How long will PowerChurch 10 be supported?

[pbumc]

Hi,

Trying to do some planning on when to upgrade from 10 to 11.

How long will PowerChurch 10 be supported? Is there an end-of-life policy?

Also, is PowerChurch 10 officially supported with Windows 7? Office 2007? Office 2010?

Mark Berry

[NeilZ]

Hi,

Trying to do some planning on when to upgrade from 10 to 11.

How long will PowerChurch 10 be supported? Is there an end-of-life policy?

Also, is PowerChurch 10 officially supported with Windows 7? Office 2007? Office 2010?

Mark Berry

1. They are no longer doing maintenance releases for version 9, they're still supporting version 10 with MRs as needed (If I remember right), however support for all versions via the forum is still available.
2. That said, version 11 has revamped the payroll module completely, as well as added some great additional features and upgrades, I would definitely upgrade.
3. As far as Win7 compatibility I found this Knowledge Base article: http://powerchurch.com/support/kb/kbvie ... icle_id=66
4. Files created by Powerchurch are limited by the use of Crystal Reports, which only creates MS Office files in the Office XP/2003 versions. That said, if you have the MS fix to Office 2007/2010 programs that allows the programs to open earlier formatted files, you should not have a problem. See this Knowledgebase Article for more info: http://powerchurch.com/support/kb/kbvie ... icle_id=80

[pbumc]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the reply and those articles. It sounds like version 10 and 11 are no different when it comes to operating system and Microsoft Word support.

The church that I support only uses the membership module. They prefer to use QuickBooks for accounting and payroll (which does make it easier to find someone who can do the accounting). I've encouraged them to look at tracking contributions in PowerChurch but so far no interest.

Another question I have is whether the database structure has changed in PowerChurch 11? Since the pastor is a Mac user, I wrote a web front-end to allow her to look up member data (read only). She does not want to lose that web interface by upgrading, and I don't want to have to re-write it!

Mark Berry

[NeilZ]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the reply and those articles. It sounds like version 10 and 11 are no different when it comes to operating system and Microsoft Word support.

The church that I support only uses the membership module. They prefer to use QuickBooks for accounting and payroll (which does make it easier to find someone who can do the accounting). I've encouraged them to look at tracking contributions in PowerChurch but so far no interest.

Another question I have is whether the database structure has changed in PowerChurch 11? Since the pastor is a Mac user, I wrote a web front-end to allow her to look up member data (read only). She does not want to lose that web interface by upgrading, and I don't want to have to re-write it!

Mark Berry

There are always changes to the database, especially now with the additional features to membership. FWIW ... they don't need to use the accounting module to track contributions. The relationship between membership and contributions makes it much easier to maintain addresses, etc.

I'd look at getting her a copy of a windows emulator for the mac, she could then network to Powerchurch directly, and you won't have to worry about database changes and rewrites. Here's some additional info:http://www.macwindows.com/winintelmac.html

One of the reasons we went to Powerchurch in the first place was the farce in trying to keep two separate databases with addresses in sync. Someone moves, one place is changed, the other isn't and so on.

[pbumc]

There are always changes to the database, especially now with the additional features to membership. FWIW ... they don't need to use the accounting module to track contributions. The relationship between membership and contributions makes it much easier to maintain addresses, etc.

I'd certainly expect DB _extensions_ (new fields and maybe tables). Just wondered if the basic structure and version 10 fields are the same. If so, the web app might still work.

I'd look at getting her a copy of a windows emulator for the mac, she could then network to Powerchurch directly, and you won't have to worry about database changes and rewrites. Here's some additional info:http://www.macwindows.com/winintelmac.html

We have a PC in the sanctuary that is only used Sunday mornings. I've installed PowerChurch there and given the pastor Remote Desktop access to that machine from her Mac. So with one click and a Windows logon she can get to PowerChurch, which of course has a separate logon. She finds this too inconvenient. A Windows emulator wouldn't be any easier, would it? Except that it might take longer to load than a Remote Desktop connection?

One of the reasons we went to Powerchurch in the first place was the farce in trying to keep two separate databases with addresses in sync. Someone moves, one place is changed, the other isn't and so on.

Agreed. Data silos drive me nuts. Unfortunately one of our biggest areas of duplication is not addressed by PowerChurch: email. I have spoiled them by assigning, in our email server, a church domain alias to each committee member, and group aliases for each committee. So anyone can mail anyone else on a committee by using their FirstNamePlusLastInitial@ourchurch.org, and committee members can email worshipcommittee@ourchurch.org, outreachcommittee@ourchurch.org, etc. That means I have to maintain the committee member lists on the email server. Last year I was able to get the secretary to duplicate those lists as PowerChurch Activities. This year she hasn't bothered, probably because she doesn't use the data. I would love to get to where committee chairs could maintain their own email lists that everyone could access--it looks like groups in a private web site might be the solution.

Mark Berry

[Zaphod]

Mark, I can't say definitively whether or not your web app would still work with version 11, but I will say that we haven't changed the names of any of the existing fields, nor have we taken anything away. We've added some stuff (lots, actually), but I'm going to make an educated guess and say that the membership lookups you're doing will still work.

Grab a copy of the demo and see if that is indeed the case: http://www.powerchurch.com/demo

[Zorak]

We have also published Knowledge Base articles with the data file names for both Version 10 and 11. It doesn't define the table structure and field lengths or anything, but will at least tell you where to look for the differences:

Version 10 - http://www.powerchurch.com/support/kb/k ... icle_id=75
Version 11 - http://www.powerchurch.com/support/kb/k ... cle_id=146