PowerChurch Software Newsletter - Year End 2016 - Part 1

Welcome to the first of two year end issues of the PowerChurch Software quarterly newsletter. In this issue, we discuss some important updates to PowerChurch Plus and PowerChurch Check In. There are 53 Sundays in 2017, so adjust your pledge dates. Also, our desktop software delivery methods have changed and are now available as electronic editions or physical media sent via USPS.

Version 11.55 Maintenance Release - October 19, 2016

Vanco Payment Solutions announced last month that they will be discontinuing their direct deposit service and are not taking on new customers. This does not affect their online, mobile, and kiosk giving programs. In this Maintenance Release, we have added the ability to create a NACHA file to initiate those direct deposit transactions through your bank. This file format also brings better compatibility with other payment processors.

There are new Direct Deposit setup options found under Accounting > Payroll > Setup > Payroll Setup. There you have the option of using either the old Vanco style CSV file export or the new NACHA file format. Complete the required fields on that screen to begin using direct deposit via NACHA file. Contact your bank or payment processing service to find out how to transfer the file to them.

Constant Contact integration was also redesigned in this Maintenance Release. The Constant Contact Sync can now be added to the Windows Task Scheduler. It uses a newer, faster Constant Contact API and no longer deletes and rebuilds each of the contact lists. Instead, it only syncs the changed information, which greatly increases the speed and efficiency of the process.

If you are not on the Maintenance Release notification list, visit https://www.powerchurch.com/email to subscribe.

PowerChurch Check In Maintenance Release - November 28, 2016

In this update, the Check In kiosk received many updates including recognizing font DPI settings in Windows, making it easier to use on small screen devices with large fonts enabled. The kiosk also now recognizes touch swipes on many devices and mouse wheel for scrolling. New program icons and color scheme updates that now match the updates that were made late last year in Version 11.55.

Lastly, the Check In Server component has been completely replaced with a faster, more reliable server back-end. This also now provides full IPV6 compatibility. This update should just install, find your existing configuration settings without any additional steps. This is the server that we rolled out several months ago for the PowerChurch Online Check In Servers and it was a seamless transition. However, it is recommended that you start up your kiosks and do some testing of your own to verify that there were no update problems in your specific environment. 

These changes have greatly improved the performance of the Check In Server and compatibility with small screen devices - especially those with small screens and large display resolutions.

As always, you can subscribe to Maintenance Release notification lists at https://www.powerchurch.com/email.

Entering Weekly Pledges in 2017

As happens every few years, 2017 has 53 Sundays. When entering weekly pledges for the whole year of 2017, you should adjust the ending date to Saturday, December 30. This way, only 52 Sundays' are calculated into the pledge total.

Product Pricing & Ordering Updates

Our desktop software products can now be purchased with two different delivery methods: Electronic Edition and Physical Media. The price of the software is the same, but the additional media and shipping cost is now optional if you don't care to receive the install CD and printed manual. This applies to new users purchasing PowerChurch Plus or existing users purchasing PowerChurch Plus upgrades.

Visit https://www.powerchurch.com/catalog for more information and products list.

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 Accounting:
Q. I voided a check and posted the void, and then when doing my bank reconciliation I realized that I voided the wrong check. Can I go back into Accounts Payable and enter the check number and click Void again to reverse the void?
A. No, but what you can do is add the check back in on the Maintain Manual Checks screen. Just use the same check number, date, and other information from the original check.

From Contributions:
Q. We have had many families ask about electronic giving. I would appreciate any advice you have to help us facilitate this request. We are not sure where to begin or what to do.
A. PowerChurch integrates directly with Vanco Payment Solutions. Below is a link to the article that was published when that functionality was released: https://www.powerchurch.com/support/444/1/vanco-payment-solutions-integration

From PowerChurch Online:
Q. I formatted one of the church computers and in the process, I let Apple upgrade to 10.12 Sierra. I downloaded the IDS Client, but it doesn't seem to be connecting to anything.
A. I called tech support and we ended up changing permissions on the USR/Local folder to Read & Write, which allowed the program to launch properly.