Church Helpmate START
Contents
1. 2003 Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC All Rights Reserved PO Box 619 Union KY 41091 www helpmate net Sales 888 858 3247 Tech Support 859 384 7323 Church Helpmate 2004 START UP GUIDE Helpmate Technology Solutions SENS UNUD I d v 3 o gt Church 2004 Helpmate 2004 Church Management Software r te Pe tn ae RN ani f e IMPORTANT To ensure that you have the best possible experience with Church Help mate 2004 it is strongly recommended that this short startup guide be read in its entirety by all individuals who will be using the product 2003 Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC All Rights Reserved PO Box 619 Union KY 41091 www helpmate net Sales 888 858 3247 Tech Support 859 384 7323 EENE 1 Welcome Page 2 e Church Helpmate 2004 User s Manual after installing CH2004 select the User s Manual item from the Church Helpmate 2004 program group 2 Things You Can Do with Church Helpmate 2004 Page 2 under the Windows Start button Start Church Helpmate 2004 Docu 3 Installation amp System Requirements Page 3 mentation User s Manual requires the Adobe PDF reader A printed hard copy version of the CH2004 User Manual is available for purchase 4 ering Started General Page 4 from HTS ItemID CH2004MAN price 34 97 5 Getting Started with Households amp Individuals Page 6 6 Getting Started with Contacts2. Groups Explorer except that only Groups who have been designated as attendance enabled will be shown in the Meetings Explorer e When entering attendance in the Meeting Detail form there are 2 available modes of setting attendance Household mode and Normal mode While in the Household mode the user specifies the attendance value for the household All Household member Individuals in the group will receive the same attendance value automatically The user may over ride this if there is a Household Individual who has an attendance value different than the other Household Individuals In some cases utilizing the Household mode speeds up the attendance data entry process since Individuals of the same Household will most often than not have the same attendance value 12 Detail Views While Explorer Views allow you to explore browse your church s data the CH2004 Detail views are used to focus in on a spe cific record s detailed information The CH2004 Detail views provide much greater detail than the Explorer view In addition the CH2004 Detail views are where you will create edit and delete records in the database The Explorer view can be considered as a read only view while the CH2004 Detail view can be considered as both a read and write view Each of the main CH2004 modules i e households individuals contacts etc have their own unique Detail view form though they maintain a con sistent look and feel Most of t
3. about Reminder records e A Reminder record is associated with a specific date e A Reminder record can be configured as a one time reminder or as a re curring reminder with specified frequency e Acknowledging a one time Reminder will delete the reminder record Acknowledging a recurring Reminder will increment the remind 14 Section 3 Installation amp System Requirements In order to use Church Helpmate 2004 it must first be installed onto your computer and on any other computer from which you or others will want to run the program Minimum System Requirements In order to install Church Helpmate 2004 onto your computer it must meet or exceed the following minimum sys tem requirements Windows 98 or newer Windows operating system Pentium 133MHz processor 64MB RAM 200MB free disk space Super VGA display adapter running 800x600 resolution Recommended System Requirements To ensure the most efficient opera tion and best user experience it is recommended but not necessary that your computer meet or exceed the following recommended system requirements e Windows XP e Pentium IT 500MHz processor e 256MB RAM Installation Installing CH2004 is a quick and simple process 1 Close any programs you currently have running and disable your antivirus software 2 Insert the Church Helpmate 2004 CD into your computer s CD drive After several seconds the installation program should begin
4. products has been to help manage your organization We hope you II find every aspect of this product to designed to make you and your church as efficient and effective as possible be a true helpmate to you and your ministries Section 2 Things You Can Do with Church Helpmate 2004 e Record manage and report your membership records e Record manage and report various group activities within your church e Record receipt track and report your contribution and pledge records Generate directories including photo directories e Manage important contact information on various vendors contributors and others not part of your formal membership e Record track and report attendance in classes group meetings and worship services e Record track and report your visitation program e Remind you of one time or recurring tasks e Communicate effectively with your congregation staff and volunteers via postal mail phone and the Internet Section 13 Getting Started with Reminders CH2004 utilizes Reminder records to allow the user to store important re minders in the CH2004 database Reminders might be used for many rea sons For example to remind the user to backup the CH2004 database file to remind the user to send out letters to all 1st time visitors from last Sunday s services to remind the user to distribute the prayer request list to the church staff and so on Below are some important concepts to know
5. Page 7 e Church Helpmate 2004 Help file when running the CH2004 program press the lt F1 gt key to activate the context sensitive online helpfile system 7 Getting Started with Groups Page 8 Doing so will not only open the helpfile but the help topic which is most 8 Getting Started with Contributions Page 10 eed related to the area of the program you are working in will be dis ayed 9 Getting Started with Pledges Page 11 si 10 Getting Started with Meetings amp Attendance Page 12 e Church Helpmate Internet Website The support section of the Help mate website at www helpmate net provides 24x7 access to Technical Sup 11 Getting Started with Visitations Page 13 port Articles TSA s patch downloads and more 12 Getting Started with Reminders Page 14 e Helpmate Technology Solutions Technical Support HTS offers free 13 Receiving Additional Help Page 14 technical support for 60 days after your software purchase by the following methods Section 1 Welcome Email support helpmate net Phone 859 384 7323 M F 9 30am 5 00PM EST Welcome to Church Helpmate 2004 This Startup Guide has been designed to give you essential understanding of the basic concepts of the Church Helpmate 2004 Beyond this initial 60 day support coverage you ll be offered a subscription system We re sincerely delighted and honored that you ve chosen our software tools to one of our 3 affordable support plans which like our
6. ain menubar selection items or toolbar buttons Try it Navigate Through the Application Your Way The CH2004 product provides several navigational methods and tools to choose from These include toolbar buttons menubar items Shortcut Key combinations and Mouse Operations We encourage you to experiment with these various methods to find which works most efficiently for you Button Tooltips In many of the CH2004 forms there are buttons which have a graphic image or icon displayed on them rather than a full text description In most cases the graphic image will communi cate to you the purpose and function of the button If however you are unsure of a particular button s function place the mouse cursor over the button and rest it there without clicking for a moment Doing this will activate the button s Tooltip A tooltip is a pop up text message which will give you information about the button Explorer Views Explorer views provide various list view and tree view structures which result in an extremely powerful visual rep resentation of your data The CH2004 Explorer views function very much like the Windows Explorer provided by the Windows operating system The Windows Explorer allows you to explore and manage the folders and files on your computer s hard drive The CH2004 Ex plorer allows you to explore your church s data in the same manner There is a unique Explorer view for each main CH2004 module i e house
7. automatically NOTE If the installation program does not start automatically follow the steps below e Click the Windows Start button then select Run e On the Open line type x CH2004Setup EXE where x represents the letter of your CD drive e Click the OK button 4 Follow the on screen instructions to proceed with the installation process After installing Church Helpmate 2004 you will notice a new CH2004 icon on your Windows Desktop This icon will be your typical method for starting the Church Helpmate 2004 program Section 5 Getting Started General Context Sensitive Helpfile The CH2004 Helpfile system is context sensitive This means that when you activate the helpfile the help sys tem automatically displays the most appropriate help topic based on the current active screen form For example let s say you re working in the Individual Detail Form and you have a question about one of the form s fields Activating the helpfile from this form will cause the helpfile to be opened and the topic associated with this form automatically dis played To activate the context sensitive helpfile press the F1 key on your keyboard Try it Right Mouse Button The CH2004 product takes full advantage of your mouse s right button Clicking the mouse s right button will dis play a popup menu specific to the object which was clicked on In many cases this method is faster than using the traditional m
8. e database they are automatically given membership to the Group
9. equired Data Entry Fields CH2004 provides many fields in CH2004 Detail View forms and other data entry forms A certain number of these fields are considered to be required fields That is you must provide data for these fields in order to be able to save the record These are the mini mum number of fields you must provide data for when entering new re cords For example the Individuals Detail Form contains over 100 data fields however only 4 are required fields First name last name status and Household Required fields are identified by having an asterisk located just to the right of the field Section 6 Getting Started with Households amp Individuals HOUSEHOLDS CH2004 utilizes Household records to identify various individuals who share a common address You can setup household records which consist of the traditional family members mom dad brother and sister all with the same last name or more complex cases like mom dad brother sister dad s aunt mom s sister mom s sister s foster child well you get the idea By organizing these individuals into a common household record CH2004 s relational database reduces the amount of required data entry For example you ll only need to enter in the household s home phone number once rather than having to enter it into each household member s individual record Below are some important concepts to know about Household records e There is no limit t
10. he CH2004 Detail View forms utilize record locking to prevent unauthorized or accidental data editing While in a locked mode the form prevents editing of any data fields To unlock the form and enable editing you must either click the Unlock button near the top of the detail form button with a yellow key or press lt Ctrl gt lt E gt on your keyboard Many of the Detail Forms allow you to navigate move between records from within the Detail Form without having to use the Explorer Views For example the Household Detail Form includes navigational buttons in the form s toolbar to move through the household records Additionally many of the Detail forms include a Find button which allows you to eas ily choose a specific desired record Flagged Records Several of the CH2004 modules including the Households Individuals and Contacts modules provide the ability to flag a record Flagged records will be identified with a small red flag in both the Detail View and Explorer Views The meaning of the flagged status is for you and your organization to determine If desired it can be utilized in many ways For example a flagged individual may be someone who is going through some significant hardships and requires special atten tion Or it could designate core members of the congregation There are no doubt many more ways of utilizing the flag status It s just important to be consistent with its meaning between all CH2004 users R
11. hen deleting an individual record all contribution pledge attendance group membership and visitation records associated with the individual will also be removed from the database Section 7 Getting Started with Contacts CH2004 utilizes Contact records to maintain information on the various indi viduals businesses vendors organizations and other contacts who interact with you and your church Contact records are for contacts who are not part of your church membership and would therefore not be entered into the data base as a Household Individual You can organize your Contact records by creating custom Contact categories for example Vendors Pastor s Politicians etc While you can record contributions amp pledges from Contact records Contact records cannot be used in conjunction with the Groups Meetings Attendance and Visitations modules of the program For this reason it is generally recom mended that visitors and guests of your church ie prospects be entered into CH2004 as Households Individuals and not as Contact records Section 8 Getting Started with Groups CH2004 utilizes Group records to organize and assign individuals to the various groups activities committees skill interest sets etc within your church For example you can create a Group called Choir Then you can assign membership to the Group to all of the individuals who participate in the choir You ll also be able t
12. holds individuals contacts etc Section 12 Getting Started with Visitations CH2004 utilizes Visitation records to record and maintain detailed informa tion on the various communications between Household or Individuals and the church staff or volunteers Visitations can be events such as phone calls let ters in person meetings etc For example on Nov 8 2003 Pastor Schmidt visited the Adams household at their home to discuss their interest in becoming formal members of the church Below are some important concepts to know about Visitation records e A Visitation record is associated with a specific date e A Visitation record is associated with either an Individual record or a House hold record e A Visitation record can be recorded after or before for scheduling purposes the visitation actually takes place e A Visitation record can be specified as having a required Follow up action The follow up can have an associated date responsible person and detailed description e A Visitation record can have a specific purpose for example marriage counseling new visitor meeting bereavement etc e Every Visitation record has a status value assigned to it These status values are Closed Visitation has occurred and either no follow up was re quired or the follow up has been completed Open Visitation has occurred however there is still an open fol low up action required Scheduled Visitation has
13. not yet occurred 13 Section 11 Getting Started with Meetings amp Attendance CH2004 utilizes Meeting records to record and maintain information on spe cific group meetings For example the Choir Group s rehearsal on Nov 1 2003 could be recorded as a Meeting CH2004 utilizes Attendance records to record and maintain attendance data for Meeting records For example let s say you create a Meeting record for the Choir Group s rehearsal on Nov 1 2003 CH2004 will automatically gen erate attendance records for each of the Individuals who are members of the Choir Group These attendance records can then be used to specify whether or not a particular Group member was present at the meeting Below are some important concepts to know about Meeting amp Attendance records e A Meeting record is essentially a combination of a Group and a date indicating that the Group met on the specified date for example the Choir Group s Nov 1 2003 rehearsal e Attendance records are associated with a particular Meeting and a particu lar Individual record For example John Smith s attendance to the Nov 1 2003 Choir group s rehearsal e Meeting records can only be generated for Group s who have been desig nated as attendance enabled groups You can specify whether or not a Group is attendance enabled through the Group Detail Form e The listing of Groups found on the left hand side of the Meetings Explorer is very similar to that of the
14. o human beings but rather to the Group s position in this hierarchy structure For example you might think of a Parent level Group and a Major Group and a Child level Group as a Minor Group You can create as many Group Categories Parent level Groups and Child level Groups as you like CH2004 includes several Categories and Groups in its sample data set These sample Categories and Groups can be utilized modified or removed by the user Only individuals can be members of a Group i e Households and Contact records cannot be assigned membership to Groups Individuals can only be assigned group membership to Child level Groups When assigning an individual membership to a Child level Group CH2004 automatically assumes their membership to the associated Parent level Group For example when Tom White is assigned group membership to the Monday Evening Group Child level group he has an automatic assumed membership to the College and Career Parent level Group As a rule of thumb if you are going to be assigning multiple individuals to a particular group it s more efficient to use the Membership tab of the Group Detail Form However if you are going to adding a specific individ ual to many different Groups it s more efficient to use the Groups tab of the Individual Detail Form For each Group you can designate whether or not it should be a default membership Group so that as new individuals are added to th
15. o indicate the position or role of each individual in the Group to indicate their level of participation ie leader teacher participant former member prospect etc Once you ve created a Group and assigned membership to it you can easily generate mailing labels form letters bulk emails and directories for your Groups as well as track Group meetings and attendance Below are some important concepts to know about Group records e CH2004 allows you to organize your Groups in a 3 level hierarchy struc ture This structure consists of Group Categories as the top level Below the Group Categories are the Parent level Groups Below the Parent level Groups are the Child level Groups A unlimited number of Parent level Groups can be assigned under a Group Category Similarly an unlimited number of Child level Groups can be assigned under a Parent level Group The layout of this structure is shown below Group Category Parent Level Group Child Level Group e Below is an example of the Category Parent and Child level usage Groups Explorer E iis Ministries amp Activities G Marriage Enrichment fa Services amp Classes a ns Create Your Own Group Categories The Child level groups shown in the example all have the same Parent level Group College and Career and Group Category Small Groups Please note that the terms Parent and Child here are not referring t
16. o the number of individuals that you can assign to a household e CH2004 allows you the ability to store 2 addresses for each household re cord a primary and secondary address You have the ability to specify which of these 2 addresses should be the active address when generating directories mailing labels letters etc e There are 3 classifications of household member individuals Main Con tact Guardians adults and Dependents Every household should have one and only one individual classified as the Main Contact In most cases the Main Contact individual should be also classified as a Guardian Adult as well Spouses of the Main Contacts should be designated as Guardians Individuals not specified as Guardians will by default be con sidered Dependents Classification assignments are made from the Indi vidual Detail Form Household tab Below is an example of proper clas sification assignments Example 1 John Smith husband father Amy Smith wife mother Tommy Smith son Julie Smith daughter John Main Contact amp Guardian Amy Guardian Tommy amp Julie Dependents Variation Let s say however that John does not attend the church You would likely then want to classify Amy as the Main Contact Amy Main Contact amp Guardian John Guardian Tommy amp Julie Dependents However this Payment Date can be adjusted if necessary for each contribu tion in the Batch Batches allow you to gr
17. ociate contributions with Households not individuals This would be the case whether the House hold has multiple Individuals in the Household or just one Individual One of the benefits of associating contributions with a Household is that the con tribution statement will be addressed to the Household record for example Mr amp Mrs John Smith There will certainly be exceptions where you might want to record certain contributions from Individual records as op posed to their Household For example contributions from a dependent ie son or daughter should be associated with the dependent s Individual record as opposed to being associated with their Household This way the depend ent will receive their own contribution statement addressed to them individu ally for example Miss Suzy Smith while their parents would receive a statement for their Household based contributions Another scenario where individual based contributions should be used is in situations where a hus band and wife might want their finances kept separately ie each would like their own separate statement showing each of their contributions individually not jointly CH2004 lets you define how you d like to record contributions from each Household and Individual unit that is you can mix and match Household and Individual based contributors to best fit the particular House hold Individual situation e You can define as many contribution Funds as you de
18. oup your contribution records in many ways making handling contributions more manageable for you and your church For example you may want to maintain separate batches for each of your church services i e 9 30am service and 11 00am service and or for each of your data entry personnel CH2004 does not require that Contribution records be removed as an end of year process The system is able to record and maintain data for multiple years with no issues However purging tools are provided to easily remove historical contribution and or pledge data if desired Section 10 Getting Started with Pledges CH2004 utilizes Pledge records to record and track details on financial pledges promises made by Individuals Households and Contacts Below are some important concepts to know about Pledge records CH2004 allows Pledges to be designated as coming from Individual House hold or Contact records It is up to you and your church how you wish to designate pledges from each donor either by associating them with the Indi vidual or with the Individual s Household It is recommended to be consis tent with this in order to reduce any confusion in data entry and reporting procedures For example let s say you record contributions coming from John Smith as coming from the SMITH Household but record a pledge com ing from him to his Individual record John s contributions will never be applied to the pledge since the contributions are in hi
19. s Household s name and the pledge is in his Individual name consistency is important here Each pledge record must be designated to a specific Fund purpose Each Pledge record can span any month year duration desired in order to ac commodate multi year and fiscal year pledge campaigns CH2004 does not require that Pledge records be removed as an end of year process The system is able to record and maintain data for multiple years with no issues However purging tools are provided to easily remove histori cal pledge data if desired 11 Section 9 Getting Started with Contributions CH2004 utilizes Contribution records to record and maintain information on financial contributions given to the church by Individuals Households and Contacts Below are some important concepts to know about Contribution records e CH2004 allows Contributions to be designated as coming from Individual Household or Contact records It is up to you and your church how you wish to designate contributions for each donor either by associating them with an individual or with an individual s household It is recommended to be consistent with this in order to reduce any confusion in data entry and reporting procedures To facilitate this every Individual Household and Contact record has a Contributor Type field which allows you to specify whether or not the particular record is a contributor or not Our general recommendation is to record ass
20. sire through the Contribution Setup screen Each contribution record must be designated to a specific Fund purpose e CH2004 utilizes Contribution Batches to organize contribution records A Contribution Batch simply a set or collection of contribution records A Contribution Batch is associated with a particular date All contribution records have a Payment Date field which defaults to the date of the Batch 10 INDIVIDUALS CH2004 utilizes Individual records to identify the vari ous individuals who you wish to record and maintain in your church s data base You can choose to maintain individual records for individuals who ve never even attended your church or only those who have formally chosen to be full fledged members of the congregation or anywhere in between Below are some important concepts to know about Individual records e Every individual record must be assigned to belong to a household record e Every individual record whether the individual has been classified as Main Contact Guardian or Dependent is handled in the same man ner For example the CH2004 application allows you to record the same amount of detailed information regardless of this classification In addi tion you can assign group memberships record contributions amp pledges record attendance and record visitations for any individual regardless of their classification e Due to the relational nature of the CH2004 database w
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