I often tell people that support and innovation are two of our distinctives as a church management software company. We released our new, innovative online giving and text to give upgrades a couple of months ago. At the same time, as a result of great interaction with our clients, we also released some really handy upgrades. You may have seen these already.
Clients, be sure to scan these to see suggestions from other clients and to get even more out of your subscription with us!
1. Duplicate Family Report
Problem: Kids are in one family / parents in another. Husband is in one family / wife in another.
Solution: Merge the families into one. (Members tab > Merge)
Upgrade: Merge families report. Finds these issues for you:
2. Next Meeting Date on Meeting Reports
Problem: Groups scheduling time off. Stop sending meeting report reminders.
Solution: Select next meeting date.
Upgrade: Now works not only for every week and every other week, but all other meeting frequencies as well.
3. Group Leader Access Links
Problem: Need to resend a meeting report reminder link or a link for a leader to update their group information.
Solution: Blue Edit Button > Leader Acces Links
Upgrade: Added button to send email from here rather than copy/paste.
4. Customizing Group Views
Problem: Customize the columns on the group info page.
Solution: Group views.
Upgrade: When you customize a view, you can now see a list of the groups with that view as the default.
5. Preview Scheduled Emails
Problem: Need to write an email or series of emails to be sent based on some schedule.
Solution: Scheduled emails option when you send an email through Churchteams. Shows up underneath email text box.
Upgrade: Ability to review emails already scheduled. Click Communicate > Email History to find Preview button ...
6. Sample Templates & Custom HTML For Email
Problem: Want to upgrade and standardize the look of email communication.
Solution: Addition of templates when emailing through Churchteams.
Upgrade 1: Provide you six new sample templates to customize and save.
Upgrade 2: Click HTML Only button to remove the editor and use text box for pasting/customizing HTML. Use Preview/Text button to check your work.
7. Using Check-in Parent Label As A Name Tag
Problem: Security of kids.
Solution: Secure Check-in. Parent tag matches child tag.
Upgrade: Parent tag now can be customized (Check-in view settings item B2.3) to also serve as a name tag for parents.
8. Volunteer Schedule Report
Problem: Scheduling and managing volunteers.
Solution: Volunteer scheduling feature. Create team as a group, click Edit then Volunteer Schedule.
Upgrade: Report to quickly print out the schedule for any teams and date range. Reports > Groups > Volunteer Schedule
9. Re-Send Volunteer Schedule Invitations
Problem: Scheduling volunteers.
Solution: Volunteer Scheduling. Create team > Edit > Volunteer Schedule
Upgrade: Added an option to re-send an invitation to everyone who hasn't responded rather than one at a time.
10. Export Photos For Directory / Other
Problem: Ability to export data for use in other applications.
Solution: Reports > Members > Export to CSV/Excel file.
Upgrade: Added individual and family photo URL export options so that pictures can be accessed for other uses.
11. Create Online Account Without Giving Online
Problem: Donors having access to their giving online.
Solution: Online giving created this by default.
Upgrade: Create online access for donors who haven't given online. Member Profile > More Info > Contributions > Online Account. Click the Online Account button to create this access for the donor.
12. Family Role On Event Registration Forms
Problem: Registering parents and children for events where you need childcare or parent information.
Solution: Registration Setting > Registration Completion Options > Childcare/Secondary registration. Links related groups together like Marriage Seminar & Childcare. Or VBS Parent Info & VBS Child Registration.
Upgrade: The Default Family Role can be set to identify whether that form is intended for the parent/guardian or for children / students.
Results in
13. Organize Events By Meeting Date
Problem: Presenting events on your website.
Solution: Communicate > Linkbuilder. Customize by events and software creates the link or code you need.
Upgrade: Set actual event date as next meeting date, then create link/code to sort based on that date.
All of these came as suggestions based on real needs our clients have had. This is why support is so critical to what we do. It gives us the ability to constantly improve. And, it's how we would want people to treat us. Living out Matthew 7:12.
