HomeAdmin Email 190711

Panel #	Show Panel? Y/N
#1	Required
#2	Y
#3	Y
#4	Y
#5	Y
#6	Y
#7	Y
#8	Y
#9	Y

Administrator Email - 7/11/2019 - Announcing

Version 9.0

Back in May, 2018, we announced version 8.0, our biggest ever release. Today, we are proud to announce ClubExpress version 9.0, which is even bigger still.

This release includes Ad Hoc Reports, QuickBooks Online, Member Profile Attachments, more Event Calendar enhancements, and more than a dozen other new and upgraded features. Click the options on the left to see all the details.

All manuals have been updated. The online help system will be updated in the next week or so.

We will hold a webinar on Wednesday, July 17 to describe the new features in version 9.0. And after that, for the next 4 weeks, we will hold "Deep Dive" webinars to explore these major features in more detail. For more information, please click here. There is no need to RSVP but attendance is limited to the first 200 people. If you can't make it, this webinar will be recorded and an edited version will be available on the website within 48 hours.

Also check out some of our recent video tutorials and webinars. They can be found on our website, under the Cool Stuff --> Video Tutorials and Cool Stuff --> Webinars options.

In this issue:

Ad Hoc Reports

Ad Hoc Reports is an optional module that allows you to create your own reports, including tabular reports with grouping, filters, and sorts, dynamic charts, crosstabs (pivot tables), dashboards, and chained reports. There is also an optional report scheduler that will run a pre-defined report on a schedule that you determine and then email it to a defined list of recipients.

The Ad Hoc Reports function includes an ExpressView that allows you to quickly create tabular reports which you can then manipulate interactively to explore your data. When you want to create a more formal report with complex formatting, you can convert the ExpressView report into an Advanced Report or build it from scratch. You will have control over formatting, alignment, formulas, as well as report and page headers and footers. More than a dozen chart types are supported and you can even build interactive charts where clicking a bar or area drills down to show the detailed data behind this chart element.

Ad Hoc Reports allows you to save any number of reports in your own folder tree. Next week, we will also install some Shared Reports to get you started. These can be viewed and copied into your personal area to be modified for your specific needs. Ad Hoc Reports can use data from many parts of ClubExpress, including member and non-member information, transactions and payments, events (including individual events), donations, the e-commerce storefront, committees, members interests, surveys, subgroups, etc. In the future, we will provide access to more modules. We have organized this data into views that make it easy to select only the relevant fields. If we previously built a custom module for your organization, we can also create the necessary data views into this module (for an additional one-time fee.)

ClubExpress has licensed a 3rd-party business intelligence tool called Exago to handle Ad Hoc Reports. Exago has many video tutorials and an extensive online help system to allow you to fully explore its powerful features. These can be accessed from the new Ad Hoc Reports home screen.

We are charging an annual fee of $200 to use this functionality. If you also want to enable scheduled reports, there is an additional fee of $100 for an annual total of $300. Please note that we cannot enable free trials of Ad Hoc Reporting. However, it is active on the DemoClub and DemoClubPro for people who want to explore. Click here for more information on accessing the demo clubs.

The Extra Cost Features Manual has been updated with a chapter on Ad Hoc Reports. We've also created two video tutorials to get you started. On the ClubExpress YouTube channel, the Getting Started video can be found here, and the Advanced video can be found here. More videos will follow as we explore the capabilities of this powerful new tool.

To get started with Ad Hoc Reports, go to Control Panel - "Club" tab - Admin Functions section - Ad Hoc Reporting.

QuickBooks Online

ClubExpress now supports QuickBooks Online (QBO). When you enable QuickBooks integration, or if you have already done so, you can easily switch to the Online version. When you connect to QBO, a login screen will appear for you to enter your credentials. (Note that this screen comes from Intuit and ClubExpress does not have access to this information.)

The connection to QuickBooks Online works completely differently from the Desktop version. First, it's a two-way connection. ClubExpress will be updated with the internal QBO ids for customers (members and non-members), financial accounts, items and services that it knows about. Second, there is no need to create exports and manually import them into QuickBooks. Instead, data is transferred automatically. And finally, there is no issue with duplicate transactions, payments, or credits. ClubExpress will keep track of what has been transferred and will only transfer new or changed information.

With QBO, however, it is more important than ever to have accurate and complete definitions of items and services, as well as financial accounts. For the data transfers to work correctly, the account and item/service information in ClubExpress must exactly match what has been defined in QBO. We strongly recommend that you make a backup of your "company" file in QBO before you do the initial data transfers. If there's a problem, you can fix it, restore the backup, and let us know so that we can reset the internal flags and allow the data transfer to be redone.

Please also note that for QBO, the data sharing between ClubExpress and QuickBooks starts as of the date you enable it. If you do an immediate data transfer from ClubExpress to QuickBooks, there won't be any data to transfer until you have transactions and payments.

If you have already enabled QuickBooks, there is no fee to switch to the Online version. If you have not yet enabled QuickBooks, the one-time fee to do so (either Desktop or Online) is $100.

Member Profile Attachments

ClubExpress now allows you to define one or more files that can be uploaded and attached to a member's Profile. This powerful new capability supports the following options:

Any number of attachments
Active or Disabled status (turn an attachment off but keep what's already been uploaded)
Who can see the attachment (Admins only or Member & Admin)
Who can upload an attachment (Admins only or Member & Admin)
Format (Document or Image)
Versioning (allow multiple versions to be uploaded and retained)
Required or Optional

You can also configure this feature to appear as a panel in the Member Signup/Renewal Wizard, for example to collect required documents from members as they signup or renew their memberships.

There are no limits to the number of documents you can define and upload as part of a member's Profile. These documents will be visible to the member and to admins or Member Manager coordinators only.

Event Calendar

Version 9.0 adds three powerful new features (and a couple of smaller changes as well) to the Event Calendar module:

RSVP for QuickEvents. You can now define a QuickEvent as being RSVP-only. Configure "Yes", "No", and/or "Maybe" buttons, as well as an optional number of guests, and an optional Comments field. If there are no guests or comments, a member can RSVP for an event with just one click! The attendee list will show who is in each category.
Multiple Coordinators for an Event. You can now define multiple coordinators for Events, and each coordinator will have admin rights over that event. For each coordinator, you can configure what information to show (phone, cell phone, and/or email address) and whether that coordinator should be notified of a registration. Coordinators will also appear on the Event View screen. Confirmation emails will include only a designated "primary" coordinator.
Multi-Date Events. Many clubs and associations run events that occur over multiple, non-contiguous dates (for example, a training class on Tuesdays at 5:00 PM, for one hour, and over 10 weeks.) ClubExpress now allows you to define these multi-date events. They will appear on the calendar for each date that the event takes place but a click on any date leads back to the one Event View screen. You can use the existing Close Date function to control when people can no longer register, once the event has started.
Grid Date Display. Dates in the Event grid are now sorted by Start Time. And the Start Time has been added to the Hover Text/Short Description.
Event Titles. ClubExpress used to "clean up" capitalization in Event Titles. This is no longer being done; your original capitalization will be retained.

Other Enhancements

Classified Ads. You can now pause and resume the slideshow for an ad that includes multiple photos. Also, the Description field now allows formatting.
Uploading Photos and Documents. Many users who upload photos and documents to the website use the filename as the Title for the photo or document. ClubExpress will now replace underscores in the Title with spaces, and it will also remove a file extension such as .JPEG. One additional benefit of this change is that it fixes a problem with searching for a document or photo using the title field.
Member Types. You can now specify a Display Sequence for member types in the Member Signup/Renewal Wizard.
Coordinator Copy. On the Administrators/Coordinators screen, there is now a Copy function for coordinators. If you need to define multiple people with the same security/access rights, define one of them, then you can copy those rights to another person.
Popup Notices on Login. You can now turn off the popup "Pending Payment" and "Renew Now" notices that members may see when they login and they have a pending payment or it's time to renew. This is done on the Website Options screen.
Election Surveys. You can now configure a survey as an election. When you do so, the system will warn you that these properties cannot be changed. Once you click "OK", we will set the survey to be for members only, one vote per member, and anonymous voting. We will also define the Close Method as "Close Date" and allow you to specify a date, although this date can be extended if you need more time. When a survey is configured as an election, users can be assured that their votes are truly anonymous and that the election is being conducted with full integrity.
Member Manager. The Member Manager has been slightly reformatted to use less room. We've added a Reset button, and also the ability to filter by Mailing List Category. The Quick Member Lookup function has also been reformatted and now also includes filtering by Mailing List Category.
External Menu Items. You now have the ability to open an external menu item in the same window. And for each item, there is now a View/Test icon to test the external link just created.
Blogs now include a GoLive Date. The blog post will not appear until this date arrives.
Profile - Chapters/Additional Members. This screen has been reformatted to make it easier to use. We also added the ability for a Primary member to update the Bio screen for a secondary or tertiary member, especially the member's Photo. This function will be valuable for clubs using the Check-In Desk function, to be able to see photos for secondary and tertiary members.
Join Date. Administrators can now change the Join Date for secondary and tertiary members. Secondary and Tertiary members must have the same Member Type and Expiration Date as their Primary, but the Join Date could be different.

Announcing RunMyVillage

For a while now, we have noticed that displaying our powerful functionality for Aging-in-Place Villages deep within the ClubExpress website has made it harder for villages to learn what ClubExpress has to offer. They see all the stuff for regular clubs and associations and wonder why people recommend ClubExpress for their village.

In order to more effectively showcase the village functionality in ClubExpress, we have decided to set up a separate “brand” and website for our Aging-in-Place Village customers and prospects. Going forward, ClubExpress for Villages will be known as RunMyVillage.

We have a new website: https://runmyvillage.com. And the “Powered By” logo at the bottom of your website will now be the RunMyVillage logo you see above and will link to the new website.

Everything else remains the same. Villages will still have access to all the powerful ClubExpress features to manage your website, member and prospect databases, events, payment processing, communications. documents, photos, committees, and member interests. And all the features of ClubExpress Version 9.0 and future versions.

And we will continue to offer our powerful and flexible features to manage your village services, service providers, and service requests. Look for more village enhancements to be announced in time for this year’s National Village Gathering, to be held for the first time in our sweet home Chicago.

Bug Fixes

The following bugs were fixed since our last version announcement:

There are links in forum messages to View/Reply Online and to go to the member's Profile. For clubs that have purchased an SSL Certificate, these links were using the club's SubDomain URL instead of the primary domain.
When members are logged in, we use the time offset setting they entered on their Forum General Preferences screen to adjust the date and time of forum posts. But when members were not logged in, we displayed all forum posts using US Central Time. Now, instead, we will use the default time offset from the Forum Defaults page.
When members inserted an image into a forum post, then modified the properties of that image, for a larger image, users were not able to scroll to the Save and Cancel buttons.
User Transaction reports were including an extra day beyond the one specified.
The Business Directory was not separating images/photos uploaded by two different members with the same filename (e.g. "MyCompanyLogo.jpg")
After a recent Firefox update, when admins edited the Home Page and clicking "Save" in the editor, the home page Edit icons did not appear.
If a club or association had a primary domain name that included the "www.", Renewal notices were using the Subdomain format instead of the actual domain name.
We improved how a couple of modules appeared for users on a mobile device, including Classified Ads and creating links using the Link Builder.
There was a problem with the new Submenu Widget when the underlying submenu has been deleted.
There was a problem in the Member Manager when a Dropped member without a Dropped Reason was encountered.
For clubs and associations that enabled the Alt Address fields, it was defaulting to Central Time Zone even if the club's default was a different time zone.
The Birthdays/Anniversaries Report was including Dropped members.

Again, all of these problems have been fixed.