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Administrator Email - 2/3/2020 - Announcing

Version 9.2

Version 9.2 is now complete, with some powerful new features to help clubs and associations of all sizes and types.

This release adds many enhancements to the Donations module, including support for recurring donations; a new model for handling partial payments for more expensive events; 16 new distribution list options and "Exclude" support in the Emailings function; the ability to charge credit card fees to the same bank account as where the funds are distributed; and many smaller enhancements.
 
And just a reminder that we have expanded our support hours. You can now call us between 6:30 AM and 9:00 PM, US Central time, Monday to Friday, to speak to a customer success engineer.

Version 9.2 Webinar

We will hold a webinar this coming Wednesday, February 5 to describe the new features in version 9.2. 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:

Emailings and Text Messaging - New Distribution List Options

We have added the following Distribution List options to the Emailings and Text Messaging modules:
  • Expired members within a specified expiration date range;
     
  • Active secondary members only;
     
  • Members with a postal code starting with a value (for example, 606 for "Chicago");
     
  • All non-members who registered for an event;
     
  • All non-members who actually attended an event;
     
  • Non-members in a specified chapter/district/region;
     
  • Everyone who donated to a specified donation fund within a date range;
     
  • Everyone who volunteered for a specific volunteering opportunity;
     
  • Members not in any interest groups;
     
  • Members with an empty bio;
     
  • Members who have not edited their business directory listing;
     
  • Members who actually attended an event;
     
  • Members who have not responded to a survey;
     
  • Members only in a selected mailing list category;
     
  • Non-members only in a selected mailing list category;
     
  • Members where Emergency Contact Info is blank.
There has also been a change to an existing distribution list selection. The option "One member selected from the database" will now allow you to select expired members.

When defining distribution lists, there is a new "Exclude" option. This allows you to select one of the distribution list options and instead of adding these people to the list of recipients, you can exclude them. For example, you could send an email to all Active members but exclude the Board of Directors. Or send a message to everybody in the West region but exclude those members in the Nevada chapter. This option is currently available in Emailings; we're working to add it to Text Messaging.

There is a new Mass Emailing Archive option, which allows you to archive all emailings older than a specified date.

New Partial Payment Handling

We have changed how the system handles partial payments for more expensive events. Payment Schedule is now one of the payment options, and you will define the payment schedule as before, based on percentages of what is owed by specific dates. This approach allows for each registration to be a different amount.

When users come to the payment page, they will see the event registration as before, with a payment schedule clearly laid out below the transaction, each date having its own check box. Users will clearly see how much is owed and when. The first payment can be checked but if they want to pay ahead, this option is also available. The system will track the checked payment amounts as always.

Most importantly, users will now receive a reminder email 2 days before a partial payment is due, with a link to log in and complete that payment.

On the Transaction Search page, there are new options to find only Partial Payments and Overdue Partial Payments. There is also a new report to find Overdue Partial Payments.

Charging Credit Card Fees

The system now also includes an option to charge credit card fees from the same bank account where the funds were deposited. It can be found on the Money Options screen.

This option is useful in the following situations:
  • For clubs and associations that have chapters, especially where the chapters have their own membership dues or events.
     
  • For clubs and associations that have a major event during the year that has its own bank account.
     
  • For clubs and associations where donations are routed to a separate bank account, perhaps because the organization has a separate foundation where donations are tax deductible.

Recurring Donations

ClubExpress now supports Recurring Donations for members only. If you want to use this option, it must be enabled by us, here in the office. Once available, you can enable it for each fund individually.

When recurring donations are enabled for a fund, a new icon will appear in the Fund display. Clicking it open a new form for members to specify the parameters of a recurring donation, including:
  • First donation date
  • Number of donations (the end date will be calculated automatically)
  • Frequency (monthly or quarterly)
  • Amount per instance
When this option is enabled, the member's credit card must be saved. A confirmation email will be sent to the member and to the designated club or association Treasurer, listing the parameters of the recurring donation. The system will also send a "warning" message to the member after the second-to-last donation has been made.

Members have a new Donation History option on their Profile screen. It displays all recurring donations, with the active ones having a Cancel option. Below that is a full history of each donation.

If a fund allows recurring donations, a new admin option will show what recurring donations are active. Note also that you cannot set a fund to Inactive if there are active recurring donations.

Other Donations Enhancements

  • You can now use the advanced content editor to specify a Fund Description;
     
  • We have made changes to the confirmation emails sent out by the system when a donation is made;
     
  • For each fund, you can now define an "Additional Information" section that will appear in the confirmation email;
     
  • There are new Export options, including the ability to export by fund and by "new" donations only;
     
  • On the Donations for a Fund screen, there are new Search/Filter options;
     
  • The system now allows an admin to record donations from expired members;
     
  • You can now define "Preamble" text that will be displayed at the top of the Donation Fund page;
     
  • You can now specify minimum, maximum, and recommended donation amounts;
     
  • There are new options to donate as an individual or an organization.
     
  • Donation confirmation emails now support new replaceable tags:
    • Honoree Description and Name
    • Donor comment
    • Additional Info

 

Other Enhancements

And in other parts of the ClubExpress platform:
  • There is a new Export option for each Survey, to download survey responses to a CSV file.
     
  • For Emergency Contacts:
    • New report showing the emergency contact info entered for each member.
    • Primary members can now enter emergency contact info for their secondary and tertiary members.
    • As noted earlier, there is a new Emailing distribution list option comprising only members where the emergency contact information is missing.

  • On the first screen of the Member Signup/Renewal Wizard, where the Member Type is selected, the system will now indicate which member types include secondary and/or tertiary members, and which member types auto-renew or auto-renew-and-pay using a saved credit card.
     
  • In the Classified Ads module, the system will now send a reminder email when a classified ad is about to expire.
     
  • Date tags in blast emails are now internationalized. They will respect where the user is located so that, for example, an international user in a US-based club or association will see dates in their local format.
     
  • If subgroups (chapters) are enabled, the Add Me To Your Mailing List dialog now allows non-members to link themselves to a chapter.
     
  • The Tags Manager admin screen now includes the Blogs module. In addition, when users are searching on a tag in any of the modules that support tags, the drop-down list will only include tags that are actually being used in the module. (Admins will still see all tags on their search screens.)
     
  • When defining optional Additional Charges with a quantity, the limit has been raised from 99 to 999.
     
  • The Volunteering module has been updated to support local time zones.
     
  • When entering a Misc. Charge or Multiple Misc. Charges, the Sales Tax/VAT/GST option has been added.
     
  • On the new Text Messaging QuickNotify screen, users will now see a field where they can enter or update their mobile phone number in the system.
     
  • The Continuing Education module now allows supporting documentation to be uploaded directly on the Add Hours dialog. Associations can also hide the Expiration Date column if credits do not expire, and can show the Notes column on the hours grid.
     
  • The Continuing Education and Event Calendar modules have been linked together. You can now define an event that earns continuing education credits. When members have been flagged as having attended the event, the system will add an entry to the Continuing Education module to indicate that the requisite credits have been earned.

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Bug Fixes

The following bugs were fixed since our last version announcement:
  • If an expired member clicked on an opt-out link in an email, they were unable to access the privacy page in order to opt-out of emails. An expired member can now log in to the site, but can only access the renewal wizard, the payment page, and now the privacy page.
     
  • Forum email addresses did not allow the “+” sign, even though this is a valid character in an email address.
     
  • In the Business Directory module, there was a sorting problem displaying search results. Also, the name and address fields were being lumped together into a single column.
     
  • Interest group coordinators were not receiving system emails when members joined or left an interest group.
     
  • If a PayPal account was closed, it was still appearing as a valid payment method.
     
  • In the Emailings module, when searching on payment dates resulted in multiple pages, moving beyond the first page cleared the search criteria.
     
  • Performing a data export for non-members based on a category resulted in an empty data set.
     
  • When editing the properties of a Committee, admins were not able to change the "Members can add/remove themselves" setting.
     
  • In the Event Calendar, the new "Cancel Your Registration" button was not respecting the Cancel By date limitation.
     
  • In the E-Commerce Storefront module, when creating a digital product, you attach one or more documents from the Documents module. It turns out that these documents were also appearing in search results, so that users could access the documents without paying for them first. These documents should be stored in a folder with the ‘Show this folder on the website’ option turned off. Now, the contents of these folders no longer appear in search results.
     
  • For QuickBooks Desktop users, Intuit made slight changes to the IIF file format in QB2020, specifically for credit card line items. We updated ClubExpress to handle this change.
     
  • The Link Builder was not supporting external URLs that started with a number.
     
  • The system was allowing members to add themselves during signup or renewal or when making a mid-year change, to a subgroup (chapter) that was still in Setup mode.
     
  • In the Discussion Forums module, there was a problem adding a moderator to a forum.
     
  • In the Ad Hoc Forms module, there was a formatting problem with reviewer comments.
     
  • The new help system was not loading properly when called in non-secure mode (http:// instead of https://).
     
  • In the Event Calendar, an event cancellation cutoff time was not being saved and restored correctly.
     
  • News articles marked as being visible to members-only could be seen by non-members if they had a direct link to the article page.
     
  • For member data, the Date Modified field was being updated when users just logged in.
Again, all of these problems have been fixed.

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