First Steps with your TouchPoint Database¶
- First Steps¶
Below are the first steps for you to take before you begin using your TouchPoint database. Most of the steps are for the person who will be your System Administrator (the one user with the Admin role), but the information will be helpful for other users as well.
See also
When we create your database, we will create a people record for the person who is designated as the System Administrator for your TouchPoint database. We will assign that person a user account and they will receive an email with their credentials.
- Support¶
You can have up to 4 Support Admins on your database. These users have unlimited email support with TouchPoint. When we set up your database, our team will also set up the user(s) you decide should be your Support Admin(s). For the fastest support, click Help in the top right corner of your database. Then search by topic or keyword. If you do not find the answer, and you are not a Support Admin please contact one of those users at your church. See Help Documentation below for more about finding answers to your questions.
- Support Admins - Contact Support¶
If you are a Support Admin and need help answering a question, after clicking the Help link, you can select Contact Support and complete the body of the email. This will give us your name, your church name, and your database URL. This is the best way to request support. You can also copy the staff member that needs help and that person will also see our reply. Emails to support are received by the entire team and ensure a quick response.
When we create your database, there will be 3 records in it that need to remain there in order for you to receive support from TouchPoint:
The Admin
Checkin Ministry
App Tester
These are there to allow us access to your database when you need help.
See also
If, for some reason, you cannot access your database you may email support@TouchPointSoftware.com. Otherwise, for the fastest support, use Contact Support via the Help link in the database.
- Help Documentation¶
You can go directly to the Help Documentation from your TouchPoint database by clicking Help in the top right corner from any page. You can search by topic/keyword or you can click the blue Documentation Website button to go directly to the home page of the documentation. Once there, you can click Index where you will find a list of the most common topics, or you can select one of the main headings to view articles related to that heading. You can also search by topic/keyword from anywhere in the documentation. We encourage you to look in the documentation first before having your Support Admin contact us. You can often find just what you need faster that way. Please take a look at the article listed below as it contains more about finding the answers to your questions.
See also
- TouchPoint News¶
We communicate with our users via our TouchPoint News Blog and periodic Newsletters. Subscribe to the blog so you will not miss hearing about new features and updates. Just enter your email address on any of the blog posts (on the right side), and click Subscribe. Encourage all of your church’s users to subscribe as well. We want all users up-to-date on TouchPoint features. These posts display on your TouchPoint Home Page as well.
- TouchPoint Status Page¶
The TouchPoint Status Page will show any Announcements regarding system issues, Uptime History, and Recent Tweets. This is a good website to bookmark and the first place you should look if you are unable to access TouchPoint or experiencing an unusual problem.
Now you are ready to get started:
Settings¶
There are some Settings you need to set or change. All of these are found under Administration > Setup > Settings.
- New People Manager (System > Administration)
Click in the text box beside NewPeopleManager.
Select the person(s) who should serve in that role. Only people with the Access role will show up as availble options.
Press the blue Check Mark to accept the change.
See also
- Church Address (System > Church Info)
Click in the text box beside Church Address (it says Empty if something hasn’t already been entered).
Enter your church address - example:
2000 Appling Rd, Cordova, TN.Press the blue Check Mark to accept the change.
See also
People Page to learn how this address is used for driving directions.
- AdminMail (System > Administration)
Click in the text box beside AdminMail and enter the email address for your System Admin in the Value if it still has a TouchPoint email address.
Press the blue Check Mark to accept the change.
This is the person who will receive admin notifications and from whom standard automated notifications will be sent. You may want to create a generic people record (e.g. Church Office) with a generic email address (e.g. office@ourchurch.org). Just be sure someone monitors that email account, as people will sometimes reply to these notifications.
See also
Other Tasks and Resources¶
- Create People Records
Create people records for your staff or volunteers (if records were not imported).
See also
- Create User Accounts
Create User Accounts and assign roles for staff and volunteers.
See also
- Create Metro Zip List
Create the list of Zip Codes for your local area, assigning the proper Resident Code.
See also
- Populate Your TouchPoint Database
Add your congregation to the database, if we did not import records from a previous database (a data conversion).
There are a couple of ways to do this:
You can use the Insert People spreadsheet to help streamline the process.
Or you can add new records directly to your new database.
Also, be sure to notice the section above regarding the New People Manager.
- Involvements and Attendance (Meetings)
Create an Involvement for your Worship Service (if one was not imported during a data conversion).
See also
Begin creating meetings for your Worship Service and enter a Headcount each week and add any new guests to the meetings.
If your church is interested in secure child Check-In, you will want to read the help articles about TouchPoint Check-In. You will find articles how to set up your Involvements, where to find equipment, and more.
See also
Tip
Our Check-In software is not exclusively for use with children. You can use it for any age.
Other Administrative Tasks¶
- Contributions
Create the list of Contribution Funds. If your data was imported from a conversion, your funds will have imported as well, so just verify those that need to remain open.
See also
Set up your Contribution Statement Header and Notice. These display on the Contribution Statement.
Verify that the Contribution Statement Types and Envelope Options are set correctly for your donors.
There are a number of help articles relating to Contributions, Funds, Envelopes, Statements, and Pledges that you will want to read.
See also
../Finance/Contributions
- Miscellaneous Items
Member Status
By default, newly added records will have a Member Status of Just Added (unless the Member Status was already mapped during a data conversion).
The Member Status can easily be changed for a group of records by using the Update Fields from a Tag/Query feature. This will allow you to quickly change everyone’s church member status from Just Added to Member, Previous Member, or Not Member.
Batch Updates
TouchPoint’s Update Fields from a Tag/Query feature allows you to update a number of fields on people records as a batch process. This is something to be used very carefully, but can be a real time-saver.
We have another process to allow batch updates for Involvements as well.
See also