Administrator Email - 8/3/2023 - Announcing
Version 68
We're excited to announce ClubExpress Version 68. This release adds a new Dashboard tab to the administrator Control Panel, a new QR Code Generator module, and many other features across the ClubExpress platform. As usual, we've also cleaned up a few bugs.
We will be holding a webinar on Wednesday, August 9th, starting at 12:00 Noon US Eastern time, 11:00 AM Central, 10:00 AM Mountain, and 9:00 AM Pacific, for those who want to learn more about these enhancements. If you can't make it, the webinar recording will be available within a couple of days, on the ClubExpress
YouTube channel. Here are the connection details:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83382386835?pwd=TStWUGkrOTd4cGZuWUNCTHN6N09FUT09
Meeting ID: 833 8238 6835
Passcode: 569269
In this issue:
Dashboard
When you log into your website on August 10th, you will see a new "Dashboard" tab in the Control Panel. This tab shows various charts and graphs about the status and health of your club or association.
The initial view will be blank. Click the Configure option in the top-right corner of the tab to select the charts you want to appear in your Dashboard. Once you click Save, the screen will refresh to show your charts.
For each chart, click the "three-vertical-dots" icon in the top-right corner to change the range of data shown in the chart. Click the "four-arrows" icon beside it to display a larger version of the chart. This option also allows you to print the chart or to output the underlying data into a CSV file.
The Dashboard can be different for each full administrator. Coordinators will also see the Dashboard option but it will only show charts based on the "Reports" options on each tab to which the coordinator has been granted rights. Note also that the People tab will continue to be the initial Control Panel tab when you first log in. The Dashboard must be explicitly selected.
The Dashboard will be deployed on Thursday morning, August 10th, the day after the Version 68 webinar.
QR Code Generator
We have added a new function to generate QR Codes that can be used on posters and flyers. When scanned by your mobile device, the QR code will jump to something on your website, such as an upcoming event, a document, a specific page, a survey, a blog entry, or many other options.
You can find this option on the Control Panel - Communications tab - Setup section. When you select it, you will see a standard admin screen to view and manage existing QR Codes or create new ones. Every code has a name and an Active status, and it links to a specific location on your website.
From the admin screen, you can edit the link, view the actual QR Code in order to save it for printing, test the link, track when and how many times the link was clicked, and delete the link when it's no longer required.
In addition, if you want to actually place a QR Code on a page of your website, the Link Builder in our content editors now includes "QR Code" as one of the display options. You might use this option, for example, in an event description, to take people to the separate hotel website where they can reserve a room for the event.
People Manager Actions Button
We are adding a new option to the People Manager: an "Actions" button. When you click it, you will see a drop-down list of things you can do with the current data set of members and/or non-members:
- Create a new mailing list for these results
- Add these results to an existing mailing list
- Export this list to a CSV file
- Add these results to a Committee
- Add these results to an Interest Group
- Add these results to a subgroup
Additional options will be added in the future.
The Actions button will also be deployed on Thursday morning, August 10th, the day after the Version 68 Webinar.
Aging-in-Place Village Enhancements
We've added a number of enhancements to our support for Aging-in-Place Villages:
- Service providers can now sign up to provide a service directly from a request email sent by the village. (From the 2022 survey, this was item C02.)
- When villages use the Automated Open Requests function, there is now an option for how to show a member's address in the "View" popup screen. (Survey item H01.)
- Service requests no longer require a Start Time and Finish Time to be specified. (Survey item A07.)
- The Status Log for each service request has received a number of enhancements to make it more comprehensive. (Survey item A01.)
- In the Volunteer Self-Signup function, service providers can now enter the actual date and time that they agreed to with the member. (Survey item I01.)
These features will also be deployed the day after the webinar.
More enhancements will appear in the next few weeks, in the lead up to the annual VtVNetwork conference.
Other Enhancements
The following other enhancements are included in this module:
- For those of you using the powerful Ad Hoc Reports function (an additional annual fee applies) we have updated the underlying reporting engine to the latest version. It includes an updated interface to create Advanced Reports. We've also created a new video tutorial to showcase this updated interface. Click the link above to jump over to our YouTube Channel.
- For those organizations using the Expense Reimbursements module (an additional monthly fee applies) we have significantly updated the interface to be more flexible in how the module is configured and how approvals are handled across one or more levels.
- For those organizations using the Continuing Education/Certification module (an additional monthly fee applies) we have updated this module with new options, including support for external training providers, improved handling for pre-approved courses, and an Imports function to record results from courses offered by external trainers.
- On the Control Panel - Club/Association tab - Admin Functions section, the user interface for the Data Exports screen has been refreshed to make it more usable.
- If you have signed up for the ClubExpress Mobile App, a new option in the Event Calendar allows you to create a mobile "channel" linked to the event. Each person who registers for the event is automatically added to the channel, so they can use the mobile app to chat, message, and connect with other event attendees.
- There is a new option on the Control Panel - Money tab - Setup section - Money Options page, for clubs and associations in the US using LumaPay, that also have more than one active bank account. You can now configure whether credit card processing fees are charged to each bank account for payments into that account, or charged only to the primary bank account.
Important Note about Twitter (or "X")
Because of all the changes and uncertainty around this platform, the Twitter widget in the Page Builder, to allow you to show your organization's Twitter feed on your ClubExpress website, does not currently work. We will update it as soon as things settle down.
Important Note about Reports
For the 400+ reports built into ClubExpress, we use a 3
rd party report generator. It offers a CSV (Comma Separated Values) output option that we enabled a few years ago. Unfortunately, as many of you have found, this option does not output correct and complete data in every situation, and the company behind this product has no plans to fix the problem. So in the near future, (2-3 months) we’re planning to remove this option for reports where it’s not effective. The other output options (PDF, HTML, Excel, and Word) will remain.
We know that many of you regularly output reports to CSV, at least for those reports where it works correctly. We are planning to replace those outputs where it doesn’t work correctly with standard Data Exports generating CSV output. Note that these replacement exports may not have all the same filtering or sorting options as the reports they replace, but filtering and sorting can easily be done in Excel when you open the CSV file.
Please let the Customer Success team know which reports are not working for you in CSV format, so that we can create a similar Data Export. Send these emails to
support@clubexpress.com, with a subject line of "CSV Not Working".
Bug Fixes
The following bugs were fixed since our last version announcement:
- The Non-member Technology Convenience Fee actually charged did not always match what was shown on the screen.
- It was previously possible to make a payment on a cancelled transaction, such as an event registration that had to be paid within 30 min. We now check for the transaction status when attempting to process the payment.
- We fixed a problem collecting and storing credit cards for recurring donations.
- In the Event Calendar:
- The event videoconferencing email was sent to registrants for an event with a physical location.
- We fixed a problem where the "Post to Social Media" option was not displaying in the button bar on the Event View Admin screen.
- For some types of registrations, event admins were getting an error when trying to edit the registration.
- Saved event locations were defaulting to the Hawaii timezone.
- For some strange reason, admins were not able to register non-members from Alabama!
- For member types configured for Auto-Renewal, the process was not calculating and charging for Chapter dues.
- In the Page Builder, the accordion widget was adding borders to content after moving them from center-justified to left-justified.
- We fixed a problem with the fee calculation on Bank Account Activity reports.
- There was a problem deleting images stored in the Web Graphics system; they were not actually being deleted from storage; just removed from the reference database. Now, they are actually deleted.
Again, all these problems have been fixed.