11.1G Release
If you're part of the Preferred Client Program, you can download the latest desktop version in the Client Portal.
PDS Formation Office 11.1G, originally released in August 2024 and re-released for desktop 8-27-24 and OnDemand 8-29-24, offers the following enhancements.
New and Improved Features
When you modify a batch, you can now see the number of entries, total payment amount, and total fee amount. These numbers reflect any changes you make to the current batch.
- When you import fund information, you can select whether to import the check number from your file or assign the same check number.
- When you post eGiving, all transfer types now accept files with or without a heading line. The program automatically detects whether a heading is present. The only exceptions are Smart Payment Solutions and SMART Tuition Mgmt Services, which require a heading.
- In rare cases, your fund data may contain invalid dates, such as "07/17/0224" instead of "07/17/2024". Now, you can quickly find those so they can be corrected. From the Tuition & Fees window, click Find History Entries in the navigation menu, then select the Find Invalid Dates checkbox.
This option checks for any date before 01/01/1970. So, some matches may not technically be "invalid", but they are more likely to have been entered incorrectly. To resolve it, you can double-click an entry, which takes you to the record.
- In the Clean Up Data process, you can now eliminate duplicate keywords. Each keyword is listed along with the number of exact-matching duplicates found in the program. If there are one or more duplicates, the keyword displays in red text. Hover over the number to see the list of duplicate entries for that keyword.
To clean up the duplicate entries for all keywords, click Eliminate Duplicate Keywords. This combines the entries for each keyword.
- The USPS updated postal rates, effective July 14, 2024. These changes were made in your PDS program and released on Monday, July 15. Next time you run EZ-Mail, you'll receive a message that allows you to download the new postal forms. For details on the changes, see 2024 Postage Price Changes (USPS website).
- The MagTek® MICRSafe™ Encrypting Check Scanner 22551002 is now available for use with payment/donation entry. This is a single-feed MICR reader with encryption. For all options, see Compatible Products.
- Our team created new videos for various Formation Office tasks. Topics include the basics of running reports (under Reports & Selections), archiving families and combining duplicates (under Records & Files), adding new fund periods (under Funds & Financials), and creating and pulling in registration forms (under Online Registration).
Here's a sneak peek of Create a Registration Form:
You can see our entire PDS Video Library by clicking the
icon in your program.
Corrections
- When adding a family to Church Office from Formation Office, the ID number was being duplicated with an existing Church ID number. Now, the program checks for the next available ID number.
- When adding a new family from the archive list, if you selected to use the marked members, one or more extra member records were being added.
- If a parent/guardian had been enrolled as a student in a class/session and you cleared the Student checkbox on their record without clearing their student data, then they were still displaying in student reports and selections. Now, when you clear the Student checkbox, you're prompted to remove the student information for that parent/guardian.
- If you click Yes, the Student checkbox is cleared and the program removes all classes, attendance, and progress/marks, and a log entry is created to show what type of information was removed.
- If you click No, the Student checkbox is cleared and no student information is removed.
- When posting eGiving using the Parish Giving transfer type, no information was being pulled in from the file.