A new program update has been made available on the ChurchTrac website. The easiest way to install this update is to open ChurchTrac and click “Check for Updates” under the Welcome tab. Many fixes and new features have been made available in the last several weeks. Here is a summary of some of the changes:
- We fixed errors that were caused by corrupt user-defined fields when upgrading from a previous version. These errors include Error 449, 13, 3265. If you continue to see these errors after installing the latest program update, your data file may need to be updated manually. Please contact technical support if this update does not immediately resolve the problem.
- We added a “Repair Your Data File” button under Utilities/Data File. This will perform maintenance on your data file, and may resolve or prevent some problems.
- We simplified the data sharing setup process. It is now easier than ever to set up multiple computers to share data, and to add additional computers at any time. If you don’t already have a data sharing subscription, you can try it out for free for a month–just send us a support request asking for a free one month data sharing trial.
- We also updated data sharing encryption protocols, making your data more secure.
- We added a “Remove Selected Computer” to the data sharing settings screen, making it possible to remove a computer from the list of computers in your data sharing network.
- We updated sorting on the User-Defined Field reports and Custom Reports. Date values entered into User-Defined fields should now sort correctly.
- We added two new fields for custom reports: Birthday (Day of the Month) and Birth Month. These allow for greater flexibility with generating customized birthday reports.
- The Detailed Attendance Report will now report up to 52 weeks of data (up from 36 previously).
- You can now perform a filter/search on the People screen for an entire Group Category.
- Several other fixes and updates have also been applied.
- We’ve also updated our online knowledgebase and user guide for ChurchTrac 8 (the 2011 version). New tutorial videos have also been posted. Take a look!
We recommend installing this update as soon as possible, especially if you encountered problems after upgrading from a previous version.
Finally, we’ve had several people call or email recently who lost all their data due to a computer crash. In a few of those cases, years of data entry was lost because a backup file was never created. It is important to make a backup of your data file on a regular basis (weekly is a good idea). We recommend saving your backup files to an external or flash drive that is kept in an off-site location (this protects your data even in the event of theft or fire). Also, if you use ChurchTrac’s data sharing feature, you automatically have backup redundancy–each computer in your data sharing network stores a copy of your ChurchTrac data. If one computer crashes, your data is still available and accessible on every other computer in your data sharing network. The data sharing feature also gives you the ability to save encrypted backup files online. The data sharing feature gives you all this, plus the ability to automatically share data between two or more computers–and for less than $5 a month! If you don’t utilize our data sharing feature, please remember to make a backup of your data every week!