Our church has a preschool which needs its own set of books, completely separate from the church's books. Is this possible?
I looked for a way to change the Data Directory, thinking I could set it to C:\PCPlus85\Church\Data when I need to work on the church's books and then change it to C:\PCPlus85\Preschool\Data for working on the preschool's books. Alas, no such option can be found ... at least I couldn't find it. Then again, my wife claims I can't find anything!
PowerChurch is licensed to the church, not an individual, so it's designed to only work for one organization. This case presents a bit of a gray area, since it's a separate set of books within the same church. We like to err on the side of the user on cases like this, so you wouldn't have to purchase a new copy of PowerChurch.
However, you will have to install a second instance of PowerChurch. To do this, just run the install program as you did the first time. Make sure to specify a different destination directory during the setup process-and it cannot be inside the existing PowerChurch directory. This will give you two separate sets of data, and two sets of program files. It's also a good idea to rename your desktop shortcut prior to the new install, or it will be overwritten. Of course, make a backup of your data in the original install. Installation doesn't affect data files, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.
Make sure your data files are in the data directory in the root of the PowerChurch folder (C:\PCPLUS85\Data). The configuration you described will lead to some really weird results. There needs to be one and only one data directory under the PCPLUS85 directory.
If you have further questions, please give us a call.
Unless your preschool has its own FEI number and/or corporate charter, there are benefits to having it as part of the main PowerChurch installation. In our case, the MDO operation was assigned Fund numbers in the 90's, and we can run all of our reports with or without the MDO operation.
