PowerChurch Software Newsletter - Year End 2012

Welcome to another year-end issue of the PowerChurch Software newsletter. If you missed either of the prior year-end newsletters, you can view them in the archives on our web site.

2013 Tax Tables

The IRS documentation for the 2013 tax year has now been published in Notice 1036. For information on how to update your tax tables in PowerChurch Plus, visit www.powerchurch.com/support/pr.

Year-End House Cleaning

In the 2010 year-end newsletter (available here) there is a year-end check list of things to do to help keep PowerChurch Plus up and running smoothly. It starts out with running the Inactive Profiles report then suggests several tasks you can do to clean up your database with the aid of this report. We thought this issue of the newsletter would be an excellent opportunity to expand on this a little bit, with step by step instructions.

1. Run the Inactive Profiles report. This report was added in Version 11 of PowerChurch Plus and can be found under Membership > Personal Profiles > Reports - Personal Profiles, at the bottom of the list. This report is unique in that it will look at data from both Contributions and Attendance, to determine those people who have not given or attended in the specified date range. You can look at any date range you choose, whether it is the last year, last three years, etc.
   
   
2. Update Personal Status/Mailing Category. In PowerChurch Plus, primary member status fields are assigned to both the family and the individual. This would allow you, for example, to properly label the status of a husband who no longer attends as inactive, while keeping the wife labeled an active member. On the family record, you would still want to consider theirs an active member household.
   
   In looking through the Inactive Profiles report, if you have an entire family showing, you can change the Mailing Category field on the Membership > Integrated Data Entry screen to show "Inactive Member". On the Family Members tab, double click each person's name, then in the Maintain Personal Profiles screen that opens, change their Personal Status Code to "Inactive Member".
   
   
3. Remove inactive people from activities. If you record two hundred "presents" and four hundred "absents" each week, you need to clean up your activity attenders. Keeping the activity roles current will be helpful in a number of ways. The table that stores attendance information in the database is by far the largest file. Removing people who have not attended in the last year from those activities will keep extra, unwanted records from piling up in that already large data file. This will also make attendance reports generate more quickly. The biggest benefit is to be able to run the Consecutive Absentee report, knowing that only people who regularly attend will be included on the report.
   
   The easiest way to do this may seem counterintuitive. Go to Membership > Activities & Skills > Mass Update Activities & Skills. Choose Add and click OK. The way this process works, is you make selections on the screen, to match the people you want to be members of the activity. This will not add people to the activity twice. It just verifies that everyone is in the activity that should be and then asks if you want to remove everyone that does not match that selection. Since you have already updated the inactive people's Personal Status codes, the program will then remove those people from the activity automatically for you.
   
   
4. Tighten up the range of envelope numbers for active contributors. While it isn't required that you renumber your envelopes every year in PowerChurch Plus, it can help when running certain reports and other processes. If you have numbered envelopes printed and distribute them to your donors, consolidating the envelope numbers will also lessen the expense by printing fewer envelopes.
   
   
   • Reassign inactive envelopes to higher number range. PowerChurch Plus allows you to have envelopes numbered from 1 all the way up to 99,998. Many users choose to move inactive contributors out of the lower number ranges, freeing up those numbers to be used by others. As mentioned above, if you only have two hundred active contributors, but still have six hundred envelopes printed each year, you need to reassign some envelope numbers.
     
     For this example, we will use the 10,000 number range for inactive contributors. If you have previously moved people into this number range, you can easily find out what numbers are still available by running the Unused Envelope Numbers report found under Contributions > Reports - Contributions, it will be near the bottom of the list. On this report, specify that you want to see unused envelopes between 10,000 and 10,999.
     
     To reassign an envelope number, go to Contributions > Reassign > Reassign an envelope. Enter the envelope number of the inactive contributor in the From box, or use the lookup button to choose them from a list. Then enter the 10,000 number you would like to move them to. If you have other envelope numbers to reassign, click the "Save and New" button, which will leave the Reassign an Envelope screen open for you to move on to the next envelope in your list; otherwise, click "Save and Close". The program will keep all of their giving and pledge history, simply moving it all to the new number.
   
   
   • Reassign envelope numbers into available lower number ranges. Once finished moving all the inactive people out of the lower number range, you can then run an Unused Envelope Numbers report for the lower number range, such as 1 to 200. This will show you a list of all available envelope numbers in that range. You can then use the Reassign an Envelope number screen to move the active contributors from the upper ranges down into the 1-200 number range, filling in all the gaps you created.

If you go through the effort to keep your databases up to date it will save you time and money down the road!

Year-End Tax Filings

It's that time again! It's time to gather reports and verify the year-end numbers in preparation for filing Payroll taxes. Users of PowerChurch Plus Version 11.5 and PowerChurch Online have the option of filing taxes manually with paper forms, or using PowerChurch E-file to file the W2/W3 and now 1099-MISC forms online with the state and federal governments. Print and mail service is also available to send out the paper copies of forms to your employees. For more information, visit powerchurch.nelcoportal.com/Content/Filing_Information

Paper tax forms are still available through our preferred provider, Dynamic Systems. They also have compatible computer checks, deposit slips, and other business forms. Visit their web site or give them a call at (800) 782-2946 for pricing and information.

Gillware Online Backup

PowerChurch Software has recently teamed up with Gillware Data Services in order to offer you a business grade backup solution designed to protect your critical data from permanent loss. With online backup you don't have to worry about the common reasons other backup strategies fail, like forgetfulness, storage device failures or local disasters. Moreover, this software allows you to restore your data anytime, day or night. Your data is never more than a few mouse clicks away! For more information, visit www.powerchurch.com/products/onlinebackup.php. There is also a detailed walkthrough of the installation and setup process here www.powerchurch.com/products/onlinebackup-walkthrough.php

Forum Q&A

The Support Forum on our web site is a very active online community of our users and Tech Support staff members. There you can browse through thousands of questions and answers, or post your own.

From Contributions:
Q. I have several folks who have submitted a pledge for 2013 but have paid the entire pledge in 2012. How do I record their 2013 pledge in PowerChurch so that their pledges will not be counted as in arrears because the pledge was paid in the previous year?
A. When you enter the pledges using the Maintain Pledges function, there is a block on the screen for Pledge Start Balance. Just enter the amount in there, and it will reflect that the pledge was fulfilled.

From PowerChurch Online:
Q. I'm getting that "failed to connect on port #491" error. I am doing this from my mom's home which has wifi but I don't know if anything is different here.
A. Check to see if there is any sort of firewall on the router. It's not a standard port, so it may have to be opened.

From Events:
Q. Our church is going from 2 services each Sunday to 1 service. I know how to set up a new event but not sure how to delete the one that is 1st and 2nd services.
A. Just find the last event you are going to hold on the calendar. Right click on the event and select delete. You will then be given 3 choices, delete this occurrence, all occurrences of the event, or delete all future occurrences of the event.