Changing Software Meets Needs of Large Minnesota Parish

Built along the Mississippi River, the neighboring cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are known for far more than their picturesque lakes and cold winters. With a thriving economy and population of nearly three million people, the Twin Cities have more theatre seats per person than New York City (Wikipedia).

Release 3.5.23 Now Available!

ParishSOFT's latest suite of Church Management Software is now available. Version 3.5.23 contains many enhancements to improve performance and save you time. These enhancements were the direct result of requests from parish staff members who use ParishSOFT daily to manage their churches and schools. Thank you for your valuable feedback!

WARNING! You should only install this update on ParishSOFT installations of 3.5.10 or greater! If you are running an older version, please call ParishSOFT support first at 866.930.4774.

NEW! ParishSOFT Query Library Makes Additional Access Reports Available Online

Need a new report? Now the solution may be as simple as checking out a ready-made query from our new ParishSOFT Query Library. ParishSOFT users will now find more than 60 (and growing!) queries right at their fingertips by simply logging into the ParishSOFT Support Page and selecting ParishSOFT Query Library from the sidebar. From there you can enter the ParishSOFT Query Library and browse for queries such as "Families With Students" or "Rel Ed Student Select Month Birthdays" or find those who have "Completed RCIA." We will add the most popular queries to the standard reports included with our software in future updates.

Follow the simple instructions to paste the ready-made query right into any ParishSOFT module under Reports. And, presto! You're now ready to run your query.

Didn't find the exact report you need? You may still request a custom query, using our "Support Request Form," and if there is an existing report that you may have missed, we'll let you know. Otherwise, our support team can design your custom query and send it to you within 3-5 business days.

Microsoft Vista Coming in 2007

A Tearful Goodbye: Windows 98 Support is Ending

We're reaching in our pockets, for this is a real two-hanky affair. Microsoft technology has booted Windows 98 right out of the buggy to make way for a brand new baby due to deliver in 2007. Consequently, Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98, and, in the near future, ParishSOFT will need to do the same.

As of December 31, 2006, ParishSOFT will end all support of Windows 98 systems.

TIPS from ParishSOFT

1. Kick-off your new school year in Religious Ed with better parent communication! Make sure your catechists have access to address, phone, and email of each student's family in their classes.
2. Many customers ask why they have to batch when posting contributions. This is good accounting practice because a closed batch means that no further changes can occur - this is good for auditing reasons. Any mistakes that need to be corrected should occur in a new batch.
3. Ever wonder how to document a non-Catholic in Family Directory? Simply choose "ActOther" from the status field.

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Changing Software Meets Needs of Large Minnesota Parish

Built along the Mississippi River, the neighboring cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are known for far more than their picturesque lakes and cold winters. With a thriving economy and population of nearly three million people, the Twin Cities have more theatre seats per person than New York City (Wikipedia).

But citizens of St. Paul are filling more than just theatre seats. Pax Christi Catholic Community in Eden Prairie, Minnesota (just SW of Minneapolis) boasts nearly 4000 registered members, 20 lay staff plus the pastor and associate, and is the fifth largest parish in the Archdiocese of St. Paul's 223 parishes.

Financial Development Associate, Barb Didier, is glad "a strong team is in place [at Pax Christi] with a wonderful community of people" to help manage all the details. Naturally, computer software is an essential part of their management, and ParishSOFT is proud to be their new vendor, replacing Shelby Systems management and accounting software in June 2005.

"I like ParishSOFT for its ease of use," says Didier who prefers the quick and easy menu navigation, but still finds the same available options. Didier likes how adding, changing, or deactivating family or member information is simple with very few steps involved. "I like how I can see our family membership base at the touch of a button," says Didier, and "how data is hidden (but stored for de-activated families) and [then] restored at the touch of a button if a family returns."

Didier feels that ParishSOFT's family-based software works better for them than individual-based software and that Catholic-based software has more advantages than non-denominational software. For example, she likes the way ParishSOFT organizes data around the family and has accurate descriptions of sacraments. She also likes the module for tracking volunteer activity and finds the Religious Education Module to have "endless capabilities," for formation management. "We have many Faith Formation options available here at Pax Christi, and the program allows us to track each one separately, while giving us a collective overview of all program participants," says Didier.

But Didier found she isn't the only one who finds ParishSOFT easy to use. A newly hired employee was able to get "up and running with [ParishSOFT] the same day because it is so intuitive," claims Didier.

Analyzing reports is an important feature for their parish, but Didier has found that she can always get the starting data she needs from ParishSOFT. "It's so quick and easy to get data into Excel," says Didier, and "it's nice to be able to customize existing queries and reports." Unlike so many of the other church management software systems on the market today, ParishSOFT has an open architecture database allowing Didier to simply open up Access to create her custom reports. She is looking forward to when ParishSOFT releases their library of custom queries, dynamic workgroups, and quick report builder later this year - to make it even easier to create custom information. She is looking forward to ParishSOFT's just-released ParishSOFT Query Library and future releases to include dynamic workgroups and quick report builder later this year - to make it even easier to create custom information.

Pax Christi parish has also found that "posting contributions goes quickly and allows for continuous 10-key entering," says Didier, "and the Religious Education Module provides all the classroom reports we need, such as class lists, teacher rosters, and mailing labels." She also likes addressing envelopes and labels exactly the way she wants, and finds it easy to group families or members into particular Workgroups for communication or analysis. And most importantly, she has found that ParishSOFT integrates data into Microsoft Office programs better than any other software she's used in the past.

Even though Didier said she hasn't used the Time & Talent Module much yet, she likes the option to create labels and lists for families, thereby eliminating duplicate mailings to a household with two or more members in the same ministry. She likes how this feature shows up throughout the software in other reporting areas as well.

Didier noted that the responsiveness and knowledge level of the ParishSOFT support team is exceptional. She has found that email is quickly answered, making it an efficient way to get answers in a hurry.

She also likes how new feature requests have already been incorporated into mid-year releases, and looks forward to future enhancements such as having open access rights in Family Workflow Groups so that users with "read only" rights can use the feature to report on their own Family Workgroups. She also looks forward to more menu-driven options in the future, rather than needing so many customized queries in Access.

All in all, Barb Didier finds ParishSOFT "much more logical and understandable" than the previous software used at Pax Christi Catholic Community. "ParishSOFT is a very easy and comprehensive software package. It has the potential to meet any need, and the data is all there. It can only get better and better!" And indeed, we couldn't say it better ourselves.

Release 3.5.23 Now Available!

ParishSOFT's latest suite of Church Management Software is now available. Version 3.5.23 contains many enhancements to improve performance and save you time. These enhancements were the direct result of requests from parish staff members who use ParishSOFT daily to manage their churches and schools. Thank you for your valuable feedback!

WARNING! You should only install this update on ParishSOFT installations of 3.5.10 or greater! If you are running an older version, please call ParishSOFT support first at 866.930.4774.

For the complete list of enhancements and update instructions, please see the 3.5.23 Update Guide for Parishes, available now at www.parishsoft.com/support. Some of the new features are mentioned below:

• New sacramental registry reports are now available for baptism, communion, confirmation, marriage, and death records
• Marriage date is no longer required
• Marital status can now be changed from divorced to annulled

• Status of ActOther family members are changed to Inactive when family registration is changed from Registered to Unregistered

• Tuition statements updated

• Minister names now display only once in the list view for any given ministry
• Ministers who serve in multiple ministries no longer receive multiple emails

• Parish Statistics Report and Wedding Anniversary reports have been added
• Contributions and EOY statements have been updated and improved

Microsoft Vista Coming in 2007

Next spring Microsoft is planning to release its most dramatic upgrade since Windows 95. ParishSOFT recommends that you wait until this operating system is fully tested by our staff and recommended by your technology advisors.

One of Vista's features will be a new approach to security that should greatly decrease spyware and viruses. Vista will notify the user when disreputable websites attempt to secretly install malware through its new User Account Control (UAC) system. Another similar feature will be the ability to prevent user access to undesirable games or websites through password protection.

Vista promises to have a faster start-up and shut-down, better power management, an upgraded web browser, and Desktop Search, a new feature similar to Google's desktop search software. And thanks to new 3D graphics, users will enjoy an updated and attractive new interface.

A Tearful Goodbye: Windows 98 Support is Ending

We're reaching in our pockets, for this is a real two-hanky affair. Microsoft technology has booted Windows 98 right out of the buggy to make way for a brand new baby due to deliver in 2007. Consequently, Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98, and, in the near future, ParishSOFT will need to do the same.

The main reason for this change is to safeguard you, our customer. Continuing to use Windows 98 with newer technology, such as ParishSOFT's, may cause your data to work improperly or even fail completely. That's why ParishSOFT relies upon its modern technology to give you the highest quality of service possible.

1. Talk to your technology consultant about the upcoming change and necessary updates to your operating systems.
2. To view minimum ParishSOFT system requirements, click here for Parish software and Diocese software.
3. Read more about this change on Microsoft's website.
4. Click the Insight and Spectrum link located at the bottom of ParishSOFT's home page for more information about updating your operating system.

Get in the Groove! Take our ParishSOFT Poll!

Ever wonder what happens to our ParishSOFT Polls? We track the results because it helps us know what our customers need as we develop new technology. Alright...I suppose we really didnšt need to know who you thought would win March Madness! We admit that was thrown in for fun - just to chase away winter doldrums. But we do care what you think, because it helps us to develop the products YOU need to make your job easier and more productive. So thank you for voting!

In recent months we learned that the telephone (48%) is by far, the preferred method for parishioners to communicate with you, followed by coming in person (22%).

We also learned that the vast majority of you (68%) do NOT have any computers in your office still running on Windows 98. Twenty-six percent said 1-2 parish office computers were still using Windows 98.

The ParishSOFT popularity poll revealed a perfect tie between Family Directory and Web Solutions as the favorite ParishSOFT product, with Offering & Tuition coming in at 12%.

Please keep voting! For a complete chart of results, click "results" on our home page under ParishSOFT Poll.

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