Accounting Workshops

ConnectNow Accounting: Accounts Receivable (Demo) 
The ConnectNow Accounting suite now has a new Accounts Receivable module. This product demonstration will show you how you can bill and track miscellaneous items like rental of facilities, supplies, books and more. ParishSOFT staff will demonstrate.  

Church Accounting: Best Practices and Applied Internal Controls (Intermediate)
Learn the basics for keeping your church financials accurate and audit-ready. This workshop covers how to design and enforce a standard chart of accounts and the best practices for recording income and expenses accurately so that your reports show a complete picture of your financial position. Protecting your parish through financial transparency and system security will be discussed. Denise Hanson from the Diocese of Sioux Falls presents.

Accounting Reports for Internal Management (Intermediate)
Different people and groups within the parish require different accounting reports. In this workshop, learn which reports produce exactly the right information for each audience. Examine the key accounting reports that are most critical for understanding your church finances, and learn how to select and sort the information. Reports shown will include the Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Activities, Cash Flow, Dedicated Accounts and Reports, Projects, and more. Maureen Vilcheck, Prince of Peace (Diocese of St Petersburg) presents.

Financial Consolidation Manager: Analysis and Reporting (Intermediate)
Learn how the Consolidation Manager gives your diocese a Web-based command center for your financials, provides financial roll-up from each organization, and gives diocesan staff the ability to perform accounting functions for any organization.  Discuss how to perform audits from your diocesan offices and reduce time spent doing onsite auditing at the parishes. Mike Akers, Diocese of St Petersburg presents.

ConnectNow Accounting: Ledger and Payables (Basic)
Walk through adding a chart of accounts; entering your bills, deposits, and journal entries; and review the most common reports. Learn how to use the drill-down capability within your statements and transaction reports. Review how to do cyclical tasks, including bank reconciliation, budgets, and the importing of offering into the ConnectNow Ledger and Payables system.  ParishSOFT staff presents.

ConnectNow Accounting Payroll: Basics, Reports and Taxes (Basic)
Learn how to set up payroll and enter information for each employee in the ConnectNow Church Accounting system. Walk through the complete payroll process, including entering time, calculating payroll, printing and processing checks, and posting it all to the general ledger. Review the tax reports such as W-2 and 941, as well as your Pay Cycle, End of Period, and employee informational reports. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Communication Workshops

Address Quality Made Easy (Intermediate)
On average, 10% of U.S. families move each year. How do you keep up? Both of ParishSOFT’s Mailroom Solutions products identify and correct invalid addresses and inform you when your parishioners move. Learn how to use the Address Quality program to conduct a quick, inexpensive check of your family names and addresses against the National Change of Address database maintained by the U.S. Postal Service. See how Address Quality helps you keep your database up to date. Learn how to use the Bulk Mailing program to do your own mailings, get substantially discounted postal rates, and boost your successful delivery percentage for church mailings. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Constant Contact®: Professional e-Newsletters (Basic)
Connect with parishioners quickly, easily, and affordably—and build stronger relationships—with Constant Contact's email marketing and online survey tools. Learn how ParishSOFT’s Family Directory, Religious Education and Time & Talent modules work with Constant Contact to help you reach your parish or diocesan staff, volunteers, parents, ministry groups and parish families through email. Brian Smith, Christ the King, Toledo, OH, presents.

My Own Church: Connect with Your Community (Basic)
At Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City, MD, staff have used ParishSOFT’s My Own Church member portal to plan a parish-wide “re-census” initiative. Learn how your parish can use this Web-based program to update and improve the quality of census information and, ultimately, to have more effective communications with your church families. Fr. Eric Arnold, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Archdiocese of Baltimore), presents.

My Own Church: Setup, Administration, Managing Parishioner Accounts (Basic)
Experience the member portal from both the member’s and church administrator’s points of view. Learn how members submit online registration and manage their own records to keep the church up to date. Play the role of the church member as we edit our family and member information, add a new family member, upload a family photo, and see our giving history.  Then put on your church administrator’s hat and see how all of the member submissions are subject to your review and approval. Accept a change and see it update the ParishSOFT database. Learn how staff can look up addresses or important family information. Brian Smith, Christ the King, Toledo, OH, presents.

ConnectNow My Own Church (Demo)
Keeping up with parishioner changes and new family registrations at your parish just got easier! My Own Church lets parishioners use the Internet or their smart phones to access and maintain their personal information. From a My Own Church link on your website, parishioners log in to register; add or edit family or member information such as address, emails, and phone numbers; upload photos; and more. Church staff can use My Own Church to look up information about families and members anytime, anywhere—which makes it easy to always be prepared for home visits or meetings. The demographic information is just the beginning and will soon be joined by giving history, year-end contribution statements, ministry opportunities, and more. ParishSOFT staff presents.

NotifyNow: Instant Communication (Demo)
Mail and email are great tools to communicate with parishioners and staff, but when the message is critical and has to reach many people in a short time, ParishSOFT NotifyNow offers immediate communication to reach anyone by phone, text, and/or email—in seconds–using your existing ParishSOFT software. Learn the many uses for this system, including emergency notifications for schools and churches, cancellations, last-minute event information, and more. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Parish Communications: Best Practices (Intermediate)
How do you get information to your families?  Good communications start with goals. Develop a communication plan, choose the right medium for the message, and improve your creative process. Sue Pershon from St. Christopher, San Jose, CA, will facilitate a discussion on how to set goals, develop communication plans, and best share information with the families and members of the church.

Working with Workgroups and Ministry Groups in ParishSOFT (Intermediate)
Learn how to use ParishSOFT’s Family & Ministry Workgroups to group families or members together in your database and keep them informed using email or mail-merged letters. Easy and versatile, workgroups let you manage communications for each level of ministry volunteers, snowbirds, school families, and much more. Roni Argetsinger, Diocese of Des Moines, and Beth Wilson, St Patrick, Council Bluffs, IA, present.

Diocesan Directory: Communicating with Your Community (Intermediate)
How are you using Diocesan Directory? Join in a User Group discussion format led by diocesan staff, Roni Argetsinger, Diocese of Des Moines. We will hold an organized discussion regarding the initial setup and implementation of Diocesan Directory, recommendations for grouping individuals who have an assignment within the diocese together,  and recommendations on how to use the positions, organizations, and workgroups in the software. We will discuss successes; trials; and lessons learned regarding using the tool to communicate quickly with individuals, parishes, organizations and other workgroups. Please come prepared to openly discuss your own use of the tool, your questions, your own trials and successes!

Fundraising Workshops

Donor Management: Best Practices (Intermediate)
Successful donor management requires organization of the appeal process and a good strategy for solicitations. In this interactive discussion, you’ll learn the best practices and key strategies that will help your diocese achieve a successful appeal. Vince McCormick from the Diocese of Salt Lake City and Patty Perna from the Diocese of Columbus will lead the discussion.

Online Giving: Managing the System (Overview)
As an administrator of Online Giving, learn how to set up payment types, add funds, manage givers, and export giving to ParishSOFT Offering. Review the reports available and how they help you administer the Online Giving program in your church.  Learn what your church members see and experience on your Online Giving site, including how they set up gifts and maintain their personal information. Ron Appel, St. Ignatius of Antioch (Diocese of St. Petersburg), presents.

Online Giving: Marketing to Givers (Intermediate)
Learn how St George Church in Worcester, MA, marketed the idea of electronic giving to their members and developed a successful program using ParishSOFT’s Online Giving. Learn specific techniques that you can put to work in your own parish, including St. George’s 40/40 (40 givers for the 40 days of Lent); poster/bulletin campaigns, and using parishioner testimonials to make online giving part of your parish culture of stewardship. Anne Good, St. George (Diocese of Worcester), presents.

Contact Management (Demo)
Looking for a better way to track contacts for your annual appeal, outreach, or recruiting efforts? In this demonstration, you’ll learn how to cultivate relationships with your parishioners using the new Contact Management module—the latest addition to the ParishSOFT diocesan suite. You will see how to keep track of each or your contacts by date, author, topic, and notes. Learn how to build portfolios that you can hand off to other staff to oversee. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Ministry, Collaboration and Technology Workshops

Exporting ParishSOFT to Word®, Excel®, and Email
Learn how to create letters using Word® and mail merge them with your ParishSOFT data. Send postal mail or email for one selected family or all families in your family list or group—it’s easy, and you can do it right from your ParishSOFT programs using your must current family names and contact information. If your church or diocese is not already using these timesaving communication tools in the ParishSOFT suite, this session is a must! ParishSOFT staff presents.

Mobile Computing (Intermediate)
The mission of the church has not changed over the centuries, but the methods and tools to accomplish today’s ministry mission have. Computers have evolved into today’s communication centers, allowing us to take the message of the Gospel and present it in exciting and vibrant ways. Learn how to use mobile phone texting services to help get the message out. Steve Hewitt from Christian Computing Magazine presents.

Parish Management: Best Practices (Basic)
Accurate data on parish families and members is essential to effective ministry. In this group discussion led by Laura Clark from St Cecelia, Clearwater, FL, learn proven techniques for keeping your census information and sacramental details up to date. Get new ideas to improve your census management, and share your strategies with the group.

Managing Your Safe Environment Program (Overview)
Learn how ParishSOFT’s Safe Environment Program (SEP) Manager can help you keep track of all your diocesan staff and volunteers using centrally-managed screening requirements and compliance measures. This workshop will review how to set up this program and maintain records to ensure compliance with USCCB guidelines. Dawn Wolf and Carla Haiar from the Diocese of Sioux Falls present.

Effective Users’ Groups (Intermediate)
Diocesan and regional users’ groups provide real-life opportunities for learning from the shared experience of the members. Learn how to make you meetings successful, “can’t miss” events with fresh agenda ideas and creative, fun approaches that increase attendance, participation, learning and teamwork. Shannon Wiggins from the Archdiocese of Atlanta leads this group discussion session.

Increasing the Value of Diocesan Services to Parishes and Other Organizations (Basic)
Deacon Bob Anderson from the Diocese of La Crosse will share his experiences on providing high-value services to parishes during the rollout of new census management and accounting software and supporting the everyday needs of diocesan organizations. Learn strategies that will help to make all diocesan projects more successful and build a relationship of trust and collaboration among your organizations. Deacon Bob presents and facilitates an exchange of ideas on how the diocese can best serve its organizations.

Mission First: Aligning IT to Achieve Ministry Goals
(Discussion Group Follow-up to Bill Glover Keynote)
Pope Benedict XVI has issued the call: “New technologies create deeper forms of relationships across greater distances . . . priests are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.” 

Most church leaders understand that modern information technology (IT) has the potential to radically improve communications and provide relevant, timely information on which to manage and make decisions.  But how do you actually turn these concepts into reality?  

For many years, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has been at the forefront in using IT to achieve ministry goals and effectively working with parishes, schools, HR, finance, pastoral planning, development, and other areas. Bill Glover, our presenter, has not only helped lead these efforts in the archdiocese, but he has counseled bishops and others around the U.S. on these topics.  He will share his experiences and leave you with practical ideas about how you can use IT to achieve your ministry goals.

People, Census, Offering and Pledges

ConnectNow Family Directory (Demo)
Be among the first to see our new Web versions of the Family Directory program. Manage your family and member information and track pledges and contributions—online! Built on our ConnectNow platform, this new product will offer all the functionality of the desktop module with very secure 24x7 access to your program from any computer with an Internet connection. Software updates and backups are automatic and hassle-free. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Family Directory: Duplicate Checker (Hands On)
Cleaning up duplicate records can eliminate costly redundancies, maximize data integrity, and improve ministry. Learn how to clean up your duplicate records with confidence in this hands-on class designed for both parish and diocesan staff. Using the Duplicate Checker program’s “wizard,” you’ll select criteria to identify duplicate records in a ParishSOFT database and then merge the family, address and member information. In the diocesan workshop, staff will learn how to resolve duplicate families and members across organizations. Instructed by Dawn Wolf from the Diocese of Sioux Falls. All materials, including laptop, will be provided.

Family Suite: What’s New? / Tips & Tricks (Intermediate)
We’ve updated your parish software regularly over the past year to give you new and improved features to boost your productivity and parishioner communications. In this workshop, you’ll see a firsthand, demonstration-style overview of those changes. Learn timesaving tips and tricks, discover how to use your ParishSOFT tools to their full potential, and put it all together to manage your office more efficiently. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Getting Started with ParishSOFT: Families, Members, Sacraments, Contributions (Hands On)
Learn the basics of entering family, member, and sacramental records as you participate in this hands-on class. Using the ParishSOFT programs, you’ll create a beautiful sacramental certificate populated with information from your database. Use a simple Word mail merge to send a letter to families. Enter contributions into the Offering & Pledges program. Instructed by Christine Dandaraw from the Diocese of St. Petersburg. All materials, including laptop, will be provided.

Offering & Pledges: Periodic Contribution Reports and End-of-Year Statements (Intermediate)
This workshop has been designed to take the stress out of year-end processing. You will walk through the processes you need to complete before preparing your end-of-year statements (e.g., auditing funds, auditing family data). Learn tips for gathering census updates and increasing your parish income by letting families know where they stand periodically in terms of their financial contributions to the church. It’s all there in your ParishSOFT reports! We’ll cover all the options available for periodic contribution reports and step through the process of creating statements for year-end. Vicky Bourg, St. Ambrose, Diocese of Salt Lake City, and Carla Haiar, Diocese of Sioux Falls, present.

Offering & Pledges: Pledges, Statements and Reports (Intermediate)
Learn how to use ParishSOFT to schedule, track, and report the pledges, tithes, and payments to pledges or capital campaigns within your church or school. See firsthand how to add multiple pledges for families. Record a pledge made by an individual family member, and show it as part of the family’s total dollar amount owed. Review some indispensable reports for your parish, including Pledge Statements, Past Due, and Revenue Projections. Carla Haiar from the Diocese of Sioux Falls will lead this workshop.

Diocese Software: What’s New and the ParishSOFT Roadmap for the Future (Intermediate)
We’ve updated your diocesan software regularly over the past year to give you new and improved features to boost your productivity. In this workshop, you’ll see a firsthand, demonstration-style overview of those changes and a roadmap for the future of the diocesan product suite. Take advantage of this opportunity to share your comments and help us prioritize our work. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Religious Education and Tuition

Religious Education: Best Practices (Intermediate)
In this open discussion, you’ll learn and have the opportunity to share techniques for managing and organizing your Religious Education program to meet the specific needs of your parish. Sister Kathy Burton from the Diocese of Camden will lead the discussion and share her experiences.

Religious Education: Setting Up Sessions & Classes  (Basic)
ParishSOFT's Religious Education software makes it easy to manage all the details of your religious education program. Learn how to set up sessions, classes, register and promote students, and “clone” school years. Philomena Johnson from Incarnation, Tampa, FL, presents.

Tuition: Billings, Payments, Statements and Reports (Intermediate)
Learn the tips and best practices to manage tuition billing and statements for your Religious Education program or school. See how to post payments, assess late fees, and keep all your tuition information current and accurate. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Using Technologies to Engage Youth (Intermediate)
Getting youth involved in the church can be challenging, but the rewards are priceless. Learn how technology can help reach youth on their terms using the Internet and social media like Facebook and Twitter. Discuss specific techniques for increasing youth participation in ministries, like prayer chains that travel by text message and cell phone. Sister Kathy Burton from the Diocese of Camden presents.

Reporting

Data Analysis Using Excel® (Intermediate)
Learn how to take the ParishSOFT data that you export to Excel, analyze it further, and turn it into actionable information. This workshop will include many practical examples using parish data to illustrate data housekeeping, better understanding parishioner demographics, and more. It will also introduce some of the data analysis functions built into Excel. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Parish IQ: Basic Queries (Hands On)
Learn how to get the information you need, in plain English and in the format you want, from your ParishSOFT applications. In this hands-on class, you’ll gain the power to be a creative data analyst just by selecting from the same list of fields that you use every day in your ParishSOFT applications to maintain your family, member, sacrament, volunteer/ministry, religious education, and contribution records. You’ll create lists that bring your data to life, dynamic workgroups that make it easy to target communications to specific groups, and much more. No advanced database skills are required! Instructed by Melanie Elizondo, St. Ambrose (Diocese of Salt Lake City) and ParishSOFT staff. All materials, including laptop, will be provided.

Parish IQ: Advanced Queries, Exporting (Intermediate)
Learn how you can take Parish IQ to another level by exporting your information to Word, Excel, email, or Workgroups in the Family Directory program. See how to place additional conditions on your queries and how to aggregate functions.  Presented by ParishSOFT staff.

Queries and Report Customization (Intermediate)
Found a standard query or report in ParishSOFT that is similar to what you want, but not quite? Learn how to change a standard ParishSOFT query, report or registration form to suit your information and formatting needs. In this session, you will see how to work in the design view of Access® to hide fields, change content, and more. Ed Muldoon from Software Decision Consultants in Buffalo Grove, IL, presents.

AIM IQ: Targeted Appeals, Data Mining, and Analysis (Intermediate)
Enjoy more successful appeals and gain a deeper knowledge of your diocesan demographics with queries built the simple way, using AIM Intelligent Query (IQ). Learn how to use AIM IQ to get exactly the data you need, in the format you choose, by selecting from hundreds of fields that bring your family, member, and contributions data to life in new and useful ways.  Michelle Swiger, Business Analyst, Diocese of Columbus shares her AIM IQ strategies and successes.

DDM Self Service Reporting (Basic)
Be among the first to see our new ConnectNow Web component for the Diocesan Development Manager (DDM):  Parish Self Service Reports. Using this service, parish staff members with proper permissions can run their annual appeal reports anytime they wish. Learn how diocesan staff can save days of labor sending out donor updates and give parishes the benefit of secure, transparent access to their appeal data anytime, anywhere. ParishSOFT staff presents.

Diocesan Status Animarum Manager (Overview)
See the fast, easy, ONLINE way to compile and submit data for the annual Status Animarum report. Each parish enters its statistical information on the website form and submits electronically, giving the diocese direct, online access to their completed form. Parishes can gather their statistical information right from ParishSOFT Reports. Diane Rinkacs from the Diocese of Fall River presents.

Volunteer Management

ConnectNow Ministry Scheduler (Demo)
Do scheduling worries keep you up at night? Help is here! At last, an interactive, Web-based Ministry Scheduler that lets members and staff work together to cover all the bases of church liturgical and ministry scheduling . . . and rescheduling! See how the new ConnectNow Ministry Scheduler integrates with your ParishSOFT products and boosts your productivity with self-management tools that let members handle their own date preferences, substitutions, communication with other ministers and parish staff, and much more. ParishSOFT staff presents.