PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

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TonyL222
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PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

Post by TonyL222 »

Hello all:

We are a mid sized congregation of about 1300 members. We have been happy PC+ users for over 20 years. The Membership, Accounting, and Contribution modules form the linchpin of our church management.

For various reasons we are considering PowerChurch Online. Have any of you moved from PC+ to PC Online? Is there any functionality that one has that the other does not (besides the Internet availability)? Is PC Online appropriate for a church our size (and growing)? Thoughts?

NeilZ
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Re: PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

Post by NeilZ »

TonyL222 wrote:Hello all:

We are a mid sized congregation of about 1300 members. We have been happy PC+ users for over 20 years. The Membership, Accounting, and Contribution modules form the linchpin of our church management.

For various reasons we are considering PowerChurch Online. Have any of you moved from PC+ to PC Online? Is there any functionality that one has that the other does not (besides the Internet availability)? Is PC Online appropriate for a church our size (and growing)? Thoughts?
,
FWIW .... 1300 members is not a mid-sized congregation. That said, its good to see that PC Plus can support a congregation that size. As far as what is different, there's some differences in the way you export reports, saving backups, and so on. Powerchurch Check-in works with it, but if you use Powerchurch Mailroom, you'd have to give that up.

The thing you'll have to consider is how many concurrent users do you have at the same time? Is all your Powerchurch usage done at the church campus? Do you need the access offsite, or not? What will it allow you to do different than the standard Powerchurch installation?
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

TonyL222
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:55 am

Re: PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

Post by TonyL222 »

NeilZ wrote: FWIW .... 1300 members is not a mid-sized congregation. ... What will it allow you to do different than the standard Powerchurch installation?
Thanks for your reply, Neil. I guess size is relative. In our area there are a couple of "mega" churches with 5k or more membership. So relative to them, we are middle of the road.

Currently most of our activity occurs onsite site (on LAN) with some remote terminal access - mainly because that's the way it is. I know that with PC Online you pay for the number of concurrent users. I doubt if we ever have more than peak of 4-5 concurrent users. The accounting and contribution modules do everything we need. What would Online allow me to do that different than the standard version? Well with PC Online, ministers and deacons could access member information while on the road and could update visitation info much easier than with our LAN based version. My question then is would I be losing some functionality with Online compared to the standard version? We don't use Mailroom, and if something is just done a little differently, I don't see that as a road block.

Ideally, it would be beneficial to provide members the ability to update their own contact information. I know that's not currently possible with PC+ or Online. We are looking at Fellowship One and Shelby Financials. But that would be a MAJOR shift. So before that, I'd like to explore all of the PowerChurch possibilities.

NeilZ
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
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Re: PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

Post by NeilZ »

TonyL222 wrote:
NeilZ wrote: FWIW .... 1300 members is not a mid-sized congregation. ... What will it allow you to do different than the standard Powerchurch installation?
Thanks for your reply, Neil. I guess size is relative. In our area there are a couple of "mega" churches with 5k or more membership. So relative to them, we are middle of the road.

Currently most of our activity occurs onsite site (on LAN) with some remote terminal access - mainly because that's the way it is. I know that with PC Online you pay for the number of concurrent users. I doubt if we ever have more than peak of 4-5 concurrent users. The accounting and contribution modules do everything we need. What would Online allow me to do that different than the standard version? Well with PC Online, ministers and deacons could access member information while on the road and could update visitation info much easier than with our LAN based version. My question then is would I be losing some functionality with Online compared to the standard version? We don't use Mailroom, and if something is just done a little differently, I don't see that as a road block.

Ideally, it would be beneficial to provide members the ability to update their own contact information. I know that's not currently possible with PC+ or Online. We are looking at Fellowship One and Shelby Financials. But that would be a MAJOR shift. So before that, I'd like to explore all of the PowerChurch possibilities.
As I mentioned, other than Mailroom, I don't see an issue. You may want to talk directly with Powerchurch, as they may have an idea about member data updates that may help.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

Zorak
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Re: PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

Post by Zorak »

The closest thing that PowerChurch has to allowing members to update their own contact information is the OneBody Hosting product. OneBody is an online church directory where your church members can go and browse the church directory online or generate a PDF directory, which is delivered via e-mail. PowerChurch Plus (and Online) have a OneBody Sync program included that will send updated contact information from your PowerChurch database to the OneBody database online. Church members can log in and update their contact info and a notification is sent to the site administrator, who can review the changes and make the updates manually in PowerChurch.

https://www.powerchurch.com/onebody

TonyL222
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:55 am

Re: PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

Post by TonyL222 »

Zorak wrote:The closest thing that PowerChurch has to allowing members to update their own contact information is the OneBody Hosting product. OneBody is an online church directory where your church members can go and browse the church directory online or generate a PDF directory, which is delivered via e-mail. PowerChurch Plus (and Online) have a OneBody Sync program included that will send updated contact information from your PowerChurch database to the OneBody database online. Church members can log in and update their contact info and a notification is sent to the site administrator, who can review the changes and make the updates manually in PowerChurch.

https://www.powerchurch.com/onebody
Zorak, Yes I have been looking at OneBody for a little over a year now. It does give the Onebody admin an alert when the OneBody profile contact info no longer matches PC+ after a sync. I've also been reading more about the Constant Contact integration. If I build a list in Constant Contact from my Membership Data, and provide a Constant Contact Form on my website for new signups/updates. Is that sync'd with PC + on the next sync?

Zorak
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Re: PowerChurch v12 vs PowerChurch Online

Post by Zorak »

PowerChurch doesn't import new people into Membership from Constant Contact.

If an existing person goes through the Constant Contact system to change their e-mail address, PowerChurch will recognize that change and update their e-mail address. We don't interact with any other information that you can store in Constant Contact. It is just name and e-mail.

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