We're constantly updating and enhancing ChurchSuite, often building directly upon customer feedback to guide our development. The following lists some changes that were made to ChurchSuite between 28th March 2024 and 19th June 2024.
ChurchSuite
April 8th, 2024 Migrating Form Overseers to Managers
We frequently receive feedback from Users who want their Form reminders and weekly Form emails to go to their work/user email address rather than a personal Address Book contact email. To distinguish the use of Overseers for ministries, clusters and events (which continue to be overseen by Address Book 'contacts' through My ChurchSuite), we've introduced "Managers" for Forms. Managers are module users. To help with the transition, and where an Overseer 'contact' is linked to an active User, we've migrated all your Forms over, so no further action is needed. However, if you have any Form overseers without a linked User, those overseers will need to be migrated or removed manually. You'll either need to remove the Overseer if they no longer need to receive those emails or create a new User linked to the Contact. Once done, you'll see a handy Migrate action to move everything over for that Form.
April 16th, 2024 Form response batch status actions
We have now added batch status actions to form responses, making it easier to bulk-archive responses or bulk-set-active again.
April 18th, 2024 Viewing Tag demographic data
We've moved and updated the charts that were previously available under the Statistics tab when viewing a Tag in the Address Book and Children modules. Now, when you're on the People tab, you'll find there's a "View demographics" button - click that to see the equivalent information. The data that's displayed covers Sex, Marital Status and Age data, and has been modernised into a clearer display format.
April 18th, 2024 Viewing Group demographic data
When viewing group member data in either the Children or Small Groups modules, there were previously charts provided at the bottom of the member list. This functionality has been moved to the "View demographics" button, which is available at the top of the list. The data that's displayed covers Sex, Marital Status (Small Groups only) and Age data for the people being displayed, and has been modernised into a clearer display format.
April 18th, 2024 Updated Address Book Location report
We've modernised the Location report in the Address Book module, updating the layout and adding a helpful chart that shows the breakdown of distances from your organisation's location.
April 22nd, 2024 Updated Leave Setup page
We've updated the layout of the Leave Setup page, bringing consistency with other pages in the system and modernising the "By day" and "By type" charts that are shown. All of the same data is still available, but it's presented in a cleaner and more readable format than before.
April 22nd, 2024 Upcoming login updates
We will shortly be rolling out some updates to our login process, designed to ensure we're keeping track with the latest security best practices, as well as laying the groundwork for future updates. Once the updates launch, there will be some small tweaks to the flow as a user logs in, primarily that they will be prompted to select the system they wish to log in to. Shortly after launch, we will release support for enforced multi-factor authentication across your account, followed by support for Single Sign-On support through Microsoft EntraID.
April 23rd, 2024 Parent/carer communication options in Full Details
The Children module Full Details report now includes parent/carer communication options, making it easier to distinguish whether parents/carers are opted in to or out of receiving general emails and SMS
April 24th, 2024 New "Missing Data" filters for Advanced Search
We've added a new "Missing Data" filter to Advanced Search for Contacts, Children, Events, Givers, Groups, Songs and Ministries. Previously, a "Missing Data" report was available for this functionality, but you will now find this functionality on the index pages, where you can also customise the columns that are displayed as well as export data, giving you greater flexibility than before.
April 24th, 2024 Updated Event Details report in Calendar
We've modernised the Event Details report in the Calendar module, bringing it inline with other updated reports. All of the previous functionality remains, and a new option "Show description" has been added, allowing you to control whether the description for each event is displayed or not.
April 25th, 2024 New - Preset search views for Contacts
We've added a selection of preset search views to the Contacts section, which you'll find in a drop-down list at the top of the optional columns list. When you choose a preset, e.g. Birthdays, the columns displayed automatically update to those relevant to the preset, for example including the Date of Birth and Age columns. You can use these presets to quickly move between different views of your Contact data, helping you to perform tasks such as reviewing Communication or Privacy settings quickly. On the back of this enhanced functionality in the Contacts section, we've deprecated some of our reports that used to offer the same functionality. If you visit the Archived Contacts, Birthdays, Communication Options, Date Added, Sex Check or Missing Data reports, you'll now be instructed how to replicate the same functionality from the Contacts section instead.
April 25th, 2024 New - Preset search views for Children
We've added a selection of preset search views to the Children section, which you'll find in a drop-down list at the top of the optional columns list. When you choose a preset, e.g. Medical, the columns displayed automatically update to those relevant to the preset, for example including the Medical Short, Medical and Doctor's Details columns. You can use these presets to quickly move between different views of your Child data, helping you to perform tasks such as reviewing Photo/Video Consent or Communication settings quickly. On the back of this enhanced functionality in the Children section, we've deprecated some of our reports that used to offer the same functionality. If you visit the Archived Children, Birthdays, Communication Options, Date Added, Medical, Photo/Video Consent, Sex Check, Missing Data or Not in Gathering reports, you'll now be instructed how to replicate the same functionality from the Children section instead.
April 27th, 2024 New - Preset search views for Users
We've added a selection of preset search views to the Users section, which you'll find in a drop-down list at the top of the optional columns list. When you choose a preset, e.g. Password Security, the columns displayed will automatically update to those relevant to the preset. On the back of this enhanced functionality, we've removed the Password Security report - the functionality this report used to offer can now be replicated from the Users section using the preset.
April 29th, 2024 New - Preset search views for Small Groups
We've added a selection of preset search views to the Groups section, which you'll find in a drop-down list at the top of the optional columns list. When you choose a preset, e.g. Capacity, the columns displayed automatically update to those relevant to the preset, for example including the Sign-Up Dates, Capacity and Progress columns. You can use these presets to quickly move between different views of your Group data. On the back of this enhanced functionality in the Groups section, we've deprecated some of our reports that used to offer the same functionality. If you visit the Capacity or Time Running reports, you'll now be instructed how to replicate the same functionality from the Groups section instead.
April 29th, 2024 New - Preset search views for Events
We've added a selection of preset search views to the Events section, which you'll find in the drop-down list at the top of the optional columns list. When you choose a preset, e.g. Date Added, the columns displayed will automatically update to those relevant to the preset. On the back of adding this enhanced functionality, we've deprecated the Date Added report. All of the functionality that this report used to offer, and more, is now available from the index page.
May 2nd, 2024 Updated visualisation of Key Dates
We've re-imagined the way that Key Dates are visualised, introducing some new interface elements to help you understand the data behind them better. When you visit a Key Date page, you'll find there's a new heatmap displayed at the top, showing you up to the last 5 years of data in a summarised format. The heatmap uses the colour you've assigned to the Key Date, with months where more Key Dates were recorded appearing in a darker colour. You can click on a month or year to filter the list to that date; clicking again will release the filter. The heatmap gives you an at-a-glance overview of which months had more/less Key Dates recorded, providing valuable insights for data analysis. Alongside this, the Key Dates tab when viewing a Contact or Child has been updated with an improved visualisation. Key Dates on the timeline are now coloured, according to the colour assigned to them, and clicking on one will filter the list to just those recorded within the same month. You can also click on the year in the timeline to filter by that year; clicking again will release the filter from.
May 7th, 2024 New - Anniversaries tab for Key Dates
When you click through to view a Key Date, you'll find there's a new Anniversaries tab available to you. The tab allows you to find people who will reach an anniversary milestone within the selected month(s). Want to find everyone who will celebrate a year since they were baptised over the next few months? No problem - just view the appropriate Key Date and use the filters to find those with a "Next anniversary" of 1! Having found the people you're looking for, you can use the convenient batch actions to send them an email, or add them to a Tag or Flow for further follow-up.
May 7th, 2024 New - Tag Snapshots
When viewing a Tag in the Address Book, Children, Bookings or Giving modules, you'll find a new "Snapshots" tab displayed. On the 1st of each month a snapshot is automatically recorded for you, recording how many people were in the tag, allowing you to see trends over time. Alongside this, there's also a new Dashboard widget, allowing you to get insights into recent Tag trends as soon as you log in.
May 13th, 2024 Pledge Imports
We've updated the Giving module to have an "Import pledge" action, available on the Giver index page. This allows you to import pledges from a csv file for your existing givers.
May 15th, 2024 Flexible Links for Song Arrangements
We've replaced the Video URL field on song arrangements in the Planning module with a more flexible "Links" field. You are no longer restricted to sharing a single video link through this field, but can add links to multiple external supporting resources, which may include YouTube/Vimeo links, as well as other URLs you manage.
May 23rd, 2024 Improved "Add to tag" experience
We've made some significant improvements to the experience when you choose the "Add to tag" action from a person's profile. You are now displayed a list of all fixed tags that have not yet been added to the person, allowing you to search the list and select multiple tags to be applied. Additionally, if your user has sufficient permission, it's also possible to add a new fixed tag, all built in to the same workflow.
May 28th, 2024 Smart Tag "Edit" workflow changes
In order to give a more consistent experience when adding and editing tags, we've made some changes that impact Smart Tags. When viewing a Smart Tag, clicking the "Edit" button at the top of the page loads a modal through which you can edit the name, colour, description and visibility - this now offers the same experience as clicking "Edit" for a Fixed Tag. In order to provide a better user experience, the ability to edit Smart Tag conditions has been separated from this process - in order to do this, just click into the Conditions tab when viewing a Smart Tag and click on the "Edit conditions" button.
June 3rd, 2024 Enforced multi-factor authentication
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) provides an important additional layer of security for the data you store within your account. We have now added a new setting within Administrator > Profile allowing Administrators to enforce MFA for all users of your account. When this setting is enabled, users logging in with their username and password who are not already using MFA will be presented with instructions to scan a QR code using their preferred MFA app, such as Google Authenticator or 1Password.
June 7th, 2024 Updated Support and User menus
We've made some changes to the navigation, adding a new Support menu and updating the links in the User menu. The new Support menu (accessed through the question mark icon) replaces the Support button that used to sit at the bottom of your screen, but retains all the same functionality. Alongside this, for Administrators, we've added control for Support Access and a link to our system status page. Within the User menu, you'll find the "My profile" link, which takes you to your user's profile, and for Administrators there are additional links to the account Settings page (which replaces the previous Administrator link), as well as a quick link to the Billing page. These changes hopefully simplify the layout of the main navigation, but also open the door for new features we've got in the pipeline.