SUMMER 2008 softofferings Newsletter for SOFT Users & Friends KNOW AND ENGAGE YOUR PARISHIONERS PARISH OFFICE EMPLOYEES EMBRACE PARISHSOFT By PAT HENNESSY Reprinted with permission from the June 28, 2008, Fairfield County Catholic, a biweekly publication of The Diocese of Bridgeport. This keeps track of everything happening For two millennia, the Catholic Church has been known for the excellence of its record keeping. Nothing compares with the thrill of visiting an ancient stone church in Europe, asking politely to see the records, and seeing the marriage of your grandparents or your mother s baptism date in some impressive, leatherbound registry. INSIDE THIS ISSUE PAGE 2 NotifyNow PAGE 3 Technology Updates PAGE 3 Dear Trish PAGE 4 Did You Know? PAGE 4 PAGE 5 PAGE 6 PAGE 6 Church Income Taking a Dive This Summer? New Dioceses & es Users Conference Oct. 27-29 New! Online Church Accounting It s not so much fun, though, to look through heavy registry books or heaps of file cards for someone who is getting married or needs a sponsor certificate for a Baptism. The workload gets heavier when the staff gets calls for parish sacramental information from outside the diocese, sometimes from people who aren t even sure they were baptized at the parish. On the Move People don t live in the same parish from the time they re baptized for the rest of their lives, observes Msgr. Chris Walsh, pastor of Saint Joseph in Shelton. When he went looking for a program that could both give him an accurate representation of his parishioners and provide them with quick access to parish records and easily manage multiple mailings, Msgr. Walsh settled on SOFT, which has now become the official church management program for the entire diocese. Sacramental preparation gets a strong assist from the new management program. It gives you a really good picture of the family you re working with, says Sister Rita Petrarca, A.S.C.J., Saint Joseph s pastoral associate. When people call to make appointments, I can see if they ve made all their sacraments. If they re arranging for a baby s Baptism and I see that they IT CHANGED MY AGE! says Sandy Mihalek, pastoral assistant at Saint Patrick in Bridgeport, looking at her family record with Office Manager Barbara Porter the day after her birthday. The new SOFT church management program keeps family records current, a great help to pastors, parish ministers, and directors of religious education. (PHOTO BY PAT HENNESSY) aren t married in the Church, I can encourage them to think about their own situation and help them with that. Saint Patrick in Bridgeport, under the leadership of Father Chip O Neill, has been using SOFT for the past six years. During that time, the staff has learned to modify the program to take advantage of its many features. The staff began with basics like liturgical scheduling, then moved beyond as they discovered other possibilities. Running History When I go out to visit the homebound, I m not just bringing the Blessed Sacrament, I m bringing the care and concern of the Church to each person I visit, says Sandy Mihalek, pastoral assistant for the homebound at Saint Patrick s. With this program, I can keep a running history of each person I see. In the family record I can list the names and ages of the grandchildren, if that s important to a person I visit. I can make a note of their health problems, or hospital visits, and keep track of everything that s happening. Unlike an Excel spread sheet, which merely stores data, SOFT updates records as Mihalek discovered when she checked out her own, and found that it had updated her age on her birthday. The technology has a sense of humor, too her record is pink, as are all continued on page 4... {PARISHSOFT OFFERINGS SUMMER 2008 PAGE 1}
Powered by IRIS A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends I have been reminded recently of public figures who quietly, yet profoundly, witness their relationship with Jesus Christ. Specifically, I was deeply impressed with Tim Russert when I heard him speak at a conference years ago, especially with how well he wove his Catholic faith into his thinking and way of life. Similarly, I was impressed by Tony Snow. I learned in a eulogy that Tony was a convert to the faith, had a beautiful marriage and wonderful kids whom we will hear from in the future as positive leaders. Even though both of these men have passed on, their light continues to shine brightly. Speaking of witnesses, we are privileged to work currently with St. Thomas, a local parish, under the direction of their outstanding pastor. Sending teams to knock on doors, their volunteers go out fearful and return excited and energized, filled with stories of reaching people, including some who haven t been to church in years but are both anxious and wanting to return. Volunteers are also calling on every household in the parish to update their information, invite them to ministry, and ask about unmet needs. The volunteers use an online version of our software to update family and member information and submit it to parish staff for review. They also flag members in our software as interested so they can be contacted by ministry leaders. Cool! These are a few examples of humble servants who witness in small but powerful ways. We at SOFT are inspired to work with you, men and women just like this every day! May God bless you in your work! Bill Pressprich President & CEO BOOST YOUR COMMUNICATION POWER WITH NOTIFYNOW 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, SOFT NotifyNow offers multiple ways to reach anyone by phone, text and/or email in seconds using your existing SOFT software. NotifyNow sends your personally recorded message or text electronically from a single source to all individuals or groups that you select from your SOFT database. Message recipients get the facts of any given situation via home phone, cell, fax, pager, text message and/or email. Messages, in multiple languages, can reach thousands in seconds while recording the delivery of each call. Busy signals or no-answers trigger repeat calls until messages are delivered or recorded in voicemail. Unreachable and invalid numbers are logged and reported. You receive a complete report of who received the message, when they received the message, and their responses. NotifyNow is easy to use. And with no equipment or software to buy, you ll gain substantial, instant savings in staff time; and your messages will be delivered in a fraction of the time typical of traditional, manual communication methods. NotifyNow has unlimited possibilities to increase ministry participation and stewardship in your parish. Here are just a few ways NotifyNow is already working in the Catholic Church community: Announce last minute information to specific groups (volunteer needs, traffic delays, weather cancellations, change in meeting venue, Religious Ed cancellations, etc.) Send special messages to new members, parishioners or students Remind members about meetings, practices, registrations for events Quickly create prayer chains Increase stewardship participation and conduct surveys with voting options For more information, contact your SOFT account representative at 866.930.4774 x1. {PARISHSOFT OFFERINGS SUMMER 2008 PAGE 2}
TECHNOLOGY UPDATES NEW! Offering & Pledges: Import/Export Utilities Add this new product to your Offering & Pledges software (versions 3.6.24 and later) to export contributions to QuickBooks ; import contributions from Pay, Vanco, or any bank lockbox. QuickBooks Export With the new Import/Export Utilities, you can export contributions data directly into QuickBooks using any combination of fund, date, or batch selections. The software accommodates multiple A/R account types, so A/R account records export and import seamlessly into QuickBooks. Income and Other Current Liability accounts import as general journal entries. Once added to your software license, the Export to QuickBooks utility will be available from the Contribution Postings screen when you select Utilities menu > Exports > Export into QuickBooks. Import Bank Transactions Automatically The new Import/Export Utilities DEAR TRISH product lets you electronically post pledges and contributions hundreds of records in seconds from a data file that you receive from a bank. Use this import utility for any deposits received and processed through a banking institution. So whether you use a bank lockbox or an electronic giving provider other than SOFT (e.g., Vanco, Pay, etc.), your SOFT products can save church staff countless hours of manual posting. After a simple, one-time template setup to map data fields from your bank file to SOFT, you just import the bank file via your Batch Processing menu and click Process. SOFT reads the data file and posts pledge and contribution records to the appropriate funds and families in your software no manual posting is needed. Once added to your software license, Lockbox Import will be available right from your Offering & Pledges Module. What s the Latest Version? Release 3.6.2x is available now for parishes and dioceses. To see which version you re running, click the About menu from any SOFT application. When you re ready to update, just select the File menu > Product Updates from your Family Directory software. Be sure to back up your database first using the instructions available from any of your user guides. For step-by-step update installation instructions, please see the v3.6.20 Update Guide, available on www.parishsoft.com/support, under the User Guides for link. Of course, for even greater savings, you can use SOFT's Electronic Giving for automated posting and avoid the need to import a bank data file altogether. Hablamos Español with New Religious Ed Forms Religious Education registration forms will be available in Spanish with SOFT versions 3.6.24 and later. If you have Spanish-speaking families in your church, you can choose to print any of your registration forms in English and/or Spanish. To simplify the registration process for your bilingual families, we recommend that you print a two-sided form with English on one side and Spanish on the other so your families can use the language that s right for them. Spanish religious education forms will be available from Student Directory Reports. To get there, click from SOFT Reports > Religious Ed Reports Menu > Student Directory Reports. How do I auto-fill all my families with the different names and salutations that I installed with the 3.6.23 version? 1. Log into Family Directory as the exclusive administrator. 2. In the Utilities menu, select Auto Fill All Names > Yes. 3. Select Yes to Auto Fill all names, select No to Auto Fill only those who do not already have data, or Cancel to stop the process. How do I clone a previous school year in Religious Education? Cloning a school year works only when the new school year (i.e., the copy To year) has no sessions. You can clone a previous school year into a new, session-free year using the following steps. 1. Open and log into the Religious Education module. 2. Open Reports > - SOFT Reports. 3. Select Utilities > Religious Education Utilities > Clone Previous Year. 4. Select the year you want to copy From using the drop-down list. 5. Select the year you want to copy To using the drop-down list. 6. Select Copy and respond Yes to the prompts. How can I hide the Members showing in the Post Contributions Screen in Offering? 1. Open and log into Offering and Pledges. 2. Select the Preferences menu. 3. Select the Show Members in list (this will uncheck or check to display or not display the members). Do you have a question for our support team? Please e-mail us at support@parishsoft.com or call us at 866.930.4774 x2. {PARISHSOFT OFFERINGS SUMMER 2008 PAGE 3}
KNOW AND ENGAGE ARTICLE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1... WITH MORE THAN 20 YEARS EXPERIENCE in computers, Saint Mary, Greenwich, Business Manager Elva Giuliani (foreground) is happy to explain the advantages of the new SOFT program to religious education assistant Margaret Loellmer and their pastor, Msgr. Frank Wissel. (PHOTO BY KAREN LEFFLER) women s; her husband s, like all guys, is blue. Good for Non-Techies While Msgr. Walsh and Father O Neill are both technology buffs, and enjoyed choosing the program that best fit their needs, even non-techies have been pleased with the benefits of SOFT. I can t even set my own watch, but my finance staff and accountants have enlightened me as to the great benefits of the program, says Msgr. Frank Wissel, pastor of Saint Mary in Greenwich. Better than that, I have a member of my parish staff who is a genius at this. In 20 seconds, Elva can tell me what Mass attendance was at any one of our eight weekend Masses. Elva Giuliani, Msgr. Wissel s business manager, is indeed an expert, having worked with personal computers for the past 20 years. Her experience led her to appreciate the possibilities SOFT offers, and to expect more to come. We had multiple databases before, but this puts everything into one package, Giuliani says. Right now we re registering students for religious education. We set up a class, set up a catechist, and send the information out to families by e-mail or hard copy, whichever the record lists as best for them. Timely Reminders The program also helps them avoid last-minute changes. It has a list of families whose children were registered in our program last year, along with their ages, Giuliani continues. If a family hasn t registered yet for this year, we can send out a reminder to them instead of having it go to every family in the parish. Giuliani has found the SOFT technical support to be excellent and looks forward to discovering what else the program can do when the diocese schedules training sessions. She echoes the hopes of pastors, office staff, and parish ministries of all kind when they look forward to learning what else - SOFT can do for their parishes. I know we re going to have one little epiphany after another as they show us the possibilities in store, she predicts. CHURCH INCOME TAKING A DIVE THIS SUMMER? Balance budget & increase contributions with Electronic Giving Does the decline in contributions during the summer months make your finance committee shudder? Let s face it. People have hectic schedules, and when they re packing for vacation, mailing a check to the church might not make the list of things to do before departure. Electronic Giving lets families contribute directly from a bank account or credit card according to the schedule and amount they choose so their contribution will always make it to church, even when they can t. Convenient and secure for families, Electronic Giving deposits post automatically to your bank account and to your Offering & Pledges Module, saving hours of manual contribution posting as well as envelope costs. There s no software to buy call us today at 866.930.4774 x1 to get started. DID YOU KNOW? Save Stamps with Email Merge! If you use Microsoft Outlook, you can now send your SOFT Mail Merge documents electronically all at one time. Just create your Mail Merge document as usual and click the Merge to Email icon on your toolbar. Specify a merge field for your email addresses and send. Your important messages can be sent in their original formats via html or as an attachment that the recipients can download. With more and more families managing their day-to-day business electronically, paperless communication just makes sense. It gets your message out faster and connects families to the church from wherever their busy lives may take them. Don t forget it cuts your administrative and postage costs, too. What about the families without email? It s simple. After you send your email message, repeat the Mail Merge to create a traditional paper mailing just for the families without email addresses SOFT prompts you to select and create letters just for the families without email during your Mail Merge setup, so it s easy to keep in touch with everyone. {PARISHSOFT OFFERINGS SUMMER 2008 PAGE 4}
WELCOME NEW DIOCESES AND PARISHES! Allentown, Diocese of St Benedict Queenship of Mary St Elizabeth of Hungary Arlington, Diocese of Cathedral of St Thomas More Baltimore, Archdiocese of St Peter Claver St Pius V Birmingham, Diocese of Bismarck, Diocese of St Charles Boston, Archdiocese of St Agnes St Julia St Stephen Mary Immaculate of Lourdes St Anns By The Sea of The Annunciation Holy Family Bridgeport, Diocese of St Mark St James St Luke St Bridget St John St Edward St Pius X St Thomas More Assumption St Catherine Brooklyn, Diocese of St Catherine of Genoa Brownsville, Diocese of Church Burlington, Diocese of St Rose of Lima St Ambrose St John The Evangelist St Elizabeth Chicago, Archdiocese of Community Social Services Mission Cleveland, Diocese of St John The Baptist Corpus Christi, Diocese of Detroit, Archdiocese of St Martin De Porres SS Cyril & Methodius St Dunstan Church of the Holy Family St Clement Fairbanks, Diocese of St Nicholas Fall River, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Diocese of 's Soup Kitchen All Saints St Thomas St Anthony de Padua St John of the Lake St Jude Our Lady of Good Hope St Henry St Michael s Blessed Sacrament Galveston-Houston, Archdiocese of St Anne Christ The Redeemer Grand Rapids, Diocese of St John The Baptist Hubbardston Greensburg, Diocese of Christ, Prince of Peace Harrisburg, Diocese of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Indianapolis, Archdiocese of Holy Trinity Kansas City-, Diocese of XII Apostles St Gabriel LaCrosse, Diocese of Help of Christians St Bronislava St Killian St Michael St Wenceslaus Mary, Mother of the Church Holy Name of Jesus St Francis Xavier s St James the Greater Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roncalli Newman St Stephen St Michael Blessed Sacrament St John St Rose of Lima Newman University St Thomas St Anthony de Padua Help of Christians Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary St Ann SS. Peter & Paul of Jesus (Lone Rock) St Aloysius St Jerome St Bartholomew Holy Family Holy Rosary St Philip the Apostle St Luke St Philip St Adalbert -Polonia Holy Rosary St Henry St Louis St Bernard St James of Mt Carmel Most St Wenceslaus Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Holy Cross Holy Family of Jesus - St Joseph St Leo the Great St Bridget St Charles Borromeo St Peter St Ansgar St Bridget St Lawrence St Andrew St Casimir St Francis of Assisi St James the Less St Lawrence St Peter St Anthony St Maximilian Kolby Lafayette IN, Diocese of St Ambrose Lake Charles, Diocese of St Henry Lansing, Diocese of Holy Redeemer Lincoln, Diocese of Blessed Sacrament Los Angeles, Archdiocese of Mary Star of The Sea Holy Angels of The Deaf St Anselm St Eugene St Louis of France Our Lady of Guadalupe St John of God St Martin of Tours Holy Cross Corpus Christi of The Assumption St Lorenzo Ruiz Holy Family St Madeleine San Roque St Julie Billiart St Elizabeth of Hungary Immaculate Heart of Mary Our Lady of the Holy Rosary St Euphrasia Madison, Diocese of Metuchen, Diocese of Our Lady of Korea Monterey, Diocese of Holy Trinity New Orleans, Archdiocese of St John The Baptist Church New York, Archdiocese of Newark, Archdiocese of Church of the Little Flower Our Lady of Peace Most Holy Name St John The Evangelist Our Lady of Lourdes St Agnes Our Lady of Victories Norwich, Diocese of St Paul Oakland, Diocese of St Raymond Ogdensburg, Diocese of s Omaha, Archdiocese of Blessed Sacrament Owensboro, Diocese of Paterson, Diocese of Annunciation Holy Family Our Lady of The Magnificat St John Vianney Phoenix, Diocese of St Martin De Porres Pittsburgh, Diocese of of The Assumption St Gerard Majella Portland OR, Archdiocese of St Boniface Providence, Diocese of St Rita Our Lady of Czenstochowa Pueblo, Diocese of Sacramento, Diocese of Divine Mercy Catholic Chuch San Antonio, Archdiocese of St Luke Catholic Community St Peter Prince of The Apostles St Lawrence the Martyr Our Lady of Guadalupe San Diego, Diocese of St Rita Our Lady of Guadalupe The Church of St Luke Our Lady of Guadalupe Our Lady of Grace s Church St Peter San Francisco, Archdiocese of St Matthew San Jose, Diocese of St Martin of Tours of Cupertino The Worker St Justin Santa Fe, Archdiocese of St Therese of The Little Flower Estancia Valley Catholic St John The Baptist Holy Family San Miguel Del Vado San Jose Santa Rosa, Diocese of St Vincent De Paul Church Savannah, Diocese of Queen of Peace St John's, Archdiocese of Basilica of St John the Baptist St Petersburg, Diocese of Holy Cross Stockton, Diocese of Superior, Diocese of Syracuse, Diocese of of The Assumption Trenton, Diocese of St Monica Pontificial Mission All Saints/St Paul (St Katherine Drexel) St Peter/ (Jesus, The Good Shepherd) St Francis Holy Eucharist St Catherine of Siena St James St Alphonsus Our Lady of Perpetual Help St Monica Catholic Church St Anthony of Padua Church of Precious Blood St Catharine Church Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church St Andrew Mission Tucson, Diocese of Victoria, Diocese of St Aloysius Mission Wheeling-Charleston, Diocese of St John University Worcester, Diocese of St Theresa, The Little Flower Yakima, Diocese of St Andrew {PARISHSOFT OFFERINGS SUMMER 2008 PAGE 5}
SOFT 825 Victors Way, Suite 200 Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2830 PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID ANN ARBOR MI PERMIT #318 866.930.4774 (toll free) 734.205.1011 fax www.parishsoft.com Sales 866.930.4774 x1 info@parishsoft.com Customer Support Hours: Mon Fri, 9am to 7pm ET 866.930.4774 x2 support@parishsoft.com Billing 866.930.4774 x3 customerservice@parishsoft.com Training 866.930.4774 x6 training@parishsoft.com Users Conference 866.930.4774 x5 training@parishsoft.com 1ST ANNUAL PARISHSOFT USERS CONFERENCE Monday, October 27 Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Four Points Sheraton Ann Arbor, Michigan Individual course selections are now available online REGISTER NOW! www.parishsoft.com/usersconference Attention SOFT Customers using Church Management Solutions (CMS): You can now use the regular SOFT Support Phone Number for both Family Suite and Accounting Software Questions. Call 866-930-4774 x2 then 2 for Accounting Support. NEW! ONLINE CHURCH ACCOUNTING (OCA) SOFT s Online Church Accounting (OCA) brings you the freedom of anytime, anywhere access, the peace and security of tracking all users of the system, and major time-savings in reporting to your arch/diocese. OCA s family of modules includes Ledger & Payables (available now) and Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets and Purchase Order (available in 2009). OCA offers full reporting on historical data for all prior years, so you can quickly access the records you need at any time. When you need the details behind any number in the financial report, just double-click to view the transactions. You can even work in next year s file without having to close the prior year! The Business Manager or Administrator will appreciate using the powerful Dashboard summary of live parish activity to quickly identify problems and make adjustments. Its secure, web-browser interface is easy for anyone in your parish to use, and of course, Offering & Pledges information is seamlessly integrated. Fast, simple conversions are available from your existing CMS Accounting Software or from QuickBooks. For more information on features and hosting options, please contact your SOFT account representative at 866.930.4774 x1. PUBM695 2008 AUG