Under Personnel, we’ve added sections for deacons and seminarians. You can add records and track the same information as other personnel, and use the quick posting and processes to update a group of deacon or seminarian records.

You can control user access to these windows. These sections also have their own reports. Note that any keywords you add on deacon and seminarian records are managed in the personnel keyword list that’s shared with clergy and religious.

We added two new tabs in the Status/Ordination window where you can record duties and sacraments for personnel.

The Duties tab provides a text box to enter any details you'd like. To move to the next line, click Ctrl + Enter on your keyboard.

On the Sacraments tab, you can enter the dates and locations for baptism, first communion, and confirmation.

You can export fund setup information from one parish and import it into another. When you export, a suggested file name using the fund number displays, saved by default in your \Data folder.

Now there's an easy way to find all of your favorite reports... with the Favorite Reports feature! Right-click a report in the list, and click Add to Favorite Reports. This adds an asterisk (*) beside the report so it stands out in the list.

To quickly view all of your favorites, click Show Only * Favorite Reports at the top.

In any calculation field, you can click the plus sign (+) on your keyboard to quickly display the calculator. View more keyboard shortcuts.

Create emails and text messages more easily using the new navigation item. In the Families, Members & Constituents, or Personnel section, click Quick Emails/Text Msgs.

Send your message to just the current record you came from (if they have an email or text phone number listed), or you can select a group of people to send to. If you plan to use this message again in the future, you can select Save as a Report.

You can also create emails or texts in the Reports window. Just click Letter/Email/Text and select an option. For steps, see Email Letters and Statements.

After running a batch of payments, the total amount is posted in the log of user activity. This applies to Payment/Donation Entry, eGiving, Post Donor Fees, Post Member/Constituent Fees, Pledge Card Entry, and Terms and Rates Entry.

Vanco has started issuing user IDs that are longer than the previous 10-character limit. PDS now allows up to 15 characters for user IDs.

You can choose which window you see first when you go to an area of the program. The default shows the Overview first, but you can change it to show the Primary window or the Listing screen first.

To do this, click the My Settings icon at the top, and click Other Screens. Select which window to display first for each area.

You can also use the gear icon on each of these windows to change your selection.

You can decide what displays on the Overview screen for families, members, personnel, offices/departments/organizations, groups/businesses, and parishes/facilities. Click the gear icon to select which sections to display.

When you send an email as a PDF document attachment, you can include a plain text version of the letter in the email body. This allows recipients to view the email without having to open attachments.

If families are residing at their alternate address, such as a vacation home, and are not marked to receive mail there, you can skip them when sending letters. By default, this option is selected when you run any family, member, or fund report.

If you import family data from parishes, now there's an easier way to get to that process. On the File menu in your PDS program, click Import Data > Import Family Information.

The process is exactly the same as going to Parishes & Facilities > Data Transfer > Other Transfers > Import Raiser's Edge Infromation from a .CSV File, but this way saves you a few clicks!

We updated some back-end database settings to increase your program's performance. If you've experienced memory errors with previous versions, this should help!

Have you ever tried to search on a name, only to find that the ID option was selected and the record wasn't found? Now, the program can detect when you enter a letter (for a name) versus a number (for an ID), and switch to the correct search option automatically. In the Personnel, Families, and Members & Constituents sections, the Auto Detect option is enabled by default.

For example, if you type a number when the Family Name option is selected, your Search By field is automatically switched to the Family ID option, without interfering with your search. Likewise, if you type a letter when the Family ID option is selected, your Search By field switches to the Family Name option and the family you're looking for will display.

When you order a column, the ascending icon or descending icon displays beside the column header. When you filter, the filter icon displays. If a column is both ordered and filtered, both icons display; for example, .

You can sort and filter multiple columns at the same time. But be aware that the options you select apply to columns from left to right. So, if the list is not sorting the way you expect, check the order of your columns.

Your sort and filter options are saved when you navigate away from the listing screen. When you come back, the list is still sorted/filtered the way you left it.

To clear the order or filter on a single column, click the column header and click Clear. To clear the options on all columns, click Clear Order/Filter at the top-left of the listing screen.

The ability to order and filter is enabled by default. If you decide you don't want to use this feature, you can disable it using the gear icon at the top-right of the listing screen.

We added the ability to export listing reports as well as the items from listing screens. Click Export List at the bottom of any listing screen or the bottom of any listing report overview window, and you can save the file in a simple column format. The default file type is .csv, but you can export to .xml, .txt, .xls, or .ods, depending on how you want to use the file.

Note that advanced reports cannot be exported due to their complexity, so you won’t see the button on every report. However, you can save advanced reports directly to a file, where you have options for .xls and .txt. You may have to work with the alignment in the file to get the results you want.

After hearing your feedback, we changed the way some settings are saved on the backend. Some settings were being saved based on the computer you were using, but now, they're saved based on your PDS user login.

Want to see how things are done in PDS? Now, you can learn how to do certain tasks with reports, records, files, and eGiving. Click the video player icon at the top of your program for quick access to the PDS Video Library. We plan to provide more videos over time.

You can analyze up to 3 years of weekly, monthly, and quarterly totals for a certain time period. For example, you can compare the totals for January through April of this year, last year, and the year before. Under Financial Analysis Reports, select Financial Comparisons for Partial Years.