Tales From Tech 2 - Issue: 26

Today, I wanted to touch briefly (Gee, who am I kidding?) on a few different topics. The format for this volume will be a question and answer kinda thing, but I'll be making up the questions and the answers. (Well actually, I'll make up the questions, but the answers will be real.)

Anyway, thinking about whether life exists in the Tupperware container in the back of my refrigerator reminded me of that old question: If you can't cross the bridge until you come to it and you can't count your chickens before they hatch, can you cross your chickens before they hatch on the bridge?

I JUST UPGRADED FROM POWERCHURCH PLUS VERSION X TO VERSION Y. DO I HAVE TO KEEP VERSION X INSTALLED NOW THAT I'VE UPGRADED?

Well, I didn't mean for this to turn into an algebra lesson, but if Y is equal to X + 1 and X is greater than or equal to Pi, then...

Okay, okay. I'm just kidding.

Let's say that you were on Version 7 and you just installed and converted to Version 8.5 (a wise choice, I might add). The question is whether you need to keep Version 7.

Well, here's the answer...

Yes or maybe no. (Gee, I am helpful, aren't I?)

You do not have to keep Version 7 installed on your computer in order for Version 8.5 to run, but before you delete it, keep the following in mind:

It is not possible to backup information in one version of PowerChurch Plus and then restore it in another and so if you have a backup from Version 7 that you want to go back and look at in the future, you have to have Version 7 installed in order to restore it. So, even if you do decide to delete Version 7 after upgrading, you might at least keep the installation disks or CD in case you ever need to go back and review old data.

If you do not delete Version 7, you might want to at least remove the shortcuts to it, so no one continues to work in Version 7 after the Version 8.5 upgrade has been installed and the data converted.

I INSTALLED VERSION Y, CONVERTED MY DATA FROM VERSION X AND I'VE READ THE INFORMATION ABOVE, BUT I STILL WANT TO DELETE VERSION X. HOW DO I DO IT?

If you want to delete PowerChurch Plus from your computer and you are using Version 6.2 or prior, the easiest thing to do is to simply delete the folder that you installed the program in.

If you need to delete Version 7 or higher of PowerChurch Plus, the best way to go about it is to use the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel and then, after doing that, simply delete the folder that the program was installed in. (NOTE: Using the Add/Remove Programs applet does not delete the data folder, so if you reinstall the program, the data you had will still be there. That's why you have to delete the folder after using Add/Remove Programs if you want to get rid of the program completely.)

I JUST LOOKED AT THE CALENDAR AND I COUNTED HOW MANY FRIDAYS THERE ARE THIS YEAR (BECAUSE I HAD NOTHING BETTER TO DO) AND I FOUND OUT THAT THERE ARE 53 OF THEM, NOT 52 LIKE IN A NORMAL YEAR. ISN'T THAT GOING TO MESS THINGS UP IN PAYROLL?

Well, you're right, there are 53 Fridays this year. There are also 53 Thursdays this year. This is not really an issue, however, unless you have a salaried employee paid weekly (or possibly biweekly, I haven't looked that closely at the calendar) on Thursdays or Fridays. You see, someone paid monthly is still going to get 12 checks this year, someone paid semi-monthly is still going to get 24 checks and someone paid by the hour is going to be paid for the time they work, regardless of the number of paydays in the year.

When you enter an amount earned per year on the Maintain List of Employees screen for an employee, the program takes that amount and divides it by the number of checks per year and displays that as the amount per period on the Maintain Employee Pay Items screen. There are 52 weeks in a year, so if you indicate that an employee is paid weekly, the program takes the annual amount and divides it by 52. If you have an employee getting 53 checks this year, the amount displayed on the Maintain Employee Pay Items screen would be wrong unless you change the number of checks they get per year. (I guess you could just skip a check sometime during the year, but you might want to get out of town that week, just to be safe.)

Here's an example. Let's say you have an employee that makes $52,000 a year and you enter them as a weekly employee. On the Employee Pay Items screen, the amount per pay period will show as $1000. If the church is going to write 53 checks to the employee this year, the amount per check should actually be $981.13, so just change the salary item on the Employee Pay Items screen so that it's the correct amount for the check and you'll be fine.

I WAS RUNNING CONTRIBUTION STATEMENTS AND THE PRINTER CROAKED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THEM. HOW DO I RESTART THEM?

This topic seems to cause a great deal of confusion. I think it's probably because the program asks what the last envelope number was that printed and people assume that this means that they can't restart printing unless they had chosen envelope number order as the sort option originally.

This is not the case. You can restart Contribution Statements anywhere you need to and it doesn't matter which sort option you chose originally.

To restart in the correct place, just choose the same options and sort that you did when you first ran them, then check the restart option box and enter the envelope number from the last statement that printed and the program will print the remaining statements correctly.

I WAS RUNNING MY CONTRIBUTION STATEMENTS IN JANUARY AND YOUR SILLY PROGRAM KEPT ASSUMING JANUARY THROUGH DECEMBER OF LAST YEAR. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

When you run Contribution Statements in January, the program assumes a default date range of January through December of your previous year, since you are probably running year-end statements in January.

Obviously, this default date range can be changed when you run statements and on February 1, the program will no longer assume your prior year.

CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO GET, HOW TO GET TO SESAME STREET

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