11.1F Release

If you're part of the Preferred Client Program, you can download the latest desktop version in the Client Portal.

PDS Formation Office 11.1F, originally released in early July and re-released for desktop and OnDemand 7-25-24, offers the following enhancements.

New and Improved Features

Class Years in Automatic Class Promotion

If you have a lot of classes defined for multiple years, you'll like this! In the Automatic Class/Session Promotion process, you can now select the Old Year and New Year to narrow down the list of options to choose from. So, when you're selecting the "Move From" class/session, the drop-down list only displays options from the old year you selected. And when you're selecting the "Move To" class/session, the drop-down list only displays options from the new year you selected.

Improved Online Registration

We improved the process for creating web and email registration forms. You can still do all the same things as before, but the options are displayed in a better way.
The rate options and fees now display as tabs. Enter amounts in one or more tabs depending on your needs, and all of the applicable rates and fees will go toward the total amount the family should pay. (So, if you set up rates by grade and by age, and the student falls under both of those, the family will be charged both rates.) The discount options no longer depend on the rates you entered, so you can set flat discounts for families or students.

Note: Always preview and test your registration form to make sure you have the rates and discounts set up correctly.
In addition, the form now displays a breakdown of the payment amount for the family and each student. Registrants can click the question mark icon to see this before they register.
The form also displays easy-to-understand error messages when a family's payment is declined, for example, due to an expired credit card.
For step-by-step instructions, see Student Online Registration.

Add Members When Editing a Family

Now, when editing a family name, you can add a head and/or spouse. If those member records don't exist yet, you can start entering the name, and you'll see the same options as when you're adding a family. Select Automatically Add this Member and save the record to create the new member.

Change All Payments in a Batch

We made it easier to change information (like activity name or date) for a group of payments in a batch. In the View Batches process, select your batch, and click Modify Batch. If needed, use the Filter/Search to display the list of payments you want to change. Click Change All, select the information you want to change, and enter the new information. When you're finished, you can post your changes and choose whether to leave an audit trail.

Filter the List of History Entries

You can now filter the list of fund history entries in the Tuition & Fees window. This is useful if your list is still long after entering the fund information you're looking for. Filter the list by name or ID number, as well as additional fund information.

Test Your Vanco Connection

If Vanco is your eGiving provider, you are now able to test your connection to ensure your credentials are correct. In eGiving Setup, select the line for the account you want to test, and click Test Connection. A message tells you whether the credentials worked or not.

Family Address Export

The Family Address Export report now exports all parts of the family name, including the last names, first names, titles, and suffixes for the head and spouse.

Improved Data Cleanup

In the Clean Up Data process, you can now see how many members have a different last name than their family. The number and list reflect manual changes that may have been made in your data. To clean it up and see the actual number, click Recalculate Flags.

Church Personnel Field

There's a new field called Church Personnel that you can use in personnel reports, selections, and listing screens. In the List of Fields, it's under Personnel > Personnel - Detail. It shows Yes or No to indicate whether the person is visible in PDS Church Office.

We fixed issues that were reported internally to our team, as well as the following issue that affected some of our customers:

Online registration forms were not able to be processed if the person entered as the Head of Household was marked as a type other than "Head of Household" in PDS. Now, forms can be processed when the person is a "Head of Household", "Adult", "Spouse", or "Other".