Feature Updates 9/7/2018
New User Form Input Options for Custom Forms
An update is now live that adds new user form input options to the custom form builder in the control panel. The purpose of the update is to allow auto-population of the user first/last name, email and mailing address for custom-forms that do not accept payments/donations such as connection cards forms or similar. Please see below for a list of new user form input options:
- "User First & Last Name" as a form input type to display a first/last name form input that will be auto-populated with the current user first/last name
- "User Email" as a form input type to display an email form input that will be auto-populated with the current user email address
- "User Mailing Address" as a form input type to display an address fieldset that will be auto-populated with the current user mailing address (address, city, state, zip)
Donor Cover the Fee/Rate Optional Feature
A new optional feature is now available to churches to enable donors to cover a portion of the processing rate/fee for web-based donations. Church administrators may contact us to enable the optional feature. Once enabled donors on the church's giving website will see a checkbox to cover the processing fees for their donation. The cover the rate/fee feature is smart and adjusts automatically based on the type of payment such as Visa/MasterCard vs American Express vs Electronic Check (ACH). Additionally, we've carefully crafted the new feature to work with both single line donations and multi-line donations. For multi-line donations, the covered rate/fee is proportionally split amount each line item based on the line item amount. We certainly understand this feature is not desired by all churches. However, we are pleased to now offer it as an optional feature of our platform to all customers. To learn more about the new cover the rate/fee feature please give us a call at 615-206-4000.
Event Trigger Delay Removed for Text Message Donations
An update is now live that removes the 3-hour delay for event trigger execution on text message donations. Prior to the update, a delay was active on event trigger execution for text giving donations to allow a period of time for the user to request a refund. However, based on customer feedback we found the delay was not required for event triggers and has been removed.
New Rock RMS Daily Credit Card and ACH Batching
An update is now live that upgrades our Rock RMS integration to record into two daily batches based on payment type. Starting 9/4/2018 donations paid with credit/debit cards will be recorded in an Online Giving credit card (CC) daily batch. Additionally, starting 9/4/2018 donations paid with an electronic check (ACH) will be recorded in an Online Giving electronic check (ACH) daily batch. Prior to the update both credit/debit card (CC) and electronic check (ACH) donations were recorded into the same daily batch. We are pleased to have brought this update free of charge as our ongoing commitment to excellence with ChMS recording. No action is required to enable this new feature as it's enabled globally for all of our Rock churches.
Ministry Platform Event Registration Form Updates
An update is now live for the MP event registration forms that pre-populates the contact fields first name, last name, phone, and address with the current user's information. Prior to the update, the MP registration form required the user to use the "Pre-Fill Form" drop-down menu to auto-populate contact information. The update ensures that the current user's information is displayed and then allows the user to change the information as needed either by modifying the contact inputs or using the "Pre-Fill Form" drop-down menu. Additionally, we have updated the "Pre-Fill Form" drop-down menu label to be more intuitive "Select an Option to Pre-Fill the Form". The goal of the update is to ensure contact inputs are filled out and to remove as many steps as possible for the user.
Native Mobile Application - New Notes Feature
An update is now live that adds the "My Notes" feature to our native mobile application for taking notes on events, groups or sermons. The new notes feature is smart and will auto save notes as they are typed. Additionally, if a user accesses notes from an event, group or sermon screen the software will send them to any saved version that same event, group or sermon. Kindly note this feature is not to be confused with our existing Sermon Notes feature which is a feature to allow church administrators to create interactive sermon note forms. The new "My Notes" feature is designed to be generic and allows mobile application users to take notes in the application for anything (events, sermons, groups, etc).
Native Mobile Application - Ministry Platform Church Directory Updates
An update is now live for our native mobile application Ministry Platform Church Directory feature that adds an (H) indicator for home numbers and (M) for mobile phone numbers. Additionally, an update is now live that allows mobile users to filter the church directory by campus (congregation).
New Rock RMS Failed ACH and Refund Recording
An update is now live that adds support for recording failed ACH, refunds, and voids detected by Online Giving into Rock RMS. In the event, a refund is performed, form the Online Giving control panel, the software will now record the refund transaction into the Rock RMS database. Additionally, the refund transaction will also be recorded into Rock in the event the donation is "marked" as refunded, "marked" as voided, "marked" as canceled from the Online Giving control panel. Finally, we've updated our ACH status checker for your merchant gateway to record failed, voided and bank rejected transactions into Rock in the event they are detected by Online Giving. The refund transaction recording follows Rock's internal refund record flow which includes associating the refund transaction into a refund batch. The term "refund" on Rock also refers to bank rejected, bank canceled, etc. All refund transactions have a refund status indicating the refund type. Kindly note that these new features are designed to automate ACH status updates and refunds. However, they are not designed to fully take the place of manual review from the merchant gateway reports panel. Online Giving's ACH status scanner will check for status updates on ACH transactions around the day 10-15 window from which each ACH transaction was created. In the event, a status change has detected the software will update the transaction in the Online Giving database and then push the refund record into Rock RMS. The goal of this update was to reduce the amount of manual time required for failed ACH recording.
Rock RMS Matching Algorithm Enhancements
An update is now live to our Rock RMS matching algorithm to better handle matches containing the same email address. In the event, multiple matches are returned by email, the software will now filter those matches based on the following criteria:
Updated Rock RMS Email Matching Algorithm:
- The first person with a matching first name (or nickname), last name and email are taken.
- Otherwise, the first person with a matching last name is taken.
- Otherwise, the first person with a matching email is taken.
Church Community Builder Updated to Create New Individuals
An update is now live for all of our Church Community Builder (CCB) churches. Online Giving will now automatically create a new CCB individual in the event the software is unable to locate an existing match and a donation is present in the system. Kindly note the software will intentionally wait to create new CCB individuals until after a donation is completed to ensure address information is present. An auto-match will always be attempted prior to creating a new CCB individual. Additionally, church administrators may manually trigger the auto-match/create a feature in the control panel when clicking the "Auto Match CCB" button when viewing/managing users (displayed when a CCB ID is not present on the donor profile). Prior to the update, the integration required church administrators to manually create new CCB individuals and auto-match them in Online Giving. The purpose of the extended integration is to remove this manual step and reduce man-hours. With that said, church administrators may still edit/change the CCB ID on any donor profile by editing the profile in the control panel (if needed).
Optional Closing Date Added to Custom Form Settings
An update is now live that add a feature to the custom-form settings to allow to optionally set a date for the custom-form to be disabled. In the event a date is supplied, the software will disable the form on and after date supplied.
Native Mobile Application - Ministry Platform Displayed Life Stages
An update is now live that adds support for optionally filtering MP life stages via a custom Available_Online = True field. MP churches with our native mobile application can contact support to have the new Available_Online = True filter enabled for their Life Stages caching. The purpose of the update is to allow the church more control over which life stages are displayed as filter options in the native mobile application.
Ministry Platform - Old Recurring Giving Now Displayed on "My Recurring" Page
An update is now live for Ministry Platform churches with the REST API enabled. Online Giving will now check for the presence of active external MP recurring gift subscriptions on the Online Giving "My Recurring" page. In the event one more active external recurring subscriptions are found, the software will now display a friendly notice and table listing the gifts. Additionally, each external gift table row includes a single sign-on link to manage (cancel) the gift in the MP portal. The goal of the update is to make the donor transition from external systems (such as Ministry Platform) even easier with Online Giving. We are pleased to have brought you this update as part of our ongoing commitment to integration excellence with Ministry Platform.
Ministry Platform - Event Caching Updated to Add Visibility Level 5 (for direct linking)
An update is now live that adds events with Visibility Level ID 5 to the embeddable website widgets which are an extension of the native mobile application. Prior to the update events with Visibility Level ID 5 were completely excluded from our MP event caching. The software will now include these events but keep them hidden from the searchable MP Event Calendar. Events with Visibility Level ID 5 can only be viewed when loaded with a direct URL/Link. Additionally, if your church has the optional "Show_On_Web = true" feature applied for events, that filter will still hold true and be applied in addition to the Visibility Level ID > 2 filters (which now includes ID 5).
Fellowship One Individual ID Added to Recurring Export
An update is now live that add an F1 ID (users.f1_id) the column to the recurring schedules export in the control panel.
Ministry Platform - Event Registration Max Participant Check
An update is now live for MP Event registrations that will check the participants expected event field for a max number of participant records allowed per event. In the event, a "participants expected" value is present the software will now pull a record count on the MP Event_Participants table based on the Event ID. In the event, the record count is equal to or greater than the "participants expected" value the software will not display an event registration is closed message.
Ministry Platform - Event Registration Product Option Price Max Quantity Check
An update is now live for MP Event registrations that will check the "Product_Option_Prices.Max_Qty" field. In the event a "Product_Option_Prices.Max_Qty" value is present the software will now pull a record count on the MP Invoice_Detail table based on "Product_Option_Price_ID" and "Product_ID" values. In the event, the record count is equal to or greater than the "Product_Option_Prices.Max_Qty" value the software will not display that specific product option price item.
Ministry Platform - Payment & Invoice Recording for Kiosk, Web and Text Message Payments
An update is now live that adds support for associating an MP product and optionally an MP event to an Online Giving payment elected fund (or sub-fund). In the event, an MP product is associated with the fund (or sub-fund) the software will then be able to record an invoice along with the payment record in Ministry Platform. Additionally, in the event an MP event is associated, the software will also record event participation for the matching MP contact and associate the event with the payment and invoice recordings in MP.
Rock RMS - GeoLocation Checking add to Detect Duplicates on Mailing Addresses
An update is now live that upgrades our address matching functionality to include the geolocation of the address. Geolocation is the action of fetching a latitude/longitude for a physical street address from a major map provider such as Bing and/or Google maps. In the event, a street address match is not present, the software will now geocode the Rock RMS external address against the donor profile address and calculate the distance between the two locations. In the event, the distance found is less than 0.10 miles, the addresses are now considered a match. The updated functionality allows our system to locate mailing address matches without the need for a direct street name match which will avoid the future creation of addresses from Online Giving that are geographically the same.
Text Marketing Chatbot Intents - Conversational Flow Text Marketing
We are very pleased to announce our new text marketing chatbot intents feature is now live. Church administrators that have access to text marketing may now create chatbot intents for interactively collecting data via text messaging conversation. Chatbot Intents are small conversation flows built-out visually by church administrators to collect data from users by messaging. A common way of explaining Chatbot Intents is to think of them in a similar way to custom-forms. A custom-form is designed specifically to collect information from a website user using form inputs. Chatbot intents operate in the same way but over "messaging" platforms such as text message (SMS), Facebook Messenger or the Giving Assistant Chatbox. Instead of having website form inputs, chatbot intents have parameters. Parameters are bits of information that should be collected in conversation from the end user. Each parameter has one or more prompts. A prompt is a message displayed (prompted) to the end user asking for information. The end result is an interactive conversation with the end user that collects data (parameters) to achieve an end result (action). Church administrators can learn more about text marketing and our powerful chatbot intent features by checking out the Text Marketing knowledgebase sections located in each church's control panel.
Text Marketing Knowledgebase Added
We are very pleased to announce our text marketing platform is out of Beta and now documented in the knowledgebase located in each church's control panel. Church administrators may now check out the knowledgebase documentation to learn more about how text marketing can serve their ministry.
Should you have any questions about the changes above please drop us a line at support@onlinegiving.org