IconCMO Blog

New feature: email address format validation

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We recently made a change that affects how you send emails from IconCMO. Before your email gets sent, the system will verify that the email addresses are in a valid format.

sending a group email out of IconCMO church management software
Messages Queued: 2 Some email addresses were invalid. Please run the Email Status Report to find them.

If you get this error message

Your message was successfully sent to the valid emails on the list. Next, find out which email addresses were invalid so you can fix them on the individuals’ records.

  1. Go to People: Groups: Grp-Reports
  2. Show the Email Status Report
  3. Errors will be indicated with red text
IconCMO church management software group email status report
Formatting errors will be in red text on the Email Status report

Common formatting errors

  • Extra periods e.g. email@sample.com. or email@sample..com
  • No at symbol e.g. emailsample.com
  • Top level domain is missing e.g. email@sample
  • Spaces e.g. email@sample .com

Press Release: Special update for Canadian churches

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IconCMO now has CRA-compliant donation receipts

MOORHEAD, MN–(Marketwired – April 25, 2017) – Icon Systems announced its IconCMO church management software is now compliant with Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements for charitable donation receipts. The update, which was released last week, features a special donation statement format that includes:

  • Name and address of the charity
  • Unique serial/receipt number
  • Registration number
  • Electronic signature of charity
  • CRA web address
  • Name and address of the donor
  • Date and amount of donation
  • Any required descriptions

IconCMO has been well-received by Canadian churches and charities.

[IconCMO is] great accounting software, it’s really easy to use,” says Jasbir Warring of Sant Nirankari Mission in Canada. “[They have] outstanding customer service and are always willing to cater to specific needs.”

Not currently using IconCMO church management software? Learn more and get a free 14-day trial at https://www.iconcmo.com/.

Already using IconCMO? Here’s how you can utilize the new statement style

  1. Go to Organization: Preferences: Church Membership
  2. Enter a Starting Donation Receipt #
  3. Save Defaults
  4. Go to Contributions: Management: Contribution Statements
  5. Choose the Statement Style called CRA Receipt

Note: Customers in the US and other countries may also use this statement style by following the steps above; however, the statement style will be titled Split Receipt instead.

About Icon Systems: For more than 20 years, Icon Systems has been developing software exclusively for churches and religious organizations. Icon Systems offers multiple church management software packages that will meet the needs of any religious organization—from church plants to denominational offices. https://www.iconcmo.com/

View the original press release at http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/-2211693.htm

Introducing IconRubix

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The Next Generation in Church Management

lightstock_149580_full_michelleIcon Systems just announced the release of IconRubix, its next generation church management software platform. IconRubix is built on the latest technology and boasts features such as mobile responsiveness, real time collaboration, and a child check-in system.

“We met with several organizational leaders in the church community. Armed with their feedback, our goals were set high; we wanted to develop a system with limited hardware investment, real time collaboration, and unprecedented flexibility,” says Bill Gifford, President. “Having a cloud based system wasn’t enough in and of itself. Our goal was to create something truly innovative – something that promoted team collaboration by allowing church staff and volunteers to see changes right as they happen.”

We’ve designed IconRubix to work smoothly on your mobile device, just as it does on your desktop computer. There’s no need to download a separate application. Unlike other systems, IconRubix doesn’t require the church to invest in specific printers or other expensive hardware to use the check-in system, record contributions, or perform other tasks. Churches can use their current hardware or implement a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy. Some additional features include:

  • Realtime collaboration
  • Membership records
  • Donation tracking
  • Group management
  • Child check-in
  • Communication
  • Reports
  • And more!

Learn more and sign up for a free trial at https://www.iconcmo.com/products/rubix/.

About Icon Systems: For more than 20 years, Icon Systems has been developing software exclusively for churches and religious organizations. Icon Systems offers multiple church management software packages that will meet the needs of any religious organization-from church plants to denominational offices.

Read the full press release at http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/icon-systems-releases-iconrubix-2181114.htm

Things to know to effectively use IconCMO

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church-audit-checklistMembership

Must Know #1: (Household or Member)

Understanding the difference between a Household and a Member is important and is defined as follows:

Definition of a Household: A Household is a physical location where people reside and the name of the household represents the adults that are responsible for the loaction. It does not represent an individual.

Definition of a Member: A Member is a person that resides at the location. Every member of a family should have a member record in the system.

Whenever you are doing something in the system ask yourself the question: Do I need this for member(s) or household(s). Example: I need to create mailing labels for people that receive the newsletter. Are these labels going to be sent to individual members or to the households? Chances are they are going to be sent to the Households. If this is the answer then you would go to People -> Groups -> Grp-Households. Create a category called Mailings and a sub-group called Newsletter. Add the households to the group and print your labels. Or you can go to People -> Households -> Hse-Reports -> Household List and select to print labels for all Households belonging to one or more status groups.

If you are adding a new Person in the system that is the only member of the new household, one household record would be added refelecting the location and one member record representing the individual living at that location.

For a married couple the household name should contain both the names of the parents. The household ‘First Name’ would be something like John & Mary. Once the household is created both John, Mary and any kids they might have would be added into the household as members.

Must Know #2 (Running Reports using Multiple Status Codes)

Many of the reports give you the ability to select status codes. Multilple status codes can be selected by holding the “Ctrl” key down on the keyboard. While the Ctrl key is down use the mouse to click on the status codes you wish to use. When done selecting release the Ctrl key and run the report.

Must Know #3 (Adding Status Codes)

Status codes are used to define the relationship of a household or member to the church. When the system is initially loaded it contains the default status codes Active, Inactive, Visitor and Delete. However, you can add additional status codes by going to Organization -> Preferences – Church Membership. Locate the field “Select Drop Down List”. Click the down arrow and select Status. Go to field “New / Modified Value” and enter the new status code and click “Save New/Modified”.

Please Note: It is not a good practice to define a new status code if a household or person can fall into more than one status code. Example: Adding a status code of Choir and Usher would be bad because a person could belong to both groups as be Active. In this case the person should have a status of ‘Active’ and belong to both the ‘Choir’ group and the ‘Usher’ group. Use the Groups section to classify Choir members and Ushers.

The most common Status codes we see are: (This field has a maximum of 15 characters so some of these are abbreviated).

    • Active
    • Inactive
    • Visitor
    • Delete
    • Active NonMem ( Abbreviation for Active Non-Member )
    • Associate Mem ( Associate Member )
    • Friend
    • Prospect
    • Shutin

Accounting

Must Know #4: (Contribution Funds Vs Accounting Funds)

This section talks you through the process of setting up the link between the Contribution system and the Accounting system. In order to use this link go to Organization -> Preferences -> Church Membership. Set the “Link to Fund Accounting” to Yes and click save. This tells the system that whenever contributions are posted the system should also update the accounting system accordingly. This is a powerful feature of IconCMO and can be used to insure that activity in the contribution section is always recorded in the accounting system.

There are two different types of Funds that can be created in IconCMO.

  1. Contribution Funds
  2. Accounting Funds

Contribution Funds (C-Funds) are funds that people contribute to. Contribution Statements are printed from information that is posted to C-Funds.

Accounting Funds (A-Funds) are funds that are defined by the financial group in the church for the purpose of managing the finances of the church. For example: In addition to the ‘General Fund’ (which is a required fund) the board might have a Building Fund and a Charities Fund. A separate ‘Statement of Activities’ (sometimes referred to as a Profit and Loss statement) and a ‘Statement of Financial Position’ (sometimes referred to a Balance Sheet) can be run for each fund defined as well as for all accounting funds combined. It is important to note that all contribution funds must direct its donations into one of the accounting funds. First, the bank account that receives the donations is defined and second, the Contribution Revenue account is defined.

Below is Example:

Your church offers the church four different c-funds which they can contribute to.

  1. General Fund
  2. Building Fund
  3. Memorial Fund
  4. Flowers Fund

Each of these C-Funds will be defined by going to Contributions -> Management -> Cont-Maintenance and adding the C-Funds names. You want to print a Profit and Loss for General, Building and Charities but you would like the Flowers Fund to appear as Revenue to the Charities Fund. You need to create three A-Funds by going to General Ledger -> Funds -> Fund Maintenance. From the Fund Maintenance window you will add the Building and Charities Funds (The General Fund already exists). Then go to General Ledger -> GL -> Chart of Accounts. There needs to be at least one Contribution Revenue account to define where the revenue is coming from. In this case let’s define three revenue accounts and call them:

  1. General Contributions
  2. Building Contributions
  3. Memorial Contributions

Note that we use the term ‘Contributions’ instead of ‘Revenue’. This was done simply to demonstrate that these are chart of account names and not funds. In addition to the the Contribution Revenue accounts we need at least on bank account. Let’s call that ‘Checking’.

Now we need to create the links between the C-Funds to the Accounting system. Go to Contributions -> Management -> Cont-Maintenance, select the General Fund in the left scroll window and press the button titled ‘Accounting Link’. A window opens displaying the fund selected and three drop down boxes. The example below shows how we might make the assignments. Notice how contributions to the ‘Flowers Fund’ is directed to the accounting fund called Memorial. Revenue from the Flowers Fund will appear in the Statement of Activites’ for Charities.

General Fund (C-Fund)

  • Accounting Fund Affected = General Fund
  • Bank Account = Checking
  • Contribution Account = General Contributions

Building Fund (C-Fund)

  • Accounting Fund Affected = Building Fund
  • Bank Account = Checking
  • Contribution Account = Building Contributions

Memorial Fund (C-Fund)

  • Accounting Fund Affected = Charities Fund
  • Bank Account = Checking
  • Contribution Account = Memorial Contributions

Flowers Fund (C-Fund)

  • Accounting Fund Affected = Charities Fund
  • Bank Account = Checking (whatever checking or savings account you want the money deposited)
  • Contribution Account = Memorial Contributions

Archiving members in IconCMO

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Archiving is a great way to keep your database clean and your household counts down. Changing a members statuspablo-12 to delete is different than actually archiving them. Archiving can be done at the household level or the member level. Although you can archive all members of a households at once, only the members are archived, not the household. You will need to unarchive each member of the household separately.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS ON ARCHIVING

Household: Archiving all members of a household
  1. Go to People: Household: Hse-List
  2. Select the household you wish to archive
  3. Click “Delete”
  4. If contributions are applied to the household (household envelope) you will get the message: “This household last contributed money on “date.  Are you sure you want to delete this household?”
  5. Click “OK”
  6. You will then get the message: “Do you want to archive the household members?”
  7. Click “Yes”
  8. Please enter a reason for archiving – * required.
  9. Click “Yes”
Member: Archiving one member of a household
  1. Go to People: Members: Mem-List
  2. Select the member you wish to archive
  3. Click “Delete Member”
  4. If contributions are applied to the member (member envelope) you will get the message: “Are you sure you want to delete this member?”
  5. Click “OK”
  6. You will then message: “Do you wish to send this member information to the archives?”
  7. Click “Yes”
  8. Please enter a reason for archiving – * required.
  9. Click “Yes”

NOTES

Because only members are archived, any household notes stored in the household section will be lost. To make sure these notes are retained, you will need to transfer them to a member. Simply highlight the household notes and paste them into the member notes (Ctrl+C – copy & Ctrl+V – paste).

CONTRIBUTION STATEMENTS

You can unarchive a member to print their contribution statement at any time.  If you restore them to their “Original Household” the contribution records automatically are attached to the household.  If you choose to add the member to a new household, you need to create a household, unarchive the member into the new household and then go into Contributions: Envelopes: Env-Maintenance and give the new household an envelope number.  Finally go into Contributions: Management: Cont-Transfer and transfer the contributions from the old household into the new household.

REPORTS/UNARCHIVING

Go to People: Members: Archives for a list of archived members. This report can be filter by status and 4 additional fields can be displayed. To unarchive a member simple click on the their last name in this report. A new window will open displaying their name and previous household. Click on the “Unarchive” button. If you try to unarchive a member where the entire household has been archived you will get the following message. “The household this member belongs to no longer exists. Would you like to restore the original household or choose a new household to add them to (losing the original address information)”. If you are going to unarchive them to a different household, the household must be created before unarchiving the member.

Save Time and Money with IconCMO

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Staying organized and communicating with members of the congregation can be inexpensive and easy with IconCMO.  Monthly newsletters, bulletins, schedules, and calendars can be created in Word or Publisher, converted to PDF and attached to an email message without the high cost of printing and mailing, not to mention the time spent folding and stuffing envelopes.  If an event is canceled, send out a quick text message notifying members.

envelopes

Email and Text Message Setup:

  1. Go to Organization: Preferences: Personal and enter the church email address you want to use for outgoing emails. This will automatically populate in the “From” field when sending emails.
  2. Go to Organization: Preferences: Church Membership
    • Click Maintain Phone – Email Types
    • This is where you will title the phone numbers and emails you wish to maintain e.g. Home Phone, Cell Phone, Work Phone, Personal Email, Work Email
    • When you title the cell/mobile phone, be sure to check the “Cell Phone?” box on the right. When entering someone’s phone number, this will allow you to select the carrier and send them text messages. Cell phone carriers must be identified in order to send text messages.Cell phone setup - red

Member Email Setup:

  1. Go to People: Members: Mem-List
  2. Click on the drop-down arrow next to “View” and select “Email Addresses”
  3. At the bottom, select the “Email Name” e.g. Work email, Personal email
  4. Type in the member’s email address
  5. Select Opt-In Preferred, Opt-In, Opt-Unknown, or Opt-Out
  6. If the member does not want their email address listed in the church directory, check the “Unlisted” box
  7. Click “Save Email”Member's email red

Member Text Message Setup:

  1. Go To People: Members: Mem-List
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to “View” and select “Phone Numbers”
  3. Select the Phone Name e.g. Home Phone, Cell Phone
  4. Type in their phone number
  5. Select their carrier using the drop-down arrow
  6. Click “Save” Member's Cell phone red

Once emails and phone numbers are entered, you will want to create groups to contact e.g. Teachers, Parents, Ushers. Groups can be entered by household or by member.  If you are entering by the household, the email address listed for the household is the one that will be used. If you want specific members within the household to receive the email, set the group up in Grp-Members.

Groups Setup:

  1. Go to People: Groups: Grp-Members or People: Groups: Grp-Household
  2. Under Add New click “Group Category” and enter the name – click “Add”
  3. Select the category you created and under Add New click “Group”
  4. Enter the name of the group – click “Add”
  5. Select the group, such as Teachers
  6. Add members to the group.
    • You can do this by selecting your criteria, active, age range, name range and then click “Find”
    • The members will populate in the list on the right
    • If you want a member to be in this group, click the “No” to change it to a “Yes”
    • When you are done, click “Show Group Only” to make sure you have added everyone

Once your groups are set up, you can begin sending emails or text messages by selecting the group you wish to contact and clicking on either “Text Message” or “Group Email”. Teachers - red

Contributions Statements can also be emailed monthly or quarterly so members can review their giving. Or save even more time by setting up the Parishioner’s Module to allow members to review their giving whenever they want.  

Do you know how to spot a tech support scam?

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According to Wikipedia, a technical support scam (often abbreviated tech support scam) refers to a class of telephone fraud activities, in which a scammer claims to offer a legitimate technical support service, often via cold calls to unsuspecting users. Such cold calls are mostly targeted at Microsoft Windows users, with the caller often claiming to represent a Microsoft technical support department. (Side note: it’s not likely anyone would call and fraudulently pretend to be an Icon Systems representative. But if you’re ever in doubt, get the person’s name and call them back on our support line.)

Church staff and volunteers should be aware of techniques used by scammers. For tips on identifying and avoiding scams, head over to the Federal Trade Commission’s website and read this article on Tech Support Scams.

What’s your backup plan?

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A few weeks ago, I got a call from a customer using Revelations, our Windows-based church management software (ChMS).

Thank you for calling Icon Systems, this is Michelle.”

“Hello, this is Peggy from Peace Church*. My computer crashed, can you help me get Revelations on my new computer?”

“I’m sorry to hear! I’ll show you where you can download the program from our website, then once it’s installed we can restore your data onto the new computer. Do you have your backup file handy on a flash drive or disk?”

*crickets chirping*

“Ahh…no, we didn’t make any backups.”

This isn’t the first call I’ve received of this nature, and unfortunately it won’t be the last. The story is a little different each time; maybe someone broke into the church office and stole the computer or the church was devastated by a fire.

Photo Credit: techmsg via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: techmsg via Compfight cc

My heart goes out to churches in these situations because if they didn’t back up the data, there is nothing I can do to help. The only option is rebuilding the database from scratch — including contribution history. If a hard drive crashes, there are companies that specialize in data recovery but their services are costly and there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to retrieve the data.

No matter which ChMS you’re using, ensure your data is protected from

  • Fires and theft
  • Malware and cyber attacks
  • Natural disasters (e.g. tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes)
  • Equipment failure (e.g. hard drive or server crashes)
  • Human error (sometimes mistakes happen)
  • Unforeseeable circumstances

Properly back up your ChMS database

Establish an effective back-up procedure and store back-ups securely off-site. It’s important to regularly test restoring data from your back-ups. Make plans to help you keep working and recover quickly should the worst happen.” – Geoff Duncan for Digital Trends

Read the rest of the article on Digital Trends exploring the pros and cons of different backup methods.

If you’re using a cloud-based ChMS

Evaluate cloud services carefully. Using a reputable cloud computing service could be safer than running software in-house — providing you do your research. Check where your data is stored and how it is protected.” – Start Up Donut

For a complete list of tips on preventing IT disasters, visit startupdonut.co.uk.

Technology is always changing and Icon Systems ensures necessary precautions are taken each year to protect our clients’ most valuable asset – their data. We take data security for IconCMO, our web-based ChMS, very seriously so you can have peace of mind knowing your data is safe and secure. Below is an article outlining security precautions and backup procedures Icon Systems has implemented for IconCMO.

Skeptics vs. Cynics: Web-Based Church Software Security

Moral of the story

Having a proper backup plan means if something happens to your computer, you simply need to purchase a new one (which is hopefully covered by insurance) and log into your database online or reinstall your desktop program and restore the data. Yes, it’s inconvenient but it’s not nearly as much hassle as rebuilding your database from scratch.

*Names changed to protect customer privacy

How to budget a mortgage payment

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Budgeting is important to most church organizations and is a highly-utilized feature in IconCMO. However, budgets can only be set for revenue and expense accounts, which can pose a problem if you want to budget for a liability account such as a mortgage.

Photo Credit: pixelmattic via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: pixelmattic via Compfight cc

For example, a typical Mortgage Payment of $1,000 looks like this:

  • Credit Checkbook (Asset) = 1000.00
  • Debit Mortgage Loan (Liability) = 800.00
  • Debit Interest (Expense) = 200.00

The entries are in balance and you are able to post the check or journal entry; however, in this scenario you are only able to budget for the $200 interest expense since $800.00 of the payment when towards your mortgage liability account.

Here’s the solution

Go to your Chart of Accounts and create an expense account called Budget Principle, then Create a sub-account underneath it called Budget Offset. Add the corresponding entries when you make a check or create a journal entry to record a mortgage payment.

  • Credit Checkbook (Asset) = 1000.00
  • Debit Mortgage Loan (Liability) = 800.00
  • Debit Interest (Expense) = 200.00
  • Debit Budget Principle (Expense) = 800.00
  • Credit Budget Offset (Expense) = 800.00

Check Writing Window IconCMO

With the two additional entries, you can now budget for your mortgage principle. Budget Offset is a sub-account of Principle Expense, so it will not show on the Statement of Activities report since they offset each other.

I hope you found this helpful. If there’s any other accounting scenarios you’d like to see in future posts, please comment below! 🙂

What are pass-through accounts?

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pablo (1)

Pass-through accounts are established when a church collects money on behalf of an organization or event and does not want to record the money as income.  These accounts are set up as liabilities instead of revenue accounts since the money will only pass-through the church to another organization.

Try our church management software.

Follow the instructions below to create liability pass-through accounts in IconCMO.

Part 1: Accounting Setup

First, decide if the money can stay in the general fund or if the church wants to create a new fund.  To create a new fund:

  1. Click Add New Account.
  2. Go to General Ledger: GL: Fund Maintenance.
  3. Type in the Fund Name and click Add.Then, add your accounts.Fund Maintenance - adding a fund small window
  4. Go to General Ledger: Funds: Chart of Accounts.
    • Account Type: Liabilities
    • Liabilities: Other Current Liabilities
    • Type Detail: Other Misc Current Liabilities
    • Sub-account of: Not a sub-account
    • Account Name: Pass-Through

Repeat the process for any sub-accounts you want to add under Pass-Through.  I have created a sub-account called Belize under my pass-through account.

General-Ledger - COA - #2

Add New - Belize

Part 2: Contribution Setup

  1. Go to Contributions: Management: Cont-Maintenance
  2. Type in the Fund Name on the right and Save.
  3. Select the fund you created and click on Accounting Link.
    • Accounting Fund Affected: Choose the general fund or the fund you created
    • Banking    –   Checking
    • Contribution Liab   –   Belize

Accounting link - pass through accountsIf you’re looking for a good report for these accounts, go to General-Ledger: GL:GL-Reports. The Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet) will give you a report with all your liability account information.