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Jan 31, 2024

The next release is scheduled to be deployed tonight, January 31. This includes new features and a few background updates for future releases.

Require Login for Online Giving pages

There is a new setting available on the Online Giving Setup page named “Require Login”. When set to True, the donor will be taken to the Easy Sign In screen to complete their donation after they enter in the amount and fund. Enabling this option can:

  1. Reduce duplicate people records
  2. Speed up the donation process by displaying the donor’s saved payment method(s)

Require Account Code on Registration

There is a new Admin setting named “Require Account Code on Registration” that requires all registration Involvements to have an Account Code filled in if a fee is used. This will ensure that all your registration batch entries will have the proper account code specified when someone registers and pays for an event. Before setting this to True, be sure to run the Registration Without Account Codes report to identify the registration Involvements that are missing an account code.

Future Enhancements

Several behind the scenes updates are included which lay the groundwork for future feature updates that you will hear more about in the coming weeks.

Other small bug fixes and tweaks were included in the release. For more information about the updates in this release, please check the help documentation tomorrow morning.

Hayley Whitworth • Jan 22, 2024

Clean up! Clean up! Everybody, clean up!

Let’s kick off the new year with some database cleaning! Join Andrew Triplett and Cody Binder as they share why database cleanliness is important, what a tidy database looks like, and some practical steps towards cleaning up.

This is always one of our most popular topics, and we are excited to bring it back — revamped with new tips!

Sign Up!

Jan 11, 2024

Ministry by Text (MBT) recently changed their name to Powered by Text (PBT). Now, TouchPoint has addressed that change. The most visible change is that we’ve changed references from Ministry by Text or MBT to Powered by Text or PBT. In addition, there have been several updates to enhance the PBT integration.

MMS Messaging – You can now send an MMS message. Once you have a PBT group selected, the MMS box will automatically present. When you check that box, and MMS Upload option will appear. Choose your file, upload, add a message and then click Send SMS. Max file size is 960 KB.

Send to Group – It is now possible to send a text message to everyone opted in to a certain group. You access this option from the SMS Log. Admin > Communication > SMS Log. Select a PBT group from the Group Dropdown. You can then click the Send to Group button. 

You will then be presented with a Message box. Once a messages has been entered, click Send SMS.

OTM Group Users – You now have the ability to add users to the OTM (Quick Sign-In) group. This allows you to see all incoming messages to that group through the SMS log. Users can still NOT send messages to the OTM group.

System & OTM Groups – Once the System and OTM groups are set, they cannot be deleted.

We hope you enjoy these new enhancements. To find out more about texting in TouchPoint, check out this article.

Jan 11, 2024

The next release is scheduled to be deployed Monday night, January 15th. This includes new features and updates to existing features.

Powered By Text Integration Updates

  • Support for MMS – users will now be able to send MMS texts (texts with photos and videos) directly from TouchPoint instead of needing to log into their PBT account.
  • Sending to a whole group – if you’d like to send to all subscribers to a PBT group (including numbers who are not associated to a record yet in TouchPoint), you can now do that directly within TouchPoint.
  • All references to PBT’s old name have been updated to reflect their new name.
  • Several small tweaks to the setup process have been enhanced to make setup even easier.

Miscellaneous Updates

  • You can now run a custom export on the Pledge Management page.
  • The source of the pledge (online vs. manual) has been added to the export so that finance users can see where the pledge originated.
  • Updates were made to reCAPTCHA to be added to the Prayer page and new Request Account Deletion page. Additional tweaks were made to ensure all legitimate registrations and gifts are able to be processed.
  • The {firstorjoint} replacement code is now supported via SMS.
  • When building a custom report, we’ve made it super easy to add that report to the new navigation menu and select the appropriate location (menu and column).
  • Social Security Number is now required when submitting a background check via the Submit with PII option.
  • Users with the Manager or Manager2 roles can now see the Duplicates Finder and Results options on the new menu.

Mobile App 3.0

  • Several settings and API updates to support the new app.

Other small bug fixes and tweaks were included in the release. For more information about the updates in this release, please check the help documentation Tuesday morning.

Dec 15, 2023

One of the improvements that came with Phase II of the Finance Enhancements was to include all online transactions in Batches. Since then, you may have noticed some batch items without a description. This happens when a registration is received for an Involvement that does not have an Account Code configured.

We have created a convenient report for you to be able to easily identify the registration Involvements and batch entries with missing account codes. The ideal results of this report being run would be zero returns.

Learn more about this report in our Registrations Without Account Codes help article.

Dec 12, 2023

Check Scan v1.0.6 is now available! This update includes enhancements and improvement to matching. This should decrease the number of times you need to manually modify the routing, account, and check numbers once you’ve scanned in checks. If you do encounter a check that isn’t matched as expected, be sure to make the appropriate adjustments in the Pattern Match section, enter the Bank Name, and click the Save button. This will tell TouchPoint to remember that pattern so that the check will scan properly next time.

To download this update, click here. For additional information, please see the Scanning Checks to Import Data and Images help article.

Dec 04, 2023

The next release is scheduled to be deployed Wednesday night, December 6. This includes new features and updates to existing features.

  • Check-In Add Family Form – We have added two enhancements to the Add Family form when using Check-In.
    • The Date of Birth field is now a text entry field that only allows entering numbers (no dashes or forward slashes needed) in order to make entering birth dates faster than using the previous date picker.
    • There is now a Cancel button when adding a child in case you accidentally click the Add Child button too many times.
  • Mass Background Checks/Trainings – It is now possible to run background checks and/or Ministry Safe trainings in mass from the blue toolbar. If you have a saved search that identifies who needs a check or training, now you can send this to all people at one time instead of individually.
  • NEW Emergency Contact Flag – A new flag can be displayed at the top of a person’s record when he or she has an emergency contact set on his or her record. To turn this on, navigate to Admin > Settings > Features > Status Flags and set Badge For Emergency Contact to True. You can configure the color of the badge using the Badge Color Emergency Contact setting. 
  • TouchPoint Giving Reports – The following reports are now available exclusively for church partners using the TouchPoint Giving payment gateway. Note: links to these reports will only show in the new navigation menu. 
    • First Time Giving Report – Identify those who have contributed to your church for the first time.
    • Increased Giving by Range Report – Compares two date ranges to see those whose giving has increased.
    • Decreased Giving by Range Report – Compares two date ranges to see those whose giving has decreased.
  • Mass Creation and Deletion of Users – It is now possible to mass create MyData users and add a random password for them. This process can be exported for a mail merge if you wanted to mail users account information. You can then search for accounts that have not logged in during the specified time and delete them in mass.
  • Miscellaneous
    • SMS Replacement Codes – Additional replacement codes have been added when sending SMS messages. A full list of replacement codes can be found in our documentation.
    • eSPACE Integration – Enhancements have been made to the eSPACE integration to pull in events to TouchPoint so that they can be synced with your TouchPoint Sites website calendar widget.
    • Involvement Export – The Involvement export/import tool now supports updating extra value of all types.
    • Involvement Creation – It is now possible to limit who has access to create new Involvements based on roles.
  • Several settings and API updates to support Mobile 3.0 as well as a various bug fixes were included in the release.

Nov 29, 2023

We plan to perform maintenance on a monthly basis, at a consistent time. This maintenance window will be performed on the first Sunday of each month from 10:30 PM to 12:30 AM Central Time. To read more about our maintenance and deployment windows you can check out our documentation.

Thank you for your understanding as we work to enhance the security, stability, and performance of our systems!

If you have any questions, please contact Support.

Nov 06, 2023

The next release is scheduled to be deployed Wednesday night, November 8. This includes new features and updates to existing features all relating to the finance area of TouchPoint.

 

  • Manage Recurring Giving Page – We have added the ability for users with the FinanceAdmin or Finance + Admin roles to add new and edit existing recurring gifts. More details about this new functionality will be released in a separate blog post soon. 
  • Multiple Refunds – Churches using the TouchPoint Giving payment gateway can now issue multiple refunds for the same transaction. For example, if someone paid $100, you could refund $10 and then refund an additional amount after that. 
  • Batch Enhancements 
    • Search Performance – The search for people when assigning contributions has been optimized so that it is now much quicker.
    • Deceased People – A label will now clearly indicate donors that are deceased when assigning contributions.
    • Reversals and Returns – If a transaction is reversed or returned, it will be automatically removed from the batch, regardless of the batch type or status. Reversals and returns continue to be handled from the Contribution Search page. Read more about how to do this in the Corrections / Reversals for Contributions and Returned Checks help articles.
    • Mass Updates – If a batch is open, you can now perform the following mass updates to entries:
      • Move to another batch (only to an open batch)
      • Delete entry – pops up a warning before performing the delete and the deletion is tracked in the change log
      • Edit entry
        • Date
        • Fund/Account code
        • Type
        • SourceEmail receipt – This is only available for churches using the TouchPoint Giving payment gateway and can be used to notify donors who give offline (cash, check, stock, etc) that their gift has been received and recorded by the church.
  • Soft Credit Enhancements 

Oct 26, 2023

TouchPoint already offered the ability to enable reCAPTCHA, which protected payment pages against certain types of fraud and abuse by malicious bots. We recently updated to the latest version of reCAPTCHA in order to improve security and the user experience with online transactions. This update provides several benefits to the church when it comes to Online Giving and Online Registrations.

1. The new reCAPTCHA allows us to reset the form based on a number of failed payment method entries instead of resetting after 2 minutes. This new way better guards against more sophisticated bots. A church can set the default number of failed attempts by navigating to Admin > Advanced > Settings > System > Security > Lockout on Number of Consecutive Failed Gifts. The current default is 3.

2. The new reCAPTCHA allows a default strictness level for determining suspicious behavior to be set. This gives you more granular control to turn on reCAPTCHA (to allow for an extra layer of security), but to lower the strictness so that it does not create friction for most users. This setting can be adjusted by navigating to Admin > Advanced > Settings > System > Security > Google Recaptcha Minimum Score.

3. For most users, the reCAPTCHA will simply work in the background, so they don’t even know it’s there. In many cases, there will be no need for the user to solve puzzles or click checkboxes.

4. The algorithms used to analyze behavior to determine whether the user is a human or a bot are more advanced and better at identifying and stopping malicious bots.

5. Instead of only challenging the user once in a while, the user’s actions are constantly assessed, allowing it to adapt and react in real-time to changing circumstances.

To learn more about enabling reCAPTCHA on your database, please see the Online Giving Setup help article.

Dania Lane • Oct 26, 2023

If you are using TouchPoint Ticketing, we have some exciting enhancements to share. We have created a new My Tickets page. Ticket holders can now access an improved ticket page.

Attendees can access their tickets on their phone or computer and provide the QR code to your ushers for scanning.

You’ll notice two new options that are customizable per Involvement:

  • Transfer Tickets – Attendees can access their tickets and transfer one or more tickets to someone else.
  • Release Tickets – Attendees can release their tickets very easily from this new interface.

The My Tickets page can be customized as well as the tickets themselves with JSON and CSS code. Although you can continue to use the {seatingtickets} replacement code in the confirmation email, we encourage you to fully embrace the following replacement code instead for the best user experience: {mytickets:1234,Please follow this link to view all your e-tickets.}

If you’re interested in learning more about Ticketing in TouchPoint, please request further information at https://www.touchpointsoftware.com/demo.

For more information, see the Ticketing in TouchPoint and My Tickets Page help articles.

Hayley Whitworth • Oct 24, 2023

You don’t want to miss this! Learn why your church needs to be involved in legacy giving!

You are in for a special treat with this month’s webinar! Guest host Doug Ripley from PhilanthroCorp will be joining us to discuss why legacy giving is a major factor in your church’s future financial health and how to offer legacy giving to your members.

PhilanthroCorp serves churches, universities, and other charitable organizations by providing their constituents with a unique estate planning service from a Biblical world-view. PhilanthroCorp’s clients can offer their confidential planning services to their supporters. Their expert advice and guidance is a great service that produces both gratitude from these supporters and significant gifts to their clients. For their clients, they are trusted partners that provide a customized approach, generating consistent, measurable, and significant results.

Tune in October 26th at 2pm Central

Sign Up!