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10.2C Release

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

PDS Church Office 10.2C, released for desktop 7-28-22 and OnDemand 8-4-22, offers the following enhancements.

New and Improved Features

The Beep is Back!
  • Some of our OnDemand customers were not hearing the notification sound when a message box, such as a warning, displayed. Now, anytime a message box displays, you are alerted with a "beep".
Parish Life Updates
  • The Parish Life directory now has more search options. Look up families by last name, first name, address, phone number, or email address.
  • We fixed an issue where a family wasn't displaying the Parish Life directory if their Church Office record did not have a head of household selected.
  • We fixed an issue with email addresses that contained special characters. If you invited a new admin, they were unable to log in.
Postal Rate Changes
  • The USPS increased postal rates, effective July 10, 2022. These changes were made in your PDS program and released on July 8th. Next time you run EZ-Mail, you will receive a message that allows you to download the new postal forms. For details on the changes, see July 2022 Postage Price Changes (USPS website).
ACH Files in CSV Format
  • Some banks require ACH files to be in CSV format. We changed the eGiving transfer type "ACH File" to "ACH or CSV File". On the last step of the process, you now have options to choose the format and other properties of your file.
    Last step of the export process showing the options "Use ACH File format" and "Use CSV File format" with additional options under the ACH format: "Include Line Break Indicators", "Use File Control Records", "Use Upper Case", "Use a Blocking Factor of 10", and "Pre-notification Test File (Generate the ACH file, but do not post)" as well as fields for "Discretionary Data" and "Effective Date"
  • The ACH format includes the standard fields required by NACHA. The CSV includes family name, routing number, account number, amount, and account type (either a 1 if it's a savings account or a 2 if it's a checking account).
Grades/Degrees on Registration Forms
  • You can select which grades/degrees display on the online registration form. When selecting keywords, scroll down to the new Grades and Degrees section, then select the ones you want to show on the form.
  • This is helpful if you use both Church and Formation Office and need to show only the grades that are relevant to certain parishioners.
    new Grades and Degrees section in the Keywords window
Automatically Log Out Every Night
  • We've heard several requests from system admins for a way to log all users out of the program when not in use. Now, all users are logged out of PDS at midnight, your local time. This way, any necessary maintenance and automatic backups can run properly.
  • On the Quick Access toolbar, click the users icon blue outline of two people. The new option at the bottom, Automatic Logout at Midnight, is selected by default, but you can clear the checkbox at any time if needed.
    Notify Users window showing the new option for "Automatic Logout at Midnight"

Corrections

We fixed the following issue that affected some of our customers:
  • If you shared data with another program, children who were not visible in any program were being promoted during the Grade Promotion process.