Email Contributions

[Joetta Trimble]

I am using Version 11 on Windows 7 operating system. I have been using the email feature for a portion of our contribution statements for quite some time, but had difficulty today with the 3rd quarter statements. We converted to Vs. 11 as of July 1, 2011, but I believe the 2nd quarter statements were printed/emailed using Vs. 10.4. They transmitted with no problems.

Today, as I went through the process, it was in the sending mode, when the screen suddenly went to the desktop view, and PC+ had shut down. I was not touching the keyboard when this happened. I did not get the report that lists who received the emails...it was beginning to list them when it shut down. I received one return email stating that a specific email address for one of our members was inaccurate and their statement could not be sent. Is there a way to print a report or find out whether all the emails actually transmitted, short of calling some of the scheduled recipients? I hate to resend if they did go through.

Has something changed in Vs. 11 in the way the statements are emailed?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[NeilZ]

I am using Version 11 on Windows 7 operating system. I have been using the email feature for a portion of our contribution statements for quite some time, but had difficulty today with the 3rd quarter statements. We converted to Vs. 11 as of July 1, 2011, but I believe the 2nd quarter statements were printed/emailed using Vs. 10.4. They transmitted with no problems.

Today, as I went through the process, it was in the sending mode, when the screen suddenly went to the desktop view, and PC+ had shut down. I was not touching the keyboard when this happened. I did not get the report that lists who received the emails...it was beginning to list them when it shut down. I received one return email stating that a specific email address for one of our members was inaccurate and their statement could not be sent. Is there a way to print a report or find out whether all the emails actually transmitted, short of calling some of the scheduled recipients? I hate to resend if they did go through.

Has something changed in Vs. 11 in the way the statements are emailed?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Unfortunately, there is no way to check what was sent, and what didn't since the program shut down in the middle of the operation. AFAIK .. nothing was changed in v11 that affected the mass email sending procedure.

I would however, make sure that you have the latest Maintenance Release installed. If you do, and you try to resend, and the same thing occurs, I'd call the Powerchurch support line and let them know that you had upgraded to v11, have the latest MR installed, and tried to send out statements and the program crashed. I'm fairly sure that they can figure this one out.

Let us know what happens.

[Joetta Trimble]

Thanks, Neal. I've talked to a few people who did receive their statement, but they were in the early part of the alphabet. I'm going to send them again. I would rather folks receive it twice than not at all. It was a very weird occurrence!

[Zorak]

In addition to the latest Maintenance Release, it is a good idea to double check your antivirus/internet security software to make sure it has not "inserted itself" as a go between on outgoing (SMTP) mail. This has caused us quite a few headaches in the past with crashes in the middle of sending.

If it is an antivirus/security thing, most likely the reason you did not see any error message or warning that PowerChurch Plus was about to close is that the security software just killed the process because it thought PC+ was a threat of some sort.

[Joetta Trimble]

Thanks, Zorak. I sent the statements again this morning, and everything went through perfectly, and it gave me the opportunity to print the report, etc. We are in the process of shifting our files to a server...it's supposed to happen tomorrow. I will check with our tech and make sure nothing is happening with the anti-virus software.

[NeilZ]

Thanks, Zorak. I sent the statements again this morning, and everything went through perfectly, and it gave me the opportunity to print the report, etc. We are in the process of shifting our files to a server...it's supposed to happen tomorrow. I will check with our tech and make sure nothing is happening with the anti-virus software.

FWIW ... I hope that the tech understands that the entire Powerchurch directory must go on the server, then every networked client machine needs to have the netsetup11.exe program run again. Its almost like a completely new install, just make sure you do a Powerchurch backup before you do anything else.

[Joetta Trimble]

Thanks for the heads-up, Neal. I'm approaching this switch to the server with much "fear and trepidation"!
Do you recommend a call to Tech Support while we are in the process?

Also, I'm still using Vs. 10.4 for payroll because I didn't want to have a mess when it comes time to print W-2s and other end of year payroll documents, such as quarterly 941 reports, etc. I heard that the Payroll module has changed quite a bit in Vs. 11. Do you recommend that I transfer Vs. 10 to the server as well, or just leave it on my desk top computer? I do plan to convert the payroll to 11 in January, but I want to have vs. 10.4 available for the accounting history. We did a major change-up in our accounting system as of July 1.

[NeilZ]

Thanks for the heads-up, Neal. I'm approaching this switch to the server with much "fear and trepidation"!
Do you recommend a call to Tech Support while we are in the process?

Also, I'm still using Vs. 10.4 for payroll because I didn't want to have a mess when it comes time to print W-2s and other end of year payroll documents, such as quarterly 941 reports, etc. I heard that the Payroll module has changed quite a bit in Vs. 11. Do you recommend that I transfer Vs. 10 to the server as well, or just leave it on my desk top computer? I do plan to convert the payroll to 11 in January, but I want to have vs. 10.4 available for the accounting history. We did a major change-up in our accounting system as of July 1.

What I would have done is a complete conversion to v11. Yes there were changes, but using it as well as v10 in parallel would have given you the time to learn and appreciate the changes. That said, don't move v10 to the server, keep that local so that other users don't accidentally start up that version.

There really isn't a need to call tech support, this topic I have linked to below is a very good checklist on moving to a server: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6516

[Joetta Trimble]

Thanks for the link, Neal. It will be very helpful.