Posting Contributions on Network

[wms7328]

Just learned from Tech Support that Version 11 does have a restriction that we didn't have in previous versions when it comes to posting contributions. The contribution files are now linked to personel profiles, you may have seen the contributions tab on the personnel profile screen. Even though a user might not have clearance for contributions, (the tab for them is grayed out), apparently just using membership module will open these linked files. Therefore when you go to post contributions, if anyone other than that user is logged on, you will get a message that says files are open with another user and will not post. It requires that no one other than person doing the posting can be logged on to PC using membership at the time you post the contributions. Even though this restriction of having same file open with two users always existed, we didn't see the problem before since only one workstation is normally involved in entering contributions. Of course if you only have one computer with PC being used, you won't see this problem.

I was getting frustrated in trying to understand why sometimes contributions would post and other times not. Tech Support was quick to give me the answer so you just need to be aware of this restriction.

[Tracy]

Others can have PowerChurch open, the limitation is having the "Maintain Personal Profiles" screen or a screen in the Contributions module open.

[wms7328]

Thanks for the clarification. Most of the other folks at our church have access to membership for lookups and entering contact info. Of course that keeps the maintain membership screen active on their workstation. If they closed out of this screen but stayed logged into PC, I assume we wouldn't get the file in use issue.

[NeilZ]

Thanks for the clarification. Most of the other folks at our church have access to membership for lookups and entering contact info. Of course that keeps the maintain membership screen active on their workstation. If they closed out of this screen but stayed logged into PC, I assume we wouldn't get the file in use issue.

FWIW ... we usually posted Contributions in the evening when the staff was not in the office. Since our Contributions Secretary is a volunteer, she usually comes in after work or on weekends to do this.
Keeps from having problems

[wms7328]

We actually have the same situation but seems like someone in the office will forget to close PC when they leave for the day. Maybe this issue will help train them to always close the program when they leave. Might be nice if we had an option to close the program if no activity in say one hour.

I've actually had other problems with posting some transactions from AP also. There was no one logged on to PC today and I couldn't get AP transactions to post from a networked workstation. Have you seen any problems like this since changeover to V11? I could post fine from the computer that has PC loaded on it. I've seen this problem a couple of times since loading V11 and each time if I remove the runtime files from effected workstation , map the network drive again and reload files using netsetup11, it seems to fix the problem. So far, I've had to do this about every day. Tech Support thinks it may be some type of interference from virus scanning program so I'm checking the virus scanning to see if I can get it not to scan the PC files or at least declare those files a safe zone in windows. Any other ideas?

[NeilZ]

Tech Support thinks it may be some type of interference from virus scanning program so I'm checking the virus scanning to see if I can get it not to scan the PC files or at least declare those files a safe zone in windows. Any other ideas?

What AntiVirus are you using ??

[wms7328]

All of our computers are using AVG antivirus. It has never caused a problem before so I'm still not convinced this is the issue.

[NeilZ]

All of our computers are using AVG antivirus. It has never caused a problem before so I'm still not convinced this is the issue.

I'd make sure that none of the systems are set to scan network files. If you're also using AVG firewall, I'd make sure that Powerchurch is given full access to the network.