Fellowship One

Christie -

What will become of all the batches stored in the "contribuiton application" now?  We can so easily go back to a batch for information if necessary now - when we no longer use this portal, where will we be able to find our "old" batch information?

Christie,

I had a couple questions from my users I was hoping you could answer.

1) There doesn't appear to be a place to enter a recieved date.  Are we correct in assuming that all contributions processed for a specific batch will get the same recieved date.  What will be the process for entering a contribution with a recieved date that differs from the batch you are processing.  Is it simply to create another batch?

2) Currently our tithe volunteers do not use the F1 portal and the only privilege we give them is access to the existing check scanning application. Will they need the contribution read privilege or any other privilieges in the future to complete the matching process?

Our financial secretary has taken a look at this, and has the following initial feedback, which may be revised as we get more information about the release:

1. It looks as if entering split information after checks are scanned will take more work, not less.
2. Because splits are not being done at entry time, getting accurate giving statistics will take longer, as we have LARGE numbers of split contributions.
3. He uses the matching of checks to find problems that others have created when doing merge and splits. This seems like it will also be made harder.
4. He doesn't always know if a bank account is shared until the account shows up on someone else's check. He's concerned that by doing automatic matches there will be more errors created in crediting giving that will have to be revised later.

Any chance we could get a look at this in a staging-type environment or an online demo?

This looks like it is going to be harder to use....particularly looking at checks AFTER they are scanned - they are often blurry and very hard to read after being scanned. 

I second the request above -- can we see this in staging, and try it out on some already-entered batches  or something, before we deposit the checks?
 

Since you are making changes, let me get my dibs in again for a change that has been requested many times in the forum:  please make it default to individual giving on the head of household, and NOT default to "household" giving.

Thanks,

Barbara Kemp

I agree with the above concerns - batch date (especially at year end), matching checks, shared checking account numbers (sometimes the info on the checks is so small that it is hard to read the scanned copy)  -  We also use the matching during scanning to add new households (while we still have the check in hand) - taking this function away does seem like it will slow the process down.  Also agree on being able to try this out - am curious, the people that made the decisions for the change, are they using the current check scan progam?

I want to echo what others have said.  My big concerns are being able to enter a received date, handling shared bank accounts, and matching images later with scanned images which are often blurry.

Thanks,

Cindy Lanuti

Hope Community Church

Hello all!  Below are the answers to the common concerns that have been brought up:

1) Old batch information will be accessible in the Fellowship One Portal vs. the Contributions Application.  The purpose of the Contributions Application is for the initial entry of the scanned contributions.

2) At this time, the Contributions Application will not work with Mac computers.

3) The Contributions Application is streamlined to quickly enter contributions into the system.  Once entered, attributes of the contribution will be assigned within the Fellowship One Portal.  This will include the following: Received date, Fund or Pledge Drive, Sub Fund, Activity, and GL Post Date.  Matching of contributors will also be done in the Portal.

4) Check Scanning Volunteers will NOT need Contributions Read to match contributions within the Fellowship One Portal.  The same permissions that they are provided to use the Check Scanning application will allow them to match contributions.  They will NOT be able to access any other area under the Giving tab.  They will be kept within the focused workflow of processing the scanned contributions batch.

5) A common concern mentioned is that processing splits seems like it will take more time.  Our hope is quite the opposite.  You'll be doing the same process as before, but the focus has been moved from the Check Scanning application into the Fellowship One Portal.  We have placed enhancements into the workflow that you will find very beneficial.  One improvement is that each time you process a split, you won't have to populate the funds each and every time.  Your selected funds will be remembered from one contribution to the next in the order that you selected.  For example, if you commonly select Tithes, Building, & Missions funds, you select them once at the first contribution.  They are then remembered and populated for each subsequent contribution.  No more scrolling through multiple funds or naming funds with numbers in the beginning of the fund nam.

6) Shared accounts concern: When a new check is scanned, in the Portal, you will have the opportunity to show that the check is a shared account.  Once tagged as a shared account it will never automatch.

7) Eric Campbell asked, "Is there anything that speeds up the process?"  Besides some of the items listed above, the ability to attribute to designate an entire batch of contributions to a single fund is a huge time saver.  If an entire batch is to the General fund, previously, you'd have to touch every  contribution and attribute it to the General Fund.  With the new process, you have the ability to specify that the entire batch is attributed to the General Fund.  If you have several contribution items in the batch this should save a considerable amount of time.

8) As a response to one of the comments, we did take the Contributions Application to a few churches and received their feedback.  Yes, this will be a change in your process, but the focused steps should help realize time savings in the new process.

Hopefully this answers your questions.  If not, please reply below and we'll continue this dialog. 

I appreciate the efforts you have taken to streamline our process and improve the end product.  Change is always difficult, but eventually can prove to be quite beneficial. I expect this will be the case once we get used to this new way of doing things. 

This particular change for us will impact over 50 volunteers and span 3 months worth of training for them as well as our Finance staff who will be facilitating the training. (They only serve once a month, so training and onboarding can be quite lengthy)  Because of this, we will need significant advanced notice of when this change will go live. Is it possible for you to give us a minimum of 60 days advanced notice prior to making this change?  Ultimately, having this in the staging environment is essential to the success of rolling this out to our team.  I don't believe Mark Lindsley's response provided an answer to that question yet.

A few other questions we have:  

Will we have to purchase new check scanners in order to accommodate the rapid scanning or will the Mag Tek scanners be able to function in this new capacity?

Will we be required to use Fellowship's Remote Deposit Capture becasue of this change?   If so, do you have suggested verbiage to notify our contributors that we are using a 3rd party Vendor to process their checks?

Thank you so much for setting us up for success as we implement the changes you are providing.
 

Sorry for the multiple posting previously - Mark, but we have brainstormed and found a couple more questions.

We, like a previous poster, find numerous issues on Mondays that occur by others doing merges and splits that we can rectify on Mondays, or at  least note that possibility of something that needs further attention during the contribution process.  Since we feel like it's better to have the actual check in hand, with printed data that is readable, it seems like we will delay the actual depositing of funds until we've verified and balanced - so we'll be holding up our deposit. 

Does each batch HAVE to go to one fund?  If yes, but that's a harder process, then that means a new batch for each fund or subfund?  So if one check goes to camp scholarships - it needs to be it's own batch, rather than included in a batch with several random funds, or splits?  So potentially numerous batches of just one check?

Thanks again for your responses -

Thanks for the response Mark.  The Compass Church weekend offering can be split to any of three funds.  We occassionally have additional funds, but three funds are all we use for normal processing (and appear on our envelopes).

Thanks for getting a video ready, that will help a lot.

Happy Thursday to everyone!

I've put together 3 different videos to demonstrate the use of the new Contributions Application and the new matching workflow.

As a disclaimer... this is not a scripted polished Active Network production.  You've got the Mark Lindsley version.  :)  Please pardon the few bumps in the videos.

Mark sure to watch all of the videos even if you are only concerned about the Split Funds batch.  Each video has helpful information throughout them.  They are 5 minutes long each.

First video:  Use of the new Contributions Application and processing a Single Fund Batch. I showed how we're taken directly from the Contributions Application into the Portal to process the batch.  

 http://screencast.com/t/cmXVa3iZoh2

Second video:  Continued discussions on the Single Fund Batch.  Emphasized the use of Single Batches when possible.  I show where the Scanned Contributions batches are located.  I show how easy it is to add a new individual in the system.

http://screencast.com/t/Xgi98VBuyw7b

Third video:  Split Funds Batch discussions.  Set up the funds to match the envelope and the selections are remembered from one contribution to the next.

http://screencast.com/t/jkfnpo5qmmX

Hi Mark,

Thanks for creating those videos. They really helped us to see the whole process. I am thrilled with the way you can create a new household while looking at the scanned check. That is going to make for a much quicker process!

Lauren

Rick, shared accounts will NOT automatch.  We will provide a list of individuals that share that account & routing number for you to select from.  

For your second question:  as long as you mark the check as Shared the first time that you recognize that it's a bank's bill pay type of check, then your set.  It will NOT automatch.

Mark,

I have a suggestion for the new App. Would it be possible to have the Shared Account List sorted by Last Name? I have 30 or more names on my shared account list and  the Head of House is not aways listed on the check, making it more difficult to locate the household. If the list were to show the last name first and then the first names, it would spead up matching the Shared Accounts.

Thank you.

Karla

Please, please, please invest in Mac compatibility. Every system we use in our church works gloriously on Mac except F1. The permeation of Apple computing is far beyond an introductory status. We're thankful for F1 and the development of these applications, but please help us out! :-)

Does anyone know when the new application will be released? I cannot find the date anywhere.

I did receive this message last week to a support ticket that has been open for 5 years... "With the release of the new Contributions Application in the next few weeks, this issue will be resolved."

I haven't seen anything regarding sub funds with this new system how is that going to work?

The videos are a GREAT help - thanks!

As I sat here processing my deposit it occures to me that curently we only have to match up the checks that are not currently matched.  Today I had 3.   In the future with this new system we will need to match up every check every week.  Please correct me if I am wrong.  This will be double work each and every week.

Hi Barbara -

While Chuck is correct, it will automatch - sometimes the match is where you might find an error in previous  matching or a merge gone wrong - so you will still have to go through each contribution twice - once to enter and once to match, or check. 

This will add to your work each week.

Hi All,

Yes the same scanner (Magtek RS-232) will work and be fully supported with the new contributions application. No need to change scanners.