Wishlist for Version 11

NeilZ · Post by **NeilZ** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:10 am

Hi all,

since I just received a flyer from Powerchurch listing some news (New Pocket Powerchurch version 2, now works on Windows Mobile) and passing on the info that you're working on Version 11. I figured a topic here for a wishlist would be appropriate. So here goes:

In the denomination I'm in (PCUSA), our guidelines to determine whether or not a member has been active during a given year is whether or not they have attended services and/or contributed to the support of the church.

What I'd like to see is a standard report under Personal Profiles that would:

Take the info from the personal profile tables and join it with
the Attendence table as well as the contributions tables to pull up names that have not attended and/or contributed for that given time period.

It would use the standard Personal Profile reports filter screen, with an additional screen for date period entry, sort scheme, etc.

This report could be used in a few ways:

1. As intended by your governing board to determine whether or not a person has been active in either worship or support of the church
2. Allow the membership committee or whomever, a easy way to discover what visitor's could be purged without having to worry about contributions data being purged also.

rstover · Post by **rstover** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:23 am

As the person who enters contributions I would like to see the ability while looking up a contributor with the f2 key to add a contributor. At the present you have to exit out then click add a contributor,

NeilZ · Post by **NeilZ** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:37 am

rstover wrote:As the person who enters contributions I would like to see the ability while looking up a contributor with the f2 key to add a contributor. At the present you have to exit out then click add a contributor,

How would you want to do this ?? Keyboard shortcut or something like that ??

Pam · Post by **Pam** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:07 pm

My wish would be for any emails being sent that fail, to be able to send another address without exiting out of the email. So I would not have to retype it again!

tenalea · Post by **tenalea** » Wed May 07, 2008 10:31 am

Hi Neil!

There are a couple of things I would like to see in Version 11.

Contributions Module - Be able to run a Funds Report on a range of fund numbers. For example, I would like to just run Fund 1-99 and not anything above that.

Contributions Module - Be able to add a note in the contribution field. For example, if someone is paying for youth camp, there would be a blank space that we could type in who they are paying for. Also have the ability to run reports with this information in it.

Contributions Module - Be able to specify if an item is tax deductible or not. For example, some people pay for youth camp but that is not tax deductible. Someone else may provide a scholarship and that is tax deductible. It would be nice to have a default box when you set up the contribution item that you could uncheck if you don't need it. Also have the ability to run reports on these. That way people could get a report at the end of the year with all the payments that they have sent the church and it would be broken down into what is tax deductible and what is not.

Thanks!

Eden Whitehead · Post by **Eden Whitehead** » Thu May 08, 2008 2:13 pm

Something along these lines has been suggested / requested elsewhere, but I thought I'd add it to the "official" wishlist....

EITHER the capability to specify starting cell for printing mailing labels
OR the ability to export the mailing label preview page(s) as a .doc file so it can be manipulated.

OBJECTIVE: To avoid wasting labels in the middle of the sheet.

Thank you!

tenalea · Post by **tenalea** » Fri May 09, 2008 9:30 am

Here are a few more wish list ideas:

Accounts Payable Module - the ability to run reports by fund number.

Maintain Open Invoices and Maintain Manual Checks:
#1 - Have the abiilty to add a new vendor on this screen without having to go to the Accounts Payable Module.

#2 - Be able to add an entry in the Memo Field Area of the check. For example, we have 3 separate water bills so I can not put a standard entry in the memo field. If it was available in the Open Invoices Screen I could type in whatever I want to be displayed in the Memo Field of the check.

Thanks!

Roy MacLean · Post by **Roy MacLean** » Fri May 09, 2008 3:18 pm

I'm still trying to complete the input information necessary to run PC+ 10.4 and there is a bit of a slowdown in documentation. Let me explain:

I could have one individual enterring in the Family Mailing List information, a second person enterring in contribution information, a third enterring in Accounting information, the Pastor enterring in Events and Sermon Filer Information, and our choir director enterring in Music Library information.

The question is...how do I give each one of those people the instructional information necessary to perform these tasks with just ONE (count 'em...ONE) manual?

How about taking the Manual and converting it to PDF format so that an individual could print out the section he/she needs to perform the respective task?

Would it not also be easier for you to document just ONE PDF file with any changes between versions and/or bug fix information IN ONE PLACE rather than the system presently being used?

NeilZ · Post by **NeilZ** » Tue May 13, 2008 7:54 am

Roy MacLean wrote:I'm still trying to complete the input information necessary to run PC+ 10.4 and there is a bit of a slowdown in documentation. Let me explain:

I could have one individual enterring in the Family Mailing List information, a second person enterring in contribution information, a third enterring in Accounting information, the Pastor enterring in Events and Sermon Filer Information, and our choir director enterring in Music Library information.

The question is...how do I give each one of those people the instructional information necessary to perform these tasks with just ONE (count 'em...ONE) manual?

How about taking the Manual and converting it to PDF format so that an individual could print out the section he/she needs to perform the respective task?

Would it not also be easier for you to document just ONE PDF file with any changes between versions and/or bug fix information IN ONE PLACE rather than the system presently being used?

FWIW ... the Powerchurch online help is exactly what you have in the manual, each person can press the F1 key to get the help they need.

And extra printed manuals are available for a low cost.

NeilZ · Post by **NeilZ** » Wed May 14, 2008 11:18 am

I've had something in the back of my mind for a while, but something that happened at the church this week brought it up.

Is there a way to either link the new attender function in the Attendance Fast Data Entry with the Add Family Assistant module, or give the same functionality when adding a new attender ??

The reason is that when doing attendance for worship services, we will get families as first time visitors. Trying to enter a new attender then add the rest of the family to the mailing list record is very awkward.

The way I've been doing it is to add the father (or whomever appears to be head of household on the attendance pad), then opening up Integrated Data Entry to add the rest of the family.

As you know, this also involves having to click on the Activities button to add them to the worship activity, then the Attendence button to add their attendance for that Sunday.

If the same functionality as the Family Assistant were available, we could then add the family as a whole, with the additional ease of adding the Title, Marital Status, Adult, Male/Female, etc on the personal profile, and setting the Publish Address box and Salutation on the mailing list profile.

MTZDetroit · Post by **MTZDetroit** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:58 pm

It would be great to have the ability to add email addresses when sending a mass email. There are times when I need to CC: someone on the email that does not fit the filter criteria for the mass email.

Also, it would be nice after sending a mass email when the list of those whom the email was sent is displayed that the profile name associated with the email address could be shown.

Michael Sanchez
Assimilation Minister
Mt Zion - Detroit, MI
PC+9 user since 2006

MTZDetroit · Post by **MTZDetroit** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:19 am

It would be great to add the suffix to the list of names when a person is added to an attendance list via Fast Data Entry. For instance, we do not want to add the dad to the 1 year old nursery list of attendees but the list does not show the Jr suffix so you cannot tell which name is the dad or the son (Jr).

Michael Sanchez
PC+ 9 User 2 years
Mt Zion Temple - Clarkston, MI

bjwhitson · Post by **bjwhitson** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:40 am

I second Tenalea's request on 5/7 about the memo line for contributions! Right now, I have to keep 3-4 side records in XL in order to track miscellaneous contributions and what specific event they are for. Most Miscellaneous contributions are an in-and-out category so I don't want to clutter up my Chart of Accounts with the 20-25 different activites we have to keep up with. If I have a memo line, it would be so much easier to go back to the indiviual contribution and see what it's for rather than digging up the copies of checks from 4-5 months ago.

B J Whitson

Eden Whitehead · Post by **Eden Whitehead** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:40 am

MTZDetroit wrote:It would be great to have the ability to add email addresses when sending a mass email. There are times when I need to CC: someone on the email that does not fit the filter criteria for the mass email.

Also, it would be nice after sending a mass email when the list of those whom the email was sent is displayed that the profile name associated with the email address could be shown.

In addition to whole-hearted agreement with the above, I would like to add:

Be able to DELETE email addresses when sending a mass email. Occasionally, it is not appropriate for one or a few individuals that fit the filter to receive the message. At present, I resort to tagging which can become time consuming.

Gratefully,
Eden

Carl · Post by **Carl** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:02 am

Here's my wishlist for the accounting module.

In the report dialogs have a drop-down list of useful date ranges: this month, last month, year to date, last year
In the report dialogs involving a range of funds or accounts, make the second account default to the first account after the user has chosen the first account -- this is much more commonly needed than "from the chosen first account to the last account (or fund) in the system".
Provide "include unposted transactions" option on all reports
Make "include year-end transactions" the default for reports other than for December alone.
On all reports have a "Customize this report" option that brings up the dialog box for the report with the report settings already used. It's painful to have to start over from scratch to make a small change in the report settings.
For bank account reconciliations, retain the statement ending balance and ending date when postponing reconciliation; automatically fill them in when returning to reconciliation for that account.
Check that imported transactions are balanced in all funds that they use. (In my experience, this check is performed for manually entered transactions but not imported transactions.)
In payroll item setup, check that reasonable accounts are used: somebody set up our payroll taxes items to debit the bank account instead of an expense or liability account. The payroll module printed checks for the correct amount, but the check amount transferred to fund accounting was wrong.
Give every transaction a unique, system-generated, number and include it on reports that include transaction detail information, to solve the problem of needing to manually search through multiple transactions with the same reference and date (usually "CONTRIB") for a particular line item.
This is probably a huge implementation effort but the benefits are also huge. Support "drill-down" on all numbers in reports. This means clicking on a number in a report produces another report that explains where the number came from. I have found this feature of Quicken to be one of that program's most useful and compelling advantages.

Thanks.

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