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Staci.Patyrak • Apr 28, 2022

In our recent deployment, the Grade question was updated to reflect the new Grade Options dropdown. Because of that, there is action required on any of your online registration Involvements that use the Grade question. You must navigate to the Registration > Questions tab. You will see something that looks like the image below. You need to edit the Grade Options to match the Grade. For example; if the Grade says Kindergarten , the corresponding Grade Option would be K.

Make these edits for any open registrations first. To make it easier to find the registrations that use the Grade question, you can run the Questions Usage report from the blue toolbar on the Involvement Search page.

 

Katie.Wilson • Apr 26, 2022

Thank you for joining us for this month’s webinar where our partners at MinistrySafe shed light on how we can equip our ministries with best practices in preventing child sexual abuse. While this is a hard topic, it is an important one which is why we decided to share these resources with you all in April.

Watch the webinar here:

Here are some free resources written by the founders of MinistrySafe your church can use at any time:

Keep an eye on our blog early Summer for information on TouchPoint’s MinistrySafe integration.




Chris.Dolan • Apr 18, 2022

We are scheduled to push updates to our main web application tomoritem tonight. This release mainly includes “behind-the-scenes” updates to support the next mobile app release, beta features, and new features that are in development that will not be visible (this allows us to further test in a production environment). You can read more about everything that is being deployed below:

1. Process Builder & Automations Tool – That’s right! We are making great progress on this tool and this deployment lays the foundation for many new features that are to come.
2. Check-Out – This new functionality is very close to being live and this release includes a few updates to labels and the APIs to support the new work. Watch for updates in the blog in the coming weeks for an announcement of when this is live.
3. One Page Forms – This new registration form is very close to being in beta. Stay tuned!
4. Volunteer Scheduler (beta) Updates – The scheduler tool is in beta and this update fixes a few bugs that have been reported and adds some enhancements based on feedback we’ve received. A special thank you to our beta churches for helping us make this tool the best it can be.
5. Mobile Registrations Changes – The API that powers registrations in the mobile app has been updated to support the enhancements that are coming in our next mobile app update. See the NEEDS ATTENTION: Registrations In The Mobile App! blog post that covers what you need to do if you’re using registrations in the mobile app and how these are about to get a lot better.
6. New Labels – A few new Check-In label options have been added for all churches. Watch out for a blog with more details.
7. Miscellaneous Bug Fixes – Several small bugs have been fixed as part of this release. If you have previously contacted support about any of these issues you will be notified.


hayley.whitworth • Apr 18, 2022

The Small Group Finder is a great way to alert your church-goers of the various ways they can get plugged in to the church. You may be familiar with the two types of Small Group Finders TouchPoint offers — one with a map and one without. We typically see churches using the Small Group Finder without a map for their on-campus groups, the map being well-suited for the off-campus groups. Check out this edition of TouchPointers to see these two creative uses of the Small Group Finder:

Read more about Small Group Finders:

For personalized help setting up your Small Group Finders, reach out to [email protected] . 

 

Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

 

Managing Subscriptions

 Custom Check-In Kiosk Attendance Remindres

Dania.Lane • Apr 12, 2022

We have created a new Prayer Request keyword to assist in tracking the source of submitted prayer requests. Any Prayer Requests submitted through the new Stand Alone Form or Embedded Web Form are tagged with the new ” Prayer Request Unauthenticated “ keyword. This keyword is also attached to requests submitted from the Mobile App by someone that is not logged in.

As you may know, Prayer Requests submitted through the Mobile App are also tagged with the Mobile Prayer Request keyword. Mobile prayer requests submitted “anonymously” will also have the keyword Anonymous Prayer Request.  

For more information, visit the help article on Prayer Requests.

 

hayley.whitworth • Apr 06, 2022

Branding is a representation of your church’s identity, such as the values it embraces and the messages it shares. People want to be involved with organizations where those align with their own. Recognizable branding instills trust for the community. People are more likely to continue with a transaction if they are comfortable with what they see. Branding can invoke an emotional response, so cultivating a positive image will have an impact on a person when they see your logo and colors.

Assemble A Brand Kit

If your church hasn’t already established a strong brand identity, consider building a Brand Kit. This may contain your selected color scheme, logos, typography (font style and size), graphics, and any other guidelines. You may have different graphics for different ministries (think Children versus Adults). Our friends at Abundant Life have assembled a Brand Style Guide that you may reference.

Communicate Your Brand Through TouchPoint

Brand TouchPoint with your church’s approved logos and graphics. Download our free Branding PDF to learn more about how you can apply your church’s branding to your TouchPoint database and to see some great examples of churches who have done so beautifully.

Want To Learn More About Branding? 

Additional Resources

TouchPoint Help Articles:

Chris.Dolan • Apr 05, 2022

You might have noticed a few new fields in our last release related to a feature that will be available very soon. The mobile app functionality is in testing and Check-Out will be available for all churches in the newest Mobile App version release.

Here are a few things to note:

  • Authorized Check-Out: On a child’s Involvement > Registrations tab you will see a new field to add an Authorized Check-Out person. The same functionality now exists in Check-In while in “admin mode”, when selecting “add authorized”. These authorized individuals are users outside of someone’s immediate family that can check the child out. These names will also appear in the Classroom Dashboard for quick access by a class leader. 
  • You will see new columns related to Check-Out on the Check-In Dashboard and on an individual meeting page. These columns record a date/time stamp and the name of the individual checking a child out. This will be done automatically via the Mobile App Scanner that will also be available in our next release.

There are a few new Admin Settings under Features > Check-In :

  • AgeCutoffCheckout – This is the age of family members that are allowed to checkout younger siblings in their own family. The default age is 18. All primary and secondary adults are allowed to check-out any child in the family.
  • ShowUseMobileAppQRCodeCheckbox – Setting this to true will turn on the option for Parents to check a box during checkin that causes the security label not to print, thus opting-in the parent to use the mobile app for accessing their QR code for Check-Out.

There is also a new Admin Setting under Features > Mobile App :

  • MobileDeepLinkHost – this should be set to “none” unless you use Pre Check-In or plan to use Check-Out. Setting this URL will display a button in the Check-In process for a user to see a QR code displayed on the screen taking them to the app store listing for your Mobile App. If you don’t have a custom Mobile App, a deeplink will be made available for the TouchPoint App.

We will release more information on Check-Out when the mobile app update has been released.

To learn more about check-in and access the full documentation for check-in click here.

hayley.whitworth • Apr 04, 2022

Do you have several newsletters or regularly-scheduled church communications that you email to your church-goers? Managing email communications inside of TouchPoint has never been easier! Check out this edition of TouchPointers to learn more about Managing Subscription Registration Types:

For personalized help setting up your subscription-based registrations, reach out to [email protected] . 

Check out our recent TouchPointers on creating Mobile-Friendly Newsletters !

Catch up on the last few TouchPointers:

 

Custom Check-In Kiosk

 Attendance Remindres RSVP Links & Regrets Links

Chris.Dolan • Apr 01, 2022

To match the functionality that was released in our last mobile app update, we now have a prayer request submission form. You can either embed the form onto your website within an iFrame, or link to the form as a standalone page.

There are a few new settings that can be used with this form which are found in the Admin settings under Features > Prayer Requests

  • Prayer Request Default Shell – this will allow you to set a shell to the form so it       can be used as a stand alone page. You also have the option to embed the form       into your website, use a blank shell, and add CSS to the shell to style the form           to match your website.
  • Use Prayer Feed – this is set to false for all churches and is there to support a         future feature that you’ll be hearing about in the coming months. If you toggle           this to true (not recommended until later) then a checkbox will appear in the           form allowing a user to select whether they want their request to show in a               feed or not.

How to use the Prayer Request Form as a stand alone page:

1. Make sure you set a shell in the Admin settings
2. The URL for the form is https://yourchurch.tpsdb.com/prayerrequest

How to embed the Prayer Request Form on your website:

1. Set a blank shell in the Admin settings
2. Embed the following code in your website

  • <iframe src=”https://yourchurchname.tpsdb.com/PrayerRequest” style=”height: 750px;width:600px;”></iframe>

3. Adjust the pixel size as needed
4. In order for the form to work you’ll need to add a Content Security Policy to your website. You can do that by:

  • Access your website’s head-section.html fil
  • Add <meta http-equiv=”Content-Security-Policy” content=”frame-src https://yourchurchname.tpsdb.com/ “> between the <head></head> tags

To learn more about prayer requests and access the full documentation, click here .

Katie.Wilson • Apr 01, 2022

Andrew and Chris showed off TouchPoint’s newest features in the most recent webinar. 

To Recap:

  • Some major feature enhancements relating to Check-In have a dedicated blog that you will not want to miss. One of these enhancements is related to Check-In kiosk modes where you can set a kiosk to “scanning” and let individuals scan their Pre-Check QR codes from their app. This feature does need a background image set. Village Bible has a great example of how you can utilize this background image:
  • Another release from this past week is related to the standardized grade dropdown. Check that blog out here.
  • Many of you know we recently integrated with Ministry By Text. Churches now have the option to choose between MBT and Twilio and we have been continuing to update and enhance the SMS feature within TouchPoint. Read about the most recent update to SMS here.
  • The Tasks and Notes feature enhancement has been live for a while now, but we are continuing to make tweaks to make your experience even better! Read more about the recent update here.
  • It is easier than ever for church members to make updates their recurring gifts. Learn more here. 

There is so much more covered in our recording, so if you would like a deep dive into our new features, watch the webinar below!

 Click  HERE  to download the slide deck! 

Our friends at Ministry Safe are offering free resources for individuals to learn more about keeping children out of harms way during child abuse prevention month. Please visit their website to learn more.