PowerChurch Software Newsletter - Year End 2015 Pt. 2

Welcome to part two of the Year-End 2015 newsletter. In case you missed part one, it and all other issues are available in the Newsletter Archive on our web site. In this issue, we'll revisit year end newsletters past, payroll tax filings, and accessing PowerChurch Online from mobile devices.

January/February Support Info

The beginning of the year is always a busy time for everyone; sending out contribution statements/tax receipts, filing payroll taxes, and there are always many new users just getting PowerChurch set up for the first time. Historically, we have experienced around 400% increase in Technical Support traffic by phone and e-mail in January and February.

Throughout the rest of the year, when you call in to speak with someone in Technical Support, you can expect to connect with someone directly, or receive a call back in just a few minutes. During January and February, the call back times are usually more like an hour or two. Support e-mails are normally answered within one business day, but in January and February, you can more realistically expect a turnaround time of two business days.

So please be patient as we work through this busy period. There are also many support resources available on our web site at www.powerchurch.com that may be able to help you resolve the issue or answer your question.

Year-End Articles

Below is a list of some of the more helpful tips and feature focus articles from year-end newsletters past:

• Making a Year-End Checklist
• Contribution Statements
• Year-End House Cleaning
• Reassigning Envelope Numbers

Tax Forms and E-Filing in the New Year

Below is a list of tax forms and services, along with what versions of PowerChurch Plus are supported:

• 1099-MISC Form. Versions 11 and 11.5 will work with compatible forms for 2015. Version 11.5 can e-file 1099-MISC forms.
• W2/W3 Form. Versions 11, and 11.5 will work with compatible forms for 2015. Version 11.5 can e-file W2 forms.
• 941 Form. Versions 11 and 11.5 currently have 2015 forms and will be updated once new forms are published for 2016. Version 11.5 can e-file 941 forms.

Visit powerchurch.nelcoportal.com to register an account for the PowerChurch E-file service. There you can choose which services you would like, including state and federal electronic filing, print and mail service, and even e-mail service.

If you plan to print forms rather than electronic filing, we recommend Dynamic Systems. Their tax forms, computer check stock, and other business forms are the ones we use to develop those features in PowerChurch, so everything will line up without issue. Visit their web site to order or view sample products or give them a call at (800) 782-2946.

Accessing PowerChurch Online From Mobile Devices

The biggest benefit of having the PowerChurch Online service is that your data is accessible from literally anywhere you have access to the internet. While you may not always have access to a laptop or desktop computer, there is a better chance of a smart phone or tablet being within reach. Accessing PowerChurch Online using the IDS Client is obviously the preferred method, but you may not know of the alternatives that are available to you.

The IDS Client software is a rebranded version of the Go Global! system by a company called GraphOn. They have published Android and iOS versions of the software, so officially, you can access the full PowerChurch Plus from your phone. However, on a small touch screen device, you will probably be pulling your hair out after a while. The experience will be better on a tablet, where you have a little more screen real estate to work with, but PowerChurch Plus was not originally designed to work on a touch screen device and you will likely spend a lot of time zooming in and out to get at the little icons and menu options.

A better alternative is the web app at m.mypowerchurch.com. This is an excellent tool for those that need quick access to Membership information, including Activities, Attendance, and Visitations. Just open that address in any web browser, enter your login credentials, and off you go. The site is fully responsive, so you will have as pleasant of a user experience on a phone as you will a tablet or desktop computer.

Another important thing to remember is that users accessing the web app at m.mypowerchurch.com do not count toward the concurrent user limit on your PowerChurch Online account. Only those accessing PowerChurch Online via the IDS Client or Go Global app will count as a logged in user.

Forum Q&A

The Support Forum on our web site is a very active online community of our users and Tech Support staff members. There you can browse through thousands of questions and answers, or post your own.

From General:
Q. When I attempted to install the latest Maintenance Release this morning I received an error message: DeleteFile failed: code 32. Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?
A. In our case, we discovered that the IT department had opened PowerChurch on the server and forgot to close it before leaving last night.

From Membership:
Q. Can we no longer save the church directory as an Excel or Word file?
A. If the report has pictures, you won't be able to save it as anything other than PDF. That functionality in Crystal Reports never actually worked right, so you would just see the NO PHOTO image repeated for everyone in the report after saving it to Word or Excel.

From Contributions:
Q. I accidentally posted all my contributions to Contributions Module Only. Is there a way that I can change that to Update Fund Accounting without having to re-enter all the contributions?
A. Not really. What you can do however is use a Funds Report for that day and then manually enter a transaction in Fund Accounting. I'd use a previous Contributions posting in Fund Accounting as an example.