Below you will find the details of our most recent update Version 4.42. This update is now available through your FullAccess Online Website. If you can’t remember how to get to your FullAccess Support website, no worries, just read over the instructions from this past article and you should be ready to go.

Also, remember it is always a good idea to make a backup of your data before installing any kind of update.

Updated in Nspire  4.42

1. Added a new security name tag to the Scan Console. This option will print two name tags. One tag for the child with additional options for special needs and notes and the second tag, a security tag, for the parents to use when picking up the child. This option includes an option to print a random security number on the tags.
2. Enhanced the email system to allow blind copy email. When you send email you can specify to send the email as a blind copy to your Nspire user’s email address. This will make sending bulk emails with attachments much faster; however, because everyone will receive the same email you cannot use any tokens in the email.
3. By popular demand, we have added an option when sending an email to copy the email addresses of the individuals in your reports list to your clipboard. This will let you paste the email addresses into Outlook or another email system.
4. You can now query Charges and Collection in the Individuals Profile window. There are several new options for find out who has money or owes money right from the View Individuals window.
5. The Last Present date has been added to the Individual profile window. This will allow you to do some basic querying of attendance in the individuals window. This is our first pass on this and will need to be revisited.
6. An option has been added to export to exclude duplicate household members. This makes it possible to export household specific information from the Individuals section.
7. Change the sort order of individuals in the View Attendance Sheet window. Instead of seeing the names in Student/Volunteer order, the list is now in Name order only.
8. Increased the size of the View Sheet window in Attendance.
9. A search box has been added to the View Sheet window in Attendance to allow searching for an individual in the window.
10. Corrected problem pasting HTML code from Microsoft Word into the HTML E-mail editor.
11. Including the default signature line on HTML E-mail was corrupting the closing HTML tags in the HTML editor.
12. Added a new token to print the assignable barcode value to your reports. This will allow you to use a 3 of 9 font to print the barcode on your Microsoft Word reports or to export the barcode value.
13. Changes have been made to make the Inactive flag to consistently exclude people when using the household tokens and other areas of the software. For example, inactive people do not print in the Husband and Wife tokens to prevent deceased individuals from printing on reports and letters.
14. Right click menu options have been added to the View Attendance window to make it easier to select View Sheet and Print Options.
15. Fields in the Update Events window would clear under certain circumstances when you edited an event.
16. Added support for DYMO’s Twin turbo line of printers to the Attenda Plus Scan Console.
17. Added an A4 formatted pdf manual for international printing.

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Our current posting is for an Inside sales position.

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• Sometimes a church may have a member who is a software developer who wants to donate their time to develop a data base. Before you say yes, consider, what will happen to your data base if the member leaves, loses interest, can no longer support the development, or has bitten off more than they can chew.
• Get the contract right. To be successful, your contract must be extremely specific. No generalities. Anything like, “We want all the features ACS has,” should be a huge red flag! Each feature you want needs to be clear. This is so important. You need to have specifics in the contract for breach of contract, payment schedule, deadlines, testing and bug fixes.
• Make sure you set deadlines that are realistic. Developing your custom software is going to take time, maybe years. Break the project into small chunks and get results. If your developer misses the first deadline, I guarantee they will miss the rest too.
• Communicate often. Get interim updates during the process. Do not wait until a week before a deadline to check in with the developer. Stay involved. You want to head off delays early. Realize too, everytime you ask for something different or ever say, “Oh, yeah it needs to do this too,” you have just increased the cost and the development time of the project.
• Make sure you partner with a software developer who is going to be around 5 years from now when you want something changed. Unless you have staff available to develop the software in-house, you will need help from time to time from the original developer.
• Get the source code. Make sure you get the source code in the contract. It is the only way you can modify and update the software yourself.
• Choose a development platform that you can easily hire staff to develop in. Basic is not a good choice neither is PERL for long term code usability. Use something common and widely used. If you do not know, ask the developer what tools they are using, how much they cost, and who else is using them. 

Forgive me for being somewhat passionate about this subject. I have seen so many churches fail at custom software. While custom software has worked for some very large churches with large budgets and staff members dedicated to the project, off the shelf software is a much better fit for most churches. If you decide on custom software, buyer beware. You can be successful, just be careful along the way.

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Custom software development is an option for churches wanting church management software tailored specifically to their unique needs. There are some big name churches that have been successful developing their own software. After all, custom software does put you in complete control of the features you want. However, custom software development is the most expensive way to purchase a church data base both in real dollars and in time.

Generally custom software is 10 to 100 times more expensive than an off the shelf option. Typical custom development cost ranges in the $50 -$100/hour range. You will be able to get some discount on this price purchasing blocks of time. Most of the time you will not know how much the software will cost up front. Nailing down a solid price depends most on how well you have documented your needs and communicated these needs to your software developer. Then your contract should spell out the cost. For your information, We have over 30,000 hours of development in Nspire. A company like ACS Technologies has well over 100,000 hours of development in their product. These are not costs a Church typically wants to pay for software.

Not only does it cost the most but it also takes the longest to acquire and implement. When you buy off the shelf software you have to shop, pick a product, wait for it to come in the mail or download it, then install and begin to use it. When you buy custom software you have to decide what you want it to do, find a developer, secure a contract, participate in development over the next 6 to 24 months (depending on complexity), and debug the software after delivery. You could easily expect to spend 12-36 months getting it right. Speed also depends on how much you pay. You can get it faster by paying more.

Next time I will write about the common mistakes made when you develop custom software. I also want to highlight the benefits of off the shelf software.

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Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
"Hallelujah!
     For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
     and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
     and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
     was given her to wear."

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

     Then the angel said to me, "Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’" And he added, "These are the true words of God." Rev 19:6-9 (NIV) 

I can participate in this beautiful image now. Whenever the saints get together, when I love the way I should, when we as a body of Saints are one. Whenever I am producing the righteous fruit of the spirit of God living in me.

God Bless

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I recently spent time consulting with a large church in Texas struggling with church management software. Over the last several years they have spent thousands of dollars on their current system which they were not happy with. They really wanted a better solution.The time I spent with this church reinforced the idea of just how difficult it can be to choose a data base solution for ministry.

Let me warn you, there is no silver bullet for selecting a data base that will fit your church. Your options are staggering. There are over 40 companies that provide some form of CMS and this does not count broader secular data bases. Costs can range from a few hundred dollars to over ten thousand.

I think the key is to avoid purchasing mistakes early in the process. This will save money and more importantly the time lost trying to find, install, and implement a new CMS. Some of the things you need to consider are setting aside the time to get your ministry teams on the same page, answering some questions about your specific needs, and narrowing down your choice of vendor from the many available. Oh, and try to avoid some common mistakes along the way.

God bless.

Continue reading:

Part 2: Custom Software Development

Part 3: Custom Software Development – Things to Consider

- Learn more about Nspire church software by going to www.nspiresoftware.com -

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