately describes the source. All online contributions will display as the type Online, instead of Check/Cash. Regular contributions will continue to have the type Check/Cash. One suggestion, your Admin user may want to rename the Contribution Type Check/Check to Regular. That's what we did at our church. So, now the three main types are Regular, Online, and Recurring Giving. Thank you, Brenda and Martha, for bringing this to our attention!

Volunteer Calendar-Customizable Emails

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:00:00 GMT

TouchPoint Volunteer Calendar management has three emails that use default text. That means you do not have to create them. However, some of you have asked if you can customize those. Yes, you can! There is a caveat. You must use the specific email replacement codes needed for certain bits of information. These are included in the help article. Once these emails have been sent for the first time (this should happen when you test - you do test everything, don't you?) they will display in Administration > Special Content > HTML Content where your Admin user can make whatever changes you want. These emails are used for all of your Volunteer Calendars, so remember that when editing them. We use the replacement code {org} so the recipient knows from which volunteer calendar he is receiving the email . Read more...about Customizing Volunteer Emails If you are not familiar with the Volunteer Calendar you will want to start here.

Checks for Online Reg Groups

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 11:00:00 GMT

When we published the new UX last year, we discovered that a few things changed unexpectedly and some other items had not survived the change. We have been correcting those as we discover them. There are two such examples that we want to mention that relate to online registrations with items that create sub-groups. Plus, we have a way to find any registrations with problem sub-groups. Extra Spaces in the Sub-Group Name We are now ignoring those extra spaces that can get added to the end of the name when you copy and paste the names of your sub-groups. These were causing issues with the registration itself. Now, we have the code in place that will ignore them. We don't recommend that you add the spaces, of course; but if you have them, all will be well. Duplicate Sub-Group Names Each sub-group name must be unique. For some registrations, you might have the same option on different days, and you have created sub-groups with the same name. That can cause a problem with your registration. Now, we have a prompt that lets you know when you have done that. Then you can edit the offending names so that each is unique. New Report to Find Problem Group Names Because you may have previously created registrations with sub-group names that are not unique, we have a SQL script that your System Admin can add to your database. When run, it will find all sub-group names associated with a registration. It will indicate how many times that name is used. It sorts in reverse order, so any problem groups are at the top. This is a great tool for verifying that all your registrations are good to go. Read more...about the Questions Settings tab and all the options that are available. Read more...about the SQL report.

Coupon Payments

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 11:00:00 GMT

When you create the Email Confirmation for an online registration, you should probably always include the email replacement code {details}, especially if the person had several options from which to choose and if there was a fee. You want to confirm their selections and give them a receipt for their payment. I'm sure most of you already do this. We recently made a change to how the fees are displayed in the confirmation (registration details section), as well as to the staff notification email. Now you will see a column for Coupon and any amount that was paid using a Coupon during that transaction. If someone uses a Coupon for less than the Deposit or the Total (whichever option they chose), they must pay the remainder of that amount online. So, their confirmation will indicate the total amount credited toward the fee, and which part of the was from the Coupon. The staff notification email has the same information in it. This lets the staff member know that someone has used a coupon and for what amount. Not only do we now break the payment down to indicate the use of a Coupon, we also show that information on the person's Member Dialog. [gallery ids="3418,3419" type="slideshow"]

Check-In: All Campuses and Allow Non-Campus Check-In

Thu, 14 Apr 2016 20:45:00 GMT

When you started up Check-In within the past few days, you may have noticed the new All Campuses option in the Campus drop-down. You will very rarely use this option. Do not select it just to see what happens unless you are testing! What is it for? It is designed for using Check-In when you want people to be able to view the classes at all of your Campuses. If you select All Campuses, anyone checking in at that kiosk will, when they select Visit a Class, see all meetings that day (in their age range) regardless of the Campus on the org. Perhaps you have a large rally with everyone meeting at the same place, but you want them to check into their individual classes, which might have a different Campus. This would work for that. Read more... What about Allow Non-Campus Check-In? Selecting All Campuses when starting up Check-In is not the same as using Allow Non-Campus Check-In, which is an option on an organization. This option is designed for a specific, limited use case, too. For example, you are having a church-wide work day on which people will check into the same organization, but at any one of your several campuses. Just remove the Campus from the org and select Allow Non-Campus Check-In. Each kiosk will still use their normal Campus when opening Check-In, and still have that org display for everyone, whether they are enrolled or not. Please read more about how this works, in order to ensure that you use it correctly. Read more

More? Yes, More SQL Reports for Finance

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 15:32:00 GMT

New Features re Giving and Pledging

Tue, 12 Apr 2016 18:19:00 GMT

Finance users listen up! We have several new items that will be of interest to you. Let's start with Search Builder. We have the following new Conditions: Recent Pledge Amount with Both Joint Pledge Amount History with Both Joint Is Family Giver Is Family Pledger Items 1 & 2 will return both spouses if they both have Joint contribution statement types, even if all Pledges are posted to just one spouse's record. Item number 1 looks back a number of days while item number 2 uses a date range. Both allow you to specify a Fund or leave blank for all Funds. Items 3 & 4 will return all family members (Primary Adults, Children, and Secondary Adults) if anyone in the family has made a donation or a pledge. Each of these uses a number of days to look back and allows you to specify a Fund or leave blank for all Funds. But wait, there's more! Because those first 2 new Conditions look for spouses where both of them are flagged as Joint for their statements, we also created a way for your system admin to find any couples that have statement types that do not match. NOTE: If you change one spouse's type to Joint, the other spouse will automatically change to Joint. However, during conversions, or if you add someone to a family and do not change their contribution type, you may have some couples with the husband set as joint and the wife set as Individual or vice versa or some other combination that is not right. This help article tells you all you need to know about finding those couples in order for you to make corrections to their statement type. This is not all, but it is much more than I like to include in one blog post. So, to boritem from Uncle Wiggily, "if my automobile doesn't turn upside down and break my ice cream cone," I'll tell you about our other new reports next time.

Saved Drafts-Multiple Versions

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 19:17:00 GMT

If you use drafts, you know that there are times when you work on one for several days, only to realize that you really want to return to the way it was yesterday. It's impossible to turn back the clock. However, it is possible to use a previously saved version of a draft! Your original draft will be there, with the name you gave it. Future versions will be named using version numbers. Read more...

Custom, SQL, Python Reports Unveiled

Thu, 07 Apr 2016 17:57:00 GMT

It is time to let you in on the secret! A few days ago, we told you about the new icon on the Blue Toolbar, where users now access Custom Reports. Actually, I called it the Data icon, but it is really the Code icon and looks like this: . This is where you will now find all Custom Reports, as well as any SQL or Python Reports that your Admin user adds to the toolbar. It is also where your Admin will go to create new Custom Reports. Creating Custom Reports is easier than ever. You can manage the columns as you create the report by dragging and dropping the items to exactly where you want them. We also have identified special fields: Extra Values, Sub-Groups, and Org Specific. This makes it easy to see which fields would not be appropriate on a report for a group that is not part of a specific organization. Those are great changes to the Custom Reports. However, what we have done regarding SQL and Python scripts is even better! We are exposing some hidden jewels. Using our new recipes for SQL and Python scripts, you (the Admin user) can create these reports in your church's database, without knowing those programming languages. You also have the option of adding these to the main Reports Menu or the Blue Toolbar. This makes those great reports available to other users. See what I mean by exposing hidden jewels? Keep watching the Recently Updated help articles, as we plan to continue adding more recipes. As with all TouchPoint reports, any that relate to contributions will be restricted to just Finance users. Other reports may be restricted to certain user roles in the script itself. Read more..about the new options on the Blue Toolbar. Read more...about Custom Reports. Read more...about SQL and Python recipes.

Texting Discounts for Non-Profits

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 13:20:00 GMT

Many of you are already taking advantage of TouchPoint's integration with Twilio for texting. But did you know that Twilio offers a special pricing plan for non-profits? They do! And that includes churches, if you are a 501c(3) organization. If you have an existing plan, you can still contact Twilio and apply for their non-profit discounts. Their website provides all the information you need. If your church is not currently using TouchPoint for texting, you should check it out on our documentation website and then contact Twilio.org to get started. We want your church spending its money wisely for ministry. That is why we are passing this information along to you. Remember, TouchPoint receives no remuneration from any of our third-party integrations. Read more..

Building Check-In Mode

Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:12:00 GMT

This is not something new, but it is probably something you may not know about. TouchPoint Check-In has a Building Check-In Mode. This uses our TouchPoint Check-In software, but it does require some simple administrative set up. This setup is so that your church can name the activities you want to display when someone checks into the building, the criteria for checking in, and how many guests someone can bring. This was designed for use with an activities building (gym) so people could check in and select the Walking Track, Fitness Equipment, Gym, etc. - whatever activity they would be doing that day. But you could track other types of activities in a building if you need to know who is coming on site and for what purpose. Like our normal TouchPoint Check-In, you use a phone number to find your family. You can also add someone to the database, edit a record, and take a photo. It works using a dual monitor setup, so an attendant can view the picture of the person checking in, any notes that have been made about that person regarding their use of the building, and a running log of those checking in and the activities they selected. But there is so much more you will want to read about this really useful mode of check-in. If your church has a gym , or if you have a building where you want to monitor the activity, check this out! By the way, we have a great Check-In Activity Report that goes along with this, so you can see how your building is being used. Read more..

Addition to Absents Report and Notices

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 20:02:00 GMT

This new addition is on the Recent Absents report, as well as on the Email Attendance Notices and the Attendance Notices Preview page. What is this addition, you ask? It's Other Attends! We now let you know if someone who is on the report as being absent, actually attended something else. We refer to that as an Other Attend, and it is very valuable information. On the Recent Absents Report, there is a column named Other Attend. The number in that column will be how many other attends they have had in the time period for the Recent Absents. For most people, that will be zero. But for others, you will now have an indication that they have attended another class, even though they have been absent for that one. On the Email Attendance Notice and the Preview those with an Other Attend will have that noted next to the last attended date for that person. Thank you, Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church for sponsoring this project! If you are not using the Recent Absents report or the Email Attendance Notices, you should check them out. They contain great information and a lot of inter-active links. Read more about Recent Absents Report Read more about Email Attendance Notices

New Report-Meeting Day Stats

Fri, 04 Mar 2016 20:09:00 GMT

Our new Meeting Day Stats report is an Excel export that provides a snapshot of one day's meetings for a group of organizations. You first filter for the organizations you want included in the report, then select Meeting Day Stats from the blue Toolbar, select a date and run the report. The report itself was created as a tool to help ministers evaluate how their classes are progressing. They want to see if classes have guests, if they have new members - is the class giteming. To make this easy, the minister can filter for the Program and Division for which he is responsible and see, in a nice Excel format, all the classes listed with one item per organization per meeting. Organizations that have multiple Schedules, will be listed once for each meeting time. We have included member count, attendance, guests, new members, drops and the final member count. Thank you Hunter Street Baptist Church in Alabama for sponsoring this project! Just check it out! I think you will really like it. Read more..

Refunds - Did you know...?

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 20:00:00 GMT

Did you know that most payment processors such as Sage, have a limit for how long they will issue a refund after the payment has been made? Most of them will only process a refund up to 6 months after the date of the payment. After that, you will not be able to issue a refund on the processor's website or through TouchPoint. If you think about it, that makes total sense! Solution If you are going to giving them a refund after that time frame, write them a check. Then go to the Transactions Log (or the Member Dialog if they are still enrolled in the organization) and make an Adjustment to indicate that the person never actually paid anything. Suggestion - A Better Solution Why let yourself get in this situation in the first place? Taking payments, then issuing refunds does cost the church the amount of the processing. If you are using Terms for an online registration (from the Messages tab), indicate that no refunds will be issued after a certain number of days. If you do not use terms, make that point clear in the Instructions on the registration and again in the Confirmation email. For some registrations, you may not issue refunds at all. Those cases should definitely be made clear to the registrant prior to their completing the registration. Each church should set its own policy regarding refunds in general. But the key here is to think about this issue and actually set a policy for your church. Helpful Info The Transactions Log (where you issue refunds and lots more) has tons of information and a lot of functionality. If you have not looked at the help article recently, you should probably take a refresher look at it. Read more..

Create Recurring Giving Confirmation

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 12:00:00 GMT

When a person sets up or changes Recurring (Managed) Giving, they receive the confirmation that is created on the Recurring Giving organization Registration > Messages tab. When their gift is processed on the date they have specified, a simple system-generated confirmation is sent. It says merely, "Your gift of $____ was processed this morning." If you would like to customize the message, you can now do that. Create a new HTML file in Special Content. The file must be named RecurringGiftNotice and can contain the email replacement code {total} for the amount that was processed. Read more..

Mobile App - New 'Add Guests' Option

Tue, 23 Feb 2016 20:32:00 GMT

Do your lay leaders take attendance using the TouchPoint Mobile app on their smart phones? Are you tired of all the new records that are created when they add a guest to their meetings? If so, you will be very interested in this latest feature! Remember, users with OrgLeadersOnly role can only access records for individuals who are already connected to organizations that they lead - members, prospects, and recent guests - as well as anyone for whom they have been assigned a Task. So, when they take attendance and want to add a new guest, they can not find anyone that is not already in connected to the organization. We thought long and hard about this and came up with, what we believe, is an excellent solution. Each church now has the option to add a Setting to their database that will relax the OrgLeadersOnly rules and enable those users to find anyone in the database when adding someone as a guest to a meeting. This feature works only when using the app and only when adding a guest. So, the only time a lay leader will have access to the entire database is the moment he is searching for someone visiting the class, and only when doing that using the TouchPoint app. We made this a Setting, in order give the churches control over it. Nothing changes unless the Setting is added and set as true. Read more..

Debit, but not Credit Cards

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:00:00 GMT

We recently discovered that some Merchant Providers will set up your TouchPoint account to require congregants to use their bank accounts or their debit cards for all online transactions - both giving and registrations. In other words, the church would not allow use of credit cards online at all. In light of this, we created a new Setting named DebitCreditLabel. When you add this Setting to your database, you can decide how you want the label to appear on the payment page where people enter their payment information. If you do not allow the use of credit cards at all, you could add this setting and make the value = Debit Card. The default is Debit/Credit Card. We know that TransNational will set up your account like this. If you use another provider, please check with them about this option if you are interested. By the way, we also have a Setting in TouchPoint to disallow the use of credit cards for online giving only. This is different than the above-mentioned Setting. To disallow use of credit cards for everything through TouchPoint, your Merchant Provider must set that up. To disallow credit cards just for online giving (that includes recurring giving), you can add the setting.NoCreditCardGiving = true. Both of these option are described in the Settings help article. Read more..

New Deposits Totals Report

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:00:00 GMT

Why a new report? The purpose of this report is to assist you when reconciling your bank statement. You can enter a date range and get a report that gives you a total for each day's deposits. These should match what you see on your bank statement.These are the contribution deposits that were not made via online giving. Each date on the report is also a link allowing you to drill down to the Deposit Report for that date. The Deposit Report lists all the bundles with that date as the deposit date. So, basically, this Deposits Totals report keeps you from having to run the Deposit Reports for every day of the month, or keep up with them if you printed them each day you made deposits. We've summed them up into one nice report for you. Here's a sample: Read more..

Prefix Sorting on Guests/Absentees Contact Report

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 12:00:00 GMT

When we hear of a change that will enhance ministry and is easily applicable to many churches, not just specific to one church, we are anxious to do it. That was the case with the addition of the prefix sorting option for the Guests/Absentees Contact Report. This is the report that you access from a specific meeting. It lists your guests and absent members, giving the same sort of information on the normal Contact Report. We added the option to enter a sub-group prefix before running the report. This will sort by those sub-groups with that prefix in their name, printing the sub-group name in the header. Each sub-group will start on a new page. This means that the guests will appear at the beginning of the report, and the header will display No Sub-Group. One use case is a class that has sub-groups for various school grades and they want the group leaders to contact absent members each week. By using the prefix of those sub-groups, each leader can be handed the report for just his absent members, making it very simple for him to contact them. If you are not familiar with this report, you should check it out. It contains a lot of helpful information and might be something you would need for one of your classes. Read more..

Ledger Income Export from Totals by Fund

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 12:00:00 GMT

We at TouchPoint care about those hard-working people in the finance office of your church. Those are the people that make things balance and keep the church afloat. It's because we care, that we created a new export for them. It is the Ledger Income Export. It contains more information than the Totals by Fund report. The purpose of this export, like the Totals by Fund report, is to provide information for that weekly or monthly task of accounting for your contributions in your general ledger. For some of you, the Totals by Fund report is just what you want. However, if you prefer to see more, you will want to use this export. Whereas the Totals by Fund groups income just by Fund and you have the option to also separate by Bundle Type, this new export sorts totals first by Fund, then by Bundle Type within each Fund. And it also pulls four of the account fields (which match #s in your GL) from your Funds and displays that as well. Each grouping by Fund and Bundle Type will have a item in the spreadsheet with a Count (number of contributions), Total (dollar amount), and a flag designating whether it was from Online Giving or not. Now you have options. Just decide which one best fits your needs. You will find this on the Totals by Fund report under the Exports button. Read more..

Check-In Control: Old Report, New Option

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:47:00 GMT

We picked this up, blew off the dust and made it better! Many of you may not realize that this reports exists. It is the Check-In Control Report and is run from the Organization Search/Manage page for a specified Schedule and optional Program and Division. You select the report from the Blue Toolbar, select a date and run the report. But now you have a checkbox option for an Excel Export, in lieu of the normal PDF version. If you are like me, you probably always prefer Excel for this type of report. Why didn't we do that originally? It's a long story, so I won't bore you. Short version: this report was not something any of us thought we needed, but very quickly threw together as a sample a long time ago, modeling it on the existing Enrollment Control Report. Then, believe it or not, we sort of forgot about it. (Yes, that happens.) The report is actually a pretty cool feature. If you use check-in, you can wait until after everyone should be checked in for a given hour, run the report and have an alphabetical list of everyone who has checked in, along with the name and location of their class and their attend type. See! I told you it was a cool report. It actually looks at attendance, not whether you used check-in or not. So, you can run the report for any group of organizations to get a list of everyone marked present for a given date. Read more..

New Email Features!

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:56:00 GMT

We have two new features relating to email that I know you will be very excited about. One feature allows you to add another recipient (by finding them in the database) just before sending your email. The other lets you CC an email address (which does not need to match anyone in the database). Add Another Person This is so simple. Click the + sign to the right of the recipients. This opens the normal Search/Add dialog, allowing you to find a person and add them as a recipient. You will receive warning messages if 1) the person does not have an active email address; or 2) the person is already included in the original list of recipients. In both of these cases, the person will not be added. Send a Copy Again - so simple! Check the box Add CC/Reply-To, and enter one or more email addresses separated by commas. The email will be copied to those addresses. Also, if a normal recipient replies, the reply goes, not only to the sender, but also to anyone copied on the email. A Word of Thank You Not only do we have two wonderful new features that will prove to be extremely helpful, we have an added bonus. Two of our developer friends at Good Shepherd Baptist Church wrote the code for these features and donated it to the open source project. We are so pleased to have Heath and Nathan volunteering their expertise and participating in making TouchPoint a better product for ministry. Thank you both! By the way, no code gets added to the project without first passing muster with us. Whenever a developer wants to participate by adding a feature to TouchPoint, we take the code through the same rigorous examination and testing as if we created it ourselves. Heath and Nathan's work certainly passed the test! Great work, guys! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqBPudP4THI&w=560&h=315] Read more..

We Conquered the Auto-Fill Beast!

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 21:48:00 GMT

I am referring to the infernal auto-fill for passwords! Sometimes, that a great help. However, when setting up a user account in TouchPoint, you certainly do not want your password to auto-fill for someone else's user account. You especially do not like it when you save the changes without removing your password; because, then the user can't log in, unless they know your password! What an annoying thing. They call or they let you know they had to click Forgot Password, when they really did not forget it; you accidentally changed it. Good news! We have tried before, but somehow the all-powerful bitemser managed to find a way around our fix, ignoring our auto-complete = off request. And they would start auto-filling again in places where you do not want them to do so. This time we we used a bit fancier footwork and believe we have won the battle for good. Keep your fingers crossed and be sure to restart your bitemser for this to take effect. Believe me, we have all been annoyed by this! So, glad this nightmare has ended. PS OK, I suppose I do exaggerate just a bit. But I know you are glad this is fixed.

Confirmation Emails for Online Giving

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 21:59:00 GMT

We have made a change regarding confirmations for online giving. These confirmations are the emails that are sent after a one-time gift, after managing recurring giving, and after a recurring gift has been processed. Previously, we did not store these emails due to the sensitive nature of the content. However, we have now made these available only for the donors themselves and for users with Finance role. So, the content is not displayed for any other users. The giving confirmations can be accessed in 2 places in TouchPoint: Both the donor himself (with a TouchPoint user account) and a Finance user can view these on the donor's people record by clicking Email > Transactional. A Finance user can also view them by going to Administration > Manage > Email and click the box to filter for Transactional. In either place, you can click the subject to view the details. Also, on the Email Details page, the Finance user can also resend a confirmation when necessary. Thank you Redeemer for sponsoring this project. Read more..

Contribution Statements-Print Date

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 23:24:00 GMT

Contribution Statements for 2015 have already been sent or donors have been emailed to log on and print their own. However, now might be a good time to think about all the Administrative Settings that we have in TouchPoint that relate to contribution statements. You can review those now and make any changes before it is time for the 2016 1st quarter statements. The newest setting that was just added a few days ago, allows you to remove the Print Date on contribution statements. This date appears in the top right corner of every statement and is labeled Print Date. It is the date that the statement was generated. If you do not want that date displayed, have your System Admin create the Setting named NoPrintDateOnStatement and set the value to true. By the way, a couple of weeks ago, I published a post about the change we made regarding what to expect when you run all statements the next time. If you missed it, and you are responsible for generating statements, be sure to check it out. We made some nice changes! Also, be sure you are familiar with all the options, settings, extra values that relate to statements. Read more.. PS If you are not subscribed to this blog and you use TouchPoint at your church, you run the risk of getting way behind the times. This is how we advertise new features. Just look to the right of this post (near the top) where you see Follow this Blog. Enter your email address and you will always be notified when a new post has been published.

Registration Report in Excel Format

Tue, 26 Jan 2016 21:42:00 GMT

If you choose, you can now generate a Registration Report (Excel) version for an organization. This is very similar to the original report. However, instead of generating one page per person, the Excel version has one item per person. If you use TouchPoint for online registrations (which most of you do), you should check this out! We have other reports and exports as well, but this particular export was added just a few months ago, so we wanted to let you know about it. Read more..

SB Condition: Family Has Contacts

Fri, 22 Jan 2016 12:00:00 GMT

Can you believe it? We added yet another Condition in Search Builder! When a new condition can help improve ministry, we want to create it. In this instance, the new Condition is Family Has Contacts. Possible Use Case: Run a search for children that have been guests in the past X number of days. Add this new Condition Family Has Contacts and set it as Equal False. This will return recent guests without a contact to any family member. After getting the results (the children) you could then add either Parents Only (to view just the parents) or Add Primary Adults, to see both children and the parents. Tasks could then be assigned for a contact to be made to the parents of the children who have visited recently. There are any number of use cases, depending on what you are trying to find. By looking at the family instead of just the individuals, you will avoid assuming that no one has been contacted. You may be looking at recent guests in Children's Ministry, and they may not have received a Contact. However, they may have a sibling in Student Ministry who has been contacted. You can also use that Condition set to True to find everyone in a family that has ever had a Contact. Not sure why you'd do that, but you can! You are creative people! I know you will find other ways to use this new Condition as you minister to your families. Read more..

SB Condition: Failed Recurring Giving

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 16:00:00 GMT

This new condition is specifically for finance users. You can now run a search to find those whose recurring giving has failed in the past x number of days. This gives you an opportunity to contact the donor and get the problem resolved. We recommend you run this weekly, looking back 7 days. If you go back much further, the donor may have already made arrangements to correct the problem. We have more details about how this works in our help article about Recent Has Failed Recurring Giving. Read more..

New Feature Relating to Contribution Statements

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 12:00:00 GMT

Most churches have probably already mailed the year-end contribution statements for 2015. However, even if you have, we want you to know about a change that we made recently. Then you will be prepared for the 1st quarter statements! The statements are the same, and you still go to the same place to generate the statements: Administration > Contribution > Statements (Create All). You also still have the same options as before for sorting and excluding Electronic Only donors. The change is that once you click Run and the statements begin generating, what you see on the page is different. Also, you can close your bitemser and return to the same page as before and select a new button for "Previously Run Sets". This will return you to the page showing the progress. This is also where you will find the links for the PDF files. This little 2-minute video will show you how to start the process, leave and return and then show you what the final page looks like once all sets have been completed. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEB1b70roBE&w=560&h=315] Read more..

A Word about Online Giving

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 21:28:00 GMT

We recently changed the message that we present to donors when they attempt to make a second donation for the same amount within a few minutes of each other. You may never have encountered this message. But, since you are a user, we want you to be informed. As a safeguard, most merchant providers (those companies that process your online giving and online registration fees) have a window of time built in during which they will not accept gifts from the same person for the same amount. The usual time frame is 20 minutes. They assume that the second gift is a duplicate (a mistake), so they just will not allow it. This is the message the donor will see. We think it states the issue very clearly. Thank you for your gift! Our records indicate that you recently submitted a gift in this amount a short while ago. As a safeguard against duplicate transactions we recommend that you either wait 20 minutes, or modify the amount of this gift by a small amount so that it does not appear as a duplicate. Thank you. Want to know more about online giving? Click here..

New Email Replacements Codes

Mon, 18 Jan 2016 20:56:00 GMT

Email replacement codes are those special words you can insert into an email (inside curly braces) and the recipient will see something else, not the code. For example: {first} will display the recipient's first name. TouchPoint has a lot of these that you can use in emails. Some of these can be used in any emails, others must be in a confirmation, and others must be sent from an organization. Heath, a developer who attends one of our TouchPoint churches, has created 3 new codes that were added to the open source project. Two codes relate to contribution statements, and would be helpful for the finance office to use in emails to verify that they have your donors' correct preferences. {estatement} -If Electronic Statement is not checked on the recipient's record, this will display: Printed Statement in Addition to Online Option. If it is checked, it will display: Online Electronic Statement Only. {statement} - This will display either Individual, Joint, or None, based on the selection on the person's record. The other code relates to text messaging - SMS. {receivesms} - This will display either Yes or No, based on the checkbox on their record regarding receiving text messages. Check out all the options we have for email replacements, including these 3 new ones. Thank you, Heath!

Already Enrolled Message

Fri, 15 Jan 2016 21:08:00 GMT

Transferring Tasks - Easy Peasy

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 21:11:00 GMT

Normally, a user creates a Task about someone and delegates it to someone else. However, TouchPoint has the means for the Task creator to transfer the Task instead of delegate it. This is what I refer to as a tiered approach. One person is responsible for creating a Task about every new guest. However, instead of delegating the Task to a minister or lay leader, that person transfers it to a staff member/minister in the correct age-level Ministry. Then the new owner of the Task will delegate it to the person they want to make the contact and complete the Task. Frequently, this is a minister creating the Task and transferring it to another minister, who then delegates it to a lay leader, perhaps a Life Group teacher. Why do it this way? A guest would probably much rather receive a contact from a teacher (or a leader in the class) who can invite them to visit his class and make arrangements to meet the guest and walk them to the classroom, than from a minister who would just recommend a class. That type of contact is on a more personal level. It is very simple to transfer the Task as you are creating it, because that option is under Actions, which is the same place you find Delegate This Task. By the way, the creator of the Task can still access the details of the Task even after Transferring ownership. They are basically still in the loop. They do not receive notifications when those Tasks have bene accepted and completed, but they can run saved searches to find incomplete Tasks, etc. or look on an individual's record to find the status of a Task. Read more.. PS Don't forget that you can now accept and complete Tasks using the new TouchPoint Mobile app. Check it out!

Year-End Statements: A Few Reminders

Wed, 06 Jan 2016 19:29:00 GMT

Texting via TouchPoint: Opt-In Made Easy

Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:00:00 GMT

Texting is a super-quick way to send a brief message. We all know that. With the Twilio integration in TouchPoint, you can easily send a text from your computer to an entire organization, a group of people from a search results, or to a tag. Anywhere you see the Blue Toolbar, you can send a text. You probably already knew that, too. But....did you know that you can add the question "SMS Opt-In" to any online registration? The question the registrant sees is "Opt-in to receive text messages (SMS)?". By selecting the "yes" radio button, the Opt-In flag on their record will automatically get set! That's right, it's that simple . You probably didn't know that! There are a couple of things to note however: To set the opt-in flag during an online registration, the registrant must either log in to register or they must use a RegisterLink. We recommend sending a RegisterLink or RegisterLink2 when you add SMS Opt-In to your registration. In order to receive a text, the person of course must have a cell phone number on their record. Read more about Questions for Online Registrations. Read more about Texting Opt-In. Read more about getting started with Twilio.

Giving and Receiving; Privilege and Responsibility

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:59:00 GMT

Some give gifts at Christmas in remembrance of the gifts the three wise men brought to Jesus - gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Others give to follow God's example of giving His Son Jesus for us, or to remind us of the gift we have of salvation and the Holy Spirit. Whatever reason you give wrapped presents to friends and family this Christmas, the reason we give monetarily and of our talents to the local church, is because God's Word tells us to do so. And it tells us to give cheerfully. God loves a cheerful giver. Even cheerful givers appreciate being thanked. It lets them know that the person accepted their gift and appreciates it. The same is true when we give to our church or to a charity. We like to know that the gift was received and that it was appreciated. That is not WHY we give, but it IS a responsibility of the recipient to acknowledge and thank the giver. Year-end contribution statements are not only a tax document; they are a way for us, the church, to say "thank you" to our donors. Whether you mail statements or send an email letting donors know they can access their own giving records, consider including a "thank you" message in that envelope or email. We like to let our donors know some of the many ways the church used their donations to share Jesus throughout the past year. If you mail statements, that "thank you" might be a letter from your pastor that lists some of the projects that you helped sponsor. If you send an email notification, it might contain a video message, actually showing some of the ways tithes and offerings have been used to further God's work. Or perhaps you just want to modify the 'notice' blurb of the statement itself. While year-end statements take time, effort, and money (if you mail them), they are an important part of giving and receiving - and that is the act of saying "thank you".

New SQL Script - Registration Email Different from Personal Record

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 14:28:00 GMT

You don't have to love SQL or even know what it is to create this script in your database. I'm sure you have noticed in recent blogs posts that we have begun mentioning Python and SQL and how they are used in TouchPoint. That's because we are discovering more and more uses for these tools and want to share them with you. The feature today is a script that creates a report of everyone who registered online for any event and used an email address that was different from the email address on their personal record. Sometimes when registering, people mistype their email address, and when you send emails to the organization, their emails are bounced back as undeliverable. Glancing through this report gives you an opportunity to check those and make any corrections that are necessary. The report has a link to the person's record, making it simple go back and forth between the report and individual's records, making any changes that are needed. The report also displays the name of the registration, so when viewing the person's record, you can click the Member Dialog for that org and fix or even remove the Register Email. If this sounds like something you'd like to see in your database, you will want to read the documentation that walks you through creating this script. We even give you the code that your System Admin can copy and paste into your database! How easy is that? Read more.. PS For security reasons, we never automatically change a person's email address based on the Register Email. We do encourage registrants to create an account and keep their personal information up-to-date.

New Feature - Add Questions in Member Dialog for Online Registrations

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 17:10:00 GMT

Organization Member Dialog is really turning into a workhouse in TouchPoint. There are so many actions that can be performed while in this dialog box, from changing a Member Type to creating Transactions and other options in between. As if that weren't enough, we added even more functionality - the ability to Add Questions from an online registration to the member dialog, even if the person did not register online. We had already improved how we display a registrant's answers for online registration questions. We made them much more legible, and included the questions as well as the person's answers. And you could already edit any answers that resulted in a sub-group on the Groups tab of the dialog box. Now, if you have an online registration with questions that are important to track and yet you have someone that can't (or won't) register online, you can use the Add Questions button to have the questions from the registration display on the person's Member Dialog > Questions tab. Then you can return and add their answers. I think this is a tremendous feature! Read more..

App Attendance for Committed Attendees

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 20:47:00 GMT

If you love taking attendance using the TouchPoint Mobile App and you use the Volunteer Calendar and/or send RSVP and Regrets Links for events, you will love this new Ad Hoc Extra Value (EV) that you can add to your organization. By adding this EV to the org, the roll list on the App will display only those individuals who have an attendance commitment of Committed, or who are a Substitute. This makes taking attendance a breeze for these types of meetings. You will not see those who are not expected to attend, only those who are actually committed for that time slot or meeting. This is how it works: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYibKyjL83E&w=420&h=315] Read more.. PS - If you missed our previous post, you'll want to check it out. The newest version of the TouchPoint Mobile app (with Tasks!) is now available for all churches. Read more..

New Version of TouchPoint Mobile App Available - with Tasks!

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:42:00 GMT

New Feature Using Scripts: Tracking Packet Pickup

Wed, 04 Nov 2015 20:37:00 GMT

New Videos: Demonstrations of Online Giving

Thu, 29 Oct 2015 21:41:00 GMT

When viewing a recent video about online giving that Andrew created to send to a client, I was reminded that we needed similar videos on our Touchpoint YouTube channel. So, now we do! We just added a playlist named Online Giving. It contains 4 short videos which demonstrate the various ways to give online. They are from the standpoint of a donor, so they might be helpful when people have questions about how online giving works for your church. One-Time Giving when Logged In Giving - Find Record, Create Account Recurring Giving Not Logged In Recurring Giving with user Account Click the video below to start the playlist. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLVXVBT6lVC4ED_bgOluXq5qrOQ6Y1AZX5&w=560&h=315] We have other videos posted on our help documentation. See more..

New Search Builder Condition and Report for Giving Change

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 21:17:00 GMT

Over the years, we have added a number of new conditions to Search Builder as the need arose. In this case, we created a new condition because, to be frank, our previous condition for tracking giving changes was just not that easy to understand. So, we have a new condition named Giving Change. It is easy to use and understand, and will find people whose giving has changed from one period to another - either increasing or decreasing - using whatever percent you choose. This is a great way to find people whose giving has not only increased or decreased from the previous year, but also anyone who has just started giving or who has completely stopped giving. You can combine this condition with other conditions, such as Church Member Status, Recent Attendance, enrollment in a specific type of organization, etc. in order to naritem the focus. Because giving is one of the two basic metrics you can use to evaluate your ministry (attendance is the other one), and as part of our desire to simply your life, we also created a SQL script that you can copy and add to your database to create a custom report based on this new condition. You will definitely want to read more. PS You need Finance role in order to return any results using this condition or to run the custom report. By the way, we plan to remove the old, confusing condition mentioned above.

Seek and Ye Shall Find...Help, That Is!

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 17:33:00 GMT

Preview Attendance Notices Before Emailing

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:45:00 GMT

Did you know that you can view the attendance notices prior to actually emailing them to your leaders? Well, you can! Filter on Organizations > Search / Manage to find the organizations for which you want attendance notices. Then select from the toolbar Email > Preview Attendance Notices. This is a great way for a staff member to keep up with the organizations he leads, even if he is not enrolled in the orgs and therefore would not receive the emails. That preview will allow him to scroll down and see on a class by class basis those who have consecutively missed the requisite number of times or more . And, like the email, there are links to the Meeting, the Organizations, the individuals' people records and email addresses, and also their phone numbers. Oh, in addition to absent members, this also displays recent guests. That's all great information right at your fingertips if you want to follow-up with those individuals. Read more..

Finance Administrators-Pledge Fulfillment Report Sees Double!

Mon, 05 Oct 2015 11:25:00 GMT

More and more churches seem to be using Pledges, and TouchPoint has several reports related to these special types of funds. One report in particular, the Pledge Fulfillment Report which lists every donor pledging and/or giving to the pledge fund, amount pledged, and more, now has another option. This new option is not on the toolbar, but requires only a few small changes that you make to the URL. Once you do that, you will magically have a fulfillment report that shows not one pledge fund, but two pledge funds....along with items such as the pledge amount, pledge date, amount given, the normal people data, and so forth...for each pledge fund side-by-side. Pretty nice, huh? It is well worth the small number of keystrokes it takes to create this report. I even created a tiny video to show you exactly what to do. Oh, and once you create the URL for this Pledge fulfillment 2 Report, just "book 'em, Danno"! Bookmark it, that is. Then you can return and run it at any time, without having to make any edits to the URL. If you close one pledge fund and open a new one, just change the fund ID in the report URL and bookmark it again. Read more and view the heart-stirring 'short' (that's hip for a tiny little independent movie) about a lonely pledge fund who longed for a friend. OK, that's a bunch of boloney...but it did stir my heart to create it for you!

Volunteer Calendar-Add Instructions & Restrict Calendar to Specific Weeks

Fri, 02 Oct 2015 13:53:00 GMT

We recently added a couple of new features to the Volunteer Calendar that I think you will find very useful. These features are not connected to each other, only in the fact that they both apply to the Volunteer Calendar. The first feature allows the administrator of the calendar to add instructions that will display above the grid on the registration page for the volunteer. This is the page where they select the time slots they can work. You might want to let them know that they are expected to arrive 10 minutes before the actual time, or that you need them to select one time slot for only one week of the month to serve. Go to the organization you are using for you calendar, click on the Registration > Messages tab and then select Instructions > Options. Read more.. The other feature allows you to restrict the volunteer calendar to just specified weeks of the month. For example: just display week 1 of every month, or weeks 1 and 3 or every month. This allows you to use the calendar for special events that happen, for example, on the first Sunday of every month. It is also useful if you have a different lay leader managing the different weeks of the month. You could keep separate calendars for each week of the month so the lay leader would view and manage only that one organization - the one for that week. Click the link below and look at the green Tip to see exactly how to do this. Read more..

Lay Leaders - Updated Videos

Tue, 29 Sep 2015 18:13:00 GMT

If a picture is better than words, than a video should be even better. And if one is good, three must be really good. So, without further ado, I present to you 3 new videos hot off the press for lay leaders, using the latest user interface and features (replacing the 'brand new' videos we did last year.). Lay Leader 101 - This shows how to set your password when you are sent the New User Welcome, how to find your record, how to find your class. This is just the basics. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxoiH_xxkE&w=420&h=315] Lay Leader 201 - Learn how to generate and email a class directory and how to insert an image in an email. Also, see how to filter for sub-groups in your organization. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPlKbOo15Kg&w=420&h=315] Lay Leader 301 - Learn how to communicate with your absent members and recent guests, using Convert to Search from a Meeting. Also featured is the Email Attendance Notice, which is a great tool for Lay Leaders. We even show you how to filter for one or more sub-groups and select random class members to email using checkboxes. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asGXsmD2LLA&w=420&h=315] If you are not a lay leader yourself, but have leaders working with you, please communicate this to them and get them set up with their own OrgLeadersOnly user accounts. Read more..

Attendance by Groups Report-Now Specify which Groups

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 21:44:00 GMT

Many large and small organizations use sub-groups for various purposes. Some use them for Care Groups, with a Group Leader who is responsible for shepherding that one group. Some orgs, like the choir, use them for voice parts. Still others will use sub-groups for locations. If the organization is very large, they will have the sub-groups meet in different rooms. A good example would be an online registration, during which everyone registers for the Wed. 6:30 PM class, and the number of locations are dependent on how many register. So, in this example, the org would have other sub-groups based on answers the person gave during the registration. Then the leaders would create sub-groups for each room / location. So, the issue is this: with so many types of sub-groups in one organization, how can you view the Attendance by Groups Report without having to wade through all those groups that you don't need to look at for attendance? We have the answer! It is not on the menu, but it is very simple. It has one pre-requisite: the sub-groups for which you want to view the attendance report must have a prefix. It could by something like this: LOC: W123-Smith. The prefix is LOC followed by a colon and the rest of the name of the group. Then, by adding some secret sauce to the URL after running the report, only those groups with that prefix will display We want you to check out the help article to get the full details on that secret sauce. Check out Use Case 2. Read more..

Addresses Added to "Donor Totals" Export

Mon, 21 Sep 2015 06:37:00 GMT

Finance users: This new addition to the Donor Totals Export of the street address for donors may be of interest to you, especially if you have auditors that request information on your donors. This export, which is one of the options on the Totals by Fund report, is a summary of donations by donor / giving unit (couples giving jointly are combined) for a given date range. You can also filter for a specific Campus. Not only does the export give you the total donated amount, if also lists the number of donations. Because this is an Excel export, you can sort and filter the data however you like. Now, with the address included, you could use the export as a data source for a mail merge, if you had the need for that. Read more...

New Search Builder Condition: Add Primary Adults

Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:20:00 GMT

This new condition is designed for those times you want to find children plus their parents (which would be the Primary Adults in the family). Perhaps you want to create name-tags, or run certain reports that include children and their parents. You can run a search for the children / students, then add this new Condition so that the results are both the children / students and both Primary Adults in the family. Read more..

New TrackBirthdays Search

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 15:45:00 GMT

TouchPoint now has 3 options for the birthday list you view on your home page. The default is everyone in your Main Fellowship class that has a birthday in the upcoming 15 days. The second way (which has been available for a long time) is to create a TrackBirthdays Tag. This will display those in your tag that have upcoming birthdays within the next 15 days. The newest feature is an improvement on the tag option. Tags are manually updated, but searches are updated each time they are run. So, our new feature is a TrackBirthdays Search, which allows you to create a search and save it using the name TrackBirthdays. Each day your list will update based on those in the search results. You will want to read more about this, so that you create the search that gives you the results you want. Read more.

Organization Toggle

Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:33:00 GMT

I love this feature! Lately, I have been verifying settings on quite a few organizations, and this toggle has been a life-saver. Well, that's probably a bit strong. However, it has very much been a time-saver. Watch this short video to see how it works, and how to make sure you have the setting turned on . [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZG0AcV1e7k&w=420&h=315]

Default Confirmation / Subject for Online Registrations

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 21:17:00 GMT

You don't have to tie a string around your finger any more! Several weeks ago, we made a nice little change to online registrations to help those of you that might occasionally forget to create the Subject and Confirmation Email for your registration. If you forget, the system will automatically create both the Subject and the body of the Confirmation email. These are fairly basic, but will totally work for any registration. Notice that the name of the organization is in the Subject and email replacement codes are in the body. Of course, you may want to customize these yourself, but you will no longer be embarrassed by forgetting to create these. If you shy away from creating online registrations, check out our revised help article for creating a basic registration. It contains 3 videos: one walks you through creating a simple registration, another shows you how to test a registration, and the third shows you how to capture the URL to post on your public website. Read more.

Improvement for User Selects Registrations

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 17:00:00 GMT

User Selects is a Registration Type during which the registrant is asked to make a selection from a drop down list. It is great for posting one registration link and yet present several organizations / classes from which to choose. However, the drop down itself is rather small, and sometimes people do not realize the need to make a selection until they receive a prompt reminding them to do so. We just solved that problem! We no longer present the list as a drop down; we now present it as a list with radio buttons. Why is that better? Because the list stays on the page, not hidden in a drop down menu. No one will skip it now! The options to choose will stay right there in plain sight. Because we use radio buttons and not checkboxes, the registrant can select only one option, just like it was with the drop down menu. But wait! There's more! Well, not yet. But, there will be very soon. This change is just a small part of a really nice new feature for online registration. Keep watching the blog for new posts. Better yet, subscribe!

Search Builder Condition - Recently Changed Records

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 20:26:00 GMT

I was asked today if I could search for staff members in our database that have recently changed their addresses. Our payroll manager wanted to verify that our payroll software had correct, up-to-date addresses for everyone. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had totally forgotten about a Search Builder Condition that we added a while back. But knowing the we have just about everything under the sun in Search Builder, that's the first place I looked. I was so pleased to find exactly the Condition we needed. I created a simple search and found all staff members whose addresses had changed in the past 30 days. The Condition is on the Admin tab and is named Recent Changed Record. Enter the number of days that you want to look back and enter part or all of a field that would be on an individual's people record. You might want to search for church members or life group members whose Resident Code has changed in the past 60 days to find people that might have moved out of town. By combining this Condition with other Conditions, you can do just that. Don't be afraid to try it. This is a handy tool for finding people whose records have been changed recently - not just addresses, but other fields on an individual's record. Check it out! Read more..

Improved Logging and Reports

Wed, 01 Jul 2015 21:48:00 GMT

Systems Admins: We admit it - it was time to improve our logging. Which is just what we are doing - logging more items with greater details. TouchPoint now has 3 reports / logs that you will want to check out. The Activity Log is now tracking activities such as drops and adds for an organization, managing sub-groups, online registrations, and much more. We have search filters for User, Activity, Person, Last Date, and Look-Back Days. The Registration History has also been improved, so now you can drill down to view a nice report of the registration form, with all the answers the registrant completed. We also have search filters there as well. The last item is the Registration Summary. This summary gives you a quick view of how many registrations have been completed for each active registration. Plus, you can drill down to the organization members or to the registration form. We think you will appreciate these enhancements. We plan to continue adding more items to the log and making further improvements.These logs / reports are all located under Administration on the main menu. Read more about the.. Activity Log Registration History Registration Summary

Mission Trip Changes

Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:26:00 GMT

We just made 2 small changes regarding Mission Trip registrations. One relates to the Donation Fund and the other to the types of emails the registrants receive. Both are designed to give your registrants the best experience possible. If an incorrect Donation Fund is entered on the Registration > Fees tab when you set up your Mission Trip organization, the system will select an existing fund to use. This will be logged in the new Administration > Activity Log (stay tuned for more information about that!) indicating the fund that was used. This was done so that your registrants will not experience an error when registering. For registrants that have an existing TouchPoint user account, we will no longer send the "You already have an account" email, since we are checking the 'create account' flag behind the scenes. If they have forgotten their password, they just click the Forgot? link on the log in page, enter their email address and they will receive an email to reset their password. Double-check your email confirmations to make sure you are giving your registrants all the correct, up-to-date information. Click HERE for a sample confirmation. Read more..

Allow Save Progress Notification Email

Mon, 29 Jun 2015 11:36:00 GMT

System Admins- In our last post, we mentioned a relatively new setting for online registrations - Allow Save Progress. The use case for this is for registrations that have lengthy forms, or those that request information that a person might not have readily available. You don't want registrants to be required to start over if they can't complete the registration right then. If registrants choose to Save Progress, Finish Later, they will receive an email containing a link, so they can return and complete their registration. The system has a default email, but you can tweak it, if you want. Below is what the default email looks like: Below is what the HTML File looks like in Special Content: This uses a special email replacement code. Notice that the brackets and curly braces do not appear in the actual email. Read more about Special Content and Email Replacement Codes.

New Streamlined Registration for New Records

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:07:00 GMT

You probably did not notice this, unless you were testing a registration; but over the weekend, we published a new version of online registration. While this has some new features which we will list below, the biggest change will be noticed by those registering whose records are not found in the database. Previously, we would display a message that your record was not found, and ask the person to verify their information and try again or go ahead and create a new record. Now, if the record is not found, we just ask for the necessary information as a seamless part of the registration. We never mention that we could not find a record or give them an opportunity to try again. We did this in order to, as they say, lower the barrier. In other words, we want registration, and that includes online giving, to be as simple and easy as possible. We think our TouchPoint online registrations are just that - simple and easy for the registrant. What about the new features I mentioned? There are several new checkboxes on the Registration > Registration tab of an organization: Disallow Anonymous - only people already in the database with a user account can register and must log in to do so Timeout - allows you to enter the length of time (in milliseconds) that you want to allow people to work on the registration before it times out. This will over-ride the default of 3 minutes or the global OnlineRegTimeout settings in Administration > Settings. Allow Save Progress - while this setting is not new, if this is checked we are now automatically saving the progress behind the scenes every 30 seconds. Read more..

Search Builder - Recent Attendance and Meeting Description

Mon, 22 Jun 2015 20:58:00 GMT

Did you hear? You can use Search Builder to find who recently attended meetings with certain descriptions, using either a partial or an entire description. Every meeting of an organization has a field for a description. Some uses include: Indicating when there is bad weather Recording the type of study taking place Indicating that church members are away on a mission trip However you choose to use the meeting description, this Search Builder condition can come in handy! Read more..

Easy Access to Make Payment - Mission Trip Goers

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:04:00 GMT

We all know how easy it is to misplace (that is, delete) an email that we really need to keep, such as those Mission Trip confirmations containing the Paylink you need to make additional payments toward your balance. Realizing that, we added a feature to make this easier for those going on mission trips to always have that link available. All Mission Trip Goers have a user account created for them automatically when they register (if they do not already have one), so they can access their record to Email Supporters and track their balance. Now they can access their record to make a payment toward their balance as well. The Goer would access their people record > Involvement > Registrations tab and click the Make Payment link which works just like their Paylink. Not only will this make things easier for the Goer, it will be a huge help to the office staff who get numerous requests to re-send Paylinks to the Goers! This is a special feature for online registrations that are flagged as Mission Trip. If you are not using this special type of registration for your mission trips, you should check it out. Read more..

Contacts - Unlimited Contactees and More

Mon, 15 Jun 2015 12:20:00 GMT

We previously had a limit of 100 for the number of people that could be included as Contactees for a single Contact. Contacts for that many people are normally created using the Blue Toolbar from a Search Builder result list. There were several reasons for the limit, but I won't bore you with those now. Why would you need a single Contact with that many people? You might want to capture as a Contact that you have mailed a card to large group of people. One example would be a followup card after VBS, or a comment card after a seminar. The point is we have now made the number of Contactees unlimited for a single Contact. Along with this come a few other changes in order to give you the best user experience when creating these types of Contacts. Let me just list the changes: You can create a single Contact for an unlimited number of Contactees. If you have more than 100 Contactees, there will be an alert on the Contactee list. Rather than list all the contactees, there is now a Convert to Search button on the Contactee list, so you can view the individuals included in the Contact. The default tab on the Contact is now the Recipients (Contactees) list instead of the Ministry Team. In order for the Convert to Search button to function, we added 2 new Conditions: Contact Recipients and Contact Maker. These require a Contact ID #. We realized that this small change could bring ministry value to all of our TouchPoint family of churches, which is why we made this change now. Read more..

New Videos - All About Email Drafts

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 12:16:00 GMT

In our last blog post, we told you about a new feature on the Blue Toolbar that makes it very easy for you to Create / Edit Saved Drafts. We now have several very short videos demonstrating the following: Create Email Draft Share Your Email Drafts Delete Old Drafts Create a Draft from a Sent Email Click below to watch them all on our Email Draft Playlist on YouTube. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLVXVBT6lVC4HK0duDIcWRBqsppXtYDZM2&w=560&h=315] Read more..

Create Email Drafts and Edit Saved Drafts

Sun, 31 May 2015 22:22:00 GMT

Creating and saving email drafts just got a little easier. This is because we added Create / Edit Saved Drafts as an option on the Blue Toolbar. This now gives you a go-to spot for creating new drafts and accessing saved ones for editing. Why use a draft? Oh, there are so many reasons. Here are a few of them. Using a draft allows you to work on and revise an email over several days. Saved drafts can be shared, so you can collaborate with others on the same email. If you send weekly emails in which you change a few items, you can use a draft that you save after each edit. If you have been in the (bad) habit of copying previous emails in order to paste the content into a new email, using a draft will work much better for you. Read more about this new addition to the Blue Toolbar as it relates to email drafts.

New 'Drop Org Members' Option for Admins

Wed, 27 May 2015 12:30:00 GMT

At the end of an event such as Vacation Bible School, our church will have multiple organizations with members that need to be dropped and the organizations made Inactive until next year. Previously, this could only be done by going to each organization, dropping those members, making the org Inactive and then moving on to the next one....rinse, repeat. We have added a feature to make this easier for you. You can now go to Organizations > Search / Manage, filter for those organizations and use an option from the toolbar to drop the members and make all the orgs Inactive all in one fell swoop! That sounds too easy, so there must be a catch, right? Well, there is - sort of. That process cannot be undone. That's why this is a feature for Admins only. Read more..

Dropdown for Special Links in the Text Editor

Mon, 18 May 2015 11:46:00 GMT

TouchPoint has 8 special links that you can insert into emails to make online registration easy for those in your database. We have just made it easier for you to use these special links. In the text editor , instead of having to remember each link and type in the name, you just select the correct link from a dropdown list. By the way - we also changed the gear icon to a golden link. Why? Perhaps it is because those links are worth their weight in gold!

Just for Finance Users - New Videos

Fri, 15 May 2015 22:30:00 GMT

These 2 new videos are just for you - those who enter contributions in your database or work with contributions in any way in TouchPoint. The first walks you through the process of creating a bundle and posting contributions in the new UX. The next shows you the other basic pages that you use on a regular basis. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoEs_fqqNT0?rel=0&w=420&h=315] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGD3b4zH2F0?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Comparison Video - Old UI vs New UX

Fri, 15 May 2015 11:27:00 GMT

Better, yet the same. That's one way to describe TouchPoint's new mobile-friendly UX. The best way to see that is by comparing the old with the new, page by page. That is exactly what we do in this video. We show you our major pages and how they look in the old UI, then the same page in the new UX. You may be surprised to see that everything is still there in the new UX, and in practically the same place as it was in the old. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWtTkXI6tPQ?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Keep Calm, Change Can Be Good

Thu, 14 May 2015 17:24:00 GMT

Thanks to your overwhelmingly positive response to the new UX and with your feedback, we have been able to address every issue that you brought to us. Therefore, it is time to move ahead. If you remember our initial blog post when we introduced this, we gave you our reasons for the change: complete mobile-responsiveness; consistency throughout the application; beautiful, clean look; efficient use of space. We hope you have been using the .work site and are getting acclimated to the new UX. Be sure you look at it, not only on your desktop, but also on your mobile device. This change should be a smooth transition for you. We gave you sneak peek videos and made both sites available to you for the past 2 weeks. Some of you switched to .work and haven't looked back. This is your fair warning. When you log in to your normal tpsdb.com site on Tuesday, May 19th, the old will have become new. The .work site will no longer be available and everyone will be using the new UX. As always, in the interest of providing the best user-experience possible, we will continue to make improvements and changes to TouchPoint. We already have a list of enhancements that we want to add. It's a pretty long list!

Custom Header in New UX

Wed, 13 May 2015 11:51:00 GMT

Most churches have their own logo and tag line. So, you may wish to personalize your TouchPoint database by adding a custom header using your logo. If you already have a custom header, you may have noticed that it displays a little different in the new look. We have a great help article that will tell you exactly how to either revise yours so it looks great in the new UX or how to add a custom header if you do not have one already. Read more..

I Can't Believe We Forgot!

Tue, 12 May 2015 20:56:00 GMT

Boy, are we shocked and embarrassed! I can't believe we didn't remember to turn on the file upload (add attachments), automatic spell check, and undo/redo features in the new text editor. What were we thinking? But the good news is that we pay attention to our users (who are our best testers, by the way!). Thankfully, someone notified us of our omissions. We immediately got busy and added these into the new editor. Phew! See for yourself how easily these work. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_01yBFJGNw?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Crop Circle

Mon, 11 May 2015 15:16:00 GMT

Yes, that is a crop circle in the photograph. But, what I really want to tell you about is a circle that let's you adjust your personal photo in TouchPoint in the new UX. This is not technically cropping, because you cannot not resize it. You can move the circle up and down or left and right, depending on the orientation of your photo. You want to get the important part of your picture inside the circle. If your photo is not fitting nicely, and using this 'crop circle' does not give you what you want, just upload a new picture. By the way, the best type of photo to use on your people record is one that is head and shoulders...not just a head, and not an entire body. Click on your photo to edit. Move the circle until you are happy with the way it looks. Then click Save Crop.

New User Experience (UX) Option

Wed, 06 May 2015 11:11:00 GMT

alt="" width="182" height="277">We are very excited about TouchPoint's new UX, and now it is your turn to experience it! Your church's System Admin has had access to the new UX for several days, but now everyone can see what all the excitement is all about. This is more than just a new look; it is a new user experience. You will be able to work in either the old or the new UX, as both point to the same database. Before I tell you how to access it, I want to give you a word of caution: 1) Don't send emails with links from the new UX. 2) Don't assign Tasks from the new UX. 3) Don't copy registration links to post publicly from the new UX. Why? You will be using a temporary URL, so all links that are sent out should be done on the permanent URL - that is, your normal church URL. You can access it now by using tpsdb.work instead of tpsdb.com (or bvcms.com) in your church's TouchPoint URL. Remember, your church's system Admin for TouchPoint, has already been able to access this for several days. So, that person should be able to help you if you have questions about logging on. We have put many hours of thought and work into making this a better user experience for you. We hope you enjoy it! And a big thanks goes out to Brian and Mo who made this happen.

Kicking it to the Curb - Old Org

Tue, 05 May 2015 16:50:00 GMT

You have all had plenty of time to go back and forth between the Old Org and the New Org. And, we have heard so many positive comments about the features we added, that we know you are liking what you see. Therefore, it is time to remove the Use Old Org option. When you log on tomoritem, that option will no longer be there. Keep watching, though, we have even bigger and better changes to come!

Admin Settings, Special Content, SMS Messages - Sneak Peek 7

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 11:11:00 GMT

We have not forgotten about the system admins as we have been working on the new user interface. In fact, those pages are some of the ones I'm most excited about! Just because these pages are not seen by all of your users, is no reason for us not to make them look good and have the same consistency as we have throughout the application. Most of these Administration pages are probably accessed by only one user at your church - your System Admin; but, nonetheless, we want them looking and functioning their best. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Iz60t48qg?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

People Find and Manage Tags - Sneak Peek 6

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 11:21:00 GMT

You won't believe all that you will be able to do using TouchPoint on your iPhone, Android, or other mobile device! The entire application is quickly becoming mobile-responsive. It won't be too many more days before we make it available to you. Today's video shows you the People > Find page (and how it looks on a phone) and the Manage Tags page. The more you see, the more you will realize that this new user interface is going to be much more intuitive for you. And it's just easier on the eyes. Take 2 minutes to check out this video. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9ViKWcbVqA?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Email Details and Transactions Log - Sneak Peek 5

Mon, 27 Apr 2015 10:30:00 GMT

Sending email through TouchPoint is huge! Everyone sends email - administrative assistants, ministers, and even lay leaders . We have redesigned the Email Details page and I just love it. I think you will too. We are also including in this short video, a quick look at the Transactions Log. If you manage organizations that have online registration and have fees (such as trips, camps, teams, etc.) then you have probably seen the Transactions Log. Of course, those in the finance office heavily rely on this page, as do those with Manage Transactions role. The page is nice and clean and easy to use. The video is a fast-paced look a these two pages, just to whet your appetite for TouchPoint's new user interface. It won't be much longer before you can get your hands on it! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZhQb4sskSY?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Tasks and Contacts - Sneak Peek 4

Fri, 24 Apr 2015 11:10:00 GMT

Today, we want to show you a very quick look at creating a Task about someone and having someone else complete it with a Contact. We even show you how this looks if you were doing this on a mobile device. This new user interface is totally mobile-responsive. While this looks really nice and we have made some changes, this is not the total rewrite of tasks and contacts which will come later this year. The video is a little over 2 minutes. Take a look. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymlpDyc_MDw?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Search Builder - Sneak Peek #3

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:35:00 GMT

I couldn't wait to show you this terrific little feature for filtering / searching for conditions as you build your searches. It's worth 2 minutes of your time to watch this. I love it when we can add functionality that make processes easier to use! And, to top it off, everything works great on a mobile device. In yesterday's video,we mentioned the new keyboard shortcut. You can click the forward slash ( / ) from any page and open quick Search box . This is where you not only search for people or organizations, but it is also how you access Search Builder. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA9YhJES20g?rel=0&w=420&h=315] PS See response below for how easy it is to start a new search.

People Page - User Interface Sneak Peek 2

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 11:09:00 GMT

This next little video gives you a peek at the new interface as it looks on the people page. As an extra, you'll see a glimpse of a cool new search shortcut. Take less than 3 minutes to see how nice this page looks. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6dMTr9p_8c?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

New Mobile-Responsive User Interface - Sneak Peek 1

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 12:30:00 GMT

Yes, we are back with another series of very short sneak peek videos. This time the subject is our new user interface. Why a new interface? There are several reasons: Mobile-responsiveness - We are making the entire desktop application mobile-friendly. That means that every page, every dialog box, everything you do on your desktop has been re-designed to respond and work nicely on not only your desktop, but on any mobile device. Cleaner look - It was time for some sprucing up. In the spirit of spring renewal, we have been refreshing and giving a clean new look to everything in TouchPoint. Consistency - While we were putting on a new face, we have also been making things more consistent throughout the application. That will make a better user-experience for you. Efficiency - As we are making TouchPoint neater, cleaner, more consistent, and mobile-responsive, that, in turn, is making our use of screen space more efficient. The by-product should be a more efficient use of your time as a user. Spend a couple of minutes getting a glimpse at what is coming! And be sure to watch the rest of the series. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpBUaPoHQ-g?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Monthly Report - Tip from TouchPoint

Mon, 20 Apr 2015 11:42:00 GMT

What is the best way to review a group of classes (such as your Student Life Groups) to see each class's monthly attendance summary all in one report? We have several, but I think the Meetings by Month Report is a great one. Read more about this report and see a sample. Or click HERE for other reports. By the way - We will periodically feature tips for you. These will not necessarily be about new features, but will point you to something you may not know about, or may have forgotten. Not only do we continuously have new churches and new staff members using TouchPoint; but there is so much in TouchPoint, that even seasoned staff can forget some of the little gems that are there.

New SB Condition - Has Balance in Org

Tue, 14 Apr 2015 12:04:00 GMT

You can now, using Search Builder, specify a Program / Division / Organization (one, two or all three of those) to find individuals with balances due. This new condition Has Balance in Org on the Enrollments tab allows you to find those across multiple organizations that have a balance. USE CASE: You allow registrants to pay a deposit when they register online and then make monthly payments for music lessons or mother's day out. You want to email reminders prior to the payments being due. Now you can find everyone in your music program, for example, with a balance, and email them near the end of the month reminding them that their payments are due on the 1st of the month. Of course, you can also use the Member Export to see payment information for an individual organization. And you could use Search Builder if you want those people with balances in just that one organization you were viewing (In Current Org). We added this new condition to broaden the scope of what you can do relating to payments. Read more.. Remember, this is ministry software, not accounting software. However, with the existing features and this new condition, you can certainly allow monthly payments and send an email reminder that payments are due...and send only to those with a balance. Use the Member Export for each org or the Transactions Log to view the actual payments and balances.

VBS - Tips from TouchPoint

Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:19:00 GMT

Every year about this time, we like to remind everyone about some of the features in TouchPoint to help if your church has an annual Vacation Bible School (VBS). Below are a few articles that you might find useful as you plan and register children for this wonderful outreach to families. VBS Tips Sample Worker Registration Creating a Basic Online Registration VBS Followup VBS is all about teaching children about Jesus. TouchPoint is here to help make the administration easier, so you can focus on ministry.

No More Sneaking!

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 21:05:00 GMT

We are letting it all out. As of tomoritem, April 9, 2015, you will no longer have just crumbs to whet your appetite. You will have access to the whole enchilada! The old and the new organization pages will reside quite comfortably side-by-side for the next 30 days or so. Go to your username in the top right of the header, and select Use NEW Org to see all the wonderful features we have been blogging about. If you want to go back to the old, just do the same thing and select Use OLD org. We figure after 30 days, no one will want to use the old version anyway; so, we will remove it. If you did not take advantage of the sneak peek videos, it is not too late. We have them all in a playlist for you on our YouTube channel. Or just click below to begin watching with Sneak Peek #1. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLVXVBT6lVC4FaaVbIuNnn1oV7LojoOdM7&w=560&h=315]

Sneak Peek #6 - Settings

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 21:34:00 GMT

In previous videos, we have been showing you all about the tabs relating to People. Now we are moving on to the Settings. We have moved these tabs around a bit and added some really nice help features right there on the tabs. Some of the best new features are on the Questions tab. You will love how easy it is now to select and rearrange the items in your online registration. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mitguG4BL-8?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Sneak Peek #5 - Where Are the Buttons?

Mon, 06 Apr 2015 21:38:00 GMT

You may have noticed during these sneak peek videos that the buttons you use to Add, Add from Tag, or Update at no longer there. Not to worry - we moved them and improved them. This video shows you where to find these action links and demonstrates some of the new functions. If you manage any type of registration with a fee, you will want to be sure to watch this. One of the new features relates to transaction adjustments. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-A9LvmdAmk?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Sneak Peek #4 - Ministry Info

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 12:07:00 GMT

Our new organization page not only has a lot of flexibility, it also has more information available. This sneak peek video shows you how to view the last contact and an incomplete task for members, guests, or those on any tab right there within the organization. How helpful to see at a glance when someone has had (or needs) a ministry touch! By the way, you can also 'hide' guests or prospects if, for some reason, they are not a viable prospect. All of these features are specifically designed to help you as you work through your assimilation plan for those in your church. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OflTlgK9B3A?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

Sneak Peek #3 - Multi-tab View

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 17:06:00 GMT

Watch this latest sneak peek video to find out about another great new concept coming soon to a computer near you! This feature allows you to view more than one tab in the same list. Be sure to check out to the video to see how you can view members and guests (or any combination of tabs) in one list. Flexibility - that's what this video is all about when it comes to ministry. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOvJQexiRlM?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Sneak Peek #2 - Checkbox Filtering

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:55:00 GMT

Sneak peek video #2 isn't very long, but it demonstrates a really cool feature that you will love: how to easily select just a few people, or all but one person in your organization - and not have to create a Tag to do so. Watch now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOMk-qAgytU

Sneak Peek #1 - Filters

Mon, 30 Mar 2015 21:25:00 GMT

We will be releasing our new organization page very soon, and we want to you have a few sneak peeks before you actually see it in production. So, starting today, we are beginning a series of short videos that we hope will whet your appetite and get you excited about the upcoming changes. This first video shows the changes/improvements for filtering by name and sub-groups. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfmd4bscLfU

Posting a link for an online registration

Sun, 29 Mar 2015 23:30:00 GMT

Most online registrations are advertised on your website, so you want to post a link for people to register. It is really quite simple to find and copy the link you need, if you know where to look...and how to right-click using your mouse. Watch this 45 second video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFS94ofudU Read more..

Update Regarding Checkin

Fri, 27 Mar 2015 19:55:00 GMT

If you are your system Admin, you received an email yesterday about our latest update to the checkin software. We are posting this today, in case you are responsible for setting up your checkin computers and your Admin has not communicated with you. The next time you open Checkin, you will be asked to re-install checkin. Click the Install button. Then, you will need to re-enter or verify the appropriate settings that you use for your church. Login Page: Server Name is yourchurch.tpsdb.com - for example: Bellevue.tpsdb.com Username and Password. Printer - verify that the correct printer is selected. Settings page: Campus - verify that the correct Campus is selected. Early Checkin Hours and Late Checkin Minutes - select the settings you normally use. Be sure to select whatever checkboxes you normally use, such as Ask Emergency Friend, Ask Church, etc. We are sorry for any inconvenience. We just wanted to let you know before Sunday, in case you want to turn on your checkin computers and add those settings. They will get retained for the next time when you turn off checkin and restart it. My suggestion is to start you checkin computers today or plan to do so a bit early on Sunday. We just started all of our checkin computers our at church, verified the settings and re-entered any settings that were necessary. We had no problems at all, and we do not anticipate that you will have any either. Once you have started checkin, you will notice that the icon has changed from BVCMS Checkin to TouchPoint Checkin. For those using iPads: You do not change anything on the iPad. Just open checkin on the computer you are using as the print server and verify the settings as described above. As always, if you need anything, please contact us using the ?Help link in your TouchPoint database. Or just email support@touchpointsoftware.com.

Online Registration - Buying More Tickets

Thu, 26 Mar 2015 15:43:00 GMT

Has this happened to you? You have a registration for the Spring Luncheon, for example, and those registering are purchasing tickets, instead of registering every person who will be attending. Then someone comes to your office with cash or a check and wants to buy more tickets. What do you do? It is really quite simple. This 2 1/2 minute video show you exactly what to do, so that you have the correct number of purchased tickets and money received associated with the organization and the person buying the tickets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOubV7iZNyA Not familiar with using the Tickets option on the Question tab for online registrations? Read more..

Small Groups - Rebranded as Sub-Groups

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 20:05:00 GMT

You will not see this change yet; however, within TouchPoint, we have just renamed Small Groups. They are now called Sub-Groups. These are the groups that you can create inside an Organization. I refer to them as a wheel in a wheel. Why am I telling you this if you won't see it yet? Because we have some other major changes coming very shortly that relate to Organizations; and I want to begin giving you a heads-up about some of them. It's like whetting your appetite - an appetizer before the main course. You will love the changes! But no more about those yet. This post is about groups. We struggled with what to call these at the inception of this software a number of years ago. The primary use case was for smaller Care Groups inside large Sunday School Classes. We later realized that there were a lot of other uses for these, including groups created during an online registration. The name Small Groups just seemed the best option at the time. However, since then many churches have begun referring to their organizations for Bible study as small groups. Then we added the Small Group Finder, which was to help people find an organization, not a group inside a group. Oh, the confusion! We knew the time would come to change the name, and that time has come...or will come when we publish the new organization features. Stay tuned as I will be bringing more little appetizers to get you prepared for and, I hope, excited about, the changes to come.

Scanned Check Import - New Video

Tue, 24 Mar 2015 17:11:00 GMT

This has been a feature of TouchPoint for several years now. Many of our churches use this and love the time it saves them when posting contributions. They also enjoy the fact that the checks are electronically deposited, saving them a trip to the bank. Take just 2 1/2 minutes to watch Will's new video and see how it works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShFIdq23WWQ This feature uses the scanning hardware that your bank recommends or sells. TouchPoint just makes it easy for you to import the file you get online after making your deposits. If you have not used this feature, you will need to contact us and send us a sample file from your bank so we can make sure our import knows what format to expect. After that, you will be good to. Read more..

Find and Resolve Conflicts on Volunteer Calendars

Mon, 23 Mar 2015 21:21:00 GMT

No more volunteers getting double-booked and not being there when you expect (and need) them! We now have features in place for not only the person managing the Volunteer Calendar, but also for the volunteer himself to see at a glance where they have conflicts. The Volunteer Calendar indicates people and time slots with conflicts, as does the Meetings tab and, or course, the individual meeting page itself. For the volunteer (or anyone that can view that person's people record), all he has to do is click on his Involvement tab, then select Attendance and Show Future Meetings. Those meetings with conflicts will be shaded in red - showing both sides of the conflicts. From there, just decide which commitment should be eliminated. Perhaps the volunteer should just request a substitute, if the conflict is just for one or two times. If there are a bunch of conflicts, he can use his Manage Commitments page. Or the person managing the calendars may want to handle those conflicts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfkQXRyP3Rc Read more

How can you edit a scheduled email?

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 19:54:00 GMT

You were ahead of the game and got that important email composed and looking great. You even got it scheduled to go out next week. Then, as often happens, something in the details changed and that email is no longer totally correct and you need to edit it! Now what do you do? Will has created an excellent short video that walks you through exactly how you can keep that wonderfully formatted, beautiful email and yet change the necessary details. It is definitely worth 4 minutes of your time! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkD2Q7wCLRs?rel=0&w=560&h=315] This video is posted, along with a number of other videos, on our Youtube site.

Volunteer Calendar - New Small Group Filter

Fri, 13 Mar 2015 00:31:00 GMT

alt="" width="309" height="163"> Our last blog post featured the new automatic sorting and filtering that we added to the Request Sub and Request More Volunteers page. Along with that, we have added some further filtering on that same page. This filter uses small groups that have a special prefix of SG:. You create the small groups just like you would for any organization, just including the SG: in front of the name of the group. USE CASES: Your Volunteer Calendar is used to manage the Greeters for Sunday morning. Some greet at the North Entrance and some greet at the South Entrance. Create 2 small groups, naming them SG:North and SG:South. Then, whenever someone needs a sub, they can use the filter to find those volunteers who normally work at the same entrance. Maybe your calendar is used for Greeters and Baristas at your Sunday morning coffee bar. Create small groups named SG:Greeters and SG:Baristas so finding a replacement or extra volunteer will ensure you find someone that normally does that job. This filter is on the page where you compose the email either to Request Sub or Request More Volunteers. It is just below the body of the email. Read more..

Volunteer Calendar Get Sub - New Feature

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 15:29:00 GMT

New Schedule Email Option for Organizations

Thu, 05 Feb 2015 02:20:00 GMT

On the Blue Toolbar (when you are viewing an organization), there is now a new option - EMAIL > Current Members. When you make this selection and schedule an email to be sent in the future, the list of recipients is not generated until just before the email is to be sent. This is different from the way scheduled emails works elsewhere within TouchPoint. When you use Search Builder or a Tag to get your list of recipients, and then schedule a future email, the recipient list does not change. Use Case: We have an online Bible study, with new people registering throughout the entire semester. Study notes and links to videos, etc. are emailed to the organization members a couple of times a week. Now, those emails can be created far in advance, scheduled for the appropriate day / time, and the recipient list will be updated just before the email is actually sent. This gives you the benefit of always sending to the most up-to-date list of organization members. Those that are added / enrolled after the emails are scheduled, will still receive the email; and anyone who is dropped from the organization will not receive it. Read more..

New Logo - TouchPoint

Sun, 01 Feb 2015 21:30:00 GMT

NOTE: This was posted in Feb. 2015. Did you notice? We have changed our logo and our name on all church databases. Now it more visible that we are officially TouchPoint. This was actually a pretty innocuous change. If your church had a customized header on your database, you will not see the logo, except on the login page. All other churches will see the new logo in the header. This is what is looks like for our church database. We love the new name and our fresh new logo and hope you do too! We told you change was coming, and it has started. Not only did the the logo and name change over the weekend; but, as promised, we also switched all online registrations to the new default look. There is more change to come, so stay tuned!

Option for Inreach / Outreach Reports

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 22:02:00 GMT

This is a very cool feature that has actually been out there for a while, we are just now getting around to creating the help article and blogging about it. This feature lets you include certain Standard Extra Values on the Inreach / Outreach Report. These are in addition to the ones that currently display; those on a person's Entry tab. The feature works by using Extra Values and a Setting named EvCommentFields. You decide which Extra Values (Individual and/or Family) you would like to include on your church's report. They must be either Text (single-line) or Text2 (multi-line), and the name must be listed with that Setting. This is designed to be helpful when people are making Contacts - either visits or phone calls - and are using the printed reports, such as a church-wide visitation night. So, you would want to select those Extra Values (or create new ones) that contain information specifically related to reaching out to that person / family. You might want to create a couple of Extra Values for notes, naming them Note1 and Note2. These would be where you could enter information to help someone when they are trying to reach out to that family. For example: Directions about finding their house. Or information about when the person works and would be home for a visit. Don't forget to record the results of your contacts in your database to help the next person reaching out to that family. UPDATE 1/30/15 10:40 AM: The previous version of this post had the incorrect name for the Setting. Please see revised help article. The setting name is EvCommentFields. Read more..

Change Is in the Air for Online Registrations

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 18:09:00 GMT

We have published at least 2 blog posts letting you know that our default for online registrations will be changing. The last post about this said that we would be making this change at the end of January. Well, the end of January is almost here. We will make this change to all databases this weekend. So, here is what you need to do - absolutely nothing! Nothing except to be prepared for your online registrations to look better and to be totally mobile-friendly. Some of you have already been using this type of registration, because you checked the box for Use Bootstrap on the Registration tab. This box will disappear, as it will be automatically checked behind the scenes, and will no longer be necessary. This is just one of the many changes that are coming this year. Stay tuned! Subscribe to the blog post, if you haven't already; and always look at the monthly newsletter, so you do not miss hearing about new features. Some of these upcoming ones will be pretty significant. Read more..

New Search Builder Condition: Family Member Has Status Flag

Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:49:00 GMT

We have always said that using TouchPoint's Search Builder, you can find any group of people in your database that you want. If you couldn't, and if it was needed for ministry, we would add a new condition. That's just what we did in this case. The new condition is Family Member Has Status Flag. Create a search for a targeted group and then add this condition to find any family member of those in your search results that has (or does not have) a specific Status Flag. I think a use case illustrates it best. USE CASE: You lead high schoolers and are interested in how many of them that are involved in your ministry have family members who are not active attenders. Use whatever conditions you need to find your group of high schoolers. Then add the new condition "Family Member Has Status Flag", select the Status Flag "Active Attender" from the drop down menu, and set the comparison to "false". Voila! Now you know which of your high schoolers have other family members that are not active. Each church should have a Status Flag named Active Attender (because we put that in all databases). However, it may be named something else, or it may mean something different than it does for our church. Each church has control of its own Status Flags. This new condition can be used for any Status Flag in your database. Get creative! Take time to explore Search Builder. You may be surprised at how easy it is to use, yet has so much capability for ministry. It is not just to find numbers - it's always all about the people. Read more..

Another Mission Trip Link - For Website

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:27:00 GMT

In our previous post, we told you how you could copy and paste a Support Link straight from a person's Member Dialog. Now, we want to tell you about a support link that you can post on your website. This link is connected to a specific Mission Trip, and allows the donor to select a specific participant and make a donation to help reduce their balance, or to make a donation to the trip in general - in other words, not for a specific participant. Of course, the support email sent by a participant is the easiest for the donor, because it finds their record in your database, and saves them that step. However, this type of link can be posted on your website wherever you advertise your mission trips, and might garner some support from people that may not receive a support email from any of the participants who are going on the trip. Read more..

Mission Trip Support Link - in Member Dialog

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 13:33:00 GMT

We have recently been adding more and more functionality inside a person's Member Dialog for an Organization. You can do all sorts of things right from that box. Now, we have added one more thing. It is a Support Link that can be copied and emailed to someone that would like to make an online donation to help a person that is going on a mission trip. Several factors must be in place in order to use this link: 1) a person going on the trip must be enrolled in the organization; 2) the organization must be set up as a Mission Trip type of online registration; 3) the organization should have a fee associated with it. If you are familiar with our Mission Trip features, you know that those going on a trip can, from TouchPoint, email potential supporters. That email contains a different type of support link. If the supporter is in your database and they use a link emailed to them using that method, they do not need to find their people record. This new Support Link is designed when someone does not receive one of these emails (or has deleted it) and wants to support someone going on the trip. We put this in the Member Dialog to make it very easy for a staff member to send a link. By the way, just like with any support link, the donor can choose to also make a general donation to the trip. That is one that is not applied to a specific person's balance. Read more..

Opened Emails - New Search Builder Condition

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 16:49:00 GMT

The Email Details page for a sent email gives you all sorts of helpful information regarding tracking your emails, especially if you are using the email replacement codes {track} and/or {tracklinks}. For example, you can see how many have opened your email, and how many have clicked on any links you included. Along these same lines, we have added a new Condition in Search Builder named Opened Emails. If you are using the {track} code in your email (along with an image), you can use this Condition to find not only those that opened your email, but also those who did not. This will be useful to find those who receive your emailed newsletter, but never open it. You could them remove them from your list. You will want to read more about this Condition to make sure you use it correctly to get the desired results. Read more..

New CoupleName Family Extra Value

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:30:00 GMT

Yes, I know. Those of you that pay close attention probably realized that this feature has been available, but rather hidden away, for several months now. If you read the post about the Mailing Address feature and went to the documentation page to read more, you may have noticed the section about the CoupleName extra value. This Family Extra Value has actually been working for labels and exports since that time. However, we have made one notable change regarding this feature, and it is quite timely. alt="" width="310" height="162">Now, if you have a CoupleName as a Family Extra Value, this is the name that will be used for Joint Contribution Statements. This is true whether you print one statement or all statements. That is why we are blogging about this feature now. Read more..

Additions to Contribution Exports

Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:48:00 GMT

These are not big changes, but you may be interested in them if you work with contributions/finance at your church. The 3 exports that are run from the Totals by Fund page (Export Donor Details, Export Donor Fund Totals, and Export Donor Totals) now have the donor's Join Date next to their Member Status. The Export from Contributions > Search has the Join Date added, too. But it also has address information - Address (line 1), Address2 (line 2), City, State, Zip. We hope you find these useful. Read more.. Totals by Fund and Contributions Search

Family Picture Directory - New Feature

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 12:44:00 GMT

It's here - the new Family Picture Directory! Just find the group for which you want a directory (an Organization, Tag, or Search Builder results), and select the option from the Toolbar. That's how easy it is! There is no formatting necessary. The directory will open in Word with all Primary Adults and Children listed within each family. Family Photo If your church is like mine, many of your members are uploading their own family photos to their records. You can actually run a search to find out how many people have a family photo in your database. That condition is on the Family tab in Search Builder. Along with this new directory, you can use a Family Extra Value called FamilyName if you need to specify how a family's name will display. For example - if the husband and wife have different last names, you might not want the label to use the default and read The John Jones Family. You might prefer John Jones and Mary Williams Family. By the way, if children have different last names from the parents, both their first and last names will display. Thank you to Bobby Morgan at San Jose Church of Christ in Pensacola, FL, for taking the time to lay this out for us. Read more..

Credit Card Expiration

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 17:22:00 GMT

Do you have donors using credit cards for Online Giving? If so, you will be interested in the 2 Search Builder Conditions we added late last year. One Condition allows you to find anyone using a credit card for Managed Giving. The other Condition will find anyone whose credit card will expire within a specified number of days. When you combine these 2 Conditions, you can find donors that you may want to communicate with, letting them know that the credit card on file will be expiring soon. By alerting your donors, you can save them the inconvenience of their contributions failing due to an expired credit card. Read more..

Email Attendance Notices - Create Your Own Subject

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 13:08:00 GMT

I hope you are all using the Email Attendance Notices to let your teachers and other group leaders know who has missed and who has visited their class recently. Staying connected is vital to the health of any group, and this is a super-easy way to help your lay leaders keep up with their absent class members and guests. Some of you have been interested in changing the Subject of those emails. The default is "Attendance Reports Ready for Viewing"; however, by having your BVCMS Admin add a special setting in your database, you can create your own Subject. The Setting ID is SubjectAttendanceNotices. When this is added, you put your own text as the actual Setting. For example: Important: Your class Attendance Report or whatever you want this to say for all of your attendance notice emails. Read more.. PS If you are not sending this email notice to your leaders, you will want to check it out HERE.

The Blessing of Year-End Statements

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:26:00 GMT

Can you believe it is that time again already? Time to send those year-end contribution statements to those very important people - your donors. While sending them may seem like a chore, let's stop and think about what those donations mean. They are actually someone's act of worship to God. Yes, that money is used for ministry and for the day-to-day operation of the local church. But it starts in the heart of that donor who loves God and is obedient by giving freely from what God has given to them. alt="" width="2022" height="1147"> Maybe it's the small donation from a little widow, that you know was sacrificial...or the pennies and nickels of a child, whose parents are teaching what it means to give...or the very large donation from a wealthy businessman, that may be just as heart-felt as that of the widow. Regardless of the size of the donation, let's bear in mind as we print those statements and stuff those envelopes, that these are representations of someone's worship and obedience to God. This might be your first year to send statements via BVCMS/TouchPoint. If so, or if you want to check out some options you may not know about, please check out the help article on Contribution Statements. Read more..

Single Email Address Feature

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 14:56:00 GMT

Our normal method of sending emails via TouchPoint is to send to individual people, not to just an email address. However, there are some special instances in which you are sending an email, you know that there are multiple people in your recipient list that have the same email address, but you only want one email sent to each email address. If that is the case, and if you are sending an email that is not specific for the individual, you may want to take advantage of this new feature. For example: You have a search for children in multiple organizations, and most of them use their parent's email address. If you have more than one child in a family, the email will be sent to each of them. Using the new feature, you can send just one email per address. You will find this option in the blue Toolbar, under the envelope icon. The new selection is named "Single Email Addresses". Caution: Do not use email replacement codes in your emails if you are using this option, not even {track}. These are dependent on email being sent to an individual, not merely to an address. Read more..

Emails: Sending to 300 or More Recipients

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:12:00 GMT

We recently made a change in how we send emails through BVCMS when your recipient list is 300 or more. This now uses our batch processor, which runs every 5 minutes on the hour. This is a more efficient use of resources. The change you will notice is the message you see when you click the Send button. The dialog box will say "Your emails have been queued and will be sent". This is the same message you see if you schedule an email to be sent later. Also, the Send button will disappear to prevent you from sending the email twice to the same people. The difference between this and a scheduled email, is that your email will be sent within 5 minutes of your queuing it. In other words, the next time the 5 minute mark of the hour is reached after you click Send, the email will be sent. So, if you click Send (queue your email) at 9:01 AM, your email will be sent at 9:05. If it is 10:22 AM, it will be sent at 10:25 AM. Other than the message you see at the point you send your email, this really does not have an impact on you. However, we did want to explain it, so you would understand why the message is different. Remember, you can see the details of your email when you go to your record and click Emails > Sent and then click the subject of the email. You will see the exact time the email was queued, when it finished sending and how long it took.

Finance Users! New Option re Online Bundles

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 21:08:00 GMT

Currently, if you use BVCMS for your online giving, you know that a new Bundle gets created each day that you have any online contributions. So, you will have one Bundle per day, if your church receives online contributions every day of the week. For those churches that would like to keep their online Bundle open longer, we have added an option to allow you to specify the day and time that you want your online Bundle to get created. This will keep the bundle open for a week, instead of 24 hours. This is based on a Setting that your Admin can add to your database. If you are interested in this, you will want to read more in our article about Contribution Bundles (notice option 2 about Online Giving), and also about the Settings.

Organization Search / Manage - Changes Indicate Things to Come!

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 21:15:00 GMT

Did you notice the additions on the Organization > Search / Manage page? There is now a checkbox for Public View and there are more dropdown options under both Org Type and Online Reg. Org Type now lets you filter for online registrations that have fees (on the Settings > Fees tab) and those that do not have fees. Online Reg has three new options: 1) any registration; 2) any registration that is not a pick list (that is, it lists the Master Orgs for User Selects and Compute by Birthday); or 3) any active registration. The Public View checkbox will change the columns you will see on that page. Also, anyone with Edit role can edit the Organization's Description right there on the page, instead of going to each individual org. The information displayed is helpful for online registrations and for the Small Group Finder. However, the ultimate reason for these changes is to get prepared for our new mobile app that will be making its appearance sometime after the new year. That is why you will notice a column labeled App Order when you are in the Public View. This allows the Admin to set the order in which you want online registrations (you active events) to display to the public on that section of the mobile app. So, take advantage of these new features now, but also be watching for our brand new app! You are going to love it!! Read more.. PS We have a name change coming, too.

Bootstrap - Soon to Be Default for Online Registrations

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 20:20:00 GMT

In a previous post (back in July), we let you know about a new feature - using Bootstrap for online registrations. Well, now we are preparing to make Bootstrap the default for all online registrations. When will this happen? We are planning to make this the norm for registrations at the end of January, 2015. This gives you and your designer time to reformat your shells to use Bootstrap. We have a help article that contains a sample to get your started. Why are we doing this? Bootstrap has a cleaner look and is a more mobile-friendly way to present your registration form. In other words, someone using their phone or iPad to register for an event will have a much better experience if Bootstrap is used to present the registration form, because it will fit on their mobile device. What does this mean to you? This means that any old shells that you might have for registrations will need to be changed to the new Bootstrap format. The old shells will no longer be used. What happens if I don't do anything? Your registration will work and will look cleaner and more friendly on a mobile device. It will use a simple, unadorned default Bootstrap shell. However, you will probably want to create a default Bootstrap shell with your church's logo. Read more..

Special Online Giving Funds - New Feature

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 22:38:00 GMT

This feature is perfect for churches that have a lot of funds that they want to make available for online giving. It allows you to keep the few funds that most donors will give to at the top of the page, just like they are now. However, using this new feature, you can also have a drop-down menu under those funds, that will allow the donors to give to any of the other funds you make available. They can even start typing part of the fund name to go directly to that fund! All that is required, is for your Finance user to give these special funds an online sort ID # that is 100 or above. Then those funds will display in the drop-down menu for both onetime and recurring giving. But a video is better than words! Here's a minute and a half video showing what this looks like for your donors. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA3nS7p-pFA] Read more..

Search Builder Condition for Failed Emails

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 11:45:00 GMT

This new Condition named Has Failed Emails is on the Miscellaneous tab in Search Builder. This Condition will let you find anyone that has had a failed email since the date you specify. One use case would be to create a search to find everyone in a specific small group and add this new Condition to see who in your group has not been receiving emails. You can look at each individual's Failed Email tab to see the reason. Sometimes the problem is just a typo in the email address, and you can easily correct it. Maybe it is a bad/old address, and you can call to get the correct one. Or it might be a Spam Block that has been placed on that email address. If that is the case, you will want to read more about how to handle those special situations. Read more.. Of course, if you are the one sending the emails, you will receive a failed email notification. If everyone manages those as they receive them, you will greatly reduce the number of people with failed emails! Check out this new Search Builder Condition! Read more..

Search Builder Condition Regarding Managed Giving

Wed, 03 Dec 2014 13:03:00 GMT

More and more churches are making online giving available to their donors through BVCMS. This includes allowing donors to set up their online giving on a recurring schedule, so they don't ever have to worry about forgetting to write a check or take their envelope to church with them. As a result of this availability, more and more church members are taking advantage of this method of giving their tithes and offerings to their local church. It is also a great convenience for donors that give to your church, even though they do not live in your area or attend your church (other than viewing your services online). This saves them the added step of having to mail their donations. Because of this giteming interest in online giving, we have made several improvements relating to this. One of those is an addition to an existing Search Builder Condition. You can now find everyone who is using recurring giving and gives to a specific fund. The Condition is on the Contributions tab in Search Builder. When you include this Condition in a search, you have the option now of including a Fund ID # to naritem the search to just those whose recurring giving includes donations to that fund. USE CASE: Your church has a pledge drive to a Love Offering and you need to close the oldest Love Offering fund. This Condition allows you to find those with recurring online giving toward that fund you need to close, so you can notify them. They can manage their recurring giving and move their donations to the new fund before you close the old one. Read more..

Online Registration - New Multi-Line Text Field

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:27:00 GMT

Online Registration is probably the most used feature in BVCMS. So, we are always happy when we can announce another new feature. This one is a new Multi-Line Text question. We already had Extra Questions, which allow the registrant to enter text as their answer. This new addition presents the registrant with a larger text box, where they can basically type an unlimited amount of text. This will be helpful for cases in which you want someone's brief testimony, or anything that cannot answered with just a few words. Notice the difference in the image below. The top field is the normal Extra Question and the bottom one is the new Multi-Line Text field. Read more..

Custom Reports

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 21:47:00 GMT

We are happy to announce that reporting within BVCMS just became even more flexible! Along with the flexibility that our robust Search Builder provides, our first iteration of Custom Reports now allows you to create an Excel spreadsheet, exported from the system, with only the information that you need. We’ve already provided you with three example reports that illustrate the kind of information that you can produce with the Custom Reports. These reports are called “Email,” “Student and Parents,” and “AllColums.” You can run these reports from the Custom Reports section of the Cloud drop down on the Blue Toolbar anywhere that the Blue Toolbar is found. System Admins can learn how to create additional customer reports on our Custom Reports Help Article. Your new custom report will now show up in the Blue Toolbar, along with the others that we’ve provided you.

Important Notice for Finance and Admin Users re Failed Online Giving Notices

Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:53:00 GMT

BVCMS now has a feature that will allow each church to control which Finance users receive the notifications that are sent when someone's online giving fails. Currently, those notices are sent to every user with the Finance role in your church database. We just added a new setting to every database for churches using online giving. Your BVCMS Admin can change that setting from true to false if you want those notices sent just to those listed as the Online Notify Person/s on the Recurring Giving organization. You may be interested in taking advantage of the new feature if your church has users that have Finance role just so they can run contribution reports or oversee contributions. You may have just one or two users who are responsible for communicating with the donors, so they are probably the only Finance users that need to receive these notices. Read more..

New Meeting Feature for Admins

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 18:57:00 GMT

Mistakes happen. Sometimes a user will create meetings and record attendance (maybe for several organizations) before they realize that they created the meeting using the wrong date or the wrong time. This most commonly happens when someone creates roll sheets from the Organization > Search page without including the Schedule in the filter. Then they scan the roll sheets to record attendance, using that incorrect date/time. If you select a Schedule, the date/time will be based on the Schedule, and the Meeting date will be correct for the next upcoming meeting. However, if you do not select a Schedule or if the Organizations do not have Schedules, the default will use the current date with a time of 8:00 AM. All you have to do at that point, is select the correct date and enter the correct time. So, what do you do when meetings manage to get created and attendance entered for an incorrect date/time? You can create new meetings and enter the attendance again, then delete the incorrect meeting. However, sometimes, you just don't want to spend the time doing that. We now have a way for your BVCMS Admin to change the date and/or time on the meeting itself. Be forewarned, though - if the meeting has any Other Attends associated with it, those will still exist, even though the meeting for that date/time does not. So, if those are important to you, stick with the old way of deleting the meeting entirely and starting over. What's the takeaway here? Be cautious when creating meetings. If you follow proper procedures, they will be correct. But, if a mistake happens, there is a quicker way to fix it without having to recreate the meeting and enter all the attendance again. Read more..

New Option for Mailing Addresses

Fri, 07 Nov 2014 19:38:00 GMT

The new Mailing Address feature that we recently added has couple of important use cases. There are probably more, but these were the driving forces behind creating this. Use Case 1: PO Boxes There are certain parts of the country in which a family's physical address is not the same as their mailing address. Churches in these areas needed to be able to capture both addresses for a family - the physical address, so visits could be made and the mailing address, so they could receive mail. Use Case 2: Nursing Homes Most churches will fit this use case, because most churches have members in nursing homes or other facilities. Some of these will need their mail to go to their son or daughter's address; but they need a physical address in the database, so they can receive visits from the church. The Mailing Address feature is for the entire family and is accomplished by using a special Standard Family Extra Value. If this special extra value exists and has data in the proper format, that address will be used in the following outputs for everyone in the family: Address Labels Avery (pdf) Avery Addr (Word) Continuous Roll Labels Export Excel Mailing / Bulk (csv) Contribution Statements Statements (All) Statements generated from the people record This can be used for any family that wishes to receive their mail at an address that is different from their physical address - whether it is a PO Box, another street address, or perhaps their business address. Remember, this is just for mailing purposes, so other exports and all directories will use the physical address. Read more..

Online Registration 'Save Progress' Feature

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 19:40:00 GMT

You now have the option to set a flag on an online registration that will allow a registrant who has logged in to Save Progress, Finish Later. This will be extremely helpful in situations such as the following: Mission trip registrations that have long forms and ask for information that the registrant may not have handy. A person wants to register someone else, but needs more information about that person in order to complete the registration. The registrant does not have their credit card in front of them when they get to the payment processing page. In each of these cases (and many others, I'm sure), the Save Progress option would be very helpful. If the registrant selects that button instead of Submit, they will receive an email with a link that allows them to return and complete the registration later. After clicking the link, they will be presented with two options: "Continue with your registration", or "Start over with a new registration". There are a few important things to remember about this feature: The registration must have Use Bootstrap checked. The registration must have Allow Save Progress checked. The registrant must either receive a RegisterLink or log in. Use Bootstrap and Allow Save Progress are checkboxes on the Settings > Registration tab for an organization. Read more..

New Special Online Giving Option

Sat, 01 Nov 2014 18:05:00 GMT

Does your church periodically have a seasonal campaign to raise money for something, such as Christmas gifts for children in your area, the Gideons, camp scholarships for students during the summer, or maybe just a push to build up your benevolence fund near the end of the year? If so, you will be very pleased to hear about this new feature! You can now create multiple organizations with a Registration Type of Online Giving and enter a Fund ID on the Fee tab of the organization, so that a donor can give to just that one fund. Post the registration link on your website - just like you do for any other online registration or online giving. Better yet - why not email a SendLink to your donors or include one in your emailed newsletter? Not familiar with SendLinks? Check them out HERE. You may want to create just one organization for special giving and use it whenever you have one of these special campaigns. When the campaign is over, remove the link from the website and close the registration. When you are ready for another campaign, just change the Fund ID in the settings and communicate with your congregation both via email and on the website! If your church is not currently using BVCMS for online giving, you will be interested to know that we now have four types of registrations relating to online giving: Online Giving (for one-time gifts) Managed Giving (for those who want to set up a schedule for recurring giving) Online Pledge (to capture their intent to give a designated amount to a specific fund) Special Giving (for the above-mentioned seasonal types of campaigns) The first 2 types use the Online Sort that you specify in Fund Management. The Online Pledge and Special Giving types use the Fund ID you enter in the organization's settings (on the Fees tab). Read more..

Lay Leaders - The Church's Other Ministers

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:11:00 GMT

We all value those dedicated church members who teach, visit, make phone calls, send emails, greet guests, rock babies and communicate with their parents, and perform all those other tasks that keep the church going. They may not be ordained, but they certainly are ministers! Our mission at BVCMS is to give both staff and lay leaders the best tools we can to enable them perform that ministry. In that light, we have put together a couple of new videos designed to help lay leaders understand more about how to use BVCMS as they minister within the church. These are on our BVCMS YouTube channel, but you can also click below to view them. Lay Leader 101 is a basic introduction to show BVCMS lay leaders some of the ways they can use BVCMS to manage and minister to their class. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRjaoztf41U] Lay Leader 201 goes deeper and provides more tips for performing inreach and outreach for their class. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCfmPkgT_tk] Read more..

Headers for Standard Extra Values

Fri, 17 Oct 2014 11:25:00 GMT

Did you know that you can create an Extra Value that is not really an Extra Value? It is a Header. That means that you can separate Standard Extra values based on their type or purpose by using a pseudo Extra Value called a Header. If you have several Extra Values that relate to church membership and also some that relate to Spiritual Gifts, you might want a header named Membership and one named Spiritual Gifts. As you see in the image, these display in bold type to distinctly separate the different types of Extra Values. Extra Values with Headers You have the ability to order your Standard Extra Values by clicking the pencil icon above the list, in order to place them under the appropriate header. Read more

Stock Gifts - New Feature

Fri, 10 Oct 2014 16:01:00 GMT

We just added an additional way to record a gift of stock as a special type of Gift-in-Kind. This allows you to record this donation with a dollar amount (after you sell the stock). The gift displays in the Gifts-in-Kind section of the contribution statement, but the amount does not display. However, because there is an amount associated with it, that amount will be applied toward any pledge to the same fund. Contribution Bundle Type - Stock In addition to this new contribution and bundle type named Stock, there are other ways you can record stock. One way is to record it first as a Gift-in-Kind at the time of the donation (with no dollar amount) and then as a Non-Tax-Deductible gift after you sell it (with a dollar amount). The method you choose will depend on several other factors, such as whether you display non-tax-deductible items on the giving statement and whether or not the gift should be applied toward a pledge. Just be sure to check out the help articles relating to this, so that you make the best decision for your church and your donors. Read more..

More About Electronic Only Statements

Fri, 26 Sep 2014 21:16:00 GMT

We have added a help article to explain more about how your church can use the new Electronic Only feature for Contribution Statements. Read more..

New Contribution Statement Option

Mon, 22 Sep 2014 02:00:00 GMT

We have added a new option for contribution statements - Electronic Only. This can be checked for donors who prefer to log on and generate their own contribution statements instead of receiving the printed ones mailed out by the church. When statements are generated, those donors can be excluded. You would email them when the last quarter's contributions have been posted, so they would know when to log on for their statements. My Data users can edit this themselves on the Giving > Statements tab, which is also where they will generate their own statements. The setting is also located on the Profile > Member tab. Your church may want to send an email letting donors know of this new option, asking them to create a user account, if they do not have one already, and to set this option if they would like. Another option would be to send a VoteLink to existing My Data users, asking those who would like to generate their own statements to use the one-click link. The link would enroll them in an organization you have created for this purpose. Then, it is a simple matter for the BVCMS Admin to tag everyone in the organization and use Batch Update to set the Electronic Only flag for everyone at one time. Some churches may prefer to send every donor a year-end statement and take advantage of excluding those who opt-in for Electronic Only for the first three quarters of the year. Whatever method you decide to use to poll your donors in order to set this flag and however you choose to use it, this can be a cost-saving feature for your church and a convenience for your donors. Read more about Contribution Statements Read more about Electronic Only Option

Registration Title or Organization Name? You Decide!

Mon, 15 Sep 2014 18:52:00 GMT

For online registrations, you can now create a separate Registration Title that will display at the top of the page on the registration form in place of the Organization name. You will find this new field on the Organization > Registration > Registration tab. It is just located beside the Registration Type. If there is nothing in the field, the Organization name will display as always. Use Case: Your church has a camp for your students once or twice a year for which you use an online registration. The Organization, named Student Camp, is reused each year (or season) - dropping everyone and starting the registration again. With this new feature, you can keep the name of the organization the same (Student Camp), and use a Registration Title changing it for each registration to include, for example, the year and location - 2014 Beach Blast or 2015 Colorado Ski Retreat. Basically, the idea is that the Organization name stays fairly generic, which is useful when finding previous members over a span of years, but the Registration Title allows you be more specific on the online registration form. Read more..

New RegretsLink

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:10:00 GMT

New Meetings Attendance Report in Excel or Numbers

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 15:26:00 GMT

We now have 2 versions of the Meetings Attendance report. Both are accessed from Organization > Search / Manage page using the blue Toolbar > cloud icon. One opens under the Reports section and opens in your bitemser for an onscreen report. The other is under the Export Excel section and will open in either Excel or Numbers, depending on the program you have on your computer. For this report, you specify a date or a date range....and it displays multiple meetings...and it shows the attendance. This is why we renamed the report to Meetings / Attendance (date range). (Just between you and me, sometimes it's hard to come up with an appropriately descriptive name!) If you have never used the onscreen version, because you wanted to do more with the numbers; you may want to check out the new Excel/Numbers version. Or, if you are not using it to create a graph or subtotals, you may really prefer the onscreen report. I love both of them for different reasons. Same data, just different delivery. Read more...

New Login Page and Links

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 18:17:00 GMT

Did you notice the new Login page for BVCMS? We are continuing to make changes on some of the older pages within BVCMS, making them sleeker and more user-friendly. We have already heard from some of you with positive comments about this latest change! Thank you for those. Notice that there are 2 links: Need an Account? Request a password Forgot your Password? Get a new one Both of these take the user to a page where they can enter their email address or username. They will then be sent an email with their username and a link to set their password. The on-screen message after they click the initial link, says for them to contact the church if they do not receive an email shortly. The reason they would not receive an email is either that they do not have an email address on their record, or that the email address is incorrect on their record. When you receive one of those calls from someone trying to create an account, you have a responsibility to verify that you are indeed talking to the right person, before you change (or add) an email address on someone’s record. Why be cautious? If someone calls the church, pretending to be another person and you change the email address for them, that impersonator can now access the other person’s giving record, family information, etc. So, how do you handle these calls? It’s really pretty simple. Just ask the person to verify some information about themselves. Ask for their date of birth, phone number, address or perhaps the name of their Life Group leader. You might even ask them to give you the name of their spouse or child, it applicable. Once you feel confident that you are speaking to the right person, you can add or correct their email address. Then direct the person to use the same link they tried earlier to set up their account.

The Blue Toolbar Replaces "Other Management" and "Exports/Reports" Menus

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 11:25:00 GMT

In our ongoing effort to provide consistency and ease of use throughout BVCMS, we have made even more changes with regard to the blue Toolbar. We have moved your cheese, but you are going to be very pleased with what we've done. All the options that were previously accessed via Other Management or Exports/Reports are now on the Toolbar, where we were able to group the items in a logical manner and to use color to make it easy to find what you need. Because of that move, we also added the Toolbar to a couple of pages where it did not exist before: Organization > Search/Manage page and Organization > Meeting page. If you click Other Management or Export/Reports now, there is a prompt letting you know that everything has been moved to the blue Toolbar. Eventually, we will remove those menus completely. This is a big change, so you will want to take a look at the Blue Toolbar help article, as it is chock full of information about how to use the Toolbar, how everything is laid out now, and more. Read more.. PS This article also contains many links to other help articles, some of which may not have been completely updated yet, as we are still in the process of redoing all of our help articles. So, continue to bear with us a bit longer as we work to finish that project.

New Finance-Related User Role

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 17:39:00 GMT

This will be of interest to System Admins as well as those users who manage contributions and have the Finance role. We recently added a new role named FinanceAdmin. Before we added this role, only a System Admin with Finance role could re-open a closed contribution bundle. That is by design to provide checks and balances. This protects not only the church, but also the users that deal with contributions. In other words, someone else would be aware that a bundle that has already been closed is being re-opened. With this new role, however, a Finance user can be given the new FinanceAdmin role, and they will be able to re-open a closed bundle. Perhaps your church has one person that normally enters contributions and another who needs has the Finance role in order to view contribution reports. You may want to give that second person the new role, so that they would be able to open those closed bundles when necessary. Basically, this new role removes the responsibility of re-opening closed bundles from the System Admin and allows you to keep that function within the finance office. Your church can determine if you want to use this role or not. Remember, only a user with both Admin and Finance can assign the Finance role. Read more..

Closing Classes for Checkin

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 10:59:00 GMT

It's a good thing! Having classes that are full, that is. So, the question is this: "During checkin, how can you keep from adding guests to those full classes?" The answer is simple. Go to the Organization > Settings > Registration tab and check the box "Class Filled". Once that box is checked, those classes will not display when you are looking for a class for a person to visit. They will not even display if you press the 'Magic Button'. This checkbox was designed for use with online registrations, but works for checkin as described. Remember, we also have the 'Suspend Checkin' option, which will not display the class initially; but will display it if you press the 'Magic Button'. So, you see, BVCMS has a couple of ways for you to manage your classes during checkin, if they are so full that you want to direct guests to other classes. Read more..

Online Registrations: Waive or Lower Deposits for Individuals

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 10:58:00 GMT

This happens at our church, and it probably happens at yours, too. There are times that you want to allow an individual to register online for an event without having to pay the Deposit at the time they register. They will still be required to eventually pay the full fee, but you do not want to require that they make a Deposit in order to register. Or, you may want to allow them to pay a reduced Deposit, keeping the total fee the same as it is for everyone else. Help has arrived! We just created a new Ad Hoc Extra Value with special functionality. When you add this special Extra Value to a person's record, they can register online for a specific event and pay either a reduced Deposit or no Deposit at all, depending on what you put in the Extra Value. This is documented in the Fee Settings article, in the tip entitled "Waive or Lower Deposit Amount". Read more..

Manual Payments and Fee Adjustments

Sun, 03 Aug 2014 21:53:00 GMT

Previously, when a person brought a check or cash to the church to pay for an event that was actually an online registration, you created a coupon and had them use that code on the payment page instead of making their payment online. Also, there were times when a person paid their deposit online, but wanted to make subsequent payments using a check or cash. In those case, you also had to create a coupon and have them use that with their paylink. There were even scenarios in which the fee actually changed after someone had already registered online, and you needed to adjust the balance they owed. All of those scenarios and more are now handled using the new Transaction button on the person's Member Dialog. I will not go so far as to say that you will never need coupons again, but it will greatly reduce the need for them. Also, it makes the process much easier for both you and your registrant. You will want to read all about it, in order to understand everything you can do with this little green button. Read more..

New Email Feature - Email Child and CC Parents

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 15:27:00 GMT

Blue Toolbar - Now Everywhere!

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 10:28:00 GMT

Manage Tags and Organization pages now have the same 'new' blue toolbar that made its debut on people records and in Search Builder when we released the new user interface in January. This makes the look and functionality of our toolbar consistent throughout BVCMS. Also consistent is the location. The blue toolbar is now located in the top right corner of all the pages where there is a toolbar. This new style has the same options as the old toolbar. However, these options are displayed in a more logical and user-friendly manner. If you are already familiar with the toolbar on people records or on Search Builder, you will feel right at home when you use it on the Manage Tags or Organization pages. Along with this change, is a slight change to the look of the header section on Organizations. We hope you enjoy these changes. It may appear small, but it is very big in functionality! Read more..

Pardon our Dust

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:47:00 GMT

Denoting Deceased in Family List

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 12:27:00 GMT

If you have ever looked at the people record for a deceased person in your database, you know that we display their name in the header (AKA the business card section) with a red block around the name. This catches your eye, so that you immediately see that the person is deceased. We also display the deceased date in red text. Now, if you are viewing the people record of any family member of a deceased person, you can see at a glance that a family member is deceased. We are now displaying that deceased person’s name in red in the Family Members list (on the right side when viewing a person’s record). We think that adding this visual aid in the Family List will be helpful to you as you minister to families within your church.

Problems with the Address Matching System on June 26

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 22:47:00 GMT

For those of you who may have experienced problems with entering addresses on Thursday, we want to inform you that we worked on it all day long! It is now fixed. For those of you interested in the gory details—there were two problems: The original problem was an old file that expired yesterday. But we did not know this until later in the day. The second and more pernicious problem was one we created as we were trying to figure out the first problem. Then after we figured out the first problem, this second problem was causing problems that was masking our understanding of the first problem. After finally talking with a programmer at USPS late in the day, we got a clue about the second problem that we caused earlier today. Which meant we had two problems but were only looking for one. The problem we caused today while working on this, was that we deleted a configuration file that had customer keys in it. Furthermore, the system was automatically creating the file again, but without the keys. Once we figured that out, we restored it from the recycle bin and everything started working again because we had already solved the original problem. The remainder of the issues were that my work arounds did not really work either. So all is well but we learned a lesson about our Address Matching system that has been working fine for 5 years with no problems. We need to have a graceful fallback if it ever stops working like it did last night. So sorry for any trouble this may have caused you.

A Couple of New Email Replacement Codes

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 11:29:00 GMT

Scenario: You had an online registration with a fee and allowed the registrants to pay a deposit. Now it’s time to remind everyone to pay off the balance, but you know that many of them will not be able to find their email confirmation with the paylink. Solution: Email the members directly from the toolbar on the organization and use any or all of the new email replacement codes: {paylink} {amount} {amtpaid} {amtdue} Learn more (see Use Case #2 in the section for Special Use Cases for Regular Emails)

Faster and Easier to Use Enrollment Control Report for iPhone/iPad

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:16:00 GMT

You need to check out the newest version of the Enrollment Control Report for iPhone / iPad! It is so much and easier and faster. Now, instead of tapping the first letter of the last name of the person you are looking for, you just find the button with the appropriate first 2 letters of their last name. Click the button to see only those who last names begin with those 2 letters. This has removed much of the scrolling that was necessary if you had a very large group of names. Why did we make this change when we did? Yesterday was the first day of our church’s VBS, and we have over 3,000 people who attend each day. You can imagine how many parents might forget to bring their child’s room assignment email with them. Which means that there are quite a few people who need help knowing to which class their child has been assigned. BVCMS has the bonus of having a developer that actually uses the product in real situations - such as day one of a huge VBS! When we realized that, at least for our church, there was a lot of scrolling involved to use the iPhone / iPad Enrollment Control Report, David decided he could make it better. Which is exactly what he did! I LOVE this new enhancement and I know you will too! And, by the way, this is not just used for Vacation Bible School. It is especially helpful on Promotion Sunday as well. Learn more.

New Email Replacement Codes

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:20:00 GMT

We just added 3 new replacement codes that can be used in emails sent from search builder. They are as follows: {orgmember:orgname,divid} {orgmember:leader,divid} {orgmember:location,divid} In each of these, you would replace divid with the ID # for the Division. One use case would be for Vacation Bible School. You build a search to find everyone who is enrolled in the same Program and Division (but in different classes), and then send an email to everyone giving them the name of the organization name (class), the leader, and/or the location of the organization in which they are enrolled. Of course, if you move people into classes using Org Members Management, there is a feature there for you to send a system-built email with all of that information. However, you may not want to include all 3 items. So, this is a perfect solution. Also, even if you have already sent the email room notices, these new codes allow you to send one reminder to everyone that will give them their individual room information. NOTE: Be sure everyone is enrolled in only one class within that Program and Division. Learn more...see section entitled Replacements for Members of a Division

New Member Info Export

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 12:39:00 GMT

We just created a new Excel export that gives you everything you always wanted to know about a group of people in relation to their church member status. This new export has a column for all of those fields you see on a person’s Profile > Member tab. This is just a snippet of what it looks like. Obviously, it has more columns than we can display here. Learn more

Feature for Re-Sending an Email to a New Group

Wed, 28 May 2014 10:56:00 GMT

Do you ever need to send a previously sent email to a different group of recipients, but you did not save it as a draft? Sometimes, it might just need to go to one or two more people, other times, to another larger group. Regardless of how many need to receive the email, you want them to receive the same nice-looking email you composed originally. We have the solution for you! It revolves around a little link on the Email Details page that you may have overlooked - Email Content: View HTML Source. Using this little link (and copying and pasting) has saved me so much time by giving me a very simple way to take a nicely-done email and send it to another group of people, without losing any of the formatting. Check it out! You may find this helpful, too. Learn more.

New Mission Trip Online Registration

Mon, 26 May 2014 22:51:00 GMT

We recently completed a very special type of online registration designed specifically to benefit mission trip participants (Goers), mission trip supporters (Senders), and the staff or lay leaders who are the administrators for those trips. Here are some basics premises relating to this type of registration that you need to understand before going any further: This is an online registration feature, so it works best when fees and donations are made online using credit card or ACH transactions. This is also a feature for the behavior of how members of the organization are managed as well. There are special small group designations (Goer and Sender) and ways to enter checks and cash for Senders. Every fee paid by the registrant (the Goer) is automatically recorded as a tax-deductible donation. Every donation made by a supporter (the Sender) is recorded as a tax-deductible donation. A Donation from a Sender is paired with the Goer and reduces the goer's balance. Registrants can monitor their balance at any time. Registrants can use BVCMS to send potential supporters an email containing a register link making it so easy for the sender to donate online. Supporters can also be directed to a giving page using a link posted on Facebook or somewhere else. However, the previously-mentioned method with a register link in a supporter request email is much more convenient for the donor, since they don’t have to find their record or login (they will already be logged in when they click the link in the email). With the Facebook link, they would not have the convenience. There is a lot more related to this type of registration. So if your church sends people on mission trips, you will want to check out this wonderful new online feature! Learn more

Status Flags - Protected by Role

Wed, 21 May 2014 11:48:00 GMT

Status Flags have many uses and can now be protected with a special user role, so that only certain users can see them. All Status Flags start as searches that are saved using a special naming convention, and these searches are automatically run every morning at 4:30 to find everyone who fits that search. A brief description of where you find Status Flags: Status Flags display (using the name of the saved search) on people records under the membership information on the Profile > Member tab. Status Flags also display on the top portion of the people record as badges, if your church is using this feature. The People Search page has a filter for Status Flags, so you can quickly find those with specific flags. There is also a condition in Search Builder to allow you to search by one or more Status Flags. The Status Flag Export, which can be run for any group of people wherever you see the blue toolbar, is another tool for using Status Flags. Now, that we have briefly touched on Status Flags - what they are and where you find them, I want to tell you about another feature of Status Flags. You can protect any Status Flag with a user role that is tied directly to that specific Status Flag. This ensures that only users with that role will be able to see that a person has that Status Flag. If you want to protect more than one Status Flag, you would create multiple roles - one role for each protected Status Flag. Examples: You may want to identify those who are donors to your church, but you would, of course, not want everyone seeing that flag. Or, you may want to create a search for those formerly active members of your church whose attendance is dropping. You would not want every user to see that either. Learn more..

Convert to Search: Email Recipients

Tue, 20 May 2014 16:45:00 GMT

We have added another Convert to Search link in BVCMS. You may have noticed it already. It is on the Email Details page and will take you to a search for all the recipients of that email. That is quite helpful if you want to send a followup email to that same group of people. Some of you may not realize that by clicking the subject of an email you will see more details about that email. We call that the Email Details page. You have this option whether you are viewing emails in the list on a person’s individual record or viewing the entire list of emails sent by your church via BVCMS. There are a number of very helpful items that are on that details page. This new Convert to Search feature is just one them. Learn more..

Spell Check in BVCMS Emails

Tue, 13 May 2014 20:42:00 GMT

CKEditor is the product we use for creating and editing the body of emails in BVCMS. Many of you depend on the spell check feature in order to ensure you do not send out emails with mistakes. If you are one of these users (I am!), you may have noticed that part of this function is not working. The problem is with the third party company that CKEditor uses to do spell checking. That product is free, because it works with advertising. However, you can still click the spell check icon and Enable SCAYT (spell check as you type). That should suffice for now. Even though it says it says ‘as you type’ it still checks the entire document (in case you do not enable this until after you have typed your email) and puts the red squiggly line under potentially misspelled words. When you see that, you can right-click and see their suggestions. If you have never used this feature, see the image of the toolbar below. Notice the ABC with the check under it. Click that and then select Enable SCAYT.

Contribution Statements and Non-Tax Deductible Gifts

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 20:45:00 GMT

If your church records non-tax deductible gifts on the giving records of your donors (giving through a foundation, for example), you will be interested in this latest feature. By adding a special setting to your database, you can now have these print on the contribution statement in their own special section. There are other options for printing statements as well. Learn more

New Search Builder Condition - Need Attendance

Fri, 11 Apr 2014 14:16:00 GMT

Do have you groups that meet off-campus and whose leaders are responsible for entering the attendance for their classes? If so, do you ever find that those leaders sometimes need some gentle prompting to get that done? If you answered “yes" to those questions, this new condition is just what you need! Even if you did not answer “yes" you may still want to use this condition. Once you run the search, you can email those leaders in the results reminding them to enter their attendance. The Condition is named Need Attendance and is found on the Recent Attendance tab in Search Builder. Learn more

UPDATE: Yahoo Mail problems

Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:58:00 GMT

We have taken steps to improve deliverability for your emails to and from yahoo.com. This was published yesterday afternoon and so far, it seems to be working well. Basically here are the changes that only affect emails that either come from a yahoo.com address or are sent to a yahoo.com address. No other email domains will work differently than they did before. Let’s take for example an imaginary person, Bob Roberts bobr@yahoo.com. When Bob receives an email from your bvcms database, the From address for the sender will be “Julia Wood mailer@bvcms.com”Note that it comes from a generic bvcms.com address If Bob were to reply to the email, it would be addressed to “Julia Wood jwood@fbchurch.org”Note that it goes to her real address When Bob (who is also a teacher/user of bvcms) sends an email through bvcmsthe From address will be "Bob Roberts mailer@bvcms.com”and the recipients address will be normal When the recipient replies to Bob’s email, it will go to Bob’s yahoo.com address. So, the only difference is the mailer@bvcms.com address which allows us to get around yahoo’s new policy. We are continuing to monitor this and want you to let us know if you have any further problems (other than the typical bounces and spam reports).

Yahoo Mail problems, it is not just us

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 14:14:00 GMT

For the time being, all email going through bvcms to and from emails hosted at yahoo.com will have problems either bouncing or simply not reaching the recipient. It is not just us! See the article below from Constant Contact. We are investigating what else we can do, but it is impossible to reach yahoo right now. We’ll keep you informed as we know more. David

New Monthly Attendance Report

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 20:35:00 GMT

Check out this new Monthly Meetings Report! You generate it for a group of organizations from the Organization > Search / Manage page. This is a great, easy-to-read report. It contains all the organizations in your list, the attendance for each meeting of the month in addition to the average for the month selected. This is a very quick way for a minister, at the end of the month, to check the attendance for a group of classes for which he is responsible. I like to filter by Program-Division-Schedule, but you can use whatever works for you. Learn more

Ticketing Attendance - Family Attendance and Status Labels

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 17:54:00 GMT

We have been tweaking Ticketing Attendance recently for a special use case - recording individual attendance for a large gathering (such as a worship service) where you have a list of names, not a roll sheet. For example: Everyone attending worship signs a book and passes it down the item. Therefore, the names are in no particular order and you must record their attendance by entering each person’s name. A few months ago, we added two new features to this type of attendance recording. 1) Because families typically sit together, one feature is related to recording attendance for family members. Now, when you enter the name and find one family member, we are displaying the other family members. And we added checkboxes so that you can mark each one present without having to find each person individually. 2) We are also now displaying beside the person’s name, their status as it relates to the organization - whether they are a Member of the group (organization) or a Visitor. Both of these relate to one of our previous enhancements - recording attendance by name using Ticketing Attendance. If you missed the blog post, click HERE to read more. Click HERE for the help article about Ticketing Attendance.

Happy! Happy! Happy!

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 20:15:00 GMT

Sometimes, I just want to blog about something in BVCMS that makes me HAPPY! It isn’t a huge new feature, although it is part of the new user interface that we rolled out earlier this year. It does not dramatically change my methods or processes or work flow. Nor does it make my lunch! It is actually something that you might have overlooked. What is it? It is the new search box at the top of the drop down lists on Search Builder conditions. I love this new feature! Most drop downs have just a few options, so it is very easy just to click on the one you want. However, for our church, just selecting a Program or a Division or an Organization can present a very long list. With this new feature, I just type in Life Groups or Women’s Ministry and I no longer have to scroll down through a bunch of options. You will probably appreciate this feature the most when you are selecting a School, Employer, or an Occupation. Oh, I almost forgot about Extra Values! Most churches will eventually have fairly long lists of these. If what you want to select is near the end of the alphabet (veterinarian for example), you no longer need to scroll down to select it. Just type veterinarian in the search box and it will be right there. I’ve often said, “It’s the small things in life that can really make me happy.” This is definitely one of those small things that makes me extremely happy and I just had to share that with you.

Vacation Bible School Is Just Around the Corner

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 18:03:00 GMT

We have not even celebrated Easter; and yet many of you have already begun your preparations for VBS. There is a lot to do in addition to planning the curriculum: enlisting workers, registering the children, planning the follow-up, and more. We know that you are getting ready, because we get questions from you. “What is the best way to set up the online registration?” “Can or should we use checkin?” Rather write a blog post answering the questions, we created some help articles that you might be interested in reading: General Tips for VBS Registration Sample Registration for Enlisting Workers VBS Followup Suggestions We pray that you find these articles helpful and that you have an inspired and fruitful Vacation Bible School this year!

Easy Way to Create Meetings for Multiple Organizations

Mon, 31 Mar 2014 20:54:00 GMT

For most organizations that track attendance, you do not need to manually create meetings. The meetings are created based on other factors. For example, if the organization has a schedule and you want to use checkin, the meeting will display in checkin based on the schedule. Also, if you are printing rollsheets, the meeting is created when you scan the meeting bar code to record attendance. However, there are times when you need to create a meeting for several organizations that meet on the same date and time and do not fall into either category mentioned above. Until now, the only way to create an ad hoc meeting was to go to each organization and create the meeting there - one organization at a time. That can get rather tedious if you have a lot of organizations. With this new feature, you can now create a meeting for each of the multiple organizations at the same time! Read more about How to Create a Meeting for Multiple Organizations Watch for our next post: Tips for Vacation Bible School. This new feature is just in time to be a huge help with VBS as it eliminates the need to use the ANY type of schedule and yet have the meetings available for checkin.

Just Added Records - One Click Change

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:13:00 GMT

If you are the person who is either the New People Manager or the Membership Coordinator for your church, you will have noticed the new button Set Just Added to Not Member. Previously, the person with Membership role would click Edit, manually change the Member Status from Just Added to Not Member and then Save Changes. Now the procedure is literally just one click! You do not even click Edit. Just click the new button and it’s done! So, why did we change it? One reason, was to make it extra easy - one click. But also, because Member Status is so important, we did it to prevent a user from accidentally changing the Member Status from Just Added to something they did not intend, such as Member or Previous Member. New records are normally created because a person visits something, makes a donation, enrolls in something, is contacted by someone from the church, or is added to a family when there is a birth or a marriage. Therefore, in almost 100% of these case, they should have a Member Status of Not Member. So, as you see, having the one-click way to change the Member Status is not only quicker and easier, but also helps prevent mistakes. A big THANKS to those of you who have noticed this and have let us know how much you like it!

Tasks and Contacts: Did You Know...?

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:41:00 GMT

New Reports for Worship Attendance

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 19:48:00 GMT

For those churches that track individual attendance in their main worship service and who track individual attendance in main fellowship classes, we have a couple of new features. Both of these require a new setting in your database. The setting ID is WorshipId and the actual setting is the organization ID for the worship service for which you want to track attendance. Here are the new features: Worship Attendance Report This report gives attendance averages for individuals for both their worship attendance and their main fellowship class attendance for 12, 26 and 52 weeks, as well as the attendance string for worship. Read more about the Worship Attendance Report. Recent Absents Report 2 While the Recent Absents Report is not new, there is a new feature that provides a link on the Recent Absents Report for a main fellowship class (or any other organization) to a Recent Absents Report that looks at worship attendance for the same group of individuals. Read more about the Recent Absents Report 2 for worship. Thank you to our friends at 2nd Presbyterian Church in Memphis for sponsoring these great new features!

Two New Videos Relating to Tasks in New UI

Sat, 08 Feb 2014 23:58:00 GMT

Tasks and Contacts are each very important tools to aid in ministry using BVCMS. That’s why we have two new videos demonstrating tasks with the new user interface: Create Tasks and Accept and Complete Tasks Just click the play button to view or click the YouTube icon in the footers of each video to view on YouTube. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNxpX5Am4nk] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zROCDLDbKfY] We hope these videos aid you in reaching out to your church and your community.

Very Short Video - Recording Contacts

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 18:26:00 GMT

This 2 minute video shows you a shortcut for recording a Contact if you are the person who made the contact (that is, the minister) and if the person contacted is already in the database. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edM4hDcYI2Q] Remember, you can check out our other videos at our BVCMS YouTube channel.

New "How to Record a Contact" Video in New UI

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:30:00 GMT

We have just uploaded a new video demonstrating how to record a Contact when using the new user interface. There are subtle changes from the old UI, so you may want take a look. Click below to view the video. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlMhlcFvoBc] Also, check out the other recent videos relating to the new UI on BVCMS YouTube channel. Better yet - subscribe while you’re there!

A Few New Items for Finance Users

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 00:59:00 GMT

I am combining these items in one blog post because they relate only to those users with the Finance role. Click the links below to read more about each item. Envelope and Statement Options - You can now edit these on a person’s record (in addition to those with Membership role). We also display them in two places in the New UI: on the Profile tab and Giving > Statements tab. Just click the pencil to edit. Default Bundle Type - You can now have your System Admin change the type of Bundle that displays first when you are creating a new bundle. Giving tab - There are several options under this tab. Any user, including your My Data users, can access these links on their own record: Manage Your Recurring Giving and Make a One-Time Gift. Regarding the Giving tab features - you will probably want to publicize this to your donors who give online, so that they know about the new easy access to either make a donation online or to manage (or set up) recurring giving online. Of course, any user with any type of user account can now print their own contribution statements. If your church uses a third-party vendor for online giving, your system admin can customize the message on the Online Giving tab, providing links to that provider - where, of course, the donor would need to log into that account. We mentioned this in a previous blog.

New UI - People Record Video

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 04:09:00 GMT

Click HERE to view the latest BVCMS video on YouTube. This one takes you through every aspect of a people record in the New UI. Please take the time to watch this so you are not left in the dark about any of the new features that we have implemented. If case you missed them, there are several other videos on our BVCMS YouTube channel relating to the new UI. These are in addition to the other training videos. Why not just subscribe so you will be notified whenever we upload a new video? www.youtube.com/bvcms

Member Member

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 02:38:00 GMT

New Stuff, Stuff We Forgot, Bugs We Squashed

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:02:00 GMT

New Videos - Search Builder and Toolbar

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:28:00 GMT

We just uploaded a couple of videos to our YouTube site at www.youtube.com/bvcmscom. Click below for the specific videos. Search Builder New UI The video demonstrates the changes we made to Search Builder in the new user interface. Please take a few minutes and watch this as it will answer most of your questions and will show you how to find your saved searches, create a new search, copy and paste conditions and/or groups, and more. You may be surprised at how user-friendly we have made Search Builder. Toolbar New UI This short video points out the places where we use the new version of the toolbar and what you will find there. By the way, did you know that you use the toolbar when you need to split a person from their existing family? The video also points out where the toolbar is still basically the same as the old UI. We will produce at least a couple more videos highlighting changes from the old to the new user interface, and will blog whenever we post a new video. However, you can also subscribe to the bvcmscom channel on YouTube and be notified via email whenever we post a new video. I hope you find these videos helpful as you navigate BVCMS in the new UI.

Extra Values Video

Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:10:00 GMT

It is here - the promised video about Extra Values! This has been uploaded to our BVCMS YouTube channel along with the other videos we posted about the new UI. Click HERE to view it. There has been a huge change from the old UI to the new UI, especially in how you create Standard Extra Values, so you will want to take a look at this video to see what has been changed. Every church’s System Admin for BVCMS will need to convert the Standard Extra Values on your database, but it is SO easy. It really is just one click for each extra value that you want to convert. Remember, all of your previous extra values still exist in your database. The video shows you where they are and how to convert them in the new UI. The video also shows you how to create new Standard Extra Values. You will not believe how easy it is now! A few points to remember: The checkboxes from the old Gitemth tab are now Standard Extra Values and can be edited by each church. These information card checkboxes are located under Profile>Entry on the people records and have a prefix of IC, for Information Card. Any user with Edit role can edit the extra values on a person’s record, unless the extra value is protected by a specific role. Only System Admins can actually create new extra values. Only System Admins can convert the old extra values to Standard Extra Values in the new UI. David has written a help article that gives more detail about the technical aspects relating to extra values. Click HERE to read it. We also have a regular help article about Extra Values - People. Click HERE to read it. Click HERE for our YouTube channel.

Attention Internet Explorer Users

Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:42:00 GMT

We have had a few reports and have finally been able to verify that the header in the new user interface is not displaying correctly for those using IE 9 as their bitemser. The header is almost invisible until you hover over it. This display problem seems to be limited to just that version of Internet Explorer. It took us a while to verify this, because we did not have a machine still using that older version. Here is what users are seeing when using IE 9: We are going to work to make our new UI compatible with this version, but it may take a while. However, you may want to go ahead and upgrade to a newer version of IE - either version 10 or 11. Those work just fine with our new UI.

New UI Videos

Thu, 16 Jan 2014 12:11:00 GMT

We have published three videos highlighting some of the changes that you will experience in the new UI. We plan to publish more today and even more over the next few weeks. These will all be uploaded to our BVCMS YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/bvcmscom. Those available today are as follows: Edit Address New UI - Addresses are edited differently in the new UI, and this video show you exactly how to edit an existing family address, how to add a personal address and how to change which one is the primary address. SearchAdd New UI - There are some new features added even though the basic process is the same as on the old UI. Also, there are some changes - such as, where you start when you want to add a new family member. This short video shows you all of that. Involvement New UI - This video walks you through the enhancements on the Involvement tab for a person. We are going to keep these videos about the new UI as short as possible. Most will run just 2 - 6 minutes. However, there are a few topics such as Extra Values and Search Builder for which our upcoming videos will be a little longer in order to cover all we want to show you. We hope you are enjoying the new UI and that you find these videos helpful. A personal word- Thank you for the positive comments you have made to us about the new user interface! We also appreciate your prompt notifications when you have found something that did not work (this is a beta version!). We are so pleased that you are liking what you see. We really are pouring our hearts into this project and that encouragement means a great deal to us. While the new UI has both cosmetic as well as functional changes, everything is designed to help you focus on your ministry. We are, after all, Ministry Focused Software - built by the church for the church.

New UI - Available to All Users!

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 22:03:00 GMT

New User Interface Progress

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:59:00 GMT

We have made a lot of progress this week. Admins have helped us uncover a lot of bugs in the new UI and we have squashed every one of them! We are on track to roll out the beta to the rest of the users next week. One thing we need to make Admins aware of is how you can brand your header. This is going to take some planning and work on your part. We will be glad to assist. See this help article. Keep in mind that we plan to continue to allow access to both the old and new UI through a toggle. We will do this for several months until everyone is really comfortable with the new UI. Meanwhile, we will be working on a few major projects we have been putting off which are unrelated to the new UI, so there won’t be many changes in the UI other than bug fixes. Since the new UI is still in beta, please address your questions to your Admin who will forward them to us if necessary.

New Look released in Beta

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 15:36:00 GMT

Changes in Search Builder

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 04:33:00 GMT

We are preparing for our new user interface rollout, which will start with a Beta version for BVCMS System Admins next week and a Beta version for all users the week after that. As part of the process, we have published some changes to Search Builder. We added more tabs in order to make it easier for you to find just the right Search Builder condition. There are now sixteen tabs instead of seven and they follow the set of tabs you will see in the new Search Builder UI. The conditions on the Personal tab have been divided among Personal, Family, and Address tabs. The conditions on the Enrollment tab have been divided among Enrollments, Enrollment History, Current Org. The conditions on the Attendance tab have been divided among Recent Attendance and Attendance Dates. The Gitemth tab has been renamed Ministry and Church Status has been renamed Membership. There are a few new tabs as well that contain conditions that were on the Miscellaneous tab: Volunteer, Contributions, Extra Values, and Admin. Remember, these changes are all part of much bigger changes that will come when the new UI is published. Stay tuned!

Year-End Contributions Statements

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 20:17:00 GMT

It is that time of year again - that time when you are preparing to send yearly contribution statements to your donors. There are a few things that I want to remind you about, especially if this is your first year using TouchPoint. Generating All Contribution Statements TouchPoint makes it very easy to generate all statements at one time. Click HERE to read about Printing Contribution Statements. Options for Contribution Statements Minimum Contribution Amount Printing Check Numbers and/or Notes Printing Names without Titles Click HERE and HERE to read about the various Contribution Statement Options. It addresses all three of the options mentioned above and more. Contribution Statement and Header If you have not sent out statements before using TouchPoint, be sure that your Database Administrator for TouchPoint has set up the return address for your church (Statement Header) and the statement blurb (Statement Notice). Click HERE for more information. Deceased Donors Most churches will have donors who have passed away during the year. Out of courtesy for the family, we do not automatically print a statement for them throughout the year. However, at year-end, you may need to print a statement for the estate. We have a help article to walk you through the process of generating these statements. Click HERE to read the help article. We are looking forward to another great year with our TouchPoint family of churches. Our prayer is that God will bless you and your ministry in a mighty way. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the entire TouchPoint team! Read more about Statements and Envelopes

New Online Registration Option: Answers Not Required

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:38:00 GMT

I really do not know how we survived before we had BVCMS for our online registrations! So much of what we do here at our church is accomplished using online registrations. Relating to that, we just added a new feature that you may want to use. It is an option not to require answers for the Extra Questions. Extra Questions are those questions that allow the registrant to enter text. For example: What is the name of the friend you are bringing to the dinner? or What is your friend’s email address? or Where do you work? Sometimes, the registrant does not have an answer or does not want to answer the questions presented. If you want to make those types of questions optional (without them having to enter NA in the field), you can use this new option. Click HERE to read more the Questions Settings tab and about the Answers Not Required option for Extra Questions.

Managed Giving Search Builder Condition

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 20:55:00 GMT

For those of you with Finance role, did you know that you can use Search Builder to find everyone who has an account for recurring (managed) giving? The condition to use is on the Miscellaneous tab and is named Has Managed Giving. This is a big help when you want to alert donors that you will be closing a fund or adding a new fund to those available for online giving. Click HERE for more information on this Search Builder condition. Remember - Search Builder will help you to be more effective with your communication, as it will find the people with whom you need to communicate. It has tons of conditions, so that you can naritem your focus to just the right group.

Org Members Management - Filter by Small Group

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 23:44:00 GMT

Video Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:32:00 GMT

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Link Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:31:00 GMT

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Status Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:31:00 GMT

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Quote Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:31:00 GMT

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Image Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:30:00 GMT

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Gallery Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:30:00 GMT

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Aside Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:29:00 GMT

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Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:29:00 GMT

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Audio Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:29:00 GMT

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Standard Post

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 22:28:00 GMT

Standard Post

New Email Editor

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 19:24:00 GMT

We just upgraded to a newer version of the editor we use for BVCMS emails. Some of you have probably noticed this already, as it does look a little different. It uses a new, sleeker gray color scheme and has a few more icons. Also, some of the basic icons look just a little different. The most commonly used icons are the ones to embed a LINK, upload an IMAGE, PASTE text and SPELLCHECK as you type. I have identified those in the screenshot below, just to help you find them. This toolbar has all the same functionality as the old one; it just looks a bit different. Remember, you can hover over any icon with your mouse to see the labels. Click HERE if you are interested in the help articles relating to sending email from BVCMS.

New Prospects Feature

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 22:45:00 GMT

Merriam-Webster defines a prospect as a ‘potential buyer or customer’. For BVCMS, a prospect is a potential member of an organization or of the church. In our ongoing effort to help churches identify and follow up with prospects, we have just published a new feature that we have been working on for some time now. This prospect feature is designed to help manage prospects as they relate to organizations or classes. It is made up of of several components: a new Prospect tab on each organization, a new hard-wired organization member type of Prospect, and new Search Builder conditions. Click HERE to read more about how to use this new feature to help manage prospects at your church.

Suggestion Regarding Committees

Sun, 24 Nov 2013 21:33:00 GMT

New Setting for Joint Contribution Statements

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 17:15:00 GMT

This sponsored feature was promised last summer and we have just now been able to implement it. We have added a new setting relating to joint contribution statements. The default for couples that receive joint statements is this: Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Churches that prefer to have the names of both the husband and the wife on the joint statement, can use this new setting to have them display like this: John Smith and Mary Smith; or Frank Jones and Janet Williams-Jones. If you want to use this new format for the names on joint contribution statements, your BVCMS database administrator can add the following setting ID: NoTitlesOnStatements and make the setting true. If you do nothing, the joint statements will continue to use the default setting and will have Mr. and Mrs. on the statement. Click HERE to read about more contribution statements and the other settings relating to statements.

To Schedule or Not to Schedule, That Is the Question

Sun, 17 Nov 2013 22:26:00 GMT

New Search Builder Condition - Number of Primary Adults

Sat, 16 Nov 2013 15:26:00 GMT

Another Way to Use Quick Search

Thu, 07 Nov 2013 20:06:00 GMT

You should take a look at Quick Search now! We added one more feature that we’re sure you will like. You can now search by last name, and then add a comma and part or all of a first name. You can still search by first name (all or part) a space and last name (all or part) or just by last name. However, now, if you start searching by using just a last name and you don’t find the name you are looking for because it displays only the first six choices, you can just add a comma and a first name and find the person you are looking for. It works really great! Play around with it so you will understand what we’ve done. Click HERE to read more. By the way, we added this same functionality to Post Bundle Edit in Contributions as well.

New Checkin Control Report

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 21:47:00 GMT

This new Checkin Control Report is accessed from the Organization Search page and is under the Export/Reports menu. The report is a list of everyone who has been marked present in any of the classes for which you have filtered. You must select a Schedule, even if you do not specify a Program or Division. When you select this report from the menu, you then specify a date and click Run. Use case: At a certain point after everyone has checked in for a specific schedule, you can run this report to have a master list of everyone who has checked in that day. For example: If you filter for the Program - Life Groups; the Division - Children; and the Schedule - Sun 8:00 AM, you could run this report sometime after 8:30 or 8:45 or whatever time you think people will no longer be checking in for that hour. The report will list everyone who has checked in to any of those classes. Click HERE to read more.

Hello world!

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 02:56:00 GMT

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

New Type of Vote Links - SendLink and SendLink2

Sat, 02 Nov 2013 15:31:00 GMT

We just created two new types of vote links that you can embed in emails sent via BVCMS. They are named SendLink and SendLink2. They are similar to RegisterLinks, but with an important difference. These new links send the actual link in a second email after the recipient clicks on it. When they click that second link, they are logged in to the registration. Our regular registerilnk takes the person directly to the registration when they click the link, with that person logged in. The RegisterLink2, also logs them in, but with their entire family listed. When would I want to use SendLinks? You would use a SendLink when you are promoting Online Giving, Online Pledges, Managed Giving, or even a regular registration with fees. This is especially useful if you are doing the promotion in a newsletter to your congregation. With this type of email, they might want to forward that email to someone else. This new type of link ensures that, if that happens, the person receiving the forwarded copy cannot use the link. Click HERE to read more about SendLinks.

New Pledge Fulfillment Report

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 12:15:00 GMT

Here’s one more new feature for those of you that work with Contributions. We just added a Pledge Fulfillment Report. You should check it out! Go to Contributions > Fund Management (we just added that to the menu), then just click on the name of any open pledge fund. This will create a report in Excel with a list of everyone who has a pledge for that fund, how much has been given, and the balance. Click HERE to read more about this report. Click HERE to read more about Pledges.

Changes in Contributions: Totals by Fund and Contribution Search

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 17:08:00 GMT

Idea: Emailing Links

Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:03:00 GMT

Here is an idea you might use when advertising an event. We have noticed that at least one of our BVCMS churches is in the habit of emailing not only a Vote Link to provide a one click registration for those in their database, but a second link for them to use if they want to register a friend. It works great for any type of registration for which you do not ask questions or require a fee. Why two links? You want two links because the one click link is just that - one click and you’re done. It does not take the person to a registration page where they could register another person. So, you include the separate link that allows them to return and register a friend if they want. Under the message of your email (where you describe the event), you would insert something like this: ONE CLICK TO REGISTER YOURSELF REGISTER A FRIEND HERE In the example above, the message on the left should have a VoteLink embedded in it, so the person is instantly registered. The message on the right should have the normal link to the registration page (the same link your would put on your website) embedded in it, where the person would have a chance to either find a person's record or create a new record if they are not in the database. Most of the people who receive the email will need only the one click link. It’s fast. It’s easy. That’s why these links are so effective. They get people to respond. If you are not using any of our several types of emailed links, click below to read about these very useful tools to help make it easy for people to register for your events. Vote Link RSVP Link Register Link or Register Link2

iPhone App and Attendance

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 20:58:00 GMT

We had a few reports of users having problems when attempting to take attendance using the iPhone App. When they try to select the time, the application closes. Our developer investigated and found out that the problem is occurring when the user has their device (iPhone or iPad) set to 24 hour time. When that is the case, Apple changes what we are looking for and makes it incompatible with what we are sending from the server. The only solution at this point, is for the user to set the time back to AM/PM on their device when they want to take attendance using the app. However, we will have this fixed in the next release of the app. If you are not familiar with our BVCMS app, click HERE to read about it.

Ticketing Attendance: New Option to Record Attendance by Name

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:05:00 GMT

We have had Ticketing Attendance as an option for quite a while. This is the feature that allows you to send a barcode in the confirmation of an online registration and then scan the barcode (their 'ticket') at the door when the person arrives. We just added an enhancement. You can now use that page to record attendance by name. Use Cases: Your church tracks attendance for large groups, such as the worship service. Instead of using roll sheets, everyone signs their name in a book or on a pad that is passed down the pew. Or You have a large conference or event at which everyone completes a registration card once they arrive. This new method of recording attendance is very quick and requires only that you enter all or part of the person's name, like in Quick Search. Then just press Enter to mark that person present. We have built-in messages (including sounds) for when you are successful, when the person is already marked present, if the person is not found and more. You can even set some requirements: Require Membership in Organization and/or Require Registration. Click HERE to read more.

Add Attendees from a Tag

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:38:00 GMT

This relatively new feature is an option under Other Management on a Meeting page. It gives you the means to add attendance for a tagged group of people. Use case 1: If you have an large organization, such as Worship, in which you track individual attendance, and most of the members attend regularly, you can create a Tag of those members and mark them all present for a meeting with one click of a button. Then just uncheck the Attended box for any who did not actually attend. You can include anyone in the tag, whether or not they are members of the organization. There is also an option to add the non-members to the organization, making them members while recording their attendance. Use case 2: Because you have the option to enroll your tagged group in the organization, which makes their enrollment date the same as the meeting date, this is a good option for capturing attendance for meetings that occurred in the past - i.e. creating history. This eliminates the step of enrolling the members and then having to change their enrollment date to pre-date the first meeting. For example: a class has several meetings before the organization is created in BVCMS. Adding Attendees from a Tag makes it easier to create that history. Anyone who did not actually attend that first meeting can easily be unchecked on the meeting page. As you see, this has limited use cases, and is not intended as the norm for recording attendance. However, this might be just what you need. Click HERE to read more.

Changes to Headcount Meetings

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:49:00 GMT

Where Are the Emails I Have Sent?

Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:03:00 GMT

If you send emails using the toolbar in BVCMS, you can always find those emails. Go you your people record, click on the Gitemth tab > Contacts and click on the Sent Emails link under Contacts Given. This is the list of all the emails you have sent. But that's not all! Click on the Subject of an email to view the Details. On this page, you will see a summary at the top, then the body of your email, and below that, a list of all the recipients. Click HERE for more information about the Details page and the other tracking that is available, such as who has opened the email and even how many have clicked on any links in your email. If you send on behalf of another user, you will see those emails as well. Also, that user can see them too. They display on their people record under their Send Emails. You can also view emails that you receive. That link is under Contacts Received on your people record. Lay Leaders with Org Leaders Only can also view their sent and received emails. Even My Data users can view emails they have received. These links have been there for quite a while. However, some of you may not have noticed them. Remember the New UI Project that we are currently working on? Once that is complete, the new people record will have a separate tab for Email, making the Sent and Received Emails more prominent. Give us just a few more months and we will be ready to debut this!

Enhancements - Meetings Report and Week at a Glance

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 13:37:00 GMT

Contribution Statements - New Sort Options

Thu, 10 Oct 2013 18:33:00 GMT

We just added the ability to sort Contribution Statements by either last name or by zip code. When you select Contributions > Statements (All) from the header, you will see those options. Just enter name to sort by the last names of the donors, or enter zip to sort by the zip code. Sorting by zip will be a huge help for those who, in order to get special mailing discounts, need to bundle their statements by zip code before taking them to the post office. We also added the ability to filter by 'last name starts with'. Leave that field blank to print all statements or enter a range, such as A-C or Aa-Ab, for those whose last name starts with letters within that range. For more information on printing Contribution Statements, click HERE.

Checkin, Printers and Labels

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 21:26:00 GMT

Why use self-checkin? There are several great reasons why your church may want to take advantage of the BVCMS Checkin application. 1) Attendance Attendance is tallied in real time as people checkin. Attendance reports are ready earlier. Manual attendance recording is eliminated. 2) New Guests New guests are added to the database (and their attendance recorded) while they are there in person. This ensures that your get more accurate information on your guests. You can make followup visits or assign tasks earlier because your new guests are already in the database. 3) Security A security label can be required for children so that a child cannot be picked up unless the parent shows the security label. Children will have a name tag label to wear. Guests will have special labels. Extra labels can be printed for specified organizations - for diaper bags or other personal items. For printing the labels, we highly recommend Godex printers and labels. These have proven very reliable and the support from Godex has been excellent. We are able to offer both the printers and the labels at a great price through the Bellevue Bookstore. Use this link to place an order online: link.bvcms.com/BuyGodex If you would like more information about BVCMS Checkin, click HERE to read more. To download the checkin software, click HERE. There is no extra cost for this application.

Contact Support - CC Feature Added

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 11:31:00 GMT

The next time you click the Contact Support button to tab us for support, notice that there is now a field where you can enter email addresses in order to CC others at your church. Then, when we Reply to All, the person who was CC'd will receive our answer. The best use case for this is for those churches whose staff and/or lay leaders typically email their church's Help-desk or System Admin for assistance with TouchPoint before contacting us. In that case, the Help-desk manager or the System Admin can submit the request to TouchPoint on behalf of another user and copy that user on the actual support request. A notification is already being sent to the Admin Mail address (this is in your TouchPoint Settings), so you would not need to CC that address. While we are on the subject, be sure to Reply to All when you need to reply to our answer. That will ensure that everyone stays in the loop. You can upload screenshots as well just as you would when sending any other email via TouchPoint. By the way, thank you to those who have been using the Contact Support button. It is so much more efficient for all concerned, than for you to email one of us or to just email support.directly. Our goal is to provide outstanding support and this new method helps us as we work to achieve that goal.

Allow Re-Register Improvement

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 19:07:00 GMT

We recently improved the Allow Re-Register feature, which is a setting for Online Registrations. Here is the use case that precipitated this improvement: We created a Prayer Room Signup as an online registration in which the registrants were making a long-term commitment to pray during a 30-minute time slot every week in one of the small, individual rooms in our Prayer Room. Because there are a limited number of rooms, it was important to set a limit on each slot in the registration. Also, we realized that over the course of a year or so, people may need to change their time slot, not just add another one (which is how the Allow Re-Register had previously worked). We did not want a time slot to appear filled if it wasn't, so the re-register was an important feature. Here is how Allow Re-Register would work in the Prayer Room Signup type of scenario: You can include a RegisterLink in the confirmation or the registrant can return to the website where the registration signup is posted online and register again. If they log in or if they use the RegisterLink from the confirmation, they will be taken directly to their registration. If they return to the website and click Register, but do NOT log in, an email with a Manage Registrations link will be sent to them. When they click that link, they will be taken to their registration. In either case, the registrant will see their current selection and be able to make any necessary changes. This is not appropriate for registrations that have fees. It is intended for a use case such as this Prayer Room Signup or some similar long-term type of registration. This is similar to the way volunteers manage their volunteer commitments when using the Volunteer Calendar. Click HERE for the full help article about the options on the Registration Settings tab.

Small Groups in an Organization

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 12:14:00 GMT

We now have a way to for you to easily delete several (or all) small groups at one time. This is very helpful for Organizations that have a lot of small groups. Maybe you need to remove several groups, or perhaps you just want to start over and create all new groups. This is the way to do that. Notice the new Manage button on the Group Member Management page. This takes you to the groups page where you can select those groups to delete and delete them all at once. This page also displays a summary of how many people are in each small group, making it a very handy way to see at a glance the size of your groups. Check out all the cool features on the Group Member Management page. Click HERE to read more. Speaking of small groups - the Member Dialog now displays in parentheses the number of people in each group. This is just one more way we are helping you manage your small groups.

Special 'Rally Rollsheet' for Parents

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:25:00 GMT

Do you have a Sunday morning rally planned in the next few weeks at which you ask parents to attend with their children? If so, we have a special rollsheet that you may be interested in. This is not a new feature, but a reminder of an existing one. It is called Parents (Rally Mode) and is a checkbox in the dialog box when you print rollsheets. You will print the rollsheets for your student or children's classes, but they will contain, not only the children, but also the names of each parent. By using a special type of attendance recording (Ticketing Attendance) along with these rollsheets, you can record parents present in their own adult class when they attend the rally with their child. These rally rollsheets were created so that when we have these rallies during which the parent meets their child's teacher, they can be recorded as being in their adult Life Group. We don't want to penalize them for attending their child's class, nor do we want to just enter a headcount for the child's class which would include the parents. This would falsely inflate their attendance numbers. Click HERE to read about these special rollsheets. They can be used any time a parent is attending their child's class - rallies after promotion or perhaps a special Bible Drill meeting. These are very cool!

Changes: Contacts and Contact Search

Wed, 21 Aug 2013 21:12:00 GMT

Setting Permissions for Emailing on Behalf of Other Users

Wed, 21 Aug 2013 11:35:00 GMT

In conjunction with our ongoing user interface project, we have just redone the page where a BVCMS Admin sets the permission for one user to email on behalf of another user. Not only have we made the process so much easier, we also added this page to the menu. Now you no longer need to remember the URL or find the User IDs. Just select Users Can Email For directly from the Admin menu and search for users by name. Click HERE and take a look at the help article that outlines the new process. If you are not a BVCMS Admin, and you are interested in taking advantage of this feature (being able to email on behalf of another user), you will want to take a look at that article as well. PS You are going to absolutely LOVE the new UI. Can't wait to show it to you! Click HERE if you haven't read about this project. Remember, these pages that we are redoing are not actually the new user interface. They are just getting ready for it - sort of like priming and spackling before painting.

Contributions: Returns/Reversals

Sat, 17 Aug 2013 12:07:00 GMT

If you read my previous post, you know that we are revising some pages throughout BVCMS as part of our new user interface project. While these pages are not using the actual new UI, they may look a little different and some will have new features. One example is the All Contributions (Search) page, which we recently revised (and changed the name slightly). Along with that, we streamlined how you handle Returned Checks and Reversals/Corrections in BVCMS. You may want to take a look at the three Help Articles listed below. The first two outline the Return and Reversal processes and the third one shows a few changes on the All Contributions (Search) page. Returned Checks Reversals/Corrections All Contributions (Search)

Update: New User Interface

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 18:07:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, David blogged about our huge project for a new user interface for BVCMS. The team has been steadily working very hard on this fresh new look that we hope to debut by the end of the year. We really are eager to show it to you! As he mentioned in his blog post, because of the enormity of this project, we have put on hold development of new features, except for those that Steven is working on. However, as this project progresses, you will see what appear to be new features. We do not want you to be confused about this. Sometimes we have to rewrite pages in order to prepare them for this new look, and these new pages may have new features. I will blog about these as they are published. In case you missed David's post, please click HERE to read it. By the way, this new UI project is far more than the equivalent of repainting a house. It's more like a huge renovation. Because of its scope and our focus on it, we really will not be able to spend a lot of time communicating with individual churches about requests for new features at this time. We will put them on our list and review them at a later date, after the new UI has been implemented. Thank you for your patience.

Contributions Features

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 19:48:00 GMT

These features will be of interest to those of you with Finance Role in BVCMS. We have a couple of Contributions features that you may not have noticed - 1) an Export on the Contributions All page; and 2) an option to display more information in Post Bundle Edit. The Excel export is on the Contributions All page and will export one item for every record included in your search results with information about each contribution, including the person's name, contribution date, contribution type, etc. Click HERE to read more about the options available on the Contributions All page as well as about the information included in this export. In Post Bundle Edit, if you would like to view more information about a donor when searching by name, just check the box Deliver More Information in Results. This will display the last four contributions (with date, amount and check number) for each name found. This may be helpful when you have multiple donors with the same name. Click HERE to read more about Post Bundle Edit.

New Videos for Tasks and Contacts

Sun, 04 Aug 2013 23:03:00 GMT

We just uploaded two short videos on our youtube channel - www.youtube.com/bvcmscom. These were created as a followup to some recent lay leader training classes at our church. Click the images below to view each video. How to Accept and Complete a Task This 7-minute video was designed to show our lay leaders what to do when they are assigned a ministry task by one of our ministers. The video starts by showing how to accept the task, how to view information about the person you are to contact, and ends with how to correctly complete the task by recording the results of your contact. How to Record a Contact This 5-minute video shows you how to record the results of a contact when you have not been assigned a task about that person. This is what you would do when you make visits or phone calls to an absent class member or a recent guest to your class. This is so simple to do. There is even a link to create a Contact right there on the green toolbar! So, in a total of about 12 minutes, you can find out how you, as a lay leader (or a staff member), can take advantage of these 2 features that are valuable components of assimilation in BVCMS.

More Info on Inreach/Outreach Report

Fri, 02 Aug 2013 20:41:00 GMT

We just added more information on the Inreach/Outreach (Prospect) Report in BVCMS. the email address for the person for whom the report was run the cell phone numbers for all the family members (if the number is on their record) This report in BVCMS has information to help you as you plan a visit or make a phone call to those in your church who need a contact. A lot of churches print these reports for visitation blitzes. Also, those who are accepting Tasks can click on a link to this report directly from the Task. There, we refer to it as a Prospect Report. Of course, you can print these for any person or group of people. The Attendance History, Contacts and Enrollments are still listed below the Family Summary.

Address Verification Now Working

Fri, 02 Aug 2013 19:58:00 GMT

Our BVCMS Address Verification from the USPS is now working. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced earlier. Thank you for your patience as we worked through this issue. Don't forget to validate those addresses you may have changed or added today.

USPS Address Validation

Fri, 02 Aug 2013 15:25:00 GMT

We are currently working with the US Postal Service to get to the root of the problems we noticed this morning relating to verifying addresses in BVCMS. Until we get the problem resolved, if you are inputting a new address, when you click Submit, it should retain what you have entered exactly as you entered it, but it will not validate the zip+4, nor will it change the formatting of the address. The same is true if you are changing anything related to an address. It will retain your changes exactly as you enter them and will not validate the address. Also, anyone registering online who is creating a new profile will not have their address validated. The system will accept the address as they enter it and will not add the zip +4. So, once we get this resolved, you will want to look at the addresses for any new records that are created today. We apologize for the inconvenience and will let you know as soon as we have a solution from the US Postal Service.

New 'Track Clicks' Feature for Email

Mon, 29 Jul 2013 11:46:00 GMT

Many of your e-newsletters and other emails include links to your church's website homepage or various other pages on your church's website. Do you wonder if anyone ever clicks on those links? Wonder no more! You can now track how many times a link has been clicked by including a simple email replacement code in your email. You will be able to view the list of links and see how many times that link was clicked. Obviously, this is not needed for Vote Links, Register Links, or RSVP Links. If you use a template for your newsletter, have your system admin (or whoever manages your templates) add the code to your template, so you don't have to remember to insert it each time you send your newsletter. This is SO simple, yet will provide very good information for you as you evaluate your e-communication. Click HERE to read more about tracking emails.

Support Just Got Better!

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 21:50:00 GMT

New Email Reminder Feature

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 19:49:00 GMT

You may have noticed that, when you send email reminders to your volunteers, you receive an email yourself. That is a new feature designed to let the person who is responsible for a volunteer organization see at a glance who has commitments coming up. The subject of the email will be Reminder Notices sent for [the name of the organization]. The body of the email will contain the same text that the volunteers receive, as well as a list of the volunteers who received the email reminder and their upcoming commitments. This works for your volunteer calendar organization whether you send the email from Email Reminders on the Volunteer Calendar page or if you use Send Volunteer Reminders from the Organization page. These new email notices are sent only to the Online Notify Person/s associated with an Organization that is set as a Volunteer type of Organization. Here is a sample of the email notice:

Reminders Related to Promotion

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:26:00 GMT

Some of you have already promoted your classes and other churches are in the middle of that process now. We thought this would be a great time to remind you of a few housekeeping tasks and some followup tasks related to Promotion. We don't want anything (or anyone!) to fall through the cracks. I started to write a new blog post outlining these items, but realized that the one from last year (with a few tweaks) has what you need to know. Click HERE to read it.

Shared Email Drafts

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 03:09:00 GMT

We have just added the ability for you to share email drafts in BVCMS This works using a special tag called SharedDrafts. Once you create this tag, just add those users to the tag who you want to have access to your saved drafts. Shared drafts allow users to collaborate on the email. This will be especially helpful when creating newsletters for which multiple people should have input. Unless a draft is shared, it will be private to the person who created it. If you use drafts, you will also notice that we are now displaying drafts in sections: My Saved Drafts; Saved Drafts by Others. This makes finding your draft a bit easier. Be sure to click HERE and read more about how to get the most out of email drafts.

Big Plans for a Fresh New Look

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 18:28:00 GMT

Back to Support Requests as before

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 02:58:00 GMT

Mea Culpa

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 18:58:00 GMT

I am SO sorry, but I had a mis-print in the blog post about the new Contribution Statement features to allow printing check numbers and/or notes on statements.The Help Article for the settings was correct, but the post itself initally had the settings as a plural. They are supposed to be singular. Here is what the settings should be: Again, I apologize for the inconvenience for those who tried to create these settings based on the original blog post.

New UserVoice Support and Feedback System

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 12:37:00 GMT

We are trying out UserVoice as our primary means of handling support requests. Support@bvcms.com will also be forwarded to this same service. So, now you see the orange Feedback and Support on your bvcms.com site. The next time you need some help, instead of clicking Help, Email Support, just click on that orange widget. A dialog box will popup and allow you to enter your request. This will create a ticket, and we will be notified immediately as before. Also, a automated reply will be sent to you right away to let you know that we have received your request and will get back to you as quickly as we can. We will respond as before. But as we build up a knowledge base of responses, you will see suggested answers to your questions as you type. Click on one of those and if it helps, great! otherwise if it does not address your issue, just continue to ask your question. For now, you will need to be careful to put in a good email address so we can respond back to you. If we like this service, (I already like it myself!), then we will make it so that it will automatically know who you are and pre-populate your address.

Idea for Cleaning Up Data

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 20:08:00 GMT

Were you aware that BVCMS has a Search Builder Condition that looks specifically for invalid email addresses? These would be email addresses that are not in the correct format - missing the @ symbol, or the dot or having too many letters in the extension. I spent a little time yesterday going through those records I found using this search on our church database. I was able to fix at least 95% of those addresses. Most were missing the .com after gmail, yahoo, etc. I feel better knowing that these people will now begin receiving our emails! Of course, there were a few email addresses that I just deleted as there was not enough information there for me to figure out how to correct them. Click HERE if you are interested in doing a little clean up on your database. PS When creating new records during an online registration or in the regular application (new members, guests, etc), you will be forced to use a a valid format. However, records that are edited, those that are part of a conversion, etc. may have these emails with invalid formats.

Contribution Statements - New Options

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 10:28:00 GMT

Some of you have asked about printing Check Numbers and/or Notes on your church's Contribution Statements. We have now made that option available, just in time for 2nd quarter statements! To use one of these options, your BVCMS Admin will need to add one or both of the following new Settings to your church's BVCMS database: RequireCheckNoOnStatement (to print check numbers) RequireNotesOnStatement (to print notes) You can add either of these settings or both of them. Click HERE to view the Settings help article. Both the Check Numbers and the Notes are entered during Post Bundle Edit. If you use a check scanner, the check number is added automatically. Otherwise, this is something you would need to enter manually as your post contributions. For online giving, the Notes section will contain either the text Recurring Giving (for those using Managed Giving) or the person's name and address (for those making one-time gifts). Click HERE to view the help article about posting contributions. NOTE: If you choose either of these options, the contribution statements will print in a single column on the page, instead of wrapping into two columns as does the default statement.

Slowness Caused by a Denial-of-Service Attack at RackSpace

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 21:40:00 GMT

Some of you probably noticed a slowness while working in BVCMS during a 45-minute period this afternoon. We investigated with RackSpace, who hosts our servers, and found out that one of their switches came under a Denial-of-Service attack. Our firewall did its job well and protected the servers. However, this type of attack will create a slow-down of the system. At one point we actually took the servers down while we were investigating. While we were on the phone with RackSpace trying to investigate, the issue resolved itself. It was only later that we found out that the slowness was due to the Denial-of-Service attack against one of their switches. It affected a number of their clients behind this particular switch. Sorry for the inconvenience.

New Option for Checkin Label

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 20:01:00 GMT

We now have a new label option available for those of you who use BVCMS checkin. This option is available for the 2-inch label that is worn by the child - both members and guests. This new option will print the entire allergy information (such as Peanuts, Milk) instead of printing an A to indicate an allergy. For those who prefer the default label that prints an A, we always recommend that you keep an updated roster report in each classroom, as this has not only the allergy information, but also the contact information for the parents. Click HERE to read more about how to substitute this new label format, if you want to use it. By the way, if you choose to use this new label, you may want to find those children with allergy information that is too long to fit on the label and make some adjustments on their record. Click HERE to read about the Search Builder Condition you will want to use for this. This new allergy label feature was sponsored by our friends at Dogwood Church in Tyrone, GA.

New Export on Organization Search

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 15:32:00 GMT

We have just added a new export option on the Organization Search page, It is Export Members to Excel. This export is almost identical to the Member Export you can run for an individual Organization. The difference is that this one also contains the name, ID, and schedule for the Organization. Those pieces of information are necessary, because this export can be run for multiple organizations instead of just one. Go to Organization Search Search for a Program, Division, Schedule (or whatever criteria you want to get a set of Organizations) Then select Export Members to Excel from the Exports/Reports menu. Voila! Now you have an Excel spreadsheet listing every member of every Organization in your search. Click HERE to read more.

New Rollsheet Features

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:07:00 GMT

There are now 3 new options available when printing rollsheets. Print rollsheets by small group from both Organization Search as well as from a single Organization. Print rollsheets by small groups for just specific small groups (those beginning with a prefix that you enter). Print a specific small group name on the rollsheet under the names of the members in that group. Option number 1 - printing by small group - has been available when printing for one Organization. We have now made this option available when you print rollsheets from the Organization Search page. Option number 2 - printing specific small groups - is a great feature if you have people in multiple small groups inside an Organization and you want to print the rollsheets by a specific set of small groups, but not for all groups. Example: Choir voice part small groups that start with V: Option number 3 - printing small group name - has a special use case. This will print a specific small group name under the member's name on a roll sheet if that small group name is entered in the field named Highlight Group. Example: OkToTransport or CustodyIssues. Click HERE to read more about the options and possible use cases.

Vacation Bible School Follow-up

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 20:18:00 GMT

Promotion

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 12:12:00 GMT

If you haven't already, you will be probably be facing annual Promotion at your church very soon. We just want to remind you that BVCMS has great tools to help you with this process. Whether you are a small church with multiple ages/grades in each class or a mega-church with several classes per age/grade at several different hours, BVCMS has just what you need to make this process as smooth as possible. Click HERE and check out this article that will help you decide which BVCMS Promotion method is right for you.

Contact Report - Sort by Address

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 12:52:00 GMT

We recently made another option available for the Contact Report. It is the ability to sort by address instead of by the default, which is alphabetically. Why would you want to sort it by address? Think of all the families whose members live at the same address, but who have different last names. When you sort by address, these family members are grouped together instead of scattered throughout the list. The Contact Report (in case you are not familiar with it) is the report that gives you a list of all the Contacts that have been made for every individual in your list, along with other key bits of information. It is generated from wherever you see the toolbar, and is probably most useful when you run this for a search of recent guests. However, you can run it for an individual or for any group of people. Click HERE to read about this report and how to sort by address. (Hint - it involves using a keyboard command.)

Now at the App Store - Newest Checkin Version

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:19:00 GMT

For those of you using iPad checkin (BVCheckin App), be sure to get the latest version from the App Store. This update has the Security Admin PIN feature that we added to regular checkin back in April. If you missed it, click here for the blog post about this feature. Most of you probably keep your apps updated. However, if you are not in the habit of doing this, please look on your iPad for the blue icon representing the App Store. If you have BVCheckin loaded on your iPad, there will be a red number on the corner of the icon indicating you have at least one App that has a newer version for you to install. Just click the icon and then click Update beside BVCheckin. In addition to the blog post about the Admin PIN, there is also a help article. Click HERE to read more. Remember, you will not have this Admin PIN feature on your iPad until you update the App. Special thanks to our friends at Calvary Triad who sponsored this new feature.

New Email Optout Option

Fri, 21 Jun 2013 12:21:00 GMT

We just added a nice feature on the people record under the System tab that allows a user with Edit role to manually unsubscribe (optout) a person from specific email addresses. Don't forget about the Unsubscribe link you should add to your targeted emails that allows recipients to optout themselves. But sometimes, you just need to do this for a person, so this is a very handy new feature. Click HERE to read more.

Contribution Bundles - New Validation

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 10:55:00 GMT

For a while now, we have seen some error messages whenever someone creates a new Bundle and enters an amount that includes either a dollar sign or a comma. The correct format is to use no punctuation except for a decimal, if needed. For example: this is correct - 2500.50; this is not - $2,500.50 We just added some validation so that, If you do add a dollar sign or a comma in the amount, you will now see this message: Please enter a valid number. Previously, you would just get an error message that something had happened and that an email was sent to the developer. With this new validation, you can just correct the format of the amount and continue without being forced to start over again. We hope this makes it a little easier if you forget and use an incorrect format for the amount.

Schedule Added to Attendance Searches

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:57:00 GMT

We recently added the option to select a Schedule to a couple of existing Search Builder Conditions. The Conditions are Attendance Count History and Recent Attendance Count for Schedule/AttendCredit. Both of these Conditions are helpful for Organizations with multiple Schedules. Take, for example, our Adult Choir which has the following three Schedules: Sunday 9:20 AM (Attendance Credit = Every Meeting) Wednesday 6:30 PM (Attendance Credit = Once Per Week Group 1) Sunday 4:30 PM (Attendance Credit = Once Per Week Group 1) Using these additions to those Search Builder Conditions, we can more easily evaluate who is regularly attending which rehearsal. Or, by combining a couple of Conditions, we can see if the Sunday morning choir attendance is impacted during months when we do not have a Sunday afternoon rehearsal. The Attendance Count History Condition can also be helpful when used within a Program that has Organizations that meet at different times, even though the Organizations themselves each have a single Schedule. For example: if your church has Life Groups (Program) that meet at different hours, you can evaluate the attendance at each hour over a date range. Tip to remember: when you see a Condition with 'recent' in the name, you will look back a number of days; when you see 'history', you will select a date range. Click to read more: Attendance Count History and Recent Attendance Count for Schedule/AttendCredit

Network Solutions Experiencing Nationwide Problems

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:29:00 GMT

We want to let you know that Network Solutions, our Domain Name Service (DNS) has been experiencing problems nationwide. This means that all of our BVCMS sites have been unavailable. It appears that they are back up, but we could experience other issues for the next few minutes. We are so sorry for the inconvenience.

The Infamous Checkin on Sunday, June 16, 2013

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:50:00 GMT

New Feature for Totals by Description Report

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:59:00 GMT

If you use Sage as your merchant provider, you will be so happy with this new feature. After you run the Totals by Description report for a date range using Batch Dates (that's the date the transaction actually settled), notice that the Description itself is a link. Clicking the Description will take you to a filtered list of only the transactions making up the total for that date range. This allows you to easily move back and forth between the summary totals (on the Totals by Description report) and each set of details making up those totals. After checking the details, just click Totals by Description again to quickly return to the report. For example, in the screenshot below, you could click Soul Mate Live Registration to view those 10 transactions making up the $80 total. That seems like a small thing, but when you are posting to your general ledger from this report, it is very helpful to be able to easily view those details. Not familiar with the Totals by Description report? Click HERE to read more.

Features you Might Need for VBS

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:54:00 GMT

This is a reminder of a couple of features that you might find useful during your Vacation Bible School. We created both of these last year on our first day of VBS, to address a couple of issues that arose. The first is the ability to suspend checkin. That is, to make a class not display for visitors, because it is already full. Click HERE to read about the Suspend Checkin setting for an Organization. The next feature is a shortcut for enrolling all the visitors for a given meeting. After the guests have been added to the Meeting, hold down the Shift key and press Add Guests. You will see a popup asking if you want to enroll all the guests as members. How easy is that! Click HERE to see last year's blog post about these two features.

Enrollment Control Report for your mobile device

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:51:00 GMT

Just in time for Vacation Bible School - a mobile Enrollment Control Report! If your church is like ours, parents will enter the building wanting to know the room number for their child. Even though we send out the Room Notices email from Org Members Management, they still forget the room number and don't bring the email with them. We always print the Enrollment Control Report and have copies around the building so we can look up the child on this alphabetical listing and easily see their room number. For us, that report is 50-60 pages! That's pretty bulky. Also, you don't want to have to print too many copies of that report, because as new children enroll, you need to reprint it daily. So, David devised a wonderful tool for us - a mobile version of the Enrollment Control Report. It has the same information - names, room numbers, and class names. However, it is designed for an iPhone, iPad or Adroid phone with fast movement through the alphabet to find the child you are looking for. This means that every staff member who has an iPhone/iPad/Android who is walking around greeting those parents as they arrive for VBS has the ability to immediately find the child's room number for them. It is SO easy and fast to use and it's formatted for something you carry with you all the time - your phone! For us here at Bellevue, this will be a HUGE help next week when we have CampOutrageous (our version of VBS). I've been playing around with this new report, and even with a list that includes more than 3,000 children and workers it's incredibly fast and so simple. Here's what you will see when you access this report: Check out this help article that tells you exactly how it works and includes more screenshots. We hope you find this useful! BTW: This is not limited to VBS use. This will be a great tool on Promotion Sunday when you need to help people find their new classes.

Reports List

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:33:00 GMT

You all know about keywords in our Help Documentation. It's that list that appears to the left of each Help Article. You can click on the keyword reports, for example, and see the list of all help articles related to reports. However, there is also a Help Article devoted just to reports. In this article, we have grouped the list of reports and exports by type - Attendance, Church Membership, Finance-Contributions, People-Organizations. This makes it a little easier to see at a glance the reports that are available in each category. These are links to articles about those reports. Check it out! Click HERE.

What's in a Name?

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:12:00 GMT

A visitor is defined as a person visiting a person or place. A guest is defined as a person invited to visit the home or take part in a function organized by another. See the subtle difference? Those who attend your church or events sponsored by your church are better described by the later word. They are indeed guests. We invite people to attend, whether it is by personal invitation or through our advertising. While their actions are visits, it just seems more suitable to call them guests. We all want to appear warm and inviting to those attending our church, so it makes sense to use a warm and inviting term to describe them. This idea of referring to people as guests rather than visitors has been a tradition at our church for a number of years now. I know that is the case at other churches as well; because, in our conversations with you about BVCMS and assimilation, that is how I hear you refer to them. I'm not sure why we did not do this earlier, but we recently made a global change inside BVCMS. Where you formerly saw the word Visitor, you will now see the word Guest. This is in places such as lists that show Members and Guests; on the tab on an Organization; even on the meeting page where you click to Add Guests. For now, at least, Help Documentation (including the screenshots) will still contain the word visitor. This will gradually be changed. Also, at some point, we will change the terminology on the iPhone (Attendance - Add Visitor) as well. I felt that it was important to take the time to explain this change to you. I hope that you realize that we do not make changes just for the sake of change. We want changes to have meaning. And I believe this change does.

Emailed Attendance Notices Just Got Better!

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT

If your church emails attendance notices to leaders after Sunday's attendance has been entered, you should notice a new addition in the email. We are now including the Recent Visitors! The visitors are listed in a section below the absent members and will have their last attended date. The alphabetical list will include any visitor who would have been on the roll sheet for the most recent meeting. We have received a lot of positive feedback to the recent enhancements we made to this email and I know you will love this new addition as well. The changes to this little email notice are perfect examples of why we work so hard. We always want to provide and improve tools in BVCMS to enable you (staff and lay leaders) to do ministry to people. That's what it's all about! (not the Hokey Pokey as previously thought) If you are not sending these to your leaders each week, click HERE to read how easy it is and to see a sample. Thanks, Mark, for that great idea!

Enrollment Control Report - New Options

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:13:00 GMT

Not only have we added a couple of new options, you will also notice that the Enrollment Control Report has moved. It is now included in the Exports and Reports drop down on the Organization Search page. We did not move it just to keep you on your toes. We moved it in order to add a couple of new options. The default Enrollment Control Report is the same PDF as always. You just generate it from a different location. Select the Program/Division/Schedule on the Organization Search page and then select the report from the Exports and Reports drop down menu. After you select the report, you will be presented with a pop up box offering the two new options, as in the image below. Click Run with nothing selected to run the PDF report. However, you can select the Excel Export if you prefer that to the PDF report. The other option - Filter by Active Tag - is really why we made this change. We wanted to be able to run the Enrollment Control Report for only a selected set of people (a Tag) who are in the Program, and then be able to sort the list by the Organization (selecting Excel Export). Click HERE to read more and to see our use case for these new options. This may be just what you need!

New Fields Added to Update for a Tag

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:38:00 GMT

We have recently added a few more fields that can be updated (by your System Admin) using the batch process Update for a Tag. This process is not something you would ever do without a lot of forethought! Primarily, churches that are new to BVCMS and need to update information for a number of records use this feature. However, it can also be used to help clean up data for any church. A couple of the newer fields that can be updated relate to the Volunteer tab on a person's record. These are Approval Codes, Background Check Date, and Volunteer Status. Churches who have been keeping this information off-line (that is, not in BVCMS) can easily update these fields for a lot of records at the same time. Click HERE to read the Help Article about the batch process Update for a Tag and see the entire list of fields that can be updated.

New Email Replacement Code for Today's Date

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:25:00 GMT

You will appreciate this little feature, especially if you send newsletters and like to include the date at the top of your email. We just added another Email Replacement Code - {today}. When you insert that code in your email, today's date will display. It will be in a numeric format like this - 5/8/2013. For those of you in lands far away who use the DD/MM format in your BVCMS database, this will work for you as well. If I were emailing from Malaysia, for example, today's date would display as 8/5/2013 using this replacement code. I love that I can insert this simple code and not have to change the date in my saved drafts or templates! Remember - the curly braces are important. Type it just like this - {today}. If you are not familiar with email replacements, click HERE to read more. These are handy little codes that allow you to personalize emails and more.

Status Flags - Better than Member Status

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:42:00 GMT

Not only have we changed the name of Query Bits to Status Flags, we have also added some really, really nice features relating to these Status Flags. Some of the heavy lifting is behind the scenes and your System Admin will want to check that out and turn on the appropriate settings. Here is what you will be interested in: Activity status - This displays on people records and automatically updates nightly based on your church's definition of each status. Drop down menu on People Search - You can now search for Status Flags on the People Search page - and then Convert to Search Builder. Search Builder Condition - This allows you to select from a drop down, one or more of the special Status Flag Saved Searches that are used to set the Status Flags, thereby finding people who fit any or several of these statuses. Some churches have been using the church Member Status to flag people based on their activity - such as Active Member, Visiting Attender, etc. This means that they have to manually keep track of when these change. We prefer to keep the Member Status simple. In other words, a person is either a Pending Member, a Previous Member, a Member, or is not a Member. These do not require upkeep once you record their membership decision and any membership requirements, such as Baptism or New Member Class. There is a lot I could say about Status Flags, but a blog is designed to be short and to the point. So, here's the point - you will want to read about Status Flags and take full advantage of them at your church. Trust me, you will be glad you did! Click HERE to read more. REMEMBER, UNTIL YOUR SYSTEM ADMIN CHANGES THE SETTINGS IN YOUR DATABASE, THESE FEATURES WILL NOT BE VISIBLE TO USERS!

New Contributions Features

Thu, 02 May 2013 18:59:00 GMT

Over the past couple of days, we have published a few new features that relate specifically to Contributions. I will give a brief outline below with links to articles explaining more about them. Online Bundles - We now automatically create a new online bundle each day. We started by creating a new one just at the beginning of the month, but decided it just made sense to create one each day. If there are no recurring gifts that day or if no one makes a one-time online gift, a bundle will not be created for that day. Click HERE to read about Bundles. Move Contributions - Rarely, you may need to move one or more contributions from one Bundle to another one. We now have an easy way for you to do that. Click HERE to read more. Change Individual Contribution Date - This is another case that would be rare. But you may have a need to change the contribution date (which displays on the Contribution Statement) for one or two contributions within a Bundle without changing the date for all of the contributions within that Bundle. Click HERE to read how. Posted Date - Also, we are now displaying the Posted Date for in the individual contributions in the Bundle. This is the date you closed the Bundle. As always, we hope you enjoy these new features and that they help make your job just a little bit easier.

New Validation for Online Registrations

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:12:00 GMT

Over the weekend, we added some validation to help you as you create online registrations. This validation is looking at the names of small groups that get created during the course of the registration. We have always prevented you from naming small groups with the same name within a set of checkboxes or drop down items. Now, we have taken this one step further and provide validation across all small groups within the organization. A word about duplicate small group names: When you are looking at the registration, you see these as separate groups because they are in different sets of checkboxes. However, once you leave the registration, you are left with one small group named, for example, Other. You will not know which set of checkboxes that came from. That is why having duplicate small groups is a bad thing. Once we did this, we noticed that there were already some existing online registrations that had more than one small group with the same name. This was causing some errors when people tried to access those organizations. So, here's what we did: We have gone through every BVCMS database and found every organization that fit the above scenario and we fixed those small groups that had the same name. So, you may notice that where you previously had a couple of small groups named Other in your registration, one of those now has something added to name - such as Other Staff. In some cases, there were multiple sets of checkboxes/drop downs and there were multiple small groups with the same name. If those cases, we added numbers at the end of the small group name. Example: Not Attending Friday1; Not Attending Friday2; etc.

New Name Tag Label

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:11:00 GMT

You know how I LOVE when we add little features? Well, we just added another one. It is a Name label. Pretty basic. We had all sorts of other labels, but just not a plain Name label. We always used a mail merge if we needed name tags. Or, for meetings where we tracked attendance, we used the labels that print for adults during checkin. Both of these options work great. However, sometimes you just need to print regular name tags and you don't want to bother with a Word merge and the people are not checking into anything. Now you can do just that. This new Name label will be just what you need! You can find this on the green toolbar under Labels…duh! Oh, and we named it Name Label. Yeah, we are pretty creative! Enjoy!

iPhone - Android App Attendance Change

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:07:00 GMT

Some of you have already noticed the recent change we made regarding permissions to take attendance for an Organization using either the iPhone or Android app. Previously, anyone enrolled in an Organization who had Access and Attendance roles (whether they had OrgLeadersOnly role or not) could see the Organization in the list and therefore take attendance. Some churches have reported that meetings were getting created by app users who were enrolled in the Organization but were not leaders in that Organization. They had made them leaders in specific Organizations in order to take attendance, but did not want them to be able to take attendance in Organizations in which they were regular members. This is actually the way we intended for this work - that leaders would take attendance only for their own small group. To alleviate this problem, we decided to enforce the original intended behavior. Now, in order to take attendance using the app, a user must not only have Access and Attendance roles, they must also be a leader either in the specific Organization or in a Parent Organization. By leader, we are referring to the Member Leader Type that is assigned to those enrolled in an Organization. Your Admin can view the list of Member Types to determine which ones are considered leaders. Examples of Member Leader types: Teacher, Director, Secretary, Outreach Leader, Inreach Leader, etc. NOTE: These vary for each database as you have the ability to customize this list. This change was published last Friday evening and we apologize for not notifying you of the change prior to the weekend. David & Karen

New Features for Transactions

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:47:00 GMT

For those of you who are responsible for your church's transactions - online giving or online payments for events - you will be interested in these newest options on the Transactions Log page. NOTE: You must have the Manage Transactions or Admin role to access this page. Registration History: On the Transactions Log (under the Admin menu), you can now get more information about each transaction by clicking on the link in the description column. This will take you to the Registration History. Notice the links and the information provided. An Admin can also click the date/time link to see the xml file from the registration. Totals by Batch/Description Report: The other new feature is the Totals by Batch/Description Report. This basically combines the Reconcile Report and the Totals by Description Report. On this new report, each Batch Reference (which represents each deposit into your bank account from online transactions) is broken down by Type (EFT or Bankcard) and by Description (Online Giving, Recurring Giving, or specific events such as payments for Adult Soccer, Ladies Retreat, etc.) with a total amount and a count for each one. NOTE: This new report applies only to those using Sage Payments for their transactions. Click HERE to read more.

It's Time for Vacation Bible School!

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:59:00 GMT

Have you started your online registration for Vacation Bible School? At our church, every year around this time, we send an email to the parents of children between the ages of 4 and12, who have attended anything in the past 450 days and live in our local area. We include a RegisterLink2 to make it really easy for them to register all their children. Click HERE to read about register links. After sending an email such as this, we will have about 300 children sign up within the first 24 hours. That's pretty effective, if you ask me! Because we will have somewhere around 3,000 each year, we LOVE using online registration. It really makes the back office work so much easier. You can use any type of registration that works for your church. We use a Master Org with Compute Org by Birthdate type of registration, and we have individual organizations for each grade. Org Members Management makes it easy for us to move the children from, say, the 1st Grade Registration org into one of the several 1st Grade classes we will have available. There is even a feature in Org Members Management that allows you to click a button an send an email to all those that you have moved into a class, giving the parents the name of the class, the teacher's name and the location. Click HERE to read about Org Members Management. Even if your church has one class per grade, you may still want to use the same type of registration. You would just leave them in the organization in which they are placed. Click HERE to read more about online registrations. By the way - if you haven't already enlisted your workers, you may be interested seeing a sample online registration for enlisting your workers. Click HERE to read more.

New Security Feature for PC version of Checkin

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:50:00 GMT

The next time you start up the PC version of the checkin software, you will notice something new! Notice the section framed in red below. This feature does not apply to the iPad checkin yet. That will be coming soon. We have added an option for a new level of security in our checkin software, and we recommend that you take advantage of this. The purpose of this new security feature is to limit the use of the Magic Button and the 411 name search to only those trusted volunteers who will know the PIN number. The new feature, as you see above, is an option on the checkin login screen. There is now a field for an Admin PIN (a numeric password that you create) and a PIN Timeout (the number of seconds you can continue without entering the PIN # again). You will need to read more about how this works HERE to give you information about how it works and how best to roll the use of this out in your church. If you are not the person at your church who is responsible for checkin, please refer that person to this article. Also, be sure to communicate this to all of your checkin volunteers. If you are not using the newest version of checkin (which pushes the updates automatically), click HERE to download it.

Addition to Totals by Fund Report

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:01:00 GMT

We just added a new option on the Totals by Fund Report. It is a drop down that allows you to separate your Online giving from the regular giving. Select Both in the drop down and the report will run just as it always has. However, if you need to report the online giving separately in your general ledger, you will run this once with Online selected; then run it again with Not Online selected. Thanks, Kelley and Kim, for helping us understand the need for this. It is another small feature giving big benefit. Click HERE to read more about the Totals by Fund Report.

Hello IE 9

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:44:00 GMT

We had reports that IE9 was not playing nicely with our new Quick Search. We figured out a workaround for it, and have just published this. So, any of you using IE9 that had problems with the new Quick Search should be fine now. Remember, if you had changed the toggle to turn off the new Quick Search, you will want to turn it back on.

It's Time to Say Goodbye to IE8

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:50:00 GMT

As we add new functionality and new features, there will come a time when an older bitemser version just won't cut the mustard. That time has come for Internet Explorer 8. You will want to say goodbye to IE8 and upgrade to a newer version if you want to use the new Quick Search in BVCMS. Or, you can use a different bitemser such as Chrome or Firefox. Both of these, as well as IE9 or later, work great with our new Quick Search. We hate for you to miss out on the new features, so weigh your options carefully. But, if you just can't part with IE8, you can change the toggle to New Quick Search is OFF in the Welcome, User drop down. What's so special about the new Quick Search? Read more HERE.

New Default for Quick Search

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:29:00 GMT

We realize that some of you do not read this blog and would have missed our March 29 post A Quicker Quick Search. Now that I think about it, those same people are probably not reading this one either. The point is, until now, the new version of Quick Search was an option you had to select form the Welcome, User menu. Those not reading the blog would not have known this new search was available and would have missed out on this really cool new feature. Now that we have been using this new Quick Search for a couple of weeks and have received such positive responses about it, we decided the time had come to make this the default for everyone. So, if you hear your co-workers commenting on the change you can, very smugly…but in a nice way…let them know you already knew about it and had been using it because you read about it on the BVCMS News blog. You may want to refer them to the above-mentioned post which describes the features in this new Quick Search. By the way - now might be a good time to gently remind those co-workers that the blog is where we notify our users about all our new features; and, if they don't want to miss out, they should start reading it. PS - If you are one of those people who do not like change and want to continue using the old Quick Search, you can select it from the Welcome, User menu. The toggle is still there.

New How-To Video: Create a Task

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:58:00 GMT

We just uploaded a short (5-minute) video showing how to create a Task about someone and assign it to a lay leader, and also how that lay leader then completes the Task and records the Contact. Click HERE to view the video. Or you can go to Youtube.com/bvcmscom to see all of our public videos. If you haven't ready, you may want to subscribe. Then you will be notified whenever we post a new video. For Help Documentation about Tasks, click HERE.

Email Optouts and Failed Emails

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:01:00 GMT

Email via BVCMS is a HUGE feature and is used by our BVCMS churches to send thousands of emails each week. But did you know that you can not only track failed emails to an individual, but also their email optouts? By optouts, we are referring to the senders from which that person has chosen to unsubscribe. If you are a user with Edit role, you can view the System tab on a person's record. It is under this tab that you will find Email Optouts. If that person has chosen to unsubscribe, the email address of that sender will be listed alone with the date the person unsubscribed. There is also a link under the System>Optouts tab for Failed Sent Emails. Click that link to see a list of emails that have been sent to that person, but have not reached them. The reason will display on the far right, letting you know if they have marked an email as Spam, or if the address is bad, etc. If you get a phone call from a church member who is wondering why they are not receiving emails, this is the place to look - after you verify that you have a correct email address for them. That might explain exactly why they are not getting emails.

New Structure Report

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:31:00 GMT

This new report named Active Structure will display a list of every Program with its Divisions and its Organizations. The Programs, Divisions and the Organizations are actually links. If you click the Program name, you will be taken to the Organization Search page, filtered by that Program. The same is true if you click a Division. Clicking an Organization name will take you directly to the Organization. This is report allows you to scroll down and look at all your active organizations on one long page. There is also the same report for your Inactive Structure. This is very useful for new BVCMS churches to help evaluate their organizational structure. However, it is also really helpful for every church in helping you clean up your active organizations. I suppose you need to know where to access this! Go to Organization Search-Exports/Reports and select either Active Structure or InActive Structure.

New Setting re Add New Person, revised

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:20:00 GMT

Sometimes, after seeing how something works for a while, we decide we need to make a revision. That's exactly what we've done with the Add New Person option on the Main Menu (under People). This option was added purely to help churches who were just building their database. It was an easy way to add people who really did not have a context, but needed to be in the database. Many churches have us do a conversion, so their records are added that way. Others have us import an Insert People Spreadsheet that has their data in it. However, there are some churches that start from scratch with no records. It was for these folks that the Add New Person option was put on the Main Menu. That said, we discovered that some people are using this to add new records to their database. When they add record this way, instead of in context, they miss out on some important features of BVCMS. What we mean by 'in context' is this: as a Visitor to a Meeting, a New Family Member, a New Member to an Organization, a new Contributor, or a new Contactee. This context is important as it allows you to track people based on where they came on your radar, so to speak. Here is our solution: There is a new setting that your church Admin can add (called MenuAddPeople) that will allow the church to disable that button. The button still displays, but anyone clicking it will be taken to this Help Article. If you are a System Admin, click HERE to read about the Admin Settings. We have disabled this for Bellevue, as there is never a time we would want to add someone to the database out of context.

iPhone/Android People Search

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:38:00 GMT

In order to remain consist with the type of search you can do on the regular BVCMS application, we have added the ability to search by first name only using the iPhone and Android Apps. Enter the first name followed by a space and you will find those with that first name. If there are more than 20 records, you will see a message at the bottom of the screen something like this: "Results not shown: 50 You may need to refine your search." In this case, the message is letting you know that there were 50 additional people with that first name. Therefore, if you do not find the person you are looking for, you would need to add more information to your search criteria. This will naritem the search and limit the number of records that are returned. By the way - In addition to searching the First Name field, it will also search the Middle Name and Goes By name fields when you enter a name followed by a space.

New Preference Setting

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:21:00 GMT

One of my favorite features in Search Builder - besides the TONS of conditions available - is the Toggle Link Target option. When this is set, you can click on a person from your search results and a new tab will open for you to view the person's record. This allows you to view people records in one tab and return to your search on the other without having to re-run your search. As wonderful as that is, it just got better! From any page in BVCMS, look in the top right corner under the Welcome message. Notice the new option Target Person Tab is OFF. Click it and it will change to Target Person Tab is ON. By selecting ON, you have just set your preference for everywhere the Toggle Link Target option is available. Now, you no longer must remember to check that box or click that link in order to activate it. Isn't that a cool little feature? Where are the other places this Target Person Tab is available? Good question! This is available in Search Builder, People Search, Manage Tags, and in the Extra Values Grid. Actually, we will probably remove the Toggle Link Target reference on those pages eventually, because once you set your preference, you won't need it. Once again, the small things of the world have brought joy and happiness to one and all! Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I think it is a pretty cool feature! Click HERE to read more about the Toggle LInk Target.

A Quicker Quick Search

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 03:11:00 GMT

I'm sure you use the Quick Search feature as a simple and fast way to get to a person's record or to an organization. The Quick Search is the text box in the upper right corner of the web page in the header. If you have a unique hit for your search, pressing enter will take you directly to that record. Otherwise you will arrive at a list of potential matches where you can click one of those links. Now there is an even faster way to use the QuickSearch. But you will have to turn it on as a User Preference. On the "Welcome, User!" menu (in the top right corner of the page), there is a "OldQuickSearch is ON" menu item. Click that to toggle it to OFF. Then give the Quick Search another try. We think you will like it. When you first click in the text box, there will be three options for going to the three main pages for searching. But as you begin to type the thing you are looking for, after three characters, it will begin to populate the drop down with matches. It will look for the following: Partial Last name Partial First and Last Partial First followed by a space A 7 digit telephone number A PeopleId An Organization Id The list will be populated with as many as 6 different people matches and 4 different Organization matches. Organizations will be matched by the name of the org which contains the phrase you have typed in. Also, an Org Leader will be matched for the organization too. 4/16/13 note: Since this was originally posted, we have made the new Quick Search the default.

Search Builder - New Default Setting

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:17:00 GMT

Some of you may have noticed this already. You now can control the default behavior for 'Only Mine' setting in Saved Searches. So regardless whether you mostly use your own saved searches or those someone else has setup and made public, you will be able to get to them faster. Basically, if you need to look for someone else's saved search (one that is public, that is), uncheck the box and click Filter. BVCMS will now remember your preference every time you change this. Just an aside while we're on the subject of searches: Search Builder is the go-to place to find your target audience for mass emails or texts, or for mailing labels. Don't be guilty of sending communication to everyone in your database. Zero in on a target audience. They will appreciate your thoughtfulness. Also, you are less likely to have your emails flagged as spam.

Added Texting Feature - Character Counter

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:28:00 GMT

Today, we have added another small but, as always, very useful feature relating to Texting using the Twilio integration in BVCMS. Twilio imposes a 160 character limit, which we had warned you about in the documentation. However, we've gone a step further and now there is a character counter right there where you compose your text. This little counter will be a huge help as you refine your message to make it succinct enough to fit within the constraints of a text. Remember: Be short. Don't think about what you want to say; think about what the recipient needs to know. Click HERE to see the help articles about texting.

Contribution Statements - Quarterly

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:36:00 GMT

We are almost at the end of the 1st quarter of 2013. Have you thought about sending 2013 Contribution Statements? That's right - I'm talking about sending statements now, not just at the end of the year. A number of churches send statements every quarter. A quarterly statement helps donors track their giving more easily. It also gives the church an opportunity to thank donors throughout the year. After all, it is the tithes and generous donations of your contributors that keep the lights on and make ministry possible. We all love to be appreciated and to know that our donations are being used to further the Kingdom. So, here is another thought - consider adding a printed card with a note from the pastor in which he can keep the donors informed about how their tithes and offerings have been used for ministry during that quarter. If the card is just a bit smaller than the window envelope, it will fit neatly in with the statement without extra folding. If not quarterly, you could consider sending statements twice a year. You wouldn't wait a whole year to thank someone for a birthday gift. So, why wait that long to thank and inform your contributors? Click here to read about generating statements.

"IsNull - IsNotNull" or "Funny Words Geeks Use"

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:56:00 GMT

New Setting for Visitors

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 16:49:00 GMT

Additional Info on Roster Report

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:50:00 GMT

Many of you print the Roster report for your classes each week. One of the main reasons for printing this report is to have the allergy/medical information available for each child in the class. We just added a bit more to this report in order to enhance the functionality in the classroom. Now, the first names of the parents and their cell phone numbers are displayed under the Contact Info column. This adds 2-3 more lines for each child, but it well worth the space. If there is an emergency and you need to get in touch with the parents very quickly, you have the information you need at your fingertips. Click HERE to find out how to generate this Roster report.

Online Directory - Easier Access for My Data Users

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:38:00 GMT

A feature we added several months ago was the Online Directory. Organizations can be flagged to allow for one of two types of Online Directories: Member Directory or Family Directory. We have just made it easier for My Data Users (these are members of the organization that have a user account, but no roles) to access the directory for their class. When a My Data User logs on to BVCMS, they are on their profile page. To access their class directory, all they do is click the Enrollment tab and then click on the name of the Organization. How simple is that? Remember, the Organization must be flagged to allow for an Online Directory. Click HERE to read more.

Email Replacement Code - Cell Phone

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:09:00 GMT

This is new little option that we added this week to go along with our new Twilio texting feature. It is an email replacement code that you can use to verify a person's cell phone number. If you email from BVCMS and insert {cellphone} in the body of your email, the cell phone number on that person's record will display in your email. Using this replacement code is a very handy way for a person to verify their cell phone number at the time they are 'opting in' to receive texts. Click HERE to read some suggestions about how to capture the opt-in information, including using this new email replacement code. Not familiar with email replacements codes? Click HERE and see all those that are available.

Enhancement for our Texting Integration

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:51:00 GMT

We just recently debuted our new texting integration with Twilio and have already added a small enhancement. This new feature makes it even easier to send the followup email to the same people that you just texted. Now, after you have sent your text and click "send email to the same people" the body of your email will auto-populate with the message you just sent via text. At that point, you have the option to just click Send or you can edit the message before sending it. I don't think it could be any easier! In case you missed our previous post about our integration with Twilio for texting, click HERE and check it out.

Mass emails were broken for a while on morning of 3/19/13 [UPDATED, case closed]

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:12:00 GMT

Late last night we published a few changes that broke mass emails until about 8:05 this morning. Karen picked up on this, notified me and we got it fixed in about 15 minutes. But, we are going to investigate if there is any clean up we need to do as a result of this. Scheduled emails may need to be resent. We'll report here of anything we know. The problem is that part of the bug kept us from being notified of these errors. But as of now, the mass emails (unscheduled ones) are working normally. Update: It looks like any scheduled emails that failed to be sent this morning, have now been sent.

Online Registrations - Early Bird Pricing

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:31:00 GMT

We have received this question a couple of times lately. "How can I give 'early bird' pricing for an online registration?" There are a couple of easy ways you can do this. The one you choose depends on whether you want to increase the fee once or twice. Both methods use the Fee, Extra Fee and the Last Day Before Extra date. These are all on the Organization>Settings>Fees tab. Scenario 1 The fee will increase once after a specific date. The fee starts out as $100, but increases to $130 after April 30. Here are the Settings: Fee = $100 Extra Fee = $30 Last Day Before Extra = April 30 The fee will automatically increase by $30 on May 1. This can be used for either an 'early bird' discount or as a 'late fee'. It all depends on how you present this to your registrants. We use this for all of our sports teams to get people to avoid waiting until the last minute to register. Scenario 2 The fee will increase more than once. It starts out as $100, goes to $115 after April 15, and finally to $130 after April 30. You still use the Extra Fee and the Last Day Before Extra and you will manually make one change after the first date has been met. Here are the Settings: Fee = $100 Extra Fee = $15 Last Day Before Extra = April 30 (note that this is not the date of the first increase) Set yourself a reminder and on April 16: Change the Fee to $115 (the extra fee will apply after April 30, taking the final fee to $130) Click HERE to read more about the Fee Settings for an online registration.

Small Group Filter by Prefix - New Feature

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:49:00 GMT

If you have Organizations with Small Groups, you will be interested in this new Filter capability. It has been there a couple of months, so you may have already noticed it when you click the Filter button on the Members tab of an Organization. Some of you are familiar with adding prefixes to the names of your Small Groups in order to identify certain types of groups, especially within very large Organizations. Well, now you can filter for just groups with that prefix. How handy is that? Click here to read about how this Filter works for Small Groups in an Organization.

Texting through BVCMS

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:34:00 GMT

Have you ever been so excited about something that you just cannot wait to tell people about it? That is how I feel about our latest feature. It is SO new that I should probably wait a week or so to mention it, as we are just in the beginning stages of using it ourselves. But I'm not going to wait! This new feature is our just completed integration between BVCMS and Twilio (a texting service provider). I am so pumped about this, that I want you to go ahead and start checking it out. This is a very easy and cost-effective way to communicate very quickly with groups within your congregation or all of your church membership. You send the texts from the BVCMS toolbar. That means that you can text to any group you are viewing: a Tag, Organization Members, Small Group Members, or Search Results. The billing for the texting is from Twilio, not BVCMS. So you will need to establish an account and purchase texting numbers from Twilio. Click HERE for our step by step articles to walk you through the process of getting started. Remember - unlike email, texting is an 'opt-in' type of communication. So, you will want to devise a plan to poll your congregation in order to flag them as OK to Receive Texts. One of the help articles is all about managing the opt-in process and will give you some ideas about how to approach this. As always, when we pair up with a third-party provider, such as Twilio or Protect My Ministry, BVCMS receives no compensation from these companies. We are providing the integration to help facilitate ministry for our BVCMS churches. Just click HERE for easy to follow steps to get you on your way!

Firefox, PDFs and Roll Sheets

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:54:00 GMT

It seems that recently Firefox has made a change and is opening PDFs in their own viewer instead of using Adobe Acrobat. This explains why some of you have had your roll sheets print a bit funky - printing in Portrait instead of Landscape, etc. There is a very easy fix. Obviously, you can change this in the print settings each time you print, which would get old very quickly. Or you can make a change in the Firefox Options/Preferences and change the viewer - which makes more sense to me. Click HERE for some brief instructions and screenshots to help you change the Firefox settings.

Viewing Emails You Sent on Behalf of Another User

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:06:00 GMT

Many of you are very familiar with the ability to send emails through BVCMS on behalf of another user. But do you know where you can view those sent emails and the email details? Go to your people record and click Gitemth > Contacts > Sent Emails. Not only will you see emails you have sent from yourself, but you will also see the emails you have sent on someone else's behalf. You will notice that the name and email address listed are for the person on whose behalf you sent the email. Click the subject of the email to view the email details - the list of recipients and more. To read more about Email Details click HERE If other users send email on your behalf, you can also view those email details by going to your own record and looking at your sent emails. This might be a good time to remind you that you can track emails in BVCMS. By that, I mean that you can see how many recipients have opened your email and even see which recipients have opened it. Click HERE to find out how to do this. If you did not know about sending emails on behalf of another user, click HERE to read more. This is a very useful feature!

Multi-Tasking and Emailing

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:25:00 GMT

Did you know that you can open more than one tab in your bitemser and perform different tasks within BVCMS on each of those tabs? You can! However, until recently, we warned you to not open another tab and run searches while you were composing an email, because the email would get sent to the people on the other tab. That warning was on the compose email page…but, apparently, some of you did not see it until it was too late. We have now taken steps to prevent that from happening. You can now run a search on one tab, start composing an email, and then open another tab to look up a person, an organization or even run another search without affecting the email recipients on your original tab. Just don't start composing a second email until you have sent the first one. I could bore you with the details of how we are managing this with a tag behind the scenes…yada, yada, yada…but I will let this message that appears on the compose email page suffice: Please Note: Your recipient list has been saved in a tag, so you can run queries in other tabs. But you should not compose two emails simultaneously as one will overwrite the other.

New Tag Feature

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:57:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to email everyone in your class…except the teacher and his wife, because you want to plan a surprise for them? Or perhaps, you needed to send letters to everyone in a search results…except a few people. The way to do that was always to first create a new tag, run your search (or go to the organization) and then tag everyone. Then you could remove those you did not want to include. This process just got easier! If you click Tag > Add All from the green Toolbar - whether you are already on the Members page of an Organization or in Search Builder - you will see a new popup dialog box. This will display the name of the tag that is currently active and give you three options: 1. You can make a totally new tag. Just type over the text in the name field with the name you want for this new tag and then click OK. This action takes you to the Manage Tags page where you can easily remove those you do not want to include and send your email, print labels, etc. 2. You can click Clear Tag First and replace everyone in your active Tag with the current list of people you just tagged, keeping the name of the tag the same. This action takes you to the Manage Tags page where you can remove people as needed and then use the Toolbar to send your email, print labels, etc. 3. You can add those people to your currently active tag. Just click OK in the dialog box and leave the name of the tag as it is. This action will leave you on your current page, but those people you just tagged will be added to those currently in that tag. You can remove any that you do not want in the tag. Click HERE to read more about Tags.

Contributions: Revised Bundles List Page

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:03:00 GMT

We just made a few small improvements to the Contribution Bundles page - the page where you see a list of all the Contribution Bundles. One addition was a column for the count for each Bundle - i.e. the number of individual contributions in that Bundle. Also, the columns look a little different and you can sort by any of them. Remember, you can access any individual Bundle by clicking either the Bundle ID # or the Status, which will be either Closed or Open. Once again, these are small changes, but I'm sure you will find them useful.

Why Was My Email Sent There?!

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:28:00 GMT

Did you know that when you send emails from an Organization that was populated using an online registration, we send to both the email address on the person's record as well as the email address they entered when they registered. Most of the time, these are the same. However, there are times when they are different. We want to make sure they receive your communication. That's why we send to both. As fascinating as all that may be, that is not the real reason for this post. Sometimes, people enter their email address incorrectly when registering online. If that happens and you email everyone in the Organization you will get an 'Undeliverable' message for that bad email address. But you don't see that email address on the person's record! That brings me to the real reason for this post: to answer the question 'why was my email sent to THAT email address?' Here's the answer: They probably have a bad email address as their RegisterEmail. Look in the person's Member Dialog for the Organization you emailed. This is where you will see the email address we call the RegisterEmail. If it is incorrect, either remove if from the dialog box or correct it. Click HERE to read about the Member Dialog box and how to access it. I hope this clears up any confusion.

BVCMS Remembers - People and Orgs

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:32:00 GMT

Did you notice the giteming lists under the People and Organization menus? We recently added the feature that remembers the five most recent People and Organizations that you have viewed. The newest Person or Organization will be added to the top of the top of the list. We also retain your name under the People Menu, to make it easier to access your own record. This is a small change, but it is really cool and such a time saver! I have already found it extremely helpful.

BVCMS - Now on youtube!

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:22:00 GMT

Check out our training and demonstration videos on youtube.com/bvcmscom. While you're there, why not subscribe? If you do, you will be notified whenever we post new videos. Just click Subscribe when you get to the site. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth much more! We hope you find these videos helpful. PS Feel free to share the link with your new staff members, lay leaders, volunteers - anyone who might benefit from any of these short videos.

Upload Documents Naming Feature

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:46:00 GMT

If you read the previous post, you are aware (if you weren't already) that you can upload one or more documents on the Volunteer Application page for an individual. You can also upload Membership documents as well. These are on the Member Profile>Summary page. These documents previously did not have a file name associated with them, nor could you name the file once it was uploaded to the person's record. That has all changed now! When you upload a document (either to the Volunteer page or the Member Profile page), the system will retain the existing file name. If you want, you can even edit that name by clicking on it and replacing the existing name with a new one, pressing Return (Enter) to accept the change. What about all those documents that were uploaded previously and do not have file names? Simple, if you want to name them, go to the person's record where the document is stored and click the text Click to Edit (just below the Adobe PDF icon). Then just type in the name you want and press Return (Enter). Bonus: Did you know that you can run a search to find everyone with either Member document or a Volunteer Application on file? You can! The condition for the Member document is on the Church Status tab and the Volunteer Application condition is on the Enrollment tab of the Conditions dialog box in Search Builder. Click HERE to read more about the Volunteer Application page and stored documents. Click HERE to read more about the Membership Documents.

New Integration with Protect My Ministry

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:05:00 GMT

We are so excited about this latest feature that we can offer to our BVCMS churches! It is an integration with Protect My Ministry which allows special users to request background and/or credit checks right from a person's record in BVCMS. This makes it so simple and provides all the information you need right there where it belongs - inside BVCMS on the individual's record. Volunteers are an integral part of the ministry of the church and all of us want to ensure that we do our due diligence to vet our volunteers to the best of our ability. Running background checks is a vital part of that process. By integrating this with BVCMS, we are making the task of vetting and tracking volunteers even easier. There is no additional charge from BVCMS for this, as the billing for the background/credit checks is directly from Protect My Ministry. If you have already been using this company for your background checks, you do not need an additional account. If your church does not have an existing account with them, that will be the first step - establish an account with Protect My Ministry. BVCMS does not receive any compensation from Protect My Ministry. We are just offering this as a service to our BVCMS customers. Thank you, Steven, for creating this integration for us. Click HERE for how to get started.

VBS Is Just Around the Corner - Really!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:51:00 GMT

I know that some of you are still experiencing blizzards and winter weather - but, it is not too early to start thinking about Vacation Bible School. We have already set up our online registration to enlist our workers for our VBS, which will occur in June. That registration will go live the first of March. Our online registration for the children will not start until later, of course. The reason I am blogging about this now is to plant a seed in your mind. If you have not been enlisting your VBS workers by using an online registration, you just might be missing out on something that could make your life a whole lot easier! VBS is one of the biggest outreach ministries that we have here at Bellevue. It is a time that can potentially change the lives of children forever as you reach them with the Gospel of Christ. So, you want to be prepared. Handling the back-office work as easily as possible will free you to focus on the reason for VBS - to share the love of Jesus with the children in your community. Using an online registration to manage your workers and volunteers can really be a time-saver for you. Don't wait until the Spring thaw! Start thinking about that now. Click HERE to see some ideas (and a sample) of how you could use an online registration for enlisting VBS volunteers.

Birthday Tags and Ministry

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:52:00 GMT

We all like to know that someone is thinking of us, especially on our birthday. So why not start a new tradition this year? How about sending "Happy Birthday" emails to each person who serves in your area of ministry? You could take advantage of the TrackBirthdays tag. Just add all your volunteers to that tag so that you would see their name and birthday on your home page when they have a birthday coming up within the next 15 days. The name appears as a link to their people record, so they are just a click away! Click HERE to read about the TrackBirthdays tag and how to add people to that special tag. Of course, even if you do not populate the TrackBirthdays tag, those who are in your Main Fellowship class will automatically appear on your Homepage. Oh, by the way - I have received some very positive feedback from both staff and lay leaders who have begun emailing those in their ministry (either volunteers or class members). Instead of just wishing them Happy Birthday, they ask something like "How can I pray for you on your birthday and in this upcoming year?". You might be surprised the positive dialog you establish when you make the communication two-way. You ask the question and they answer! No email address on their record? Just pick up the phone and give them a call and make their day! Now, isn't that better than a card?

Tools for Managing Duplicates

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:22:00 GMT

Another New Editor

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:08:00 GMT

We published another change to the email editor this afternoon to fix the issue of the font options not showing up. You will have to refresh your bitemser again (see previous blog post for instructions how), but if that still doesn't update it, you will have to empty your cache. We have only seen that you have to do this in Google Chrome, so far. To empty your cache in Google Chrome, read the instructions HERE. Just check "Empty the cache", and click "Clear bitemsing data." If you have any other issues with the updated email editor, please let us know by emailing support@bvcms.com.

New Version of the Email Editor

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:40:00 GMT

We have updated the email editor to a newer version. You will have all of the same functionality, but the toolbar above your email body will look a little different. If you can't type in the body of your email, you will need to refresh your bitemser (while on the email page). Look for the little icon that looks like a curved aritem (see below) at the left or right of your address bar, depending on which bitemser you're using. When you click that button, the bitemser might pop up a message about "resending information". Go ahead and click Yes, Resend, or Retry, and that will allow it to refresh/update. As usual, if you notice anything that doesn't work, please let us know.

New Reports - 1st, 2nd, 3rd Time Attenders

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:36:00 GMT

Take a look under Reports in the header and you will see our latest additions to make it easier for you to follow up with your guests. These are really cool! Just click on the report you want (either First, Second, or Third Time Attenders), then sit back and watch the magic happen. You do not even have to click Run! As soon as you click the link, Search Builder will start doing the hard work for you. And it's really fast, so you can't sit back for long. Here's what it's doing. Click First time Attenders and Search Builder will find everyone whose first attendance to anything at your church occurred in the past 7 days. I told you it was cool! These reports are just one more way we can assist you in doing what you do - minister to people. Click HERE to read more.

A Couple of Improvements re Email Attendance Notices

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:39:00 GMT

The next time you send the Email Attendance Notices, you will see a change in the Attendance Emails Sent notice that you receive. Instead of receiving one for each and every person who received an attendance notice, you will receive one email with a list of everyone who received the attendance notice. Whew! That's a lot better, isn't it? Also, we noticed (thanks to Larissa) that if the class had no one who had consecutive absents, the attendance notice was not getting sent for that class. We changed that. So, now, even if there is no one who fits the Consecutive Absents Threshold, the leaders will still get the attendance notice with a link to the most recent meeting. There will just not be a section for Recent Absents.

Email Attendance Notices in New Location

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:00:00 GMT

In case you haven't noticed, we moved the Email Attendance Notices link. No longer should you look under Organization. Instead, go to Organization Search, select the Program and Division (Schedule is optional) for the Organizations to whom you want to send the notices. Then go to Exports/Reports and you will find the link for Email Attendance Notices. NOTE: You no longer enter a date for this notice. It will send the notice for the most recent meeting during the past week. Click HERE to read more. We mentioned this move in a recent post in which we also told you about the new Recent Absents Report. If you missed it, click HERE and read about it. By the way, if your leaders are interested in who visited or was absent from a meeting in the past, be sure to remind them that they can always log on, go to their class and click on the Meeting Tab to look at any Meeting. Click HERE for more information on all that is available on the Meeting Page.

Guests and Absent Members on New Contact Report

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:20:00 GMT

Our newest GuestsAbsents Contact Report is sort of like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. We combined two really good things (the Contact Report and the Guests/Absents Report) into one even better thing! I'm not saying that it's delicious, but it will certainly help you do ministry better. The request was to make the Contact report available for a specific meeting and to have it include the visitors to that meeting as well as the absent members. So, that is exactly what this report does. You can access this report from the blue Toolbar on the Meeting page. It is under the cloud icon > Reports > Guests Absentees Contact Report. The really cool thing about this report is that you see all the recent Contacts that have been made for those individuals. This is so helpful if you are going to give them a call or send an email. You will know what has already been done in terms of in-reach (for your class members) and out-reach (for your visitors), because those comments from the Contacts are right there on the report. Thanks, Cherry Street for helping create better tools for ministry!

New Family Option for the Online Member Directory

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:06:00 GMT

We just added another feature to the brand new Online Member Directory. You now have the option on an Organization to select Publish Family Directory or Publish Member Directory. If the Family option is selected for an Organization, when you publish the Member Directory link, all family members of the Organization members will be included in the directory. Here is a sample from our Demo Church. Notice the header lets you know it is a Family Directory for Adult Choir. Also, notice the entire Allen family grouped together - primary adults first (husband, then wife) followed by the children. The shading makes it easy to see the family groupings. Click HERE to read more about the Online Organization Directories. I told you in my previous post that this was something pretty cool! By the way - if you missed that post, be sure to check it out HERE. You will want to read about the new setting for those who do not want their phone numbers published in directories.

New Setting - Do Not Publish Phone Numbers

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:17:00 GMT

We have just added a new setting on the basic tab of a person's record - Do Not Publish Phones. The box can be checked if the person does not want their phone numbers published in any of the Directories that are part of BVCMS. This does not prevent the phone numbers from displaying any other place in the system or in other reports or exports. The setting is specifically to keep an individual's phone numbers from displaying in directories. Click HERE to read more about this new setting. Click HERE to see the list of directories to which this setting applies. In a separate post, I'll tell you about our newest directory option. It's pretty cool and deserves its own post!

New Finance Report

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:54:00 GMT

Users with Finance Role will want to check out our new Donor Totals by Range Report. You can find it under the Contributions header. This report will help you analyze the giving at your church. It gives you a range of donations, the total dollar amount of those donations and how many donors fall into that category. This uses an individual's total contributions for the specified date range to determine which range they fall into. If a couple gives jointly, they will be considered as one donor for this report. Here is a sample report from our Demo Church: Click HERE to read more.

Special Delivery!

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:25:00 GMT

You are going to love this new feature relating to email attendance notices and recent absents! Just like the morning newspaper, we are delivering this new Recent Absents Report to you on your virtual doorstep via the Email Attendance Notice. Just open it and read it. We are now including an interactive list inside the email attendance notice you receive after attendance has been completed for your class. This Recent Absents Report lists every member who has missed two or more consecutive meetings. The person's email address and phone numbers will be right there. How easy is that? For you as a leader, the most important news (the headline), should be who is missing; more specifically, who has missed more than a couple of classes in a item. These are the people you need to contact. Everyone misses a class now and then. However, when a member misses twice in a item, something may be going on in his life that you as a leader should know about in order to effectively minister to him. That is why we want you to have better tools to make it drop-dead easy to shepherd your sheep. This report is also available on the Organization page (for an individual Organization) and Organization Search (for multiple Organizations). Click HERE to read more about the Recent Absents Report. If you you not using the Email Attendance Notice feature, you will want to start now. Click HERE to read about how you can trigger the email notices to be sent the leaders. Oh, by the way - you may have noticed the while we were adding more functionality to the Attendance Notice, we also moved the link to it! It just makes sense for it to be under Organization>Search>Exports/Reports. Thank you Mark for helping us see the importance of 'home delivery' - so to speak!

Coupons Apply to Deposits Now

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:23:00 GMT

You can now create a Coupon for a registrant and they can use it to pay all or part of a Deposit for an Online Registration. In an earlier post (during the holidays), David briefly mentioned this as one of the new features, but now we'll explain a bit more about how this works. One of the many great things about Online Registrations is that the registrant pays electronically. However, there are 2 very good reasons for using Coupons: when someone needs to pay with a check or cash. when the church wants to give a discount or scholarship to an individual With our newest feature, you can issue a Coupon and the person registering can use that Coupon Code to pay all or part of the Deposit or pay even more than the Deposit, but less than the total fee. If they use the Coupon for less than the total amount due with the Deposit (you can also have the Extra Fees required with the Deposit), they will be required to pay the difference electronically (credit card, bank card). Remember, you will want to include the {paylink} replacement code in the Confirmation Email, so that the registrant can use that to pay their balance later. Whether they use a Coupon or credit/bank card for the Deposit, the paylink will calculate the correct balance due. Click HERE to read about creating and applying Coupons and about Discounts or Scholarships.

Table of Checkboxes

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:44:00 GMT

If you have an online registration that uses the AskCheckboxes feature on the Questions tab, you might notice a new field called "Columns". See below. This is a new feature that will be coming soon that we are still testing. We'll be writing some documentation about that when it's ready for you to use. In the meantime, it will default to 1, and that will let it continue to work as it currently does. As the title of this blog post suggests, this feature will allow you to create a table (matrix) of checkboxes. We'll let you know more later.

Headers and Instructions in Online Registrations

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:09:00 GMT

Yes, this is another new feature we put into Online Registrations recently. We had already given you a way to make a header for a group of checkboxes. Now, with the new Header and Instruction features you can create Headers or Instructions that can be moved around on your registration page and placed anywhere you want them. Also, these are indented and the text is different in order for them to be noticed better. In the sample below, the text I have circled in blue is an Instruction. The one I've circled in red, is a Header. You can add as many of these as you need. Click HERE to read more about the Questions Settings for Online Registrations.

Extra Fees and Family Maximum Fees for Registrations

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:12:00 GMT

As promised, here is yet another new feature we added to online registrations relating to extra fees. This one is a checkbox that lets you decide if you want the family maximum to apply to extra fees or if those should be added to the maximum. Example: Family Camping Trip has a base fee of $25 per person, but also has other activity options with additional fees which can bump the per person cost up by another 5-10 dollars, depending on the options chosen. You want to offer a family maximum of $100, regardless of which options the family members choose. In other words, you do not want the extra fees added on top of the maximum. Now you can have it work that way! Just check the box Apply Max to Other Fees. If you want the extra fees to be over and above the family maximum, just leave the box unchecked. This is on the Settings>Fees tab of the Organization. Click HERE to read about Fee Settings.

Extra Fees and Deposits for Online Registrations

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:25:00 GMT

Here is yet another new feature that we added during the Christmas holidays. It is the ability to require a registrant to pay any extra fees (like for activities and other options) at the time they pay their deposit. When would you use this? How about a student ski trip? You have a total fee, a required deposit, and also various activities from which to choose. These activities have different fees associated with them. It might be helpful as you plan the trip, to have those fees paid for in advance with the deposit. If that’s the case, just check the new box Other Fees Required with Deposit and when a person registers, their deposit will be increased based on the options they chose. Example: The total fee is $200, the Deposit is $50 and I opted to go skiing which is an extra $35 fee. If I choose to pay the deposit, my fee will be $85, because it includes the extra fees. This setting is under Settings>Fees on the Organization. Click HERE to read more about Fee Settings. Watch this blog tomoritem if you want to know about another new feature relating to extra fees for Online Registration. I told you we added a lot of new stuff!

New Blog Site

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 04:53:00 GMT

Just wanted to inform you that this post is coming from our new BVCMS blog site. You can still reach it at blog.bvcms.com but it ends up at bvcmsblog.wordpress.com. This is a wordpress blog site. We were using Wordpress before, but hosting it ourselves and consequently did not keep it current with the latest wordpress software. We missed out on some features as a result. Bottom line for you is that this new blog site is going to help us communicate with you better. And we are going to be inviting other members of the BVCMS team to blog here too.

Online Registrations - Extra Fees and Org Fees

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 22:53:00 GMT

Another one of the new features that was added during the holidays is the addition of a checkbox named Other Fees Are Additional. This relates to online registrations and the ability to decide whether or not you want the extra fees to be added to the special registration fee for those who are in the organization for which you are giving a reduced fee. These extra fees are things such as Shirt Fees, Late Fees, or fees associated with drop downs or checkboxes. Example: You have all your leaders in an organization and you want to charge them a reduced fee for the upcoming student trip. You can use the Org Fee feature (which has been around for a while) and enter the ID of that organization along with the reduced amount you want to charge those who are in that special organization. Then check the box beside Other Fees Are Additional. By checking that box, those leaders enrolled in the organization for which you are giving a reduced fee, will still be required to pay any extra fees associated with the registration. These might be activity fees that are options (checkboxes or drop downs) or shirt fees or even late fees. It applies to all extra fees above the registration fee. If you do not want to charge those in the special org these extra fees, then do not check the box. This works whether you are creating special fees for chaperones or for students to whom you want to give the same discount. Just remember, this is a companion to the Org Fee feature. Click HERE to read more about fee settings for Online Registrations. Stay tuned for our next post about yet another feature relating to registration fees and deposits.

Using Non-Tax Deductible Contributions toward Pledges

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:46:00 GMT

Non-Tax Deductible Contributions

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:25:00 GMT

As David mentioned in an earlier post, one of our most recently added features for the new year is the ability to flag an individual contribution as non-tax deductible, even though the fund itself is a tax deductible type of fund. The best example of this is a person who donates through a foundation. He receives tax credit from the foundation when he gives the money to the foundation. At the time he directs the foundation to make a donation to go to your church, he should not receive tax credit again. Flagging that contribution as non-tax deductible allows you to record the contribution as coming from that individual without displaying the contribution on his Contribution Statement from the church. While we already had the ability to designate a specific fund to be a non-tax deductible fund, this new feature gives us the ability to record on a person's record an individual contribution to a regular tax deductible fund (such as a Building Fund or the regular Budget/Tithe fund) even though the person has already received tax credit for the contribution. A key factor is to not display this on the individual's contribution statement. Read more about Non-Tax Deductible Contributions. Stay tuned for our next post, which will show you how you can use these types of non-tax deductible gifts and apply them to a Pledge.

Online Member Directory

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 22:18:00 GMT

One of the new features that we added recently is an Online Member Directory. The directory lists the name, birthday (month and day), address, phone numbers and email addresses for just the members of the Organization. This works with new or existing Organizations and allows members of that Organization who have at least a MyData type of user account on BVCMS to access this directory. A person with a MyData user account can normally only access their own record and those of their family members. A user with OrgLeaderOnly can only access people in the Organizations in which he is a leader. However, by using this new Member Directory, you can give everyone in your class/group/organization access to contact information on everyone in the class. All they need is the MyData user account. Some churches may want to enroll all their active church members in one Organization and create an online directory for it. Read more

Gifts-in-Kind

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:54:00 GMT

Here's wishing you a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Even though these greetings are a wee bit late (I've been out of the office a few weeks), I felt I should extend them because BVCMS has given you several Christmas gifts. Well, at least that's how I think about them. If you read the most recent couple of BVCMS News posts, you will know what I'm talking about. These are some wonderful new features that David added during the holidays. I'm going to take several posts to expound on these and point you to more information. The new feature for this post is the ability to track Gifts-in-Kind in BVCMS and have them display on a person's Contribution Statement. First, let's define a Gift-in-Kind. This is a donation to your church of goods or services, anything that is not actual cash. There are all sorts of items that qualify as a Gift-in-Kind (stock, vehicles, services). Some of these will be sold and the proceeds donated to a specific fund. Others will be retained and used by the church. Still others will be services for which the church did not have to pay anything. You may decide that you want to record only those items that will actually convert to cash, such as gifts of stock or vehicles that will be sold. The other types of Gifts-in-Kind can be acknowledged with a letter. Your church should determine the policy they wish to follow. NOTE: The IRS is very specific about how to handle the reporting of these types of gifts. We suggest you consult your church accountant before you begin. Read more about Gifts-in-Kind and how to record Gifts-in-Kind in BVCMS. Stay tuned for more posts about our other new features!

Three New Features for Contributions

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 22:51:00 GMT

See an overview video here. Nicer looking pages Post Non Tax Deductible Items to Any Fund Not just a Non Tax Deductible Fund Including Pledge Funds Shows up as reducing pledge total on statement Post Gifts in Kind Designated to any fund Prevent entering a $ amount Shows up on Statement with date, fund, and description, no amount More documentation will be coming later.

Online Registration New Features and a couple of bug fixes

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:53:00 GMT

Admin Notifications for Online Registrations

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:07:00 GMT

We just added a new notification for system admins. It is an email that is sent to each user with Admin role whenever someone completes an online registration and there are no Online Notify Person IDs associated with the registration. The email very clearly lets you know the purpose of the email. It also contains a link to the Help article about the online registration settings (the text 'see documentation' is the link). Here is an example: We also have prompts within the Settings themselves. This new email is just an extra fail-safe, as we want to ensure that every registrant receives a confirmation from the appropriate person.

New Checkin Software

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:02:00 GMT

We have made a number of changes to our checkin software over the past several months. One of the best changes is the ability for us to push changes to you, so that you get the latest software version automatically without having to uninstall/reinstall. Another change is the ability to support both 1-inch and 2-inch labels on any label printer you prefer. Please use this link to download and install the latest version of our checkin software on each of your checkin computers. Before you do that, you should uninstall your existing checkin version. This will be the last time you have to do that! When you click that link, you will see the page below. Click here to read more about the installation. Once you have installed the software, there are several things we want to point out: New versions of checkin will be installed automatically when you open checkin after the update has been made. We have added a new function called Building Checkin. This requires some set up on your database before it will work. Click HERE for more information about this new feature. There are also new screenshots and explanations in our Help Documentation that reflect the changes you will see when you login for the first time: For the Login and Startup page settings click HERE. For the installation information click HERE. After the first of the year, we will no longer be supporting the old version of checkin, so please go ahead and install the new version.

New Settings - Church Website

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:38:00 GMT

We have a relatively new setting that your system admin can add to your database on the Settings page. The setting ID is named ChurchWebSite and the settings itself would be, of course, your church's website address. Example: http://www.Bellevue.org If a database has this setting, when a person completes an online registration, they will be presented with two links on the completed transaction page: Start New Transaction, which lets them register someone else for the same event; or Return to Church Website, which will take the registrant to your website. Check with your system admin to see if your database has this setting.

Private Organizations - Alternative to Shared Tags

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:49:00 GMT

We have told you about Private/Confidential Comments and about sharing Tags between users. But did you know that you can make an Organization private? You can do this by using the Security Role associated with the Organization. Here's how it works. The system admin for your church will create a special user role and then assign that role to everyone who should be able to either access that Organization or even see it on a person's list of Enrollments. The admin will then enter that role in the Security Role text box on the Organization under Settings-General. Note: Only the admin can access that setting. The Admin cannot see the organization if they do not have that special security role. That means that once they assign the role to the org, they can no longer manage it without giving themselves that role. They also cannot see that org on a person's enrollment. Read more about Private Organizations.

Emailing Leaders or Members of Child Organizations

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:45:00 GMT

In my last post, I promised I would tell you about another new feature relating to Parent/Child Organizations and so I shall. There is now an option on the green Toolbar to allow you to email either the Leaders under this org or the Members under this org. Here's how it works. First, find the Parent Organization (remember, you can filter for Parent Orgs on Organization Search). Then, if you want to email all the leaders in the Child Organizations that are under the Parent Organization that you are currently on, just select Email Leaders under this org. If you want to email all the members in those Child Organizations, just select Email Members under this org. Read more about emailing from Parent Organizations. If you are not familiar with Parent/Child Organizations, click here and read all about them. Karen

New Filter on Organization Search Page

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:13:00 GMT

Those of you who always pay close attention have probably already noticed this new feature. On the Organization Search page, there is now a checkbox to allow you to filter for just those Organizations that are Parent Orgs. If you are not familiar with Parent/Child relationships in regard to Organizations, read about them here. This might be just what you need! By the way - those have nothing to do with real mothers, fathers, or children. We have also added some more functionality relating to communicating with both leaders and members who are in child organizations. But, you'll just have to wait until my next blog post to find out what that is! Karen

New Feature - Resend Transactional Emails

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:04:00 GMT

Do you ever have transactional emails (confirmations) returned for a person who has registered online for an event but who has an incorrect email address or is on the blocked list? Previously, there was really no way to resend the actual transactional email that we send as their confirmation. Now you can resend that email. After you correct their email address or remove them from the blocked email list, go to the details page for that email and click Resend. Simple! By the way, to find the email, just go to the person's record,click Emails>Transactional. Then click on the Subject of the email to get to the Details. That's where you'll find the Resend button. Read more about email details. Karen

New Coupon Role

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:47:00 GMT

We just added a new role named Coupon2. This allows a user with this role to create multi-use coupons. These are coupons that do not expire, so they can be re-used. Previously, only the person with Admin rights could create these. If you want users to have this role, your System Admin must first create that role on your database and then assign the role to the appropriate user or users. NOTE: The user must also have the original Coupon role, not just Coupon2. Read more about Coupons. See the FAQs at the end of the article for information relating to these coupons that do not expire. These would be for very special use cases.

Excel Export - New Sort for Family Members Option

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:31:00 GMT

The toolbar! That's where you find all the cool stuff - like sending emails, getting exports, generating reports - all sorts of stuff. You may be interested in a recent change we made to one of our Excel Exports that relates to how this report sorts. Select Export > Excel and then, in the dialog box, select Family Members. By selecting Family Members, this export will contain one item per person for not only the people in your Organization or your search results, but also all the members of the family, even if your search was only for children. This export will sort as follows: Primary Adults Secondary Adults in descending order by age Children in descending order by age Read more about this and the other options available on the toolbar. Karen

Filter - Extra Feature

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:11:00 GMT

As I've said before, sometimes it's the small stuff that people really get excited about. Case in point: We recently revised the Filter on the Member tab of an Organization (see previous blog post). What I did not mention in that article was the fact that when you want to use the filter to search for a person by name, you can now just hit Enter/Return instead of having to click OK after typing in part of a first and part of a last name (or the entire name, if you want). Why you would want to use the Filter to find a person in an Organization? Glad you asked! Think about this. You have an Organization such as our Adult Choir, which has 310 Members. You keep your page set to display 10 items of names, and you want to find a person whose last name starts with T. Rather than move from page to page, just click Filter. Then enter part of the first and last name (such as Da Thom), press Enter. Voila! There is David Thompson. Even if you do not have Organizations with over 300 Members, you will still enjoy the ease of finding people in an Organization using the Filter and the added ease of just hitting Enter instead of clicking the OK button. Thank you, Debbie, for suggesting this (Yes, it was a while ago, but we didn't forget.). Karen

Stay Informed

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:22:00 GMT

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings at BVCMS? Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Is it just me, or does anyone else think it feels odd asking people to 'like' you…somehow just doesn't sound right, does it? Maybe I'm just a bit old-fashioned. However, we do post and tweet things about BVCMS and the latest features that you might find interesting. So, please click the icons above and stay informed. Karen

New Features for Filtering Small Groups within an Organization

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 23:41:00 GMT

If you have Organizations that are divided into Small Groups, you know that you can use the Filter button on the Members Tab to find just those Organization members who are in a specific Small Group. Well, now you have more options. When you click Filter, notice the dialog box has two radio buttons: Match Any (to find those who are in any of the groups you select) and Match All (to find those who are in all of the groups you select). Read more Karen

New Look - Slowly Coming Your Way

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:32:00 GMT

Did you notice anything different? There are a few subtle changes that we just published today. These are part of a long-term project on which we have just embarked to redesign the BVCMS user interface. This will take several months and we will be rolling out changes a little at a time. We want to give you an opportunity to get accustomed to changes little by little instead of totally rocking your world all at once. The first changes were to the Headers, a few of the buttons and the Toolbar. The Headers and the Toolbar selections are now drop downs that you click instead of hovering and then clicking. This seems to fit what users naturally are inclined to do, so I think you will like this change. Also, when you are moving your cursor around these will not get in your way until you actually click on them. We have changed a few buttons, making them different colors just to make it more evident to the user whether they are clicking Cancel or Save Changes. Also, you may notice that the dialog box for sharing tags is a little different as well. It has the new blue Save Changes button (instead of Update Selected). As I said, these changes are subtle, not anything too dramatic; but are all part of our effort to continually work toward making the user experience better and better. Oh, be sure to close and reopen your bitemser in order to see the new changes. Be on the lookout for more changes to come.

Great New Features for Online Registrations

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:04:00 GMT

"Can I change the order in which the questions are presented for an online registration?'" "What if I need more that 3 sets of drop downs?" Users asked and we responded. Those are the questions that sparked development of these new features. The results are some very nice changes in online registrations. You will love them! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a short video should be worth far more than a blog post. Click here for a quick look at what we've done. Be sure to click the bottom right corner to view it in full screen. Karen

Can I Email on Behalf of a Minister or another Staff Member?

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 23:38:00 GMT

I'm glad you asked. The answer is a resounding "yes"! Any user can be given the ability to email 'on behalf of' any other user. Your BVCMS Admin can give you those rights based on your church's policies. Why would you need to do this? If you are signing another person's name in the body of the email, you should probably take advantage of this feature. Your recipients will see that the email is coming from that person instead of coming from you. I have to say that many ministers send their own emails through BVCMS. However, there are times when an email needs to be proofed and rewritten (not just written on the fly) or when the minister is traveling and away from his computer. In those cases, it might require getting an administrative assistant involved. When that happens, it is nice to have the email come from the minister, even though someone else is actually sending it for him. Read more so you can take advantage of this feature. Karen

New Label Option for Bulk Mail

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:51:00 GMT

A few of you have asked about bulk mail and printing labels sorted by zip code. Now we have it! This is an option for the Roll Labels and for the Avery Address Labels. After selecting the labels, just check the box to have them sort by Zip. If you have never printed labels, this option is found under Labels on the green toolbar. We have not added this feature before, because the sponsoring churches (due to their size) either use a third-party system (such as Pitney-Bowes) to manage their mail or they use email almost exclusively. For mail, they just import the CSV (bulk) Export into their mailing software and never actually print labels. So, this type of sort was not needed. However, the time had come to add this feature for those of you who need to print labels and need them to be sorted by zip. Karen

Don't miss this! Volunteer Management Has Arrived!

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:58:00 GMT

If you don't normally read this stuff, please make an exception with this. We want you to check out this TonyMorganLive.com blog post which includes a video debuting our new BVCMS Volunteer Management feature. This has been in beta for a couple of months and is now in 'Open Beta' which means it is out there for all of our BVCMS churches to use, even though we are still in development. We are ready for you to get in there and use this comprehensive new feature designed to help you enlist, manage, communicate with and entrust those volunteers who are vital to your ministry. I guarantee you will love it! Karen

Manage Users Page Moved and Streamlined

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:21:00 GMT

Sometimes, we just need to clean up around our BVCMS house. This latest move is a prime example. Admins, you may notice that the Manage Users page is no longer accessed from under the Welcome message at the top right of the screen. It is now under the Admin heading and is named Users. The management of users actually is done on the System-User tab on the people record. So, this function has been removed from the Users page. Also, we have removed the creation of new roles from the Users page, since we already had this ability on the Admin-Lookups-Roles page. So, basically the Users page is now not really a 'management' page. Instead, it is more an information page about users. It is a list of all users and shows their Username, User ID # (which is needed if you want to give a user the ability to email for another user), email address, if they are online, and the date and time of their last activity. On this page, you can also search by a username or by a person's name and can filter to find which users have specific roles. Also, the names are links to their people records. So, I guess it makes perfect sense that it is now called just Users. Karen

Online Registration: Checkbox Headers

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:29:00 GMT

That blog post title just does not do justice to this really cool new feature! It needs flashing lights and sirens. Let me tell you the scenario that brought about our creating this new option for online registrations. I was assisting one of our ministers in setting up an online registration for an upcoming event in which he needed to solicit volunteers. There needed to be quite a few options from which to choose as well as the day and time on which to serve. This presented a challenge because there were so many options. We were able to create 3 separate organizations in which to register the volunteers, based on whether they wanted to volunteer before, during or after (as a followup to) the event. But we still had a very long list of options with a lot of information necessary for each one. This is how the concept of a header for checkboxes came about. By adding the ability to group sets of checkboxes together under a header, I was able to reduce the amount of text needed for each option, making for a much neater presentation. A picture is, indeed, worth more than my explanation. See below for how a portion of the registration form looked after I was able to add headers. Is it just me or do you hear angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus? I truly love this new option. Oh, I suppose now you want to know how you, too, can create these headers. Read more. Karen

A Little Appreciation for First-Time Givers

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:32:00 GMT

How nice would it be for a person to receive a thank you letter from the pastor after they make a donation to the church for the first time? Pretty encouraging, I would think! Of course, that does raise the question "How do I find first-time givers?" It is really, really simple. We already had the ability to combine Conditions in Search Builder that would give you this information. But now we have gone a few steps further by giving you one Condition that will provide just what you need. You will find this Condition on the Miscellaneous tab in Search Builder. It is called Recent First Time Giver. Just specify the number of days to look back for those who made their very first contribution during that time and there you have it! It is a list you can use for labels or a mail merge to let these folks know how much you appreciate their donation to your church. Even if you are not interested in looking at this every week, wouldn't it be interesting to see how many first-time givers there are the week after the pastor preaches on stewardship? Karen

Effective Searches for Help Articles

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:18:00 GMT

Confidential Comments Using Standard Extra Values

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:42:00 GMT

We have told you about Standard Extra Values and how useful those are for a number of different bits of information (such as Spiritual Gifts) you may want to capture for the records in your database. What we haven't talked about very much is how you can use these to capture private notes in your database. For example, your System Admin can create a Standard Extra Value named whatever you want - something like Confidential Notes, making it a data type of value so that you can enter multiple lines in a text box. He can then create a special user role named Confidential (again, whatever you want to name it) and assign that role to this extra value. That means that only a user with the role Confidential can view and edit those types of notes. We have put sample Standard Extra Values in the newer databases under Special Content-Text Content. If your database does not have these, email support@bvcms.com and we will put them in there for you. That will give you a starting point. Karen

6 Ways Search Can Help Your Ministry

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:34:00 GMT

Take a look at this article on TONYMORGANlive.com about how using search can aid you in your ministry. Be sure to take a look at the 5 minute video skit. You might recognize the 'players'! Karen

New Compact Directory

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Thank you to San Jose Church of Christ, FL for sponsoring this new feature! This is a great, compact version of the family directory. You will find this new option under Reports on the green Toolbar. It is a quick, one-click way to create a three column family directory for an Organization or for your entire Search Results. Depending on the size of your church, you could choose to create this for all your members. The parents are listed first with the children beneath, along with the ages of the children. Under that is the family contact information (home address and phone) and cell numbers and email addresses for the parents. This directory is a terrific option for large or small numbers of records: the entire church membership or just your small group! Read more and see what this new feature looks like. Karen

Quick Search - Not Just for People Anymore!

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:50:00 GMT

I told you in my last blog post that there was something else coming that you were going to love! Well, I may not have said that exactly; but, I do have a new feature to tell you about that I am confident you will really like. We wanted to add a Quick Search for Organizations like we have for People, but we really didn't like the idea of having another box on the page. So, we decided we could make the existing Quick Search (that little box in the top right corner on every page) more Google-like. By that, I mean that you can search by more than just a person's name and can find Organizations as well as People. By applying the same search principles used in Google Search we have combined Quick Search with People Search and Organization Search to give you a type of one-stop shopping. Of course, People Search and Organization Search still work just as they have before. And Quick Search will still take you directly to a person's record or an Organization if the Search returns just one result. But, now, when you enter some data in Quick Search (such as a number), BVCMS is searching to find either a person or an Organization that matches your search criteria. The search results are displayed on a new page with the People at the top and the Organizations below. Notice when you hover near Quick Search, there is a pop up box listing all the search options. Also, notice that the text box itself now contains the words Quick Search, just to further identify it. Give it a try! I know you'll like it. For all the scoop about how to use this enhanced feature, see this Help article. Karen

A Query by any other Name

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 03:23:00 GMT

Words are important. They have certain connotations and denotations. When words are links, they also have a purpose, a function. With that in mind, we have made a subtle change to our terminology. Drumroll, please! QueryBuilder has changed its name to SearchBuilder! When you see the word Search, especially as a link, you probably expect that it will deliver what you are looking for. That is exactly what happens when you use SearchBuilder (the feature formerly known as QueryBuilder). You build a search using various Conditions and you get the results you expect. Why did we make this change? Well, that's simple. We like the word Search better. There is nothing wrong with the word query. It basically means the same thing. But, it seems to strike fear in the hearts of our normally intrepid users. We use the word Search in other places in the database and it has served us quite well. So, we decided that, in the name of consistency and clarity of message, query would just fade away from our vocabulary and Search would rise up and take its place. It will take us a while to remove all traces of that word in the Help Documentation, so please bear with us as we set about that task. Don't miss the next blog post (coming soon) about something that is really cool and offers a lot of functionality! Yes, it relates to Search as well. But you will just have to wait for the blog. Karen

Online Registrations–Master Org Link

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:57:00 GMT

Why didn't we think of this before? For online registrations that use the Registration Type 'Compute Org by Birthdate' or 'User Selects' you create what we call a Master Org and then you associate the individual Organizations with that Master Org to create the Pick List. Once you associate the Organizations, you have a handy link to open a new window to view that Organization. You can move easily back and forth to any of the Organizations in the Pick List. It works like the Toggle Link Target does in Query Builder. However, we did not have a link back to the Master Org from those individual Organizations. In other words, if you were viewing one of the Organizations in the Pick List, you had no way of knowing which Master Org it was associated with - or even if it was part of that type of registration (unless, of course, you had accessed it from the Master Org). We recently added a link to the Master Org (if one exists). It is on the Settings-Registration tab for those Organizations. So simple and so helpful. So sorry we didn't think of that sooner! Karen

Time Zones and BVCMS Checkin

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:34:00 GMT

Some of you may not be aware that we have a setting that will compensate for the time difference between the BVCMS servers (on Central time) and your time zone. The setting ID is TZOffset and can be added to the Settings page by your BVCMS Admin. Once the setting ID has been created, the actual setting will be the number of hours (plus or minus) offset from Central time zone. You are probably asking "why do I need this?" and that would be a very good question. It shows you are paying attention. Obviously, if you are in the Central time zone, you do not need this. However, if you are not in the Central time zone and if you use BVCMS Checkin you will want to continue reading as this setting relates to Checkin. Classes are available for checkin based on their Schedule which is a day and a time. Without the TZOffset setting in your database, the 'time' will be Central. This means that, without this setting, your classes may not be available when you expect them to be, Example: If your time zone is 1 hour ahead of Central time, the setting should be 1. If you are 2 hours behind Central time, the setting should be -2. In a nutshell: If your classes meet on Sunday at 9:30 AM, you want that to be 9:30 AM your time, not 9:30 our time. Not using BVCMS Checkin? If you are interested, read more about it! Karen

Incomplete Tasks Visible on Gitemth Tab

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:27:00 GMT

New Admin Features

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:10:00 GMT

I normally try to include only one topic per blog post, just as I try to include only one topic per email. However, we have a few new features that relate only to System Administrators, so I decided to break this rule in this one blog post. Email features: There are actually two new features relating to emails. Optouts (Unsubscribes) - If a person has clicked Unsubscribe in an email sent through BVCMS, you can see this on the person's System-Email Optouts tab. If they want to rescind that and begin receiving those emails again, you can click the X to remove the optout. Failed Emails - On that same tab, System-Email Optouts, there is now a link for any Failed Emails for that individual. When you click the link, you will see all the failed emails sent to that person. That includes both Bounces as well as Spam Reporting Address types of failed emails. User Role Management: You can now manage user roles (create a new role, edit the name of the role and delete a role) in your database by going to Admin-Lookups-Roles. To add a new role, just click the Create button and change the Role Name from NEW to whatever the correct name should be. If your database does not have one of the newer roles we have created, you will need to add it to your database yourself. Attendance History: As an Admin, you can see all meetings available for an individual in their Attendance History, whether they attended or not. In other words, if they were enrolled and the organization had a meeting, that meeting was displaying in the Attendance History list on that person's record by default. We have added a toggle under Other Management, that allows you to select to Show All Meetings. The default is to display only the meetings the person attended. That's all for now and thank you in advance for forgiving my violation of the unwritten 'one topic' rule. Karen

Small Things - Don't you Love 'em?

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:51:00 GMT

Jelly beans. Rose buds. Cute little babies. Don't you just love small things? None of those have anything to do with this blog post. I do have a small update to tell you about, though. However, to me, it has a huge impact! You probably know (and love!) the Toggle Link Target feature in Query Builder. It was a link at the bottom of the results page and you couldn't really tell if it was turned on or off. Maybe it was just me, but I frequently couldn't remember if I had re-run the query after clicking the link. So, I would click it again, only to find out that I was turning it off! Take a look at it now! There is a checkbox, so you can easily tell if the Toggle LInk Target is active or not. Why didn't we think of this before? Oh, and for those of you, like me, who keep the view set to 200 records - it is now at the top and the bottom of the page. If you have not experienced the joy of this nifty feature, read all about the Toggle Link Target here. Sometimes it just doesn't take much to make me happy. Karen

Attendance by Groups for a Meeting

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 23:41:00 GMT

If you have an Organization, such as a Community Group or Sunday School class, that is divided into small groups, you will want to check out this feature. On the Meeting page for a specific meeting, look under Other Management and you will find a number of options. One that I want to point out to you is called Attendance by Group. This report provides teachers and group leaders with a quick look at how many (and who) from each small group attended that meeting. It also lists everyone who was absent as well. If your choir has their members in small groups by voice part, this report will be a great way to see how many sopranos or tenors attended a given meeting. Read more. Karen

Avery Address Labels - Pick your Starting Point

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 22:37:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to use a page of Avery labels and have your BVCMS labels start at a specific item and column, instead of at the beginning? Wish no more! Now, when you select Avery Address Labels from the toolbar, you will see the option to skip a number of labels. The default, of course, is zero. This will start your labels on item 1 and column 1. However, if your page of labels has already been partially used, you can enter a number of labels to skip. Example: You have a page of labels on which you have used the first item and part of the second item (a total of 5 labels). Just enter 5 for the number to skip and your labels will start on the 6th label. The count always begins with item 1, column 1 and continues left to right, before going to the next item. Thank you to the user who suggested this cost-saving feature! Check out the help article for screenshots relating to this new feature. Karen

Simple Solutions Are Best

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:41:00 GMT

'Do the simplest thing that could possibly work' and 'You aren't going to need it' - YAGNI - are two principles we at BVCMS apply to our programming. Following these principles allows us to provide new features more frequently than most software developers. I mention that in order for you to better understand our solution for a recent need here at Bellevue. It is a new feature that many of you will want to use. Wednesday nights are HUGE for our children! Tons of them register online each semester for our music or discipleship classes. The parents of our older elementary children are given an option of either allowing their children to leave the class on their own or requiring them to be picked up by a parent. Therefore, we needed a way to capture that information and to display it readily to the teacher, preferably on the rollsheet. Oh, and we needed this immediately, as the new semester starts this week! Read about our solution. Karen

Pin Number for Checkin

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:40:00 GMT

Someone recently asked if we used anything besides phone numbers for child checkin. Their reasoning was that people changed their cell phone numbers so frequently. Our first thought was that it was not needed, because our experience has shown that most people now actually keep their phone numbers even when they change cell phone carriers. But then David thought about it and realized that he could make use of our special Extra Values (those with built-in functionality) and allow churches to add a Pin # to a person's record if they so choose. The family could then use it in place of a phone number during checkin. One thing to note: You do not have to exclusively use Pin numbers to replace phone numbers. You could choose to use phone numbers for 99% of your families, but might want to add a Pin # to a family if the children are brought to church by people (family or friends) that may not remember the phone numbers for the family, but might remember a pin number. I don't know if we will need it here at our church, but if you are interested, read more here.

Split Custody Issues and Parent Emails

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:32:00 GMT

Every church has them - children with divorced parents. What if both families (the mom and the dad) are in your church database? The child can be in only one family in the database. So, wouldn't it be nice if you could notify both parents when you email the 'Parents' of their child? Thanks to Jared for pointing out this need to us. We thought it over and devised a great solution! There is a new Extra Value with special functionality that can be added to a child's record on the Member Profile-Extra Values tab. This is where you put the People ID # for the other parent - the one that is not in the same family as their child. If the child has that specific Extra Value on their record, whenever anyone emails and selects Email - Parents, that parent will receive the email in addition to the parents in the same family as the child. Scenario: Johnny lives with his mother Mary and her husband Fred. However, Johnny's father Bill shares custody and is in the database also. Even though Johnny divides his time equally between both households, in BVCMS, he is in the family with his mother. A person can be in only one family in the database. By adding the Extra Value of Parent to Johnny's record and by using Bill's People ID as the Value, Bill will get emails whenever anyone selects Email Parents from the toolbar. Read more about Parent Extra Values and how to create these.

Minimum/Maximum Contribution Search

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:54:00 GMT

There is a new way to search for and filter for certain contributions. There are now "Min/Max Amounts" boxes on the Contributions: All page. This allows you to filter and find contributions between a certain minimum and maximum amount. If filtering by Minimum/Maximum Amounts, use the left box for the Minimum and the right box for Maximum, and do not use any punctuation. Bethany

New Attendance Feature for Parent-Student Rallies

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:52:00 GMT

At least once a year, shortly after our annual promotion for our Sunday morning Life Groups, we have what we call Parent Sunday. This is a time when parents attend their child's Life Group in order to meet their child's teacher. This means that the parents cannot attend their regular adult class that morning. So, what should we do about the parent's attendance in their Life Group? They were on campus attending a Life Group, just not one in which they should be recorded as a visitor. How can we easily mark them present in their class on that Sunday when they are not actually in their normal class? Glad you asked! The answer is our new Rally Rollsheet designed to be used with a wand scanner. This rollsheet is printed for the student class, but contains the names of the parents of the children who are enrolled in that class. In addition to the parents' names, there is a checkbox (so they can mark themselves present) and a long bar code representing their People ID and their Organization ID (Main Fellowship Class). This takes advantage of another fairly recent feature - Ticketing Attendance. All you have to do is go to a meeting page for any organization that met on the date of the rally, select Ticketing Attendance (under Other Management) and then start scanning. Scanning the bar code will find the meeting for the parent's class and mark them present. It's a snap! Read more. Karen

Who Created that Contact?

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:31:00 GMT

Do you have staff or volunteers that enter Contacts that other people have made? In other words, do you have people making visits/contacts who do not enter these into BVCMS themselves? While that is not an ideal situation, it is sometimes necessary. You may have church members making calls and visits who do not have computers or do not feel comfortable online. If that is the case, you obviously need those Contacts in BVCMS, so someone else actually creates those Contacts. For instances like this, you may want to know how many Contacts are being entered by specific volunteers or staff members, when they, themselves, are not actually the Contactors. At our church, we have some members (especially older ones) who will visit our homebound members or members in the hospital and submit a written report to the church. Then, a couple of wonderful volunteers take these hand-written forms with contact results on them and create Contacts for them in BVCMS. We also have staff members who do this as well. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to track how many Contacts are being entered by these users? Well, now you can! Notice the addition of the Created By field on Contact Search. Enter either the username or People ID # of the person entering the Contacts and press Search. You might want to add a date range for the Contacts in order to track this on a weekly or monthly basis. This was a great idea! Thanks, Ron, for suggesting it. Karen

Volunteer Management Beta

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 21:08:00 GMT

Query Builder Toggle

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:08:00 GMT

There is a really nice feature in Query Builder that you need to know about, and I can't believe I have not blogged about this already! It is the Toggle Link Target link at the bottom of your query results. This link allows you to click on a name in your query results and look at that person's record, even editing it if you need to, without losing your query results. The way the toggle works (if you haven't used it) is like this: after you click the link, your query results will be retained on one tab and a new tab will be opened for the person whose name you clicked. This allows you to move back and forth between your query and the person's record. When you return to the tab with your query results, you can click on another person. Each time you click a different name, the people record on the other tab changes to that person. It's pretty cool! If you like looking at windows side-by-side, just drag one tab off to the side, out of the main window. Voila! Two windows - one with the query and one with the person. I love using it this way, because I can see the person page changing in one tab as I click a name in the query results in the other tab. It's like magic! Remember, this is a toggle. One click turns it on; another click turns it off. I love this feature and use it all the time! See image below. Karen

Easier Contribution Statement Printing for 'All Statements'

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 20:54:00 GMT

Online Access to Contribution Statements

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:31:00 GMT

Online Giving using BVCMS has really taken off in the past several months, both Managed (Recurring) Giving and regular one-time gifts! As a result, we wanted to add a feature that allows donors access to their giving records online. Well, David added that feature this weekend! Now, a user can view (and print, if they want) their own contribution statements anytime they so desire. There are two options: Statement Year to Date and Last Year's Statement. The options are located to the right of what we call the Business Card section of the person's record. This is available whether the person gives online or not. All that is required for them to be able to view all their contributions for the current year and the past year is that they have a user account (most will be My Data type of accounts) on your church's BVCMS database. Read more about this new feature and Contribution Statements in general. NOTE: This article was written in 2012. Since the, the user interface has changed. The link to the article, however, will have updated information. 10.28.15

Promotion Is Over! Or Is it?

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 15:05:00 GMT

New Managed Giving Report

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:22:00 GMT

Those of you with Finance role may have noticed a new item in the list under Contributions. It is the Managed Giving report. This is a great management tool to show you at a glance everyone who has set up Recurring (Managed) Giving on BVCMS and the details regarding the frequency of the recurrances. You can even drill down (just click on the person's name) to see more details relating to that person's recurring giving. Click here to read more and to see a sample report. If your church is not currently using online giving through BVCMS, you are missing out on a lot of cool features. If you are interested in online giving, check out this article about how to get started. If you are ready to get started, but do not yet have a Merchant Account, just email us at support@bvcms.com and we can point you in the right direction and save you some time (and probably some money!). Karen

Reminder Emails for Registrations

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:35:00 GMT

Have you ever thought how great it would be to be able to compose a reminder email for your upcoming event at the time you set up the registration and then just click a button to send it whenever you're ready? This would eliminate those hastily (and sometimes poorly) composed emails to the registrants right before the event, just at the time you are the busiest trying to get the last minute details handled. Well, wish no more! Reminder Emails have arrived! This feature is on the Organization under Settings-Messages. You can compose the Reminder Email when you are creating the registration and all of this is fresh on your mind (and you have time to think!), even returning to edit it until you get the message just right. You would want set a reminder in your calendar and, when it's time, just click the Send Reminders link which is under Other Management on the Organization page. Note: You must have Edit role in order to send Reminder Emails. Thanks for suggesting this, Sandy. Read more. Karen

New QB Condition re Tasks

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:56:00 GMT

There is new Condition in Query Builder that will be so helpful for anyone who assigns Tasks. You can now find everyone who as a Task assigned/delegated to them that is still incomplete. You can search by any part of the name of the Task - something like Contact, Visit, Hospital - any word that would be in the Task name. This will return everyone who has an Incomplete Task with that text in the name. Now, just send a quick email reminder to those people, asking them to complete their Tasks. But wait, there's more! Not only can you search by words in the name of the Task, you can also search by the name of the person who assigned the Task. You may only be concerned with those Incomplete Tasks that you assigned (or that another specific person) assigned. So, use this Condition and put your name in the Value field. You can put all or part of the name. It works with first and last, or just part of either. Think of how easy this will make your followup! Thanks, Eric and Carol, for helping us understand the need for this. Oh, I suppose you want to know the name of the Condition. It is Has Incomplete Task and is on the Gitemth tab in QB. Karen

A Couple of New Transactions Features

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 15:40:00 GMT

Those users with Finance or Manage Transactions role will be pleased to note that we have added a couple of additional features to the Transactions Log. You can now Filter by the ID # (the BVCMS system-generated #) or by the Transaction ID (from Sage or Authorize.net). Just enter that number in the Name field and click Filter. This is really helpful when you are asked to check on a transaction (or issue a Credit or Void it altogether) and are given one of those numbers and don't know the exact name of the person who made the transaction (it might have been a grandmother of the person registering) or the date it was made. Thanks Martha for proposing this feature! Another nice feature is the ability to hover over the ID # (the far left column) and view a tooltip with additional information about the transaction. That is not new, but we have taken that one step further. You can click on the ID # to filter for all the transactions that are associated with that ID. Some ID #s will have only a single transaction associated with it. However, it you have registrations in which the participants pay a deposit and then make subsequent payments, you will have multiple transactions. This also lets you see if there are any credits associated with that ID. There is more help about Transactions here. Karen

Email Templates - Almost Ready for Prime Time

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:26:00 GMT

You have asked for this and now, thanks to Steven, our new programmer, we are going to deliver them. Yes, I'm talking about email templates in the style of Mail Chimp or Constant Contact! They are on the cusp of being unveiled as I type this. In our next BVCMS Newsletter we will tell you all about them. This is truly an exciting innovation for BVCMS! Keep your eye on your inbox so you don't miss the June edition of the BVCMS Newsletter. PS Do I hear cheering? Karen

New Transactions Log Reporting

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:33:00 GMT

If you are the System Admin for your church's BVCMS database, or if you have the Finance or Manage Transactions role, then you have access to the Transactions Log (the link is under the Admin header). We have recently added several new features to this log. There are a number of ways to filter the list and, for those of you using Sage Payments as your Transaction Gateway, there are 2 new reports: Reconcile Report and Totals by Description. This is in addition to the Excel export. Read more about how to use the Transactions Log. If you are not currently using online giving or fee-based online registrations through BVCMS, contact us at support@bvcms.com to find out how to get started.

Suspended Checkin for Organizations and New Join Shortcut

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 02:00:00 GMT

Ticketing Checkin Attendance and Barcode Scanners

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:48:00 GMT

Does your church have large events for which people register online? If so, wouldn't it be nice if you could have a quick way to mark present those who actually attend? Also, what about those events that require a ticket? Check our our newest features which, when used together, are perfect for these types of situations: Barcode Insert this email replacement code - {barcode} - in the email confirmation for an event, instructing your registrants to print the confirmation and bring it with them to the event to be used as their ticket. Ticketing attendance Create a meeting and then select Ticketing Attendance (under Other Management Menu) in order to scan these barcodes to marked people present. Think of the possibilities! Read more. Karen

New Query Builder Condition: Days until Anniversary

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:31:00 GMT

Because several people have asked about tracking anniversaries, we just added a a new Query Builder condition that allows you to look for people who have a wedding anniversary coming up. For example: You can set the condition to find everyone with an anniversary less than 7 days away. You could add more conditions so that you limit to search to just church members or just members of a specific organization or division. You can save the Query (which, of course, will display on your Home Page under My Queries) and just run it each week. What a great way to stay in touch with your people and acknowledge this special occasion! Look for this under the Personal Tab in the Query Builder Conditions. It is named Days til Anniversary.

New 'Employer' Labels

Mon, 21 May 2012 11:36:00 GMT

This new feature has a limited use, but it might be just what you need. There is now a new label called Avery Employer. This label has the Employer name below the person's name on the regular Avery address labels. Here is a possible use case for this: You have an Organization (or a Tag) for contacts at churches (or businesses). The people records use the contact person in the name fields, but the church (or business) address for the preferred address. You also have the name of the church or business in the Employer field on the record. If you select these new Avery Employer labels, you have just what you need for your mailing! By offering you this option, you do not have to put the name of the church or business on one of the actual address lines. We are doing that for you with these labels. The labels look like this: Rev. Peter PastorFirst Church2000 Main StBig City, TN 38888 You can read about all of the various types of labels in the help article about the Toolbar. Karen

One-Click Directory…An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Thu, 17 May 2012 11:47:00 GMT

A number of you have asked for this and we have listened. We have always provided a way for you to create your own directory - both a picture directory as well as a family directory - by using the Excel Exports. However, we realized that we could make this easier for those of you who wanted to just click a button and get a pre-built directory. Check it out. From an Organization, from Query Builder results, or from Manage Tags (anywhere that you see the green toolbar) you now have two new options under Reports: Picture Directory and Family Directory. In literally seconds, your directory will appear as a Word document, ready for you to email to the group or even post on your website (save it as a PDF first). Of course, you still have the option to create your own phone list, picture directory, etc. by using the Excel Exports. But I'm confident you will love this new quick and easy way to generate a great looking directory for any group of people with just a click of your mouse. Read more and see a sample Picture Directory. Read more and see a sample Family Directory. Thanks, David. This is very cool! Karen

New Feature - Organization Types

Tue, 15 May 2012 20:36:00 GMT

Two New Links: RSVPLink and RegisterLink2

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:12:00 GMT

I am so excited about these new links! RegisterLink2 is just in time for the big Vacation Bible School email we send out this time each year. With this new link, you can email the parents of your youngsters, and when the parent clicks the Register Now link, they will see their family displayed in a list. All they have to do is select the family member to register and then complete the form. BVCMS already knows who they are, so we are able to display that list for their convenience. Sweet, huh? Read more about RegisterLinks! RSVPLink is a great feature for those Organizations in which the members are already enrolled, but need to RSVP before the specific meetings. Example: you have a large group of people who meet monthly for a Bible study and you need to know how many to expect at each meeting. Send the RSVPLink and let them RSVP (register) for the meeting! This does not mark them present, merely 'registered' for that specific meeting. Read more! Karen

New Feature for Making Emails Public

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Have you ever sent an email and then decided that it would be a great message to post on Facebook or in a blog? But then it is too late, right? Wrong! Now you can decide to make an email public after you have already sent it. Read about it here. Not sure what I'm talking about regarding public emails and posting emails on Facebook? Read all about it - including this new feature.

Online Registration Feature: Start-End Dates

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:11:00 GMT

Just in time for all of your Summer registrations - a great new feature! Take a look at the Settings-Registration tab on an Organization. Notice the Registration Start Date and Registration End Date. These will actually determine when a Registration goes live and when it stops. How cool is that? Set up your registration, enter the Start and End Dates and rest assured that no one will be able to register (even if the link is posted) except between those dates. This means that you can advertise that registration ends at 11:00 PM on a specific date and you don't have to be sitting at your computer to end the registration right at that time. BVCMS will do it for you! Also, you can go ahead and put the Register Now link on your website, advertising that your registration begins at 2:00 AM on a given date, and rest easy. No one will be able to register until that date and time. What happens when someone clicks a link on a date that is outside your start and end dates? They will see this message: "Sorry, registration is not available at this time." One more little goody - check out the Try Registration button now (under Other Management). Notice the added prompt which reminds you to copy the link in order to check out your registration without being logged in as yourself. Just a little thing, but I really like it! Karen

Where are my return check buttons?!

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:02:00 GMT

If you remember, we recently made some improvements to how you assign multiple contributions to a single donor - otherwise known as 'splits'. When that happened, you may not have noticed that the Return-Reverse links disappeared from the page. Well...trust me, they did! I found out the hard way as David forgot to tell me! However, you still handle returned checks and reversals/corrections the same as before. The only difference is that you click a link at the bottom of the page in order to view those links now. You still go to the contributions page for the individual for whom you need to make the return or reversal. Once you select the contributions for the correct year, just scroll to the bottom of the page and click returns/reversals. This will cause the links to appear beside each contribution. Just click the appropriate one - either Return or Reverse - to complete the transaction. Oh, also - we are now providing more information beside the returned/reversed transaction. In the Notes field, you will see something like "Returned Check for Contribution ID = 12345" Read more about Returned Checks and Reversals (Corrections). Karen

Admin’s Only Please!

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:43:00 GMT

Yes, we know, you're not an Admin but you could not resist clicking that link. That's OK, it's human nature. But at least you'll know how an Admin can help you out using this technique. Well, this new feature is truly for those with Admin rights on their BVCMS database. You all know that there are times when you need to experience what a user is experiencing on BVCMS, to see what they are seeing. We've always had a way to impersonate users, but now we have made that SO much easier. Just go to the user's People Record and then to the System > User tab. Notice next to their username there is an impersonate button. Just click that and the system will log you on as that user. Pretty drop-dead simple, huh? When you are finished, just log out as that user and log back on as yourself. Remember, if that user had either OrgMembersOnly or OrgLeadersOnly rights, you will need to click the toggle under the Admin menu to turn those off after you log back on as yourself. Also it won't allow you impersonate a Finance user if you don't also have that Role. By the way, we'll be disabling the old impersonate method. It was somewhat of a security hole we needed to close up anyway.

Clear Active Tag Feature

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:50:00 GMT

You may have noticed that your Active Tag in the top right corner of the page is no longer a link. That's because we have added a new feature - Clear Active Tag. Now, both Manage Active Tag and Clear Active Tag are accessible when you hover where over the greeting. Clicking Manage Active Tag will take you to the Manage Tags page just like before when you clicked the link. We added the Clear Active Tag feature to make it easy for you to use your Active Tag from wherever you are without have to return to the Manage Tags page in order to remove everyone from the Tag. Here's an example of why we did this: Let's say that your Active Tag is the Unnamed Tag, but you don't remember if there is anyone still in that Tag or not. You are on Query Builder and want to add everyone from your query to that Tag. Now, instead of having to go back to Manage Tags, remove anyone still in the Tag and then run your query again, all you have to do is select Clear Active Tag and then select Add All from the Toolbar. Maybe that isn't a big deal, but it is one more example of how we are always looking for ways to make your life easier.

Help us out

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:33:00 GMT

There are a couple of very nice posts about BVCMS over at TonyMorganLive and JeremyMavis.com. See the following articles: http://tonymorganlive.com/2012/04/03/have-you-checked-out-bvcms/ http://jeremymavis.com/2012/04/02/checkin-system/ There are lots of ways you can help: Make comments on these blog posts Write about BVCMS on your own blog. Tweet about BVCMS Mention BVCMS on your Facebook page

Brought to you by the letter e – your old envelope number!

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:21:00 GMT

How many of you have old Envelope Numbers as Extra Values in your database? You know, the envelope number that you used in your former church management system - the one that does not match the People ID#? If you do, you will be SO happy to hear what the letter e will do for you. When recording contributions in Post Bundle Edit, you can now type the letter e (or a minus sign for those of you who like using the number pad) and the old Envelope Number instead of the People ID# to find a person's record. Example: John Smith's Envelope Number is 175 and his People ID# is 2589, so you can type either e175 or -175 or 2589 to find his record to post his contributions. Any of these will work if his old envelope number is an Extra Value on his record. Remember, if you are going to continue using these Envelope Numbers, you will have to add that Extra Value on the record of anyone who is assigned envelopes after your database conversion. This applies to those churches using the boxed sets with the year's supply of envelopes. If you upload a file to an envelope service such as Lifeway, you will eventually be able to begin using the People ID#s when posting contributions. After you upload your first file after the conversion, that will be the number on the envelope. However, this new feature will get you through the transition period. Karen

March Newsletter Available Online

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:45:00 GMT

Don't miss the latest news! The BVCMS Newsletter for March 2012 is now available. It contains articles about our most recent features as well as information that will be of special interest to BVCMS System Admins (be sure to notice the article about the Church IT Roundtable event coming up in April). Click here to read it online.

One More Time: Improvement to Split Contributions

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:08:00 GMT

Yep.you read that correctly. We have made yet another improvement to make it easier for you to enter a contribution that goes to multiple funds. The first improvement was great for scanned checks or for online giving bundles, because the total amount was already in the entry. Now we have improved how you can handle that scenario if you are entering the contributions manually. In that case, what you need is a way to easily duplicate the entry, minus the amount. So, you don't even need to click the Split button! All you do is complete your first entry (for the amount going into the first fund) and when your cursor is on the next line.drum roll, please..just enter the letter d and Tab! That will prepopulate that entry with the People ID# and name from the previous entry, but with the Amount field empty. Your cursor will be in the amount field, so all you do is enter the Amount, select the Fund and continue as usual. I have revised the PostBundle Help article to reflect this change. Thank you to all you Finance users who have given us positive feedback when we add new features. We love knowing that our improvements are making your jobs easier. Karen

Contributions: Split Made Easier

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:22:00 GMT

You spoke and we listened. After talking with our contributions wizard - OK, she isn't really a wizard, but she is a whiz at handling our contributions - we made some cool improvements to the new Split Contribution feature. Now, you just enter the total amount of the contribution (which is already done for you if you importing from a scanned checks deposit) and when you click the Split button, it will ask how much to split from that entry. Enter the amount and a new entry appears below the original one - each with the correct amount. All you do at that point is select the fund for the new entry, either click OK or hit Enter. Voila! You're done. Works quite smoothly. Read more about how to split a contribution. Karen

Vote Links and Tags Are Even Easier

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:21:00 GMT

Gone are the funny curly braces and all that other stuff. We have greatly improved how to create a vote link inside an email and you are going to love it! You will need to know the Organization ID and, if you want a Confirmation to be sent, make sure there is a Confirmation on the Messages tab for the Organization. Then just find the group to whom you want to send the vote link and click Email individuals from the toolbar. Notice that below the body of the email that there are brief instructions on how to create the vote link. Click here to read more and see screenshots of just how to do this. Give it a try! Karen

“Why am I not getting my emails?”

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:19:00 GMT

New Contributions Features

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:06:00 GMT

New User Role–OrgLeadersOnly

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:28:00 GMT

We implemented this new role a couple of months ago and are finding it very useful. Here at Bellevue, we actually have replaced OrgMembersOnly with OrgLeadersOnly for our lay leaders. Assigning this role to your lay leaders allows you to give users more privileges (like Edit or Attendance), because they are limited to only those Organizations in which they are a Leader. Whereas, with OrgMembersOnly, they have access to every Organization in which they are enrolled regardless of their Member Type in the Organization. Read more about lay leader user roles. Another new feature that goes hand-in-hand with this new role is the concept of Parent/Child relationships for Organizations. The purpose of these is to give a lay leader (who has OrgLeadersOnly role) assess to Organizations in which he is not enrolled. Read more about these special types of Organizations.

New Method of Composing RegisterLinks

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:51:00 GMT

We recently made it incredibly easy to compose Vote Links in an email (If you missed that blog post click here.) Well, now we've done the same thing for RegisterLinks. Instead of using the old method for creating either a VoteLink or a RegisterLink, you will now create it directly in the email you will send to your target group. Once a registration is set up and you know the Organization ID, just find the group to whom you want to send the register link and click Email Individuals from the toolbar. Compose your email and then highlight what you want them to click on - a word, a phrase or an image. Then, click on the hyperlink icon and type just 2 things: registerlink in the URL text box; then the Organization ID# in the OrgID text box under Special Links. Click OK and send your email. That's it! Seriously.that's all there is to it. Read more about Composing RegisterLinks. Karen

Membership Document Storage

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:22:00 GMT

The latest BVCMS feature to be rolled out is the ability to upload documents related to a person's church membership. This link - Membership Docs - is located on the Membership>Summary tab of a person's record. At our church, a person completes a Decision Information Sheet when they make a decision to join our church (or to be baptized without joining). Other churches have Membership Covenants that a person signs when they request membership. Whatever document your church uses can be saved as a PDF and uploaded to the member's record. You can also upload JPG files as well. You must have Membership or Admin role in order to both upload and access these documents. Read more Karen

New Way to Create an Organization

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:19:00 GMT

We have made it even easier to add a new Organization. There is a link right there under Organization in the main menu. If you are creating Organizations for a new database, just click that link and fill in the blanks. If you have existing Organizations that you want to copy (example: a Student Ministry Life Group that meets on Sundays at 8:00 AM), just go to that Organization and then select Add Organization under the main menu. This will create the new Organization and retain the basic settings from the one you were last viewing. You can also check a box that will allow you to Copy Settings if you want to copy the other settings like settings for online registrations. Read more.

New Contacts Search Option and Contactor Summary Report

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:55:00 GMT

Take a look at the Contact Search page located under People in the menu. There is now an option to search based on the Results in addition to all the other options that have been available. The items in the drop down menu are identical to the checkboxes on the Contact form. We have also added a Contactor Summary Report on the Contact Search page under Contacts Management. This report looks at three factors: Start Date, End Date (both of which are required to generate the report) and the Ministry (which is optional). It will ignore any other options that are in your search. The Contactor Summary Report lists the name of each person that made a Contact, their People ID #, the Description of the Contact, the Ministry Name and the number of Contacts of that type and Ministry that they made during the selected date range. This means that one person might be listed multiple times if they made more than one type of Contact and/or made contacts for more than one Ministry. This is a helpful tool for analyzing who is making Contacts for your Ministry. Perhaps you will want to send a note to encourage those that you notice have gone the extra mile and have made a greater number of contacts during a certain time period. Remember, you also have the Convert to Query (Contactors) option if you want to email Contactors directly from Query Builder. Read more Karen

Email Management Tool

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:31:00 GMT

This is not a brand new feature, but I'm not sure we ever blogged about it. So, in case you are not aware of this, you can view a list of all the emails that you send via BVCMS by looking on your Gitemth Tab>Contacts>Sent Emails. When you click that link, you will see a list with the date, subject, etc. If you click the email subject, you will see the email itself with a list of all the recipients. We also have a link for Received Emails with the same information. These links are on every record in BVCMS, so you can easily check to see if a person was on the recipient list for a specific email. Read more

Google Search in BVCMS Wiki

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:09:00 GMT

Yes, you read that correctly. You can now search our wiki documentation using Google search. On the sidebar of the wiki there is now a link to Google Search the Documentation. This link is located under the normal search box. Both searches are blazing fast. However, the standard search will be more current while the Google search is more advanced. The Google search will, or course, return Google-style results. This means that instead of seeing just a list of links, you will see the number of results returned, the title of articles as well as a snippet of text from the article. Some results will also display an image from the article. Why will the standard search be more current than the Google search? It is all about robots. Google-bots crawl through the web building an index of words on a page in order to know what to return as a result. How often do Google's robots update their index? This is based on the popularity of the site. Therefore, Google will index some very popular sites hourly and others might take a couple of weeks. We figure that a Google-bot updates the index on our site about once every couple of weeks. If we update the BVCMS wiki today by adding a new article, it will not display in a Google search until after Google has indexed it. So, if you don't find what you are looking for with the Google search, try again using the standard search. Remember, we blog about our new features on the BVCMS News blog, with links to any corresponding wiki articles. So, you will be alerted to new articles if you check out the blog each day. Articles that are less than 7 days old are highlighted with a green asterisk. PS If you are a geek-wannabe, you may want to read Google's explanation about how Google search works. Check out the video. Of course, if you are already a geek, you probably know this.

Hello world!

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:32:00 GMT

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post. Here are some suggestions for your first post. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post. Add PressThis to your bitemser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting page you read on the web. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can always preview any post or edit it before you share it to the world.

Load Balancer is Running!

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:10:00 GMT

As promised in our last newsletter, we have a load balancer, otherwise known as a Web Farm now up and serving your requests to two different back end servers now. They've been up and running since Sunday evening (2/12) at about 8:00. Here's how it works: we have two servers now serving up requests to everybody, including Bellevue. We'll call them joshua and caleb. You might click a link to view a member named Abraham and that would be served up by joshua, then your next click might be to see his wife Sarah and that might be served up by caleb. But you'll never know it; they are chosen at random and it will just work seamlessly, and hopefully really fast too. This was a huge step in our ability to gitem BVCMS into the future. Now, adding more churches will never be a problem, we'll be able to scale out easy as 3,4,5. That was one big step to get from 1 to 2 however; we had to change all sorts of things and the way they work under the covers. The basics are that there can be no operation that has dependencies on the state of a single web server; everything must come from either the database or another central resource. This change will also make it safer to publish changes during the middle of the day. We'll be able to bring joshua offline to publish new changes while caleb continues to respond to requests. Then reverse that to get caleb updated.

Add Members from Last Query

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:46:00 GMT

Here is a nifty little feature that we just added. You can now run a Query, go to an Organization, and add everyone in the Last Query directly into your Organization. This is not the usual way to add Members to an Organization. However, for example, if you are creating an Organization and need to enroll everyone who is also enrolled in any of several other Organizations, you could run a Query to find those people and then add them very easily to the new Organization using this feature. Update: this only works for Admin right now. We'll open it up soon. You will find this option when you select Add from Tag on the Organization page. There is an option near the top named (last query). When you select it and click OK, everyone from the last Query that you ran will be added as Members to that Organization. Read more about Adding and Removing Organization Members using Tags.

BVCMS - Scorecard or Ministry Tool?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:49:00 GMT

Forgot Password or Need a Password?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:26:00 GMT

This year (2012) we have simplified the "Forgot Password" process. Now you get a link to set your password directly. Gone are the funny, sometimes embarrassing, system generated, two word password combinations. It works this way for creating a new user account too. You get a welcome email to set your password first thing. Click either either the Forgot? link or Request Password link. Also, an Admin can send mass emails to congregants, inviting them to create an account. When they click the link in their email, it creates a basic MyData (access to their family only) account. Read more...about My Data User Accounts.

BVCMS Servers Resized

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:56:00 GMT

Since Tuesday, due to a problem with Bellevue's servers, BVCMS has been hosting Bellevue Baptist Church's database in addition to our 100 other churches on our Rackspace site. That's not just a 1% increase however; Bellevue's database is HUGE compared to most of our clients so we really had to scoot over tight to let them have a seat on our bus. I'm sure many of you noticed the slowness of the server yesterday. Anyway, all should be well now. Last night late, we doubled the capacity on both our web server and database server and it looks like we'll be able to host this big family and more for a while. Pretty soon, we'll be looking at doing a Web Farm of BVCMS servers where we can spread the load across multiple servers. We're committed to great service in both hosting and support.

Address Changes

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:08:00 GMT

No this is not a change of address form that everybody hates to have to deal with when they move. But it is a change and it has to do with how Addresses in BVCMS work: We now have a Country dropdown. If you ignore this, it will be treated the same as United States a least as far as address validation is concerned. There is now no State dropdown (you just enter the abbreviation) and the label has been changed to State/Province/Region to accommodate international addresses. Finally there is no more Verify Address button. What@! you say? No more Verify Button!! OK OK, hang on there, it is now automatic! The way it works is to always validate when you press Save Changes or Submit. It does this in three places: On the Person page Address tab On the Search / Add dialog, Add New Family page And during an Online Registration. This is new. We used to not validate the address during online registrations but now we are. So here's what happens, when you save, it will check the address against the USPS database and if it finds a match, it "normalizes" the address using the standard USPS abbreviations, zip+4, etc. Then it will update your fields and show you an "error" message of the change (really just informing you). At that point you can save again and it will complete. If you use a country other than United States, it will not validate and save regardless of what you have in there. That is why we have a special Country of "USA, Not Validated" that you can use to override this behavior. Read more about address verification on the wiki

Main Fellowship Organizations and Leader Types

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:46:00 GMT

To read more about Main Fellowship Organizations (you know, that little checkbox on the Organization Header), click here. This is an article explaining how this is used in BVCMS. Along the same lines, you may also want to read this article about Leader Types. These are both settings in the Organization header that you may not have noticed before, but are very useful.

Password Questions

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:03:00 GMT

Surprisingly, we get this question: Can I change my password? Or we get this question: How do I change my password? Or we get this question: What is a non-alphanumeric character??? Sometimes we get this question: Why didn't I get an email with my username/password when I clicked the link? The answer to the first question is "Yes, you can certainly change your password." The answer to the other questions are as follows: On the Homepage, hover your mouse in the top right corner where you see the greeting "Welcome, Karen" (notice that there is an aritem there) There will be two options presented: Logout and Change Password. Select Change Password Now enter your current password Then enter your new password - must contain at least 7 characters can be numbers or letters or a combination of both MUST contain a mark of punctuation (a non-alphanumeric character - i.e. not a letter, not a number) Examples: John3:16 or QWER123! or car.parrot (notice that each of these contains a mark of punctuation) Along these same lines, remember, if you ever forget your Username or Password, just click the appropriate links on the BVCMS login page. However, if we do not have a correct email address on your record, you will not receive the notifications. So, if, after clicking one of those links, you do not receive an email (be sure to check your Spam folder, too) you will need to call the church office. Please call the ministry in which you serve as a leader so they can verify your identity and make the necessary changes to your record. Read more.

Now in the Apple App Store–BVCheckin

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:05:00 GMT

Our new iPad App has arrived! Now you can use an iPad for checkin. It requires 2 things: 1) download the free App from the Apple Store - search for BVCheckin; and 2) install the newest version of the checkin software. We tested this at Bellevue yesterday with great results. Read more about iPad Checkin.

Tasks Made Easy

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:56:00 GMT

We have just posted a couple of new wiki articles regarding Tasks to give you all you need to know about how to use Tasks - whether you are assigning Tasks or having them assigned to you. The first article - Assigning Tasks - shows you exactly how to assign a Task (about someone) to another staff member or lay leader, what will happen when you assign it, and how you will know it's been accepted and completed. The second article - Accepting Tasks - shows you what to do once you have been assigned a Task, how to accept it and how to complete it. Of course, we already had an article about Tasks in general which explains the concept of Tasks and how you can use them to quickly and easily identify your visitors and assign Tasks about each one so that they are contacted as soon as possible after their visit to your church. Check it out! PS Remember, you can always search the wiki by keyword to find help articles.

Week at a Glance Report

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:08:00 GMT

As you begin the new year, you might want to consider creating the Week at a Glance report for your church. Many churches are finding this to be their 'go-to' report each week. Once you configure the report, you will also be able to access the Average Week at a Glance Report as well. There is a link for the report on the main menu. However, it does require a little bit of set up on the part of your church BVCMS Admin in order for it to display the attendance for your church. We have several resources to assist you. There are 2 wiki articles: Week at a Glance Report (explains how the report works) and Week at a Glance Specs (explains how to set up the report). There is also a webinar recording entitled Meetings, Attendance, Week at a Glance (you can download the PowerPoint for that as well).

Finding 1st, 2nd, 3rd Time Visits

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:40:00 GMT

A number of churches have an assimilation process in which they do particular things (like make a phone call, or pay a visit, etc) when a person visits the first time and then a different thing for each subsequent visit. BVCMS makes it easy to find people who have visited for the second time since a particular date. You do this with a special Query condition called Visit Nth Time. Read More

Year-End Contribution Statements

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:57:00 GMT

It's almost that time of year! The time you need to send yearly Contribution Statements to your donors, that is. It is very simple to generate statements for everyone at one time. If this is your first year using BVCMS, you will want to read the wiki article about Contribution Statements. There is also an explanation in the article about how to generate a statement for donors who have died during the period for which you are generating statements. These do not automatically generate for obvious reasons, so you handle these on an individual basis.

Create VoteLinks in Email

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:11:00 GMT

Did you know that you can very easily create VoteLinks directly in the email after you have selected your Tag or Query? That's right! Just scroll down below the body of the email and you will see the fields to do this. I think this is the easiest way to compose the VoteLink. Read more about how to create these links.

Find First Time Attenders

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:11:00 GMT

Attend Types, Member Types, Other Attends

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:08:00 GMT

BVCMS has an extremely robust method of tracking attendance. You can look at a Meeting for an Organization and see at a glance who attended, whether they were a First-Time Visitor, a Repeat Visitor or even if a Member attended somewhere else. We provide an Attendance History on each person's record - whether they are a Member of an Organization or a Visitor. You can drill down and look at an Attendance String and drill down further to view their Transaction History. It is important for you to understand how all of this works, so we have documented all of this information in easy to comprehend articles (with screenshots) on the wiki. Meeting Page Attendance History Attendance Types Off-Site Attendance In-Service Members Attendance String Transaction History Karen

New and Improved Merge Person Process

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:23:00 GMT

Recently, I told you about the addition of the Reverse links on a person's System-Changes tab. This went along with some other changes we implemented to make the move/merge person process easier. As we evaluated those changes, we decided (as we frequently do) to go not just one step further, but take a leap forward! The result is a new Merge Controller page that lets you see the basic information for the two records side-by-side: the record on the left is the From Record and the one on the right is the To Record. It presents you with radio buttons to select which pieces of information you want for the record you are keeping. You can even add Alternate Values if there is information that is not correct on either record. There is also a new user role for the person making the basic moves. It is the Manager. Your System Admin should assign it to the appropriate person (probably the person who functions as the New People Manager). The Admin can use all the functionality of the Merge Controller and does not need the Manager role. Read the revised article on Merging Duplicates as it explains just how to use this new feature. It's really cool! Karen

Baptism Anniversaries

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:51:00 GMT

I know that a lot of you use BVCMS to find people in your ministry who have upcoming birthdays so that you can send an email, a card, or give them a call. However, have you thought about doing the same for a Baptism anniversary? Judy does this at her church and we thought it was a nice idea. To help her do this, we have recently added the Baptism Date to the Other Church Report. By running this report and using a bit of Excel magic, you can identify everyone who was baptized during a specific month. Then you could acknowledge the upcoming anniversary of their baptism with a note. You could do this for those in your ministry every year. Or you might want to create a query just for everyone who was baptized during the previous year in order to encourage them by acknowledging the 1 year anniversary of their baptism. Read more

Organization Schedules

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:44:00 GMT

For those Organizations that do not normally have Meetings, you can now remove the Schedule. Just go to the Organization's Settings - Attendance tab. Click Edit and then click the X beside the Schedule. Once you remove the Schedule, the word None will display on the Organization Search page as well as in the Schedule field on the Organization header. What if the Organization needs to have an ad-hoc Meeting but no longer has a Schedule? No problem! You can still create a Meeting and record attendance. If you want the Meeting to display for Checkin, you will need to create it ahead of time. When you create it, you will need to select the correct Day and Time. It will default to the current day, 8:00 AM. Note: You just Create a Meeting on the Meetings page; you do not have to create a Schedule. Why should I remove Schedules from Organizations that do not normally have Meetings? When a Member of one of these Organizations (let's call it Org #1) attends a Meeting for an Organization with the same Schedule (Org #2), the system creates a Meeting for Org #1 in order to record an 'Other Attend' for that Member. I don't understand 'Other Attends' - what's that all about? In a nutshell, an Other Attend is an indication to a teacher that a class member has attended somewhere else or is Offsite. Be watching for another blog (with an accompanying wiki article) that will explain more about Other Attends, Attend Types, In-Service, etc. If I haven't removed any Schedules, why are there already Organizations in Organization Search that have a Schedule of None? These are Organizations that had the old default Schedule (behind the scenes) of Sun 8:00 AM. We removed those in the database.

New Type of VoteLink Called ‘RegisterTag’

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:31:00 GMT

There is a new type of VoteLink called a RegisterTag, that you can imbed in an email that will actually take your recipients to the Options page of a registration without their having to log in or enter any of their information to get there. This is different from the normal VoteTag, which immediately enrolls a person in your organization but does not allow you to capture any other information or collect fees. Here is the format: Register Now! In this example, 124 is the ID number of the registration Organization. Register Now! is the text they will see. Just type the link, formatted as above, into the body of the email and send it to your targeted audience. They will love the fact that you have eliminated the step of their either logging in or entering their information in the form. This is perfect when you have a registration with a fee or that has questions, dropdowns, checkboxes, etc. In other words, a registration that is more than just enrolling the person in an Organization. Karen

Printing Labels

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:55:00 GMT

On occasion, we hear from someone who is having trouble getting their Avery labels to align correctly when printing from BVCMS. Here's how to solve that. Read more.

Updated Checkin Software to Install–Please read!

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:59:00 GMT

For those of you using our BVCMS checkin software, you need to read this post. There is an updated version of the checkin software that was published yesterday 10/11/11. Please install this in place of your existing software on all of your computers that are used for checkin. Remember to uninstall your existing version first. There are a couple of things I want to mention about this update. Even if you installed updated software after our checkin webinar on 9/22/11 (and have the version with the new Menu), you need to install this new version. This version fixes a bug that was preventing the room numbers from displaying on the 1-inch labels. Another addition in this version is the ability to print labels for an Inactive member and also have the security tag print with them. This will not be an issue for most of you, but I did want to mention it. Download checkin software here. Select the version dated 10/11/11. Karen

Big Changes on Org Settings

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:58:00 GMT

We have made sweeping changes to the Settings tab on an Organization. These changes were designed to make these Settings easier to use by separating them in to six different categories/tabs. We did this also to make it easier for staff users to set up their own online registrations without needing an Admin to do it for you. The General and Attendance tabs relate to all Organizations and the others to those that have online registrations. Part of this change is the addition of my favorite tool - the hover thingy, otherwise known as the Tool-Tip! These are now attached to the labels on these pages to help you understand how those features are used. Treat yourself on a self-guided tour! Go to an Organization and click on the Settings tab. Then look at each of the six tabs, taking time to hover over the fields to see the descriptions. Even if you have not created online registrations yet, it is good for you as a user to know what is available for any of your future needs. Please let us know if you have any problems using these or if you notice something that might not be clear. We try to test thoroughly; but, as you know, we publish changes quite frequently and sometimes we miss something. Thank you, Chris, for all of your help with this. Enjoy! Karen

Joined and Drop Dates Displayed

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:15:00 GMT

The next time you look at an Organization, notice on the Members, Inactive and Pending tabs that we add the Joined date for the individuals. It is located atop the Last Att. date. You can sort by either of these dates. Also, notice on the Previous tab, that we have added the Dropped date. It is also atop the Last Att. date and both are sortable. But wait.there's more! We added the same information to the Enrollment tab for a person. On the Current tab, there is now a column labeled Enroll Date and on the Previous tab there is now a Drop Date in addition to the Enroll Date. This information was already assessable from a person's Member Dialog box when you click Attendance to view the Transaction History. We just thought it would be more helpful to also have it readily in view. These are seemingly small changes, but will be beneficial as you analyze your Organizations, its Members and Previous Members. Karen

Meetings Page Enhancements

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:22:00 GMT

This week, we added two new features to the Meetings page: one relates to Meeting Descriptions and the other relates to Inactive Organizations. Regarding the Description on a Meeting: If there is a Description on a Meeting, it will now display on the Meetings page to the right of the Leader. A couple of examples of when this might be needed would be if there is a special speaker instead of the normal service or when there is inclement weather and attendance might be really low. Notice in the screenshot below - there is no column header for Description, so the only time you will notice this is if there is actually a Description on the Meeting. Regarding the Inactive Orgs: If an Organization is no longer Active or if it was Inactive on the date you selected for the Week at a Glance Report and you drill down to that Division or Meeting, you would want to see the attendance. So, we are now displaying those Organizations automatically and are shading them in gray so you will notice them. Notice the 6:30 PM Young Adult class in the screenshot below. Note: If you approach the Meetings Page from the Organization Search, and you are going to look at a date in the past, you will probably want to change your search criteria to include both Active and Inactive Organizations. These are just a couple of small changes, but changes that we think will be helpful as you analyze your data. Karen

New Checkin Release

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:17:00 GMT

For those who attended our webinar on Checkin recently, you saw the latest version of our Checkin software. The changes relate mainly to the Menu options, but have a few other features as well. If you have not done so already, please install this newest version on all your computers that are used for Checkin. Go here to download the 9/20/11 version. Note: How can you tell if you are using the latest version? If the Menu button for a Visitor does not look like the screenshot below, you do not have the latest version. If you missed the webinar, you can view the video and the Powerpoint notes here.

New Filter for Saved Queries in Query Builder!

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:24:00 GMT

How many times have you looked for someone else's Public Query and had to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll to find it in the list of Saved Queries? Not any more! David felt our pain and has added a Filter. Now you can type part of a Description and Filter for only those that match. It doesn't matter if what you type in the Search box is at the beginning, middle or end of the Description. The Filter will find it! Pretty cool, huh? If you are searching for another user's Public Query, you can also filter by their exact username (that's the Owner). Of course, you can still check the Only Mine box to view only your Queries. And you can sort by any of the three columns: Description, Owner or Public. To select any Query, just click the View link. This new filter will be especially appreciated here at Bellevue, as we have nearly 800 Public Queries! We love Query Builder. I may be wrong, but I think this just might be the best thing since the iPad. No? Well, it is a wonderful feature nonetheless! Thanks, David. Karen

Online Pledges

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:45:00 GMT

We have just debuted a wonderful new feature: Online Pledges. This is working great and makes the back-office work SO much easier! Whether or not you are using online giving at your church, you can still use the new pledge feature. It works very much like other online Registrations. There are a couple of really great things about this feature that I love: 1) the pledge is automatically recorded on the person's giving record; and 2) they can return and increase their pledge at any time, if they so desire. Read more Karen

Scheduled Emails

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:40:00 GMT

We have had this feature for several months now, but I don't think we have ever advertised it publically. However, if you send emails using BVCMS, you probably noticed the text beside the Send button: Scheduled Date and Time, etc. This is where you can indicate the date and time that an email is to be sent. Compose your email as usual and then enter the schedule information in the text box using the following format. mm/dd/yy h:mm AM|PM Example: If you want the email to be sent Sept. 30 at 5:00 AM Central Time. You would enter this in the text box: 09/30/11 5:00 AM Warning: If you are using a query for your mailing list, the query will not run again at the time the email is scheduled to be sent. It determines who will get the email when you create the email and schedule it. This just might keep you from having to wake up earlier than normal! Karen

Changes on Org Search Page

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:10:00 GMT

We have moved the links for all of the exports and reports that were at the bottom of the search page - like 'Create Roll Sheets' and 'Meetings' report. They are now tucked away under a drop down menu - Exports and Reports. You will notice this on the right side of the Organization Search page. Regarding the Meetings report. As always, the report will be based on whatever criteria you have in the Organization Search box. In other words, every Organization you are looking at on the search page will be on the Meetings Report. I prefer to filter by Program/Division/Schedule myself. The added features include a summary under the list of Meetings. This summary lists the total number of Meetings displayed, the total number of Attends, the Other Attends and finally the total number of People who attended any of the meetings listed. We will be discussing this report as well as the Week at a Glance report in our upcoming webinar on 'Meetings, Attendance and Week at a Glance' this Thursday Sept. 15 at 10:00 a.m. Karen

On-Line Registration Confirmation Change

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:31:00 GMT

We have made a slight change to what displays when you use the code {details} in an on-line registration confirmation email. We no longer include the amount paid in the details for each person registering. What was previously being displayed was the total amount paid. Therefore, if a person registered more than one individual, it might appear that he was double-charged, as they would see the total amount in the details for each person. If you want to include in the confirmation emails how much has been paid, just use this code in the text of your confirmation - {paid}. Example: If a family registers 3 children for Friday Night Childcare and are charged $6 per child with a family maximum of $10, you could put something like this in the confirmation: Thank you for registering your children for Friday Night Childcare. Your credit card has been charged a total of {paid}. They would see $10 in place of {paid}. This would let the person registering know the total they have paid. Using the {details} code in the email will still display the name of the person registering and any other details in that registration - like a shirt size or a checkbox or drop down that was selected - just not an amount. So, if you have active registrations and you want the registrant to see how much was paid, you will want to make changes on the Confirmation email.

Manage Divisions on Organization Search Page

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:42:00 GMT

For those of you with the Org Tagger role, you will notice that we have given you a much more user-friendly way to manage Divisions. It is with the Manager link on the Organization Search page. When you click this link, Manage Divisions appears. This is where you can Create, or Rename Divisions as well as Add or Remove Organizations from the Target Divisions. To create a new Division, just select the Target Program in which you want the Division to go. Then type the name in the New Division text box and then click the New button. Notice that the new Division then become the Target Division. Now all you do is click the Add link beside the Organizations to add them to the new Division. If you no longer want the Organizations in their old Division, just select that old Division as the Target Division and then click Remove beside the Organizations. A word about the role Org Tagger. That may sound like a strange name, but it perfectly describes the action. You are 'tagging' Organizations with a Division or Divisions. Karen

Multiple Divisions & Main Divisions

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:59:00 GMT

Little Changes

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:41:00 GMT

We published a few changes last night.nothing big, but I did want to let you know about them. All address lines are now showing up on the Group Member management page. This is to help with those who have addresses that list the name of the facility, such as a nursing home, and therefore have three lines in their address. Another change on that same page was the addition of links for the individuals. Lastly, we made a slight change in wording on the Contact form on two of the checkboxes. Not at Home became "Attempted/Not Available" and Left Door Hanger became "Left Note Card". Karen

Meetings and Enrollment Dates

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:20:00 GMT

Recently, we made a change regarding how the system determines who to display on a Meeting page when you are recording attendance so that only those people who were Members at the time of the meeting will display when you click Enable Editing or Show All. This will prevent you from marking a person present as a Member for a Meeting that pre-dates his Enrollment Date or marking a Visitor present if the Meeting pre-dates the date of their first visit to that class. What if you need to recreate Attendance history? How do you add Members to an Organization and go back in time to create Meetings and record their attendance? That's really simple. Once your Members have been added to the Organization, change their Enrollment Date to a date prior to the first Meeting in which you need to record Attendance. To do this for one person at a time, go to their Member Dialog, click Edit and change the Enrollment Date. To change the Enrollment Date for everyone in the Organization, click the Update Members button on the Organization page. Then, click Select All, click in the box next to Enrollment and, using the calendar, select the Enrollment Date you want to assign for them. Then just click Update Selected. Now you can create the Meetings and the Members will display.

New Query Builder Condition

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:41:00 GMT

We received an email yesterday from Melissa who was creating a query to identify single moms with boys who were in a certain age range. Her ministry wants to advertise a special class that they are offering specifically for that demographic group. There were already several conditions relating to family makeup: Family Has Children (12 or under); Family Has Children Age (equal to or under a specified age); Family Has Children Age Range (allows you to specify the age range). What was missing was a condition that combined not only an age range for children in a family, but also the gender of those children. Well, it's there now! Look on the Personal Tab of the Conditions Dialog Box. How might you use this new Condition?

Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:18:00 GMT

New GUI Editor for Online Registration Settings

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:36:00 GMT

New Online Registration Settings

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:52:00 GMT

IronPython Scripting

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:39:00 GMT

Oldie but Goodie

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:35:00 GMT

This is not a new feature, but may be one that you are not using or are under-using. I'm talking about Tasks. The Task feature in BVCMS is not just a personal 'get things done' feature, although it can be used as such. Tasks are part of the bigger assimilation process within BVCMS. Using some of our new pre-built Queries, it easier than ever to assign tasks to those who need a 'touch' from someone. Read more

People Search Query

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:38:00 GMT

Now, you can construct a simple search in People Search and click the Query button to have the system build the Query for you. It just doesn't get any easier than that! And that is not the only place we have drop-dead simple Queries. Check out this article to find out about where to find other pre-built Queries.

New Features on Meeting Page

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:57:00 GMT

We have added some really cool options on the Meeting page. They are tucked away under the Other Management menu. They allow you, with one click, to convert to Query the Attendees, Visitors or Absent Members for that meeting. The system builds the Query for you. Could it be any easier? There are also some reports that you may have forgotten about. Read more

Innovative Attendance Features

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:23:00 GMT

Entering Attendance–Manual or Scanned

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:22:00 GMT

For those of you recording attendance, you will need to use either Google Chrome, FireFox or IE9 for your bitemser until we make some changes that allow it to work with IE8. This is due to some major improvements in attendance that we published Wed, 6/22/11, and we did not realize there would be some incompatibilities with IE. See the previous blog post regarding this new features.

Why Do Companies Pay Big Money to Develop Open Source Software?

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:30:00 GMT

Family Page Redesign

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:19:00 GMT

Here's one more page in our redesign effort. Click the Family Members link on a person's page to see the new look. There are a couple of functions that have been made just a bit easier, too. We removed the Edit button beside the family members. Now you just click on the Position to change it. A drop down menu appears, you select the option and click OK. Family Relations - once you add a Related Family, just click inside the Description field, type the description and then just hit Enter to save. Simple!

New Email Support

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:59:00 GMT

Take a look under the Help Menu now! Notice that there is not only the link for the wiki documentation, but also a link to Email Support. Please click this link when you have questions or need support. This will send an email to the appropriate people, so that someone will respond as quickly as possible. This quick link will help us in our goal to provide 'fanatical support' to all the BVCMS customers.

New Look

Mon, 30 May 2011 23:32:00 GMT

Extra Donation Feature

Wed, 11 May 2011 19:11:00 GMT

We have just added a new feature that you can implement with online registrations. If allows you, in the Settings tab for the organization, to check Ask Donation and then specify a Fund ID for the fund where you want those donations to go. Here is an example of a use for this feature: The event for which you are taking registrations is a run/walk to raise money for supplies that will be used on a mission project. The registrants will pay a fee for the event, and will have an opportunity to make an 'Extra Donation' before they enter their credit card information. The 'Extra Donation' will be recorded on that person's giving record, showing it as a contribution to the fund that was specified on the settings tab. It will also show up as a new bundle in the Contribution Bundle list. The fee for the event will not be recorded as a donation, but will be treated like any other transaction fee. This is so simple to set up! Plus, the system does all the proper recording for you, so there is no added work for the Contributions Clerk. Read more.

Online Registrations

Wed, 11 May 2011 14:49:00 GMT

Online Registration Notifications

Tue, 03 May 2011 21:58:00 GMT

Those of you who manage organizations that offer online registrations may noticed a change on the Settings page. We no longer have a field for you to enter the email address of the person who is to receive the staff notifications and from whom the confirmations will come. Instead, we ask you to enter their People ID #. This change was made a few weeks ago, so please check your organizations to ensure that the notifications and confirmations will be sent correctly. Just go into the Settings and add the People ID # for the person who should receive the notifications. If you want more than one person to receive the notifications, you can enter the additional ID#s separated by a comma.

Days Between First/Second Attendance

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:50:00 GMT

Sandy at Cottonwood Creek was trying to use QueryBuilder to ask the question "How long is it taking people to get plugged in to our church after they first attended." We could not come up with a way to do this with any of our existing conditions in QueryBuilder. So we added a new condition. In fact this is how every single condition got into QueryBuilder was through a similar process of asking and needing to provide an answer. So there is a new QueryBuilder condition called "Days Between First/Second Attend". You find it on the Attendance Tab at the bottom. Note, that the first attendance is of a type of New Visitor in any organization. This is the first time they stepped into the Church for any event. I would expect that almost 100% of the time that will be Worship but it really doesn't matter. This is measuring how quickly people are being assimilated into your main fellowship groups. It looks like this:

Public Emails

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:59:00 GMT

Public emails! That just sounds wrong, doesn't it? Well, it is just a way to turn your email into a web page. Let me explain. You compose this beautiful email that you send to a targeted group advertising an upcoming event. Perhaps it even has a link to register. If you check the box to mark it 'public' you can post a link (URL) on Facebook, Twitter or some other public place that will take people to a web-page with your email.without, of course, the To, From stuff. Here's how.

New Look for the Home Page

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:54:00 GMT

Spring is here! The flowers are blooming; the trees are budding. So, it seemed like the perfect time to spruce up the BVCMS Home Page. But, it is more than just a pretty face.there's more functionality there for you, too. Your saved Queries and Tags are right there on the Home Page. Plus, you still have your Birthdays, Involvement and Tasks as well as BVCMS News. We've moved a few other items as well. Reports now have their own header and there is a link to the Task page under the People header. Notice the gear in the top right corner. That's where we moved the links for Logout and Change Password. For those of you who are administrators on the system, there are a few goodies there for you as well. Also, there is a new way to add users - the link is on the person's User tab. Stayed tuned in the upcoming days for information on how the Church News section will be used. Oh, by the way.since you are reading this blog, then you noticed that it is highlighted in red. Caught your eye, didn't it? Any blog post less than a week old will appear that way, so you won't miss the latest news. We hope you enjoy the changes. Thank you Chris and team for your excellent design suggestions! PS You may notice a few glitches as you navigate through the system. We will clean those up over the next few days.

Off-Site Attendance for Trips

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:56:00 GMT

Whether your church offers Mission Trips throughout the year, annual Summer Camps for Students, or occasional Weekend Retreats, using the Off-Site Attendance feature will allow you to correctly capture attendance for those participants when they are off-campus and cannot attend their other classes. Read more about how to use this and how it will affect attendance reports.

Another Tool for Tracking Emails

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:40:00 GMT

Is it just me? Or do you also sometimes wonder if people out there in cyberspace are actually reading those pretty emails you sent them. Or if they even open them? Well, if you do, you will be very excited about this latest feature. It is a tool designed to be used by those of you who are sending large, targeted emails - such as newsletters - and want to be able to see if you are reaching your audience. If your email has an image in it, you can include a special code in your email that will be invisible to your readers. With that embedded in your email, you will be able to view some stats about your email: Total number of times the email has been opened (including multiple times by the same person) Total number of individuals who have opened the email (counting only the first time a person opens it) For each individual, the number of times they have opened the email There are a couple of things to remember about using this: Your email should include an image (this is the secret to the magic) You will access this information from the link in the Sent Email notification you receive after sending the email Read more about how to use this tool in the wiki article Tracking Emails. One more important reminder: Whenever you are sending emails to large numbers of people, you should always include the Unsubscribe link. See the wiki article Unsubscribe for details. Email can be a very efficient and inexpensive way to communicate with large numbers of people, so we want to give you the appropriate tools to help you be as effective as possible in your communication.

Manage Emails

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:55:00 GMT

Those of you who send emails through BVCMS (and there are a TON of you!) will have noticed that your Sent Email confirmation looks a little different now. Instead of it just containing the list of your recipients, there is a link that shows the number of emails sent. Clicking the link will take you to an email management page with a lot more information regarding your emails. At the top of the page are statistics relating to when it was queued, when it was sent, etc. Below that is the actual content of your email, which is then followed by a list of your recipients. The list is more than just a record of those to whom you sent the message. Each name is actually a link to the list of all emails that person has received from you since we started this type of tracking. This management page is just one more tool we have put in your hands to help you as you minister to the body.

Contact your Contactors

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:29:00 GMT

Quick and Easy Attendee Query

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:42:00 GMT

Do you ever want to send an email to all those who attended an event - whether it's a small Life Group class or a very large conference? Maybe you want to thank them for coming. Or maybe send them the notes from the class. Whatever the reason, sometimes you just need a real quick way to communicate with just those who attended (both Members of the class as well as Visitors).but not necessarily everyone enrolled in the class. We've made that just a little easier for you. Take a look at a meeting page now and you will notice a new link: Convert to Query. Clicking that link will take you to Query Builder with the query pre-built for you, with the only condition being the meeting ID. All you have to do is click Run and you will have a list of everyone who attended that meeting. Now what could be simpler?

Family Relationships

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:45:00 GMT

Who's the mother?!? I got a great question from KiKi yesterday! She was trying to record a family relationship between an adult son and his mother. The description she put on the Family Relationship tab of the son's record was 'Mary's son'. Then when she went to Mary's record, she saw the same description and changed it to 'Johnny's mother'. You can see where I'm going with this. The same description will display on both families in the relationship. So, the correct way to describe a relationship between two families is to enter a complete description that is clear no matter which family you are viewing. I suggest including first and last names and both sides of the the relationship. Examples: Johnny Doe is the son of John and Mary Doe. Suzy Smith is the daughter of John and Mary Doe. In the 2nd example, the adult daughter is married to Frank Smith and therefore has a different last name from her parents. The description makes it clear that Suzy (and not Frank) is the child of the Doe's. There may be odd situations in which you need to add further description. For example: a child is temporarily living with his grandparents (or even with another family altogether) and needs to be in the family where he is living while his mother is in rehab (you know, it happens!). Put the child in the grandparents' family, but relate the custodial family to the child's mother's family. Then provide a thorough description. Jacob Jones is the son of Kathy Jones and is living with his grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. John Smith. OR Jacob Jones is the son of Kathy Jones and is temporarily living with friends Jane and Rick Schultz. That is an extreme example, but I think you get the idea of how the Family Relationship description is designed to work.

New Option for Driving Directions or Maps

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:57:00 GMT

Recently, Julie Jordan (Bellevue Arlington) contacted me after she had tried to go see a recent visitor and got confusing directions when clicking on the Driving Directions link on BVCMS. Google was directing her to an entirely different address from the one on the person's record! This happens sometimes.Google just gets it wrong! So, we have added a 2nd option for you. We put a 'bing' option on the business card section of the people records. Clicking on the address or on 'directions' will use Google; clicking 'bing' will use bing. There are a couple of things you should remember: 1) Google can be wrong; 2) bing can be wrong. Neither are infallible. However, there is a clue to let you know if they are providing the correct map/directions. Always check the address that is displayed in the map or the destination for the driving directions. If it does not match the address on the person's record, use the other option. Chances are one of the 2 options will get it right. Look at the top of the page when you are taken to the map.notice the address.see if it matches. Example of Google getting an address wrong: Same address on bing: So.be sure to check the address on the map/driving directions. If the address is different , then try the other option.

Just Added Member Status

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 03:08:00 GMT

What is a 'Just Added' Member Status and Why Are all those Tasks on my Homepage?! Every new record that is added to BVCMS will have the Church Member Status of Just Added. This status is designed to be temporary - to be a flag that this person has just been added to the database. That status should be changed (by someone with the Membership role), but only AFTER a few tasks have been performed. We could have just skipped this step and given every new record a Church Member Status of Not Member, but there are very good reasons why we didn't. These new records need to be thoroughly vetted by the person who created the record and again by the New People Manager to insure that 1) there is not already a record (a 'duplicate') for this person, 2) that everything on that person's record is as complete as it can be, and 3) that we have that person in the correct family. And the best time to do that is just after the record has been added. Hence the catchy term 'Just Added'! If you have a role in BVCMS that allows you to create new people records.adding visitors to a meeting, adding people to families, adding members to an organization.then you will have Tasks about those new records. Each task will be named 'New Person Data Entry' and will display the name of the new record you created. Read more in the wiki article about the steps you should follow to complete your New Person Data Entry tasks. Posted by Karen

How are we doing?

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 04:14:00 GMT

Just thought I'd make a spot for you to give us some feedback. Let us know how we are doing. If you have some good things to say about BVCMS or us, not only will it encourage us, but it will really help us promote BVCMS. So please add your comments below. Thank you so much!

Contribution Statements–Minimum Amount

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:14:00 GMT

In this economy, I think we all want to be good stewards of God's resources. Therefore, it seemed like a good idea to create a total contribution minimum amount of $5.00 as a default for printing a contribution statement. We probably don't want to spend more on the statement (printing, processing, mailing) than the actual contribution! Some of you have noticed statements for children in which the total amount given was under a dollar. While we certainly want to encourage children to give, printing a year-end IRS-compliant contribution statement for them is probably not the way to do that. Along those same lines, we realize that many of you may want to actually make that minimum amount more than $5.00. Therefore, we now have a setting that will allow you to set the minimum for your church. The setting must be created on the Settings page by the BVCMS Admin at your church. The setting name should be MinContributionAmount. Once the setting is created, enter a dollar amount without the dollar sign.50.00 for example.

Photos Made Easy

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:23:00 GMT

Organizations for Recurring Events

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:23:00 GMT

How to be Honest with Hard to Use Features

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 02:32:00 GMT

Hosting Boasting Update

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:45:00 GMT

We now have 27 churches hosted at bvcms.com. These churches range from small start-ups to large 5,000+ member churches. From the west coast to the east coast and one in Zambia Africa. We have Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Independent, and Coptic churches. Six of them use the Children's Touchscreen Check-in system, ten use the Contributions feature, and five use the online registration system. We'll be going back to these churches to help a lot more get started using these more advanced features. To get started with BVCMS, just go to the Try the Demo or just use the Contact Us link. We can have you up and running in about an hour ready to start entering your data.

New Website

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:42:00 GMT

I hope you like our new website. We have had lots of compliments on it so far. The combination of professional design by the great folks at http://VolaciousMedia.com and all the great testimonies of our clients really makes for a great story. And we have streamlined the demo signup process too. You fill out the form and get your credentials for the demo site right away! There are a lot of behind the scenes changes too that will make it easier for us to serve our clients well. Eventually we'll port all the wiki documentation to this site too for a consistent look and feel. Thanks for stopping by!

Paperless Registration

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:39:00 GMT

This article was published in June, 2010. This was several years prior to the name change to TouchPoint Software. The BVCMS team has had an exciting start to the summer, going nearly paperless for CampOutrageous (Vacation Bible School) registration for the first time. It was a terrific success! By the Sunday before CampOutrageous, over 2,600 children had registered online and were enrolled in their appropriate groups. Registration has previously been done on hand-written cards that were deciphered and typed into the church system-a very laborious process with sketchy results. Many cards were difficult, if not impossible, to read and many others were incomplete, requiring many phone calls to find out the missing information. By asking the parents register their children online, we have been able to obtain complete and accurate information without any effort on the part of the Children's ministry staff. This makes our follow-up process for prospects much more efficient, as the information is in BVCMS the moment the parent clicks Submit. Also the response from parents has been extremely positive, with comments such as "Thank you. This is so much easier than last year." To facilitate this process, we modified our touch screen check-in system to allow easy registration for those last minute folks who did not register online. By the time parents finished registration, new records were created and their child's enrollment was complete within BVCMS. We are thankful for our wonderful staff ladies who volunteer to assist our guests. We wre able to enroll 327 new children Monday morning-over 150 of which were new records! This process was a ministry opportunity for our ladies to talk to our guests and give them a warm Bellevue welcome while walking them through the kiosk registration. First impressions are lasting impressions and they made a good one!

Small Groups Within Organizations

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:03:00 GMT