Church Management Solutions Online Help

Download Reinstallation/Workstation Installation

Mary Breault — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:20:34 GMT

The Reinstallation and Workstation installation file is approximately 39M in size.

If installing a single product on a single computer/workstation, use "Run this program from its current location", "Open", or "Run" on the following window to download. Follow the instructions. The download installation will automatically run on your computer.

Click Save to save the ReinstallDownload.exe file to a network folder or CD and then double-click the ReinstallDownload.exe file to run and perform Workstation installations on multiple computers on a network without the need to download on each computer.

Read the Network Installation instructions before downloading this Reinstallation/Workstation Installation that is appropriate for your network environment:

Click here to download

Questions? Email us at support@churchmanagementsolutions.com.

How to create Christmas Bonus Checks?

Mary Breault — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:16:27 GMT

You can create a bonus check at the end of the year for employees using CMS Payroll.

Prepare a list of all employees and the bonus they are to receive.

Be sure that all previous payrolls have been posted. Bonus paychecks will be prepared using all the procedures for a normal payroll cycle.

From CMS Payroll, click Enter/Edit Timecards and choose the Create Bonus Pay button.

Click the up arrow at Pay Item and choose the appropriate Pay Item,

or create a new Pay Item (Bonus). Click Select.

The Bonus Gross Pay Calculator will help you calculate the Gross Pay Amount for timecard items.

Check mark only the taxes to be withheld.

Note: Use the Deduction/Benefit selection button during the calculation of the payroll to deselect taxes you do not wish to withhold.

The federal supplemental withholding percentage will be used if selected.

The state supplemental withholding percentage being used will be that of the church's state for all employees, if selected.

To use a local tax supplemental withholding percentage, create a local tax called "BONUS" and specify a supplemental withholding percentage. The system will use that percentage for all bonus pay.

To produce a net check of a certain amount, click on "Enter Desired Net Check Amount" and enter the net check amount. The Gross Bonus Amount will be calculated.
To pay a Gross Bonus Amount, you may select "Enter Desired Gross Bonus Amount" and enter the amount. The system will calculate the approximate Net Check amount.

Note: The Bonus Gross Pay for employees not subject to taxes (clergy) needs to be entered as the bonus net pay amount.

Payroll Gross Pay Account to Use:
Use the same account as the employee's regular pay (the system will use the shortcut of the first regular pay item).

To use a common expense account for the bonus pay, choose "Specific Shortcut" and enter the shortcut number to use. The account must already be set up as a Payroll Gross Pay Account.

Click the Select Employees button...

and choose the employees receiving this bonus Click OK.

Click OK on the Create Timecard for Bonus window. The system will enter the gross pay amount on each selected employee's timecard.

Repeat the Create Bonus Pay for different bonus amounts.

Calculate the Payroll.

Click on the Deduction/Benefit button and check only the taxes to be withheld from the bonus check.

Print and review the Paycycle Reports (Current Earnings, Payroll Summary, and Finance Distribution).

Prepare the bonus checks. Click on Process | Paychecks and under Payment Method, choose Print Checks.

If you have employees participating in direct deposit (ACH), you will be asked if you wish to print checks for those employee. Clicking Yes will cause the system to override the direct deposit designation for the employee and print a physical bonus check instead.

If you wish to create a direct deposit file instead, answer No to the question. The system will only print checks for non-direct deposit employees. Repeat the Paychecks process selecting the ACH Payment Method for a direct deposit bonus check file.

Print final copies of the Paycycle Reports.

Post the payroll as normal. The gross pay amount will be included in each person's taxable wages. The Current Pay Period counter does not advance for a bonus payroll.

How to create Contributor Statements

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:36:27 GMT

You can create a Contributor Statement that can be printed and mailed out to your contributors each month, quarter, mid-year, or yearly.

You can choose from a variety of formats, printing options, and sorts.

From the CMS Contribution System menu, click the Statements button.

If you have never created Contributor Statements before, or would like to start from scratch, click the New Report button on the right side of the screen and give your statements a name, such as Contributor Statements with Pledge Detail and click OK.

This will display the Contributor Statements Selection Screen.

First things first, you'll want to determine WHO will get a statement.

The default selections will include anyone with either:

An Envelope Number, or
A YTD Contribution greater than zero, or
A Total Pledge greater than zero

But you can choose to limit that even further. Take a look at the Selections section on the left side of the screen.

For example, you may choose to not send a statement to those people who have passed away or moved away. Click the Member Status button and remove your codes for Deceased and Transferred/Moved. Click OK.

Or, you may choose to not send a statement to those people who have an envelope number, but who have not contributed or pledged this year. Click the Additional Button.

Click the dot at People With Pledges or Contributions.

In general, you will not check any of the boxes under Additional Limits.

This is used if you ONLY want those people who have a Pledge to a particular fund, or if you ONLY want people with a Balance Due on a Pledge.

The IRS rules for Contributor Statements states that anyone who contributes $250 needs a "contemporaneous written acknowledgement" (see http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96102,00.html for complete details).

If you ONLY want to send to those people who have given you $250, click the Single Contribution checkbox and the range $250 thru $9,999,999.99 will appear.

However, most churches will send statements to contributors, regardless of the amount given in a single contribution.

Additional Limits is a SELECTION for WHO will get a statement, not for WHAT will Print on the statement. Click OK.

Now that you've determined WHO will get a statement, let's look at how the statement will appear!

Click the Change Statement Format button.

There are seven different styles of Contributor Statements you can choose from. Each Statement can be printed at any time in the year.

So just because it says it's a "Yearly Detail", doesn't mean you can't print it on October 13th! You can print them anytime you want!

Each Statement format appears a bit different to the contributor:

Quarterly - The Quarterly Statement will print only the Pledgeable and/or Major funds you have entered in your system. All of the Special Funds will be lumped into a Special Funds column. If you have five or fewer Pledgeable/Major funds, the statement will always fit on one page. This statement is IRS Compliant only if you print and mail it four times each year.

Quarterly (dot matrix) - Similar Contributor Statement for those churches who still use a dot matrix printer, rather than a laser/ink jet printer. You can set up a Generic/Text Only printer driver and this statement format will print to your dot matrix printer very fast!

Monthly Summary - This statement will print only a summary of each month for the Pledgeable/Major funds and combine your Special Funds into a Special Funds column. This statement is NOT IRS compliant for those people who have given $250 single contribution.
Yearly Detail A - This statement format is our most popular statement format (and IS completely IRS compliant!). This statement will print only the funds to which each contributor has activity (pledge and/or contributions), and will print each individual date of the contribution and amount given to that fund in four columns across the page. The pledge information displayed is complete and easy to understand, as it is listed in a columnar format.
Yearly Detail B - Laid out similarly to the Yearly Detail A, this statement handles the pledge status information in a paragraph form.
Yearly Detail C - This statement is again very similar to the Yearly Detail A format. However, instead of the contribution detail laid out in four columns across the page, it is listed one line per down the left column of the page. This statement will also print the Check Number, Contribution Type, and Description (if applicable) of each contribution per date per fund.
Fees & Payments - This statement is laid out as the Yearly Detail C format, however the phrasing on the statement uses Fees & Payments terminology instead of Pledges & Contributions. You can use this statement for Religious Education or School tuition.

Select the statement format you prefer and click OK.

If you are choosing to Bulk Mail your statements, you can choose to sort either by Alpha, Carrier Route, or Zip Code.

NOTE: If you choose the Zip Code sort, you will get a Zip Code Count report after printing and closing the statements.

If you are tracking non-deductible items, such as Religious Education or School Tuition, you may not want to include them on your End of Year Contributor Statement. The Yearly Detail and Fees & Payments formats will allow you to choose the funds to print.

Click the Print Funds button and remove any non-deductible funds. Click OK.

You may want to add your own Statement Message to the bottom of each statement. Click the Statement Message button on the right side of the Statement Selection screen.

The "Only intangible religious benefits were provided" (or a variation of) is the IRS Compliant statement that should be somewhere on your statement.

If you are choosing to bulk mail your statements, you will need a message soliciting future contributions, i.e. "Thank you for your continued support".

You may also want to include a message indicating name and phone number of the person the contributor should contact if they have any problems or questions on their statement. Click OK.

If you would prefer a phrase other than "Pledge" i.e. Commitment, Promise, etc. on the statement, click the Rename Headings button on the left. You can change the words Pledge and Balance to another phrase as needed. Click OK.

Click the Print Items button to determine what pieces information that you want to print on the statement.

For example, if you are printing the statement on church letterhead, you may want to remove the checkmark at Church Name and Address.

Only print the Contributor Postal Bar Code if you have been CASS Certified. See CASS Certification Information and Order Form for more information.

If you are using the Self Sealing Mailers, you can print the Postal Permit information directly on the piece. Click the Edit Postal Permit button to enter your churches bulk mail permit information. Click OK.

You can control the Pledge Status Calculation sections on the Yearly Detail A, C, and Fees & Payments Statement formats.

If you leave the YTD Pledge, Total Pledge and Balance Due items checked, the statement pledge information will appear as follows:

The Year To Date Pledge is the Current Pledge Status Calculation on the left side of the page. If you want the contributor to view their pledge as of a certain date in time, you'll want to be sure this item is checked.

If you remove the checkmark at YTD Pledge and leave the Total Pledge checked, it will appear as:

The Total Pledge checkbox controls the Total Pledge Status Calculation. Leave the YTD Pledge checked and remove the checkbox and it will appear as:

And the Balance Due checkbox controls the "math". If you check both the YTD Pledge and Total Pledge, but remove the checkmark at Balance Due, it will appear as:

Click OK.

Click Print.

The statements will fit beautifully in a #9 single window envelope (you can use the same envelope that your checks fit into from Ledgers & Payroll!).

End of Contribution Year Checklist

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:35:47 GMT

There are several steps to completing the End of Contribution Year in CMS.

1. Enter and Post all Contributions for the current contribution year.

Make sure you have entered and posted all contributions for the year. Make any adjustment entries that you are aware of.

2. Calculate Pledge Balances and Set Statement Date.

From CMS Contribution, click Process | Calculate Pledge Balances/Set Statement Date. Type the last date of the current Contribution Year and click the Calculate button.

Even if your church does not utilize pledges, you must run this process to set the correct date for the Contributor Statements.

3. Run a CMS Database Backup

From CMS, choose File | Backup. Label and save these diskettes, CD-R, Zip disk, etc. DO NOT OVERWRITE THIS BACKUP! Store them off-site or in a safe place.

You may also choose to make an End of Year Backup to the CMS FTP Backup Site.

Click the dot at FTP Backup and click the up arrow at File Name. The system will access your backup history.

At the FTP Backup File Name display, click the Add button on the right and add a new file and give it a name, such as

2006 End of Year Database Backup

and click OK.

Highlight this new backup file name and click Select | OK and follow the instructions on screen.

Do not overwrite this backup as you make your daily/weekly backups in the future.

4. Archive CMS for Windows

From CMS, click File | Utilities | Archive CMS.

This process will automatically create a copy of your CMS system and create a shortcut on the desktop. This can be accessed at anytime in the future to print reports and reprint statements as needed.

You WILL NOT run End of Year on the Archived copy.

NOTE: Norton AntiVirus software may detect the creation of the archive shortcut with the message "Alert: Malicious Script Detected" and the request "What do you want to do?". Choose Authorize This Script and click OK to continue.

If you accept the default at this message, the shortcut will not be created and you will need re-run the process to create the Archive shortcut only.

You can also run the Archive process to create the Archive Shortcut Only in a network environment, if the archive process has already been run from another computer and you want to create a shortcut only to access that Archive from this computer.

5. Print End of Year Reports

Alpha/Envelope Reference - Choose Reports | Envelope Number Listing | Alpha/Envelope Reference. This report will display a simple listing of your current year contributors.
Click Reports | Congregation Weekly Summary | Print to your printer. This report will display totals of how much was contributed each week to each fund.

Go to the last page of the report and make note of the YTD Total To All Funds.

Click Reports | Pledge & Contribution Summaries | All Contributors | Print to your printer. This report will display how much each contributor has pledged and/or contributed so far this year.

Go to the last page of the report and compare the Total Contributions to All Funds to the YTD Total to All Funds on the Congregation Weekly Summary report you printed in Step #1.
These two numbers add up different things in CMS, but when printing the report for all people and all funds, they should always match!
NOTE: If your totals don't match, follow the steps in Contributor Statement - Detail doesn't add up to Totals to correct.

6. Pint Contributor Statements

From CMS Contribution System menu, click Statements. If you have not previously created Contributor Statements, click New Report on the right and give it the name Contributor Statements. If you have a report named Contributor Statements listed, you can simply select that report.

You can follow the steps in How To Create Contributor Statements for complete instructions.

7. Run End of Year

From the CMS Contribution System menu, click Process | End of Contribution Year | Continue | Continue.

The End of Contribution Year process will prepare your pledges and contributions for the next twelve months. It will analyze the data already entered to assist you in making the correct Year End Pledge Process choice for each fund.

Review the Year End Pledge Process options for each fund to ensure the pledges will handled correctly in the next, new year.

Advance Pledge Dates One Year - Choose this options only if you wish to use the CURRENT PLEDGES for the next year also. DO NOT choose this option if you have entered pledges for this fund in the Next Year Pledge entry process.
Clear Pledges - Choose this option if the pledge is completed, or has not been entered.
Replace with Next Year Pledges - Choose this option if you have already entered your pledges for the next year.
Active Multi Year Pledge - Choose this option if the current pledge will be active next year and/or if you're in the middle of a multi year pledge.

Click Process after you have entered your Year End Pledge Process for each fund.

If you have entered Next Year Envelope numbers, those numbers will be made the envelope numbers for the next, new year.

Batches already entered for the next, new year will be automatically renumbered starting at batch #1.

How do I use Speed Update to enter a code for many people?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:11:48 GMT

PROBLEM: You have a code that you need to assign to several people, what's the quickest way of doing this?

SOLUTION: You can use CMS Speed Update to quickly code many fields in CMS!

From CMS Membership, click People | Speed Update.

You can choose to update

Activity Codes
Class Codes
Household Fields
Person Fields
Baptism Fields
Confirmation Fields
Communion Fields

In this example, we will assign an Occupation Code of Accountant to all of the Accountants in the database.

Be sure you have a current backup of your system before beginning this process!

From CMS Membership, click People | Speed Update | Person.

Click the down arrow at Fields and choose the field you wish to update. In our example, we will choose Occupation Code.

Click the up arrow at Value and choose the value you want to assign to that field. In our example, we will choose Accountants.

Click Select Names.

You may enter the data with your mouse, by scrolling down to the appropriate name and click the checkbox next to the person's name.

You may enter the data with your keyboard, by typing the first few characters of the last name to "jump" to that family. Press the Enter key on the keyboard to place a checkmark next to their name.

When you have everyone coded, click OK | Update and that code will now be assigned to that person!

Speed Update Person Fields include:

Person Custom Code 1
Person Custom Code 2
Person Custom Number 1
Person Custom Number 2
Person Custom Text 1
Person Custom Text 2
Person Custom Text 3
Person Custom Text 4
Person Custom Date 1
Person Custom Date 2
Person Custom Date 3
Person Custom Long Text
Education Level
Employer
Grade Level
Last Attendance
Last Participation
Marriage Status
Member Date
Member Status
Member Title
Occupation Code
Occupation Type
Participation Status
Record Status
School Code
Suffix
Sunday School

Speed Update Household Fields include:

Country
House Custom Code 1
House Custom Code 2
House Custom Number 1
House Custom Number 2
House Custom Text 1
House Custom Text 2
House Custom Text 3
House Custom Text 4
House Custom Date 1
House Custom Date 2
House Custom Date 3
House Custom Long Text 1
House Custom Long Text 2
Group Code
Record Status
Title
Unit Type

Speed Update Activity Display:

Speed Update Class Display:

Speed Update Baptism Display:

Speed Update Confirmation Display:

Speed Update Communion Display:

How to Email Groups of People

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:11:20 GMT

You can use your CMS Membership System and Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express to email groups of people who have email addresses entered in CMS.

Any group of people that you can create labels, you can send an email instead!

From your CMS Membership System, click Labels/Letter-Mailer.

These are all of the label reports you have already set up. You can use any of these label report to send those recipients an email instead of a label. Or you can create a new set of labels (see Creating Labels for selection instructions). This example will use an existing set of labels.

Just highlight the group you want to email and click Select.

Then from the Label Selection Screen, click the Email/Mailing button in the upper right corner of the screen, just under the Print button.

This will start your Email/Mailing Wizard! We'll follow along with the steps.

First, you'll want to decide if you want to send an email to the Household, Personal, and/or Business email address, or any combination therein.

For example, you may have members who do not wish any church communication to come to their Business email address. In this case, just remove the checkmark at Business Email!

Click Next.

You can choose to print a listing of those people who have been selected for labels/emails. The listing will show you who will receive an email, and those who will receive a label (people who do not have an email address entered).

If you would like to confirm your selections, or see who does not have an email address entered, click the Print List button.

This report will show you those people who do and who do not have an email address entered.

Click Next.

You can now choose to send your email! Click the Send Email button in the upper right corner of the screen.

This will compile your email addresses and copy them into your Windows Clipboard.

If you are working with a small group of people, a new mail message box will open and your email addresses will automatically be inserted into the TO: field. You can type in your subject and message and click Send!

If you are working with a larger group of people, you may get a message that states:

"The email addresses cannot automatically be inserted in the email message due to a limitation in the number of addresses. These addresses have been copied into Windows Clipboard.

You may paste these addresses into your email message by clicking on the 'To' field and click Edit, Paste or press Ctrl+V on your keyboard."

CLick OK at this message.

When the new mail message comes up, right click into the TO: field, or better yet, the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) field and choose Paste.

All of your email addresses should pop right into place and you can now type your subject and message and click Send!

NOTE: Blind Carbon Copy is a function of your Email Editing Software. If you insert the email addresses into the Blind Carbon Copy field, the recipient's name(s) and email address(es) are not visible to other recipients of the message.

To Turn On The BCC field:

Outlook Express - From a New Mail Message, click View | and check the All Headers box.

Microsoft Outlook - From a New Mail Message, click View | BCC: Field.
From a New Mail Message, click View | BCC: Field.
Microsoft Outlook Word Editor - If you are using Microsoft Word as your email editor, from a New Mail Message, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Options button, and click BCC:.
If you are using Microsoft Word as your email editor, from a New Mail Message, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Options button, and click BCC:.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 or greater - Click the Options tab and choose Show BCC.
Click the Options tab and choose Show BCC.

Once you've sent your email message, the system will return you to your Email/Mailing Wizard in CMS. Click Next.

If you are expecting labels and want to print them, click Labels.

And the system will print up the labels for those people who did not have an email address entered!

Ledger & Payables End of Year Checklist

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:39:10 GMT

The End of Year processing deletes prior year transaction data, moves new budgets into place, and sets the beginning balances of all accounts to their proper value for the beginning of the new year.

Ensure that deposits, journal entries, and credit card charges dated in this month and bills that have been paid in this month are complete and accurate. Those transactions cannot be changed after the month is closed. Bills that have not been paid are not included in account balances and they can be changed at any time.

Before processing the End of Year, print the Deposit Register, Journal Entry, Check Register, Bill List, Statement of Activities, Statement of Financial Position, and Dedicated Accounts, and General Ledger. Verify that all of the month's transactions have been entered correctly.

Since you can continue to enter bills, checks, deposits and journal entries for the following month, you may decide to reconcile your bank account prior to running end of year to ensure all transactions have been entered correctly.

1. Run the Finance Data Integrity Check.

This process will perform a check of your finance data for possible problems including: missing check records, mismatched bill and check data, unbalanced journal entries, etc.

From CMS Ledger & Payables, click File | Utilities | Finance Data Integrity | OK to exit Ledger & Payables. Click Process.

If the process finds any problems, you will need to correct those issues before completing End of Fiscal Year.

If the process completes without errors, you can continue!

2. Calculate Balances

From CMS Ledger & Payables, click Process | Calculate Balances | Finish.

This process updates account and vendor balances with all of the transactions entered during the month.

3. Print End of Year Reports

There are several reports you will need to print each month: Deposit Register, Journal Entry, Check Register, Bill List, Statement of Activities, Statement of Financial Position, and Dedicated Accounts, and General Ledger, as well as any other reports requested by others in your church. Print the end of Month reports for the last month of your Fiscal Year.

If you have not yet established the Print Queue for the Month End Reports, click here for instructions to create the Month End Print Queue.

There are also several reports that should be printed at the End of Year:

Statement of Financial Position for each fund and for all funds.
Statement of Activities for each fund and for all funds.
Statement of Dedicated Accounts for each fund and for all funds.

Click here to find out how funds transfer to Net Assets.

In addition, you may want to print the following optional reports:

General Ledger for the entire year
Vendor List NOTE: if your fiscal year is not the calendar year, be sure to print this report for the entire fiscal year and for the calendar year.
Vendor 1099 Forms (if applicable)
Annual Report Statement
Statement of Cash Flow
Monthly Budget/History
Vendor Audit for all or particular vendors

4. Make a backup

Make a backup of your data prior to running the End of Month Process. You may choose to store the End of Month backup sets in a different location than your daily backups. Click here to find out more information on backing up in CMS.

5. Archive CMS Fund Accounting Data for the Year

At the end of the fiscal year, financial statements are prepared and the end of year processing is completed to prepare the system for the new fiscal year. It's not unusual that investment reports and accounting adjustments are not available until several weeks or months into the new Fiscal Year. If you need to wait for that information before completing the end of year processing, it is inconvenient or difficult to obtain monthly financial statements for months in the new year.

Most CMS clients want the ability to review vendor and account transactions in the past year(s) to compare costs, adjust budgets, prepare 1099 and Payroll W-2 forms, and print other analysis reports.

CMS Fund Accounting solves the situations described above by making a copy of the system in a new folder on your computer after the normal transaction data has been entered for the current year (deposits, checks, credit card charges). The copy contains all the transactions for the year.

Adjusting entries based on the final investment reports and accounting decisions can be entered in the copy before printing the final financial statement.

This process makes a copy of the folder containing the CMS Fund Accounting data and programs (normally FIN4WIN) and creates a shortcut to access that copy.

It copies all the files for Finance and Payables, Payroll, Fixed Assets, and any other accounting modules. The Archive copy and the shortcut to access it are normally named FINxxxx where xxxx is the fiscal year you are ending. Examples are seen below.

Note: An option to change those names is provided within the Archive Fund Accounting Utility.

Click File | Utilities | Archive Fund Acct. | click OK.

NOTE: Norton AntiVirus software may detect the creation of the archive shortcut with a message "Malicious Script Detected" and the request "What do you want to do?". Choose "Authorize this script" and click OK to continue.

Do not rename the CMS Fund Accounting shortcut to your new fiscal year. Renaming the CMS Fund Accounting shortcut may cause failure of the archive function next year. The shortcut "CMS Fund Accounting" will always be the current fiscal year.

6. Run End of Year

From CMS Ledger & Payables System, click Process | End of Period | End of Fiscal Year.

The system will ask if you've printed the checklist and are ready to proceed. If you have already completed all steps, click Next.

The system will perform the Finance Data Integrity Process. Since you ran this previously, it should run through without errors.

The system will ask if you have printed all your reports, performed a backup, and completed the Archive process. If you have already completed these steps, check each box and click Next.

The system will ask you to assign a Net Asset account for each fund to record the difference between income and expense. The system will insert the Net Asset account used in prior years. Enter the correct shortcut number and click Next.

You can select the appropriate choice for your budget data:

Budget data is not used or available at this time. Set the budget data to zero.
Budget data for XXXX has not been entered. Set the XXXX (next year) budget the same as XXXX (this year) budget.
Budget data for XXXX (next year) has been entered, make it active and set the XXXX (following year) budget data the same as the XXXX (next year) budget data.
Budget data for XXXX (next year) has been entered, make it active and set the XXXX (following year) budget to zero.

Click Next.

The system will now process the End of Fiscal Year. Click Finish.

Once complete, you must exit CMS Fund Accounting (you do not need to restart the computer).

7. Prepare for Next Year

When you come back into CMS Ledger & Payables, click Process | Calculate Balances | Finish.

Add and/or Delete Accounts, if applicable.
Enter new budget data, if applicable.
Delete Vendors no longer being used.
Print the Statement of Financial Position for each and for all funds. NOTE: For Asset and Liability Accounts, verify that beginning balances are the same as the ending balances at the end of the last fiscal year.
Print the Statement of Activities. NOTE: For Income and Expense Accounts, verify that the account balances are zero or equal to the transactions entered for the new year, and that the budget numbers are correct.
Print the Statement of Dedicated Accounts. NOTE: Verify that beginning balances are the same as ending balances at the end of last fiscal year.

End of Fiscal Year is now complete!

Combining Duplicate Vendors

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:38:50 GMT

The Combine Vendor function combines vendors and all of their transactions and history onto one single vendor. This can be used, for example, if the vendor was entered twice in the system.

From the Entry menu, choose Vendor Entry. The Vendor dialog will display.

Click the Combine Vendor button on the side-bar. The Combine Vendors dialog will display.

Select vendors on the list of all vendors on the left by scrolling down or typing letters for the vendor’s name. Highlight the duplicate vendor and click the Copy From button to select that duplicate vendor.

Select vendors on the list of all vendors on the left by scrolling down or typing letters for the vendor’s name. Highlight the vendor record that should be retained and click the Copy To button to select that correct vendor record.

Click the Combine button.

Click Yes at the Combine Vendor Confirmation dialog to combine the vendors. Click No to cancel the Combine Vendor process.

A Delete Vendor dialog will display. If you would like to delete the duplicate vendor after the copy process has completed, click Yes. If you would like to retain the duplicate vendor’s record, click No.

How to Void a Check damaged in the printer?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:38:29 GMT

PROBLEM: Your printer just ate a check you were attempting to print! You'd like to indicate somewhere in the system that this check was voided, but you don't know how to enter this one, as there's no bill attached to the digested check!

SOLUTION: Create a new bill, but use the Vendor "Checks - Damaged and/or Voided".

When you create the bill, use a shortcut number for Misc Expenses, or Office Supplies, or Bank Service Charges, etc. Since you're voiding the check, and not assigning a dollar amount to the check, it will not alter that expense account.

Leave the dollar amount at zero.

Enter in the Comments field the reason why you're voiding the check.

Click Assign Check Number on the right side of the Bills Entry Display and enter the Check number that was damaged.

Once the check number has been assigned, press the Enter key on your keyboard until the check number is no longer editable and turns underlined and blue.

With your mouse, click the blue, underlined check number to toggle from Bills into Checks.

From the Checks display, click the Void button on the right and follow the steps on screen to void this check number.

The system will ask if you would like to make a copy of the bill as a new bill to pay again, answer NO.

Ministers' Compensation and Housing Allowance

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:38:08 GMT

PROBLEM: You currently pay pastor's housing through the Ledger & Payables system, not through the Payroll System. You'd like to add the Housing Allowances to the pastor's payroll checks and not include that amount on the W-2?

SOLUTION: Clergy income and housing can be confusing, particularly if you've heard different things from different organizations. Let's go to the source and read what the IRS has to say about it...

http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq4-10.html

4.10 Interest/Dividends/Other Types of Income: Ministers' Compensation & Housing Allowance
A minister receives a salary plus a housing allowance. Is the housing allowance income? Where do the minister report it?
A minister's housing allowance, sometimes called a parsonage allowance or a rental allowance, is excludable from gross income for income tax purposes, but not for self-employment tax purposes.
If you are a minister and receive as part of your salary (as a minister) an amount officially designated as a rental allowance, you can exclude from gross income the amount that is used to provide or rent a home. However, the exclusion is limited to the lesser of the fair market rental value (including furnishing, utilities, garage, etc.) of the amount officially designated (in advance of payment) as a rental or housing allowance, or the actual amount used to provide a home, and cannot exceed what is reasonable pay for your services. The payments must be used in the year received.
If housing is furnished to you by your congregation as pay for your services as a minister, the exclusion cannot be more than what is reasonable pay for your services, and is limited to the fair market rental value (including furnishings, utilities, garage, etc.) of the home.
If you own your home and you receive a housing allowance as part of your pay, for your services as a minister, the exclusion cannot be more than the smaller of the following:
the amount actually used to provide a home,
the amount officially designated (in advance of payment) as a rental or housing allowance, or
the fair market rental value of the home, including furnishings, utilities, garage, etc.
An amount which represents reasonable pay for your services as a minister.
For additional information on housing allowance, refer to Publication 517, Social Security and Other Information for the Members of the Clergy and Religious Workers. For information on earnings for clergy and reporting of self-employment tax, refer to Tax Topic 417, Earnings for clergy.

So here's how you should set up the pastor's housing allowance...

From your CMS Payroll system, click Enter/Change Employees | click the Find Button on the right and find your Pastor | click to his Pay Data tab.

Go to the next available row under Pay Description and click the up arrow at Pay Description.

Scroll down the list and choose Housing, and verify that the Item Pay Type is set to Allowance and click Select.

If you don't see the Housing Allowance Pay Type, click the green cross button Add on the right and add the Housing Allowance to the list. Then select it.

You'll need to choose the appropriate Gross Pay Account for this Housing Allowance. In this example, we've chosen the Pastor's Salaries account. You may want to use the same expense account you had previously used to track the Pastor's Housing Allowance.

Pop in the Pay Period Amount for the housing allowance and confirm that the Annual Amount is correct. If the system didn't fill it in for you already, enter the shortcut number of the gross pay account for the Pastor's Salary or Housing Expense account.

Now, when he gets paid, he'll get his salary and housing allowance together!

And, when he receives his W-2, the Housing Allowance will be in the Box 14 reported as Other. It will be excluded from his gross income when paying income tax, but he will need to report it when submitting his self employment tax info.

I'd like to start paying my employees by Direct Deposit, but where do I start?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:37:48 GMT

PROBLEM: I'm currently paying my employees by check, but I'd really like to start paying them via direct deposit. What do I need to do to start paying them via Direct Deposit?

SOLUTION: There is a bit of setup to begin paying your employees by direct deposit, instead of a paper check, but once it's all set up it's a breeze to maintain!

There are two ways you can prepare the direct deposit information:

ACH - Automated Clearing House
NPC - National Payment Corporation

National Payment Corp is an actual company that will provide the service of transferring the funds for you.

Automated Clearing House is a type of file that most banks accept for transferring the funds for direct deposit.

So what does that all mean?

If your local bank is going to perform the direct deposit funds transfer for you, use ACH. Most churches will use ACH.

If you choose not to use your local bank and want an outside company to assist you in transferring the funds for direct deposit, contact National Payment Corporation to set up an account, and choose NPC.

Step 1 - Set up the Church/Employer Information

The first thing you'll need to do is set up the churches bank information in the CMS Payroll System.

From CMS Payroll, click Options | Employer Info.

Enter the Church/Employers Name, address, phone, Federal Tax ID and State Tax ID numbers in the fields provided.

National Payment Corporation Setup

If you are going to use NPC and already have an account with them, enter your NPC Account Number, Encode word and Password in the fields provided. If you are using NPC, you can

NPC Account - The account Number Given to you by National Payment Corporation.
Encode Word - The security encoded word given to you by NPC.
Password - The password you use to access your NPC account.

Automated Clearing House Setup

If you are going through your local bank, and will be using ACH instead, you can leave the NPC Account, Encode Word, and Password fields blank.

Immediate Destination - the name of the service or institution that will be performing the direct deposit funds transfer.

If you're using your local bank, this will be your local bank's name.
If you're using a third party service to help with your funds transfer then it would be that third party's name, i.e. Vanco Services.

Destination Routing Number - the ABA (American Bank Assocation) routing number of the service or institution who will be performing the direct deposit funds transfer.

If you're using your local bank, this will be your local bank's routing number.
If you're using a third party service to help with your funds transfer, i.e. Vanco Services, then it would be that third party's routing number.

Origin (Bank) - type the name of your bank.
Account Number - Type the bank account number from which funds will be distributed, i.e. the church's checking account number.
Bank Routing Number - the Routing information as provided by your bank.
Account Type - Choose either Checking or Savings.

Click Close.

Step 2 - Gathering the Employee's Information

You'll need to gather the bank information from each employee who would like to have direct deposit. Ask each employee for a voided check or deposit slip, which should contain all of their bank's account and routing numbers!

NOTE: Your employees may want to transfer their deposit into multiple banks. This is perfectly fine in CMS! You can distribute their paycheck to one, two or 58 accounts (okay, that would be a bit excessive!!). You'll just need to gather the bank account and routing number for each bank, and find out how much the employee would like distributed to each of their accounts (either amount or percent).

You'll need to locate the Account Number and Routing Number on the Check or Deposit Slip. These are two examples of the Routing and Account Numbers on a check or deposit slip:

Step 3 - Entering Employee's Bank Information

Once you have the employee's bank information, from CMS Payroll, click Enter/Change Employees and find the employee who would like the direct deposit.

Click the Direct Deposit tab.

Choose the Direct Deposit Participation, either National Payment Corporation or ACH File.

If the employee wants their funds deposited only in one bank account, you can choose to Distribute to Accounts By: and choose Percent.

Enter the Bank Account Number and Bank Routing Number from the check or deposit slip the employee provided to you. Select either Checking or Savings Account in the Account Type field, and enter the percent of 100.00.

If the employee would like their funds deposited to multiple bank accounts, you can choose to either distribute the funds by Percentage or Amount.

Enter the Employee's Bank Account Number, Routing Number, and Account Type. Then enter the requested distribution for that bank.

If the employee would like to have a set amount go to one bank account, and the remainder to a second account, enter the set amount in the amount column for that bank. Then leave the amount field blank for the bank account where the remainder will be deposited. CMS will calculate how much will go to this bank as you calculate the payroll!

Step 4 - Process Employee Prenotes

You must prenote or pre-notify an employee at least 10 days prior to their first direct deposit. The prenote process provides your ACH service bank with employee information from the information you entered in the Direct Deposit tab in Step 3.

This information is verified for accuracy with the employee's receiving bank prior to allowing funds to be electronically transferred.

This step will ensure that the funds you transfer will actually make it into the employee's bank account, and not another bank or bank account!

If the employee changes bank accounts, the prenote process must be completed with new bank account information.

From CMS Payroll, click Process | Prenote Employee.

Make sure you have a current backup of your system before beginning this process.

Select either National Payment Corp or ACH and verify the employees selected.

NOTE: Only employees listed on this Prenotify Employees display will be included in the prenote. If you are missing any employee from this list, click Cancel and verify the information you entered on the Direct Deposit tab for that employee.

Click OK.

Insert a diskette, jump drive, zip drive, or formatted CD-R in your drive and enter the entire path and file name to output the file.

You can click the Report button on the right to print a report of the file you are sending to your bank.

Click the Output button on the right.

You can now mail, email, or upload that file to your bank. Contact your local bank for instructions on how and where to send this file.

NOTE: If there were any problems with the information submitted, you will be contacted by your bank and you must change the incorrect information entered on the employee's Direct Deposit tab, or the Employer Info off the Options menu, depending on what information was not correct.

If all of the information was correct, you should be able to create your first Direct Deposit in 10 days!

You will not be able to create the direct deposit earlier than 10 days. If you have a payroll within that 10 day period, you must print checks.

Step 5 - Prepare Payroll

Enter Timecards, Calculate Payroll, and print your Payroll Summary report as normal.

From CMS Payroll, click Print Paychecks/Direct Deposit.

Choose the appropriate Payment Method of either NPC Direct Deposit, or ACH file. Click Next.

Verify the total of the deposit for the direct deposit checks.

Enter the Effective Date of the Direct Deposit.

You can choose to include a debit to your bank account in the ACH file. If you plan to make this transaction manually later, do not check this box. Click Next.

Enter the entire path and file name to output the file. Click the Output button on the right.

You may also choose to print a report of the data you are transmitting. Save this report for your records. Click Report.

Click Next.

The CMS System will automatically assign an Electronic Check number to each person receiving a Direct Deposit. Click Next.

You will next be prompted to print the Direct Deposit Receipts that can be issued to the employees.

Click Finish.

NOTE: You will not be given another opportunity to print the Direct Deposit Receipts, so be sure to print them now. If you forget to print the Receipts to your printer, you must remove the Electronic Check number from each employee and run through the process again.

Finish by printing your remaining paycycle reports, backing up your system, and posting payroll as normal!

Adjustment Entry vs. Combining Contributions... which to use?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:36:58 GMT

PROBLEM: There are times when you need to make corrections to a contributor’s record, but should you make an adjustment entry or combine the contributions?

Adjustment Entry

Make an Adjustment Entry for:

NSF checks
Contributions made to the wrong fund
An incorrect amount was posted to that contributors account
To move some contributions from one contributor to another

Contributions that have not been posted can be changed at any time.

To change a posted contribution, create a new batch with the same date as the original contribution posting. You need to change only those contributions that were entered incorrectly. Correct the contributions as follows:

If no contribution was posted, enter the correct amount.
If the wrong amount was posted, enter an amount (negative to subtract, positive to add) which will correct the previous contribution.
If the wrong fund was posted, enter a negative amount to the wrong fund and a positive to the correct fund.
If a wrong person was posted, enter a negative amount to the wrong person and a positive amount to the correct person.

Once all of the corrections have been made, print the Batch Edit List to make sure it is correct and click Process | Post and post the corrected batch.

Combine Contributions
Combining contributions lets you combine one contributor’s YTD pledge and contributions with another contributor’s data.

Run Combine contributions when you want to:

Move contributions from a deceased contributor to the surviving spouse
All money was incorrectly posted to a non-contributor and you want to move it to the correct contributor
A duplicate contributor record was created and you want to move all contributions to one record and delete the duplicate

Use the following steps to combine contributions:

Display the record (Summary Screen) of the person receiving the contributions (i.e. surviving spouse)
Click Record | Combine
Select the name of the person whose records are to be combined (i.e. deceased contributor) and click OK
The system will ask you to verify the combining process. Click OK to complete the process or No to abort the process

The combine process does not delete or move the envelope number. If the situation calls for the envelope number to be moved, you can do that now.

Summarize Contribution Detail Corrections
If you prefer that the contributor’s statement not print adjustment entries, you can run a Summarize Contribution Detailed Corrections to “net” negative contribution correction amounts.

From CMS for Windows Contribution click Process | Calculate Pledge Balances and click the Summarize Contribution Detailed Corrections check box to combine contribution amounts to the same fund, on the same date, by the same person.

How to set up a Pledge Drive/Fundraising Campaign

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:36:39 GMT

Whether it’s the first time, or the twenty-first time you’ve set up a pledge drive, everyone dreads the Pledge Campaign season for their own personal reason.

· “Did I miss a step?”

· “Is there an easier way to track this information?”

· “Did anyone fall through the cracks?”

· “Ugh! Not another mail merge!?!?”

Using your CMS Contribution System, you can easily glide through the steps you’ll need to take to successfully track your Fundraising Campaign!

The first thing you’ll want to look at is the length of the pledge drive. Is this a single year pledge drive or does it span several years?

Usually, your General or Operating Fund will have a single year pledge drive that’s renewed each year (new pledge cards go out each year). This will help you plan your budget for the upcoming year. This is considered a Single Year Pledge.

A Building Fund or Capital Campaign will normally span several years (this is considered a Multi Year Pledge). You’ll enter the pledges only once at the beginning of the drive, and the system will track the contributions made through the years when calculating the pledge balance.

Both the Single Year Pledge and the Multi Year Pledge are entered in the same manner, and contributions are entered the same as you always have. The difference is how they’re handled at the end of the contribution year.

Okay, so let’s say it’s November and you need to get going on your next year’s pledge drive. Where do you start?

1. Set Up The Pledge Drive

This optional process is used to define the households/persons to be contacted in the fundraising campaign (Process | Set Up Pledge Drive).

The system will set the Pledge Type field for the Head or Spouse to “Potential” or “Not Potential” (i.e. Deceased, Transferred/Moved, Businesses, will be considered Not Potential), based on existing contribution, pledge, envelope number, and Member and Participation Status information.

As people return their pledge cards, the pledge type is changed to record their response.

If you’ve never run this process before, we recommend you run it for both the current year and next year pledge drives. It will not overwrite any existing pledges, but it may pick up those people in the current year drive who may have slipped through the cracks!

2. Print Next Year Pledge Report

Now that you have your Potential and Not Potential Pledgers coded, print the Next Year’s Pledge Report by clicking Reports | Pledge and Contribution Summary | Next Year Pledges. This will give you a base report you can review for accuracy. If you need to refine your Member/Participation Status selections, re-run the Set Up Pledge Drive Process, now is the time.

3. Print Pledge Cards

You can solicit pledges from those coded as Potential Pledgers and print Pledge Cards directly from your CMS Contribution System (Reports | Pledge Cards). You can print these cards either on Avery 5388 cards or on standard 8 ½ “ x 11” paper/card stock and cut into thirds.

If you're comfortable with Mail Merge, you can even print out customized pledge cards using CMS and Microsoft Word.

You may also want to consider the back of the pledge card! Do you have some words of encouragement, or calculations for the contributors that you could print on the back of the pledge cards? Do so before breaking them into thirds!!

4. Print Mailing Labels/Form Letters

Use your CMS Contribution System Labels/Letter-Mailer to produce a generic, but personalized, form letter to accompany each pledge card.

5. Enter Pledge Responses

As the Pledge Cards come back from the contributors, you can quickly enter their responses into the CMS Contribution System using the Quick Next Year Pledge process (Process | Quick Next Year Pledge Entry).

Use the Response Date to track the date the pledge cards were entered into CMS. This Response date will become vital in future steps! Click OK.

You'll have better results when you enter the pledge as the contributor indicates on their pledge card. If the contributor wishes to contribute weekly, enter the pledge as a Weekly pledge. Don't try to convert all of your pledges to Fixed or Yearly. You may just end up confusing your contributors, and your reports won't be as meaningful.

When you’re on the Quick Next Year Pledge Entry screen, just right-click the contributor’s name to display a Pledge Information Screen, where you can enter an Initial Pledge, change the dates, or just verify the Total Pledge.

6. Print Next Year Pledge Report

Select on the Response Date on the Next Year Pledge Report (Reports | Pledge and Contribution Summaries | Next Year Pledges) to print a “pledge edit list” to verify your work for the day.

You can also select on the Response Date to track how many pledges came in each week.

Select on the Pledge Type and print a listing of just those who chose to pledge (or NOT to pledge).

7. Print a Pledge Comparison Report

Print a Pledge Comparison Report (Reports | Pledge and Contribution Summaries | Pledge Comparison) to view those people who increased, decreased, or pledged the same.

8. Complete Thank You/Confirmation and Follow Up Mailings

Print Mailing Labels (Reports | Contributor Labels) by selecting on Response Date for Thank You cards/letters.

Create personalized form letters (Process | Merge/Export File) by selecting on Response Date to Confirm the Pledge.

Print generic personalized form letters (Reports | Contributor Lables/Letter-Mailer) for follow up letters to those still marked as Potential or Can’t Contact.

9. Enter Prepayments to a Pledge

If a contributor decides to make a payment on a pledge that doesn’t start until the next calendar year, you can mark that contribution as a prepayment and it will adjust the balance due on their pledge the following year.

Enter the contribution to the pledged fund as usual; just check the Pre-Pay box on the far right column on the Contribution Entry screen. Post as normal.

Entering Stock Contributions

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:36:16 GMT

People are realizing the benefits in supporting their church through the gifts of stock.

If the contributor chooses to transfer long-term, appreciated stock to the church, it can be sold by the church and the contributor will avoid tax on the gain, in addition to taking that charitable deduction on their taxes.

If the stock had been held long-term but had decreased in value, it may be more advantageous for the contributor to sell the stock and give the cash to the church.

To figure how much the contributor may deduct for property that they contribute, they must first determine its fair market value on the date of the contribution. Fair market value is the price that property would sell for on the open market. The Fair Market Value of each share or bond is the average price between the highest and lowest quoted selling prices on the valuation date.

Since the value of stocks changes on a daily basis, the contributor must determine the date of delivery of the stock.

Transfer in person. If the contributor wishes to transfer stock to the church by handing the certificate to a member of the church staff, then the transaction can be completed by either having the contributor sign the certificate on the back, or by having the contributor sign a stock power.

The contributor should also provide a letter of intent stating his/her intention to make a gift of stock to the church. The letter of intent should state that the gift is for the church, the date of the gift, name of the stock, number of shares, designation of the proceeds, and include an original contributor's signature.

Transfer by mail. If the stock is in the contributor's name, they should mail the unsigned certificates with a signed letter of intent (as described above) via certified mail to the church. The contributor should also send a signed stock powers in a separate envelope.

Transfer by broker. Since paper certificates can be lost, stolen, or damaged, encourage contributors to have a broker transfer the shares of stock electronically instead of having a stock certificate issued. Have the contributor instruct the broker to notify the church regarding the stock transfer, including:

Contributor's Name(s)
Security Name(s)
Number of shares or approximate value
Gift designation or purpose (unrestricted or restricted to a particular fund)
Broker's name and phone number

Once you have determined the date and fair market value of the gift, you can enter this information into your CMS Contribution System.

From the CMS Contribution System menu, click Enter Contributions and create a New Batch for the date of delivery of the stock.

From the Contribution Entry screen, bring up the contributor who gifted the stocks and go to the fund the contributor designated.

Enter the Fair Market Value of the gift in the Amount field, and type an S in the Type field and press (Enter).

Or, click the up arrow at Type and select the contribution type of Stocks/Investments and click Select.

This will display a Special Contribution window.

NOTE: DO NOT enter anything in the field Value of Goods or Services Received by Contributor. This is used only for Quid Pro Quo contributions, and not Stock Contributions.

Enter the description of the stock and the number of shares. What you enter in the description field will print on this contributor's Yearly Detail statement. The following phrase meets the church and IRS needs:

"This records a gift of 200 shares of GE Capitol Stock. We have assigned a gift value of $5,000.00 to be credit to your Building Fund pledge. You are required to obtain a Charitable Contribution valuation of this gift for tax purposes."

Click OK when complete.

Print an Edit List and Post the Batch as normal.

For complete information, see the IRS Publication 561 at http://www.irs.gov/publications/p561/index.html, or consult with your church accountant.

"Unable to Update File" Error Message when Posting Attendance

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:35:53 GMT

PROBLEM: After entering attendance and clicking OK to post, an error message displays stating "Unable to Update File".

SOLUTION: From CMS for Windows, click File | Utilities | CMS Table Repair.

On the Table Repair Utility Screen, click Browse in the upper right corner. Find the table ATDETAIL.DB and click Open.

Jot down the Number of Records, located about half way down the left side of the screen. You'll need that number in a few seconds.

Click the Verify Button at the bottom of the screen. It will come back with either "Table and Header Verify Okay" or "Table Requires a Rebuild". Jot down this message and click OK.

Click the Rebuild Button at the bottom of the screen. When complete, it will come back with a Number of Records Successfully Recovered. That number should match the number you jotted down previously. Click OK | OK.

Repeat these steps with the following tables:

PERINGRP.DB
ATENTER.DB
PERSON.DB
PRIV: ATENTER.DB

Now with the last table, at the bottom of the Browse button, you'll see Alias : WORK. Click the little down arrow next to WORK and choose PRIV. Now find the table ATENTER.DB and continue with the steps to rebuild it.

Click Close when complete.

From your CMS Attendance System Main Menu, click Enter Attendance.

Click the down arrow at Attendance Date and select the oldest date displayed. Click OK.

This will post any Attendance information previously entered but unposted due to errors.

How to enter new members/visitors to an Attendance Group and catch up missing weeks of attendance?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:35:05 GMT

PROBLEM: You've got some new members or visitors that you would like to add to your Attendance Worship Group, but when you bring up older, previously entered attendance dates to catch up missing weeks, they're not on the list and not in the Add to Group option.

SOLUTION: Attendance Entry is all about timing!

If you enter a brand new date while in the Enter/Edit Attendance display, the system will calculate all of those people who should be in that Attendance Group at that time. Only those people who should be in that group at that moment will be displayed.

If you select a date that has been previously entered, the system will display only those people who were in that group at the time the date was originally entered.

The Attendance System will not recalculate and insert those new members/visitors into the group since that date was initially entered.

However, there may be times when you want to play a bit of "catch-up" with some new visitors or members who should have been in a group prior to the date that they were initially entered into the group.

When you're entering a new member or visitor into your CMS System, chances are, you're doing the bulk of your entry from the CMS Membership System.

From CMS Membership, click Household/Persons | New Household and enter the new member/visitor information.

Enter the family name, address, phone number, email information.

Enter each family member's name, birthdate, member status, participation status, etc.

Click the View Person button at the bottom of the display and choose Attendance Tabs | Detail.

You will continue to remain on this person's data entry display, but now instead of entering Membership information, you can enter Attendance information!

Enter the Group, Date, and Attendance Code for any missing weeks of attendance.

You will receive a message when entering this person into the group for the first time. "This person is not in the group you have entered. Add this person without regard of the group's definition to this group?". Answer Yes.

NOTE: Be careful not to enter AHEAD of your normal group attendance! If you have not yet entered that week's attendance for the rest of the group, do not enter that date into this new members/visitor's detail tab.

You can enter as many weeks as needed to catch up!

When complete, click the Membership link to go back into the Membership System (located in the upper right corner of the display).

You can now continue to enter data for this person or for the remaining family members, switching back to the Attendance System to enter the next person into your Attendance Group.

The next new date of Attendance you enter for that group will include the new visitor/member you entered!

I just purchased the Attendance System... where do I start?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:34:26 GMT

PROBLEM: You just purchased the CMS Attendance System, and you're just not sure where to start entering attendance.

SOLUTION: To get started in CMS Attendance, we'll need to do some setup first, then we'll dive into entering and posting attendance.

Enter Member Information
Set Up Attendance Codes
Create and Define Attendance Groups
Print Attendance Checklist
Enter and Post Attendance
Entering New Visitor's Attendance

Enter Member Information

Prior to entering any information in the CMS Attendance System, you'll need to enter the church member's Names, Addresses, Phone Numbers, and Member Status information for the members of the church.

For complete information, go to I just purchased the Membership System... where do I start?

Set Up Attendance Codes

Once you have all of your Member's information entered, we can begin to set up the Attendance System.

We must first set up the Attendance Codes that will be used to indicate if the member was Absent or Present, and at which service did they attend.

From CMS Attendance, click Options | Attendance Codes.

Click the Add button on the right and add a code for Absent, be sure to set the Status for your Absent code as Absent.

Also create one Code for each service that a member of your church may attend, and set the Status to Present.

For example, you may want to create a code for:

1st Serv - First Service Attendance
2nd Serv - Second Service Attendance
3rd Serv - Third Service Attendance
Absent - Absent

NOTE: If your church offers communion at only one Sunday per month, or one Service per Sunday, you may also want to create one code for Present and Communed.

We've used the number's 1, 2 and 3 as the first character of the Attendance Code. This will ease weekly Attendance Entry, and you'll be able to quickly identify the service the member attended on the Attendance Pattern report!

When complete, click Close.

Create and Define Attendance Groups

Click the Groups button on the CMS Attendance Main Menu.

Click the New button on the right side of the display and assign a three character Code and Description of your Worship Service. Click OK.

Enter the Location, Leader and Frequency of the Worship Group.

Click the Define button on the right side of the display. You can use a variety of codes to set up different Attendance Groups in your CMS Attendance System. Grade Levels or Classes for Religious Education, or Activities for Committees, etc.

However, the Worship Service should be set up based on the Member Status of the people entered in your CMS Membership System.

Click the Member Status button and select only the Member Status codes of those people who you would like to track their weekly attendance.

For example, you may not want to include those people coded as Deceased, Transferred/Moved, etc. Click OK when complete.

Make any additional selections desired and click OK.

The system will automatically add and remove people from your group. Click OK to proceed.

Next, click the Preferences button on the right side of the display.

Click the Valid Attendance button and add over the Attendance Codes you would like to use for this group only. Click OK.

Click the Up Arrow at Default Attendance and select the Absent code. Click OK.

Click the up arrow at Right Mouse Click and choose your most common or popular service. The Right Mouse Click is the default Present Code used when entering Attendance.

In this example, our most highly attended service is the First Service.

If you would also like to track the User's Head Count, a secondary number only, click the Head Count Column and enter the Column Headers. In our example, the Head Count Column headers are the same as the Attendance Codes.

Click OK | Close to exit the Groups display.

Print Attendance Checklist

You may want to print an Attendance Checklist from the system that will assist your Members or Ushers when indicating the members who attended each service.

If your church already uses Pew Pads or Pew Sign In Cards, this step is not necessary.

From CMS Attendance, click Reports | Group Checklist.

Click the Groups button in the lower left corner of the display. Select only the group desired and click OK.

Click into the Print for Attendance Date and type in the following Sunday's date. Click Print.

This report will give you an easy to use Checklist that you can give to your users to track those members who attended the various services on Sunday.

Enter and Post Attendance

Now that all of the set up is completed, you can now start Entering your Attendance!

From the CMS Attendance Main Menu, click Enter Attendance.

The first group alphabetically will display in the Group Code field.

Click into the Attendance Date field and type the date of the Sunday you would like to enter, then press the Enter key on the keyboard.

You can also right-click into the Attendance Date field and select the date from the calendar.

Any Attendance date you may have already entered will be displayed in the Attendance Date drop down field.

So if you entered some Attendance for that date, had to exit the system and would like to come back and finish that date, you can simply select the date from the drop down list, or just type in the date as normal.

The last name, first Name, address and mailing relationship of each member of your group should now appear, and everyone should be coded as Absent.

You can enter your attendance by either:

Right click into the Attend column to change the code Absent to the appropriate code for the service this person attended. Continue to right-click to scroll through the valid attendance codes.
Click into the Last Name field and type in the last name of the person you would like to Enter Attendance. This will drop you down to that person's name. Use your up/down arrows to select the appropriate person. Then, using the plus key ( + ) on the keyboard, change the Absent code to the appropriate code for the service this person attended. Continue to press the + key to scroll through the valid attendance codes.

Repeat this process until all attendance is entered. Click OK to post the attendance to the member's record.

Entering New Visitor's Attendance

Depending on your church, you may have a few, or a few dozen Visitors or New Members of the church that you would like to enter Attendance.

If you have just a few new members/visitors, you can add them on the fly! Click the Add Person to Group button on the right side of the Attendance Entry display, then click the Add/Edit Household/Person button to enter those new members/visitors.

You can then Add them to the Group and track their Attendance.

However, if you have many new visitors/members, you may want to set that information to the side and finish entering Attendance.

Then follow these instructions:

How to enter new members/visitors to an Attendance Group and catch up missing weeks of attendance?

How to enter Activities in CMS?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:34:01 GMT

PROBLEM: You have a group of people that are involved in a particular church group or activity and would like to produce lists, labels, letters and emails to that group.

SOLUTION: You can create an Activity Code and assign this code to those people involved in that activity! Once you have assigned the activity code, you can produce a variety of reports, lists, labels, emails and letters.

Enter Activity Codes

From CMS Membership, click Options | Define Codes | Activities.

This will list all activities currently entered in your CMS Membership System.

CMS offers a six-digit activity code that can utilize letters as well as numbers. This capability lets you group activities, interests and talents in a way that makes reports and labels easy to use.

Note how the following activities are organized. The first three digits of the activity code are letters abbreviating the activity area, i.e. ADM (administration) or ART (art and communications). The next three digits of the activity code are numbers sequencing the specific activities in each area.

You will need to organize and assign codes for your specific activities before you continue. Remember, you can come back and add additional activities at any time. You also have the opportunity to enter activity codes when you are entering activities for persons.

Click the Add button on the right side of the display to enter a new Activity Code.

Enter the Code and Description. The Leader, Phone, Additional Phone, Location, Day/Time, and Comments fields are optional. They will print at the top of the Activity Report. Click OK | Close when complete.

Click Options | Define Codes | Activity Status.

CMS lets you designate each person’s role in each activity. By setting up activity status codes, you can get lists of people interested in specific activities (i.e. future, interest, talent).

The following are example Activity Status Codes you may use. Click the Add button to create new Activity Status codes.

Entering Activities

1. If you have a time and talent sheet for an activity with many persons on it, you will enter all the persons for the activity at the same time.

2. If you have a time and talent sheet for a person with many activities selected, you enter all activities for the same person at the same time.

Print Reports

Once you have assigned the Activity Code to the appropriate members, you can now print a listing of those people who have been assigned that activity code.

From CMS Membership, click Reports | Activities.

Click the Activities button on the left and select the Activity Code. Click OK.

The Activity Report will print the Name, Address, City, State, Zip and Phone of those people assigned that activity code.

You can choose from a variety of other items to print on the report, including:

Unlisted Phone Number
Membership Status
Activity Beginning and Ending Dates
Business Email, Fax and Phone
Home Email and Additional Phone
Personal Email Phone and Pager
Activity Notes
Double Space

Click Print.

Letter Mailer vs. Mail Merge... which to use?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:33:36 GMT

There are two different ways to create personalized form letters in CMS... Letter/Mailer or Mail Merge.

If you want to create a very simple personalized form letter, changing only the addresses and salutation, the Letter/Mailer is the way to go.

You'll create the body of the letter in Microsoft Word and save it, then using OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), we will go out and "grab" the letter and insert it into CMS, printing the household or person's name, address, and salutation at the top. It's very simple to use, it's attached to the Labels portion of the software.

There aren't a lot of formatting choices and you'll be locked into using a certain font (Times New Roman or Arial, 10 or 12 point).

But creating personalized form letters has never been easier! Click here for complete instructions on the Letter/Mailer.

However, if you want to insert other information into the body of the letter, you may want to go with the Mail Merge.

The Mail Merge is just the opposite of the Letter/Mailer. Where the Letter/Mailer brings your letter from Word into CMS, the Mail Merge takes your data out of CMS and brings it into Word.

In Word, you'll have lots of formatting choices, you can use whatever font or margins you'd like, and you can insert fields of information into the body of your letter!

So if you need a bit more control over the look of your letter, use the full-blow Mail Merge!

Click here for complete step-by-step instructions on the Mail Merge using CMS and Microsoft Word.

What fields require a change upon a death in CMS?

Mary Breault — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:33:03 GMT

When you have a death in the church, you must make several changes to your database to indicate this information.

From CMS Membership, click Find People and find the family where there was a death.

We will use the Larry & Sharon Dennison family as an example. Larry recently passed away and we need to make the necessary changes to their data.

Label Name - Remove the head or spouse that died from the label name field. If this was a single person household, you can skip this step.

When you change the label name, you will be asked if you would also like to change the Statement Name in Contribution, answer Yes.

Salutation - Remove Larry's name from the Salutation to prevent it from printing on any future Letter-Mailer's or Mail Merged Letters. If this was a single person household, you can skip this step.

Unit Type - If you use this field, you may want to change it from Married Couple or Married Couple with Children to One Adult Household or One Parent Family. If this was a single person household, you can skip this step.

Mailing Relationship - You must change the Mailing Relationship of the Deceased member from either Head or Spouse to other.

This will prevent the person from printing on certain Household Reports and Merge processes.

If this was a single person household, you can skip this step.

Start with the spouse who survived and click the down arrow at Mailing Relationship and choose Head. Then click into that person's first name.

The system will let you know that the new Head of household has been selected and the old head of household will be re-assigned the mailing relationship of Other. Click OK.

Now the Surviving Spouse (Sharon) and Deceased Spouse (Larry) should both have the proper mailing relationship.

Member Status - Many denominations must track the number of people who leave the church for varying reasons, including death. Changing the Member Status of the deceased member will help you track that information.

Highlight the deceased spouse's first name and click View Person to view their Person Tab in Membership.

NOTE: Since the Member Status data table is uniquely defined by each church, your codes may be slightly different than the examples given.

Record Status - The Record Status field indicates if the person or household record has been changed, or if it should be flagged for removal at the end of the year.

Click the down arrow at Status and choose Remove.

You can also prevent anyone marked for Removal from printing on various reports and labels in CMS.

The Default in Membership IS NOT to include those people marked for removal.

The Default in Contribution IS to include those people marked for removal (to include their contributions, if any).

At the end of the year, after you have printed contributor statements and statistical reports, you can quickly delete everyone in the system who is marked for Removal.

Click the Events tab.

Death - You can enter the Date of Death, Cemetery and City and State where this person was buried.

If there was a surviving Spouse, you'll need to make the following changes:

Click the View Household button on the right.

Highlight the surviving spouse's first name and click the View Person button, and choose Events.

Marital Status - Surviving Spouse Only - Change the Martial Status of the Surviving Spouse to indicate Widow/Widower.

Click the Contribution Link in the upper right corner of the screen and choose Summary to quickly switch to the Surviving Spouse's Contribution System display.

Combine Contributions - This will move all contributions from the Deceased Head/Spouse to the Surviving Head/Spouse.

From the Surviving Spouse's Summary display, on the pull down menu at the top of the screen, click Record | Combine.

Select the name of the deceased Head/Spouse from the list and click OK.

Click OK at the confirmation display.

Click the View Household button on the right.

Envelope Number - If your church uses envelope numbers, you'll need to move the envelope number assigned to the deceased head/spouse to the surviving head/spouse. This will ensure that any future contributions are attributed to the surviving spouse, and that they won't get a statement in both names at the end of the year.

From the Contribution System Household screen, click into the Envelope Number field on the Deceased Spouse and press the Delete Key on your keyboard to remove the envelope number.

Click into the Envelope Number field on the Surviving Spouse and type in the same envelope number.