Emailing Contribution Statements

[wms7328]

When I tried to send out the quarterly contribution statements I found that not all of them were selected. In checking our records I noticed that the ones not selected did not have a family email listed under Family profile but did have an email listed under individual profiles for the family members. In the past I don't remember having this problem so was wondering if something has changed that now requires a family email to be listed and the check box for emailing statements checked on the family profile in addition to the individual profiles.

When I printed all the statements not emailed, it didn't include the ones that did not have a family email listed.

Thanks for your help.

[NeilZ]

When I tried to send out the quarterly contribution statements I found that not all of them were selected. In checking our records I noticed that the ones not selected did not have a family email listed under Family profile but did have an email listed under individual profiles for the family members. In the past I don't remember having this problem so was wondering if something has changed that now requires a family email to be listed and the check box for emailing statements checked on the family profile in addition to the individual profiles.

When I printed all the statements not emailed, it didn't include the ones that did not have a family email listed.

Thanks for your help.

The logic for selecting which email to use is fairly stable, and has been for a few years. I know, we on the forum discussed it with the developers on the forum for a few weeks back in 2011 or so.

If there is no Family Email address, the system will look for a personal profile address. However, the personal profile address must have the checkbox marked for emailing statements. I just did a test and this is how it worked on my test system.

If the contributors in question did have the checkbox marked on the personal profile for mailing statements then there may be an issue.

[wms7328]

It seems that something has changed in the last few months. I send contribution reports out each quarter and this is the first time I've noticed this problem and we haven't made any changes to our data in that time other than normal personnel updates. I usually email out about 200 statements and print out about 40 from folks that don't have emails. This time when I ran the report, I emailed out 67 and it printed 9 so it left folks out of both groups. I used the same criteria that I've used in the past. I ran the report twice just to make sure I hadn't messed up the selection and got the same limited number of people selected.

In checking about the first 10 people that it left out, people that had contributed this year but did not get a report emailed and so far the only common thing I see is that they didn't have an email in the family profile, only the individual profile.

This seems to be the same problem that was reported back in July by another church. See the last reply that I posted to that original message in July, 2016.

I was going to run some test tomorrow by adding the family email and see if it picks it up in the selection for emailing. That still would not explain why only 9 people were printed out that didn't have emails listed, when it should have been about 40. Haven't seen anything in the data so far that would explain that difference.

[NeilZ]

It seems that something has changed in the last few months. I send contribution reports out each quarter and this is the first time I've noticed this problem and we haven't made any changes to our data in that time other than normal personnel updates. I usually email out about 200 statements and print out about 40 from folks that don't have emails. This time when I ran the report, I emailed out 67 and it printed 9 so it left folks out of both groups. I used the same criteria that I've used in the past. I ran the report twice just to make sure I hadn't messed up the selection and got the same limited number of people selected.

In checking about the first 10 people that it left out, people that had contributed this year but did not get a report emailed and so far the only common thing I see is that they didn't have an email in the family profile, only the individual profile.

This seems to be the same problem that was reported back in July by another church. See the last reply that I posted to that original message in July, 2016.

I was going to run some test tomorrow by adding the family email and see if it picks it up in the selection for emailing. That still would not explain why only 9 people were printed out that didn't have emails listed, when it should have been about 40. Haven't seen anything in the data so far that would explain that difference.

There was a fix in the August Maintenance Release that was supposed to have taken care of this. Are you on the Sept 14th 2016 Maintenance Release? MRs are cumulative so the latest release should have the August fix. If you are on the Sept 14th release, I would call Powerchurch directly as there may have been a code regression somehow.

[wms7328]

I just ran a test. Changed 5 families to add an email to the family profile and mark the checkbox for emailing contribution statements. In each of these cases the individuals had emails and the box checked for emailing contributions statements but had not been selected before adding the family email. It sent each one to the family email address so apparently currently the program is only looking for a family email and the checkbox on the family profile to be set to email contribution statements.

I'm running the Sept 14th MR on PC 11.5. I think something must have changed in the last few months. Don't think this was a problem when I last sent out statements in early July.

I can change all my profiles to have a family email but before I do that for approx. 150 families, is there any plans to go back to time when it took either the family email or individual email to send contribution statements.

Thanks for your help.

[Zorak]

Did you look at the e-mail sent status report after sending those? We have seen problems with e-mail providers locking their services down more recently, only allowing so many to be sent at a time. Gmail only allows 70 or so at a time before it starts responding with "Try again later, closing connection".

The details of who was sent and who was not will be on that report.

[wms7328]

I didn't get any indication that emails were not sent on the report. It showed that emails were successfully sent to everyone listed. If the email system was not allowing emails to be sent then it would appear that it would stop after reports were sent to people at beginning of the list. Reports were sent for selected families for what appears to be entire population. So far it appears that not having a family email listed is common for all those that were skipped. When I add a family email then emails are sent for that family..

Thanks for any ideas. I'm in process of adding family emails for everyone to see if that solves the problem.

[NeilZ]

I just ran a test. Changed 5 families to add an email to the family profile and mark the checkbox for emailing contribution statements. In each of these cases the individuals had emails and the box checked for emailing contributions statements but had not been selected before adding the family email. It sent each one to the family email address so apparently currently the program is only looking for a family email and the checkbox on the family profile to be set to email contribution statements.

Did I read this correctly? The personal email address DID NOT have the box for Emailing Statements checked?

Once it was checked, did the email go out??

[wms7328]

On the ones not emailed, the individual profiles had the checkbox selected to email statements but it was not checked on the family profile. Once emails were added and checkbox selected on the family profile the emails would be sent.

The bottom line is that what worked 3 months ago does not work now. It appears that the family profile must have email address and box checked for program to send email contribution statement.

Thanks

[NeilZ]

On the ones not emailed, the individual profiles had the checkbox selected to email statements but it was not checked on the family profile. Once emails were added and checkbox selected on the family profile the emails would be sent.

The bottom line is that what worked 3 months ago does not work now. It appears that the family profile must have email address and box checked for program to send email contribution statement.

Thanks

Again, I would call Powerchurch directly and work with them so they can figure out what has happened since the last time you sent emails a few Maintenance Releases have been issued which may have introduced a regression in the code.

[tborgal]

I just emailed my quarterly statements with no problems. There are several that went out with no family email address or email statements box checked. The only address is in the personal profile area. So I am not seeing your problem here and I am on the 9/14/16 MR.
So I would contact Power Church as Neil suggests.

[wms7328]

How many did you send out? Tech support thought it might be related to email providers limiting number that they allow to be sent at one time. I usually send out about 300 emailed statements.

[tborgal]

I usually send out little over 100. I have it set up so that there is a 5 minute delay after every 50 emails sent.

[NeilZ]

How many did you send out? Tech support thought it might be related to email providers limiting number that they allow to be sent at one time. I usually send out about 300 emailed statements.

That would trigger a 'spammer' alert at many ISPs ... the 50 every 5 or 10 minutes is usually the best way to go.

[wms7328]

Thanks for the info. I didn't have any errors reported on the sent email report even though only about 40% of the people with emails were actually sent. Would Power Church be expected to generate an error for emails that were rejected by providers?