Next Steps¶
- Next Steps¶
Now that you have your TouchPoint database and your System Admin has reviewed the First Steps document, it is time to continue begin using TouchPoint effectively as a ministry tool. It is easy to use and there is help all along the way in the form of Help articles and the TouchPoint News blog. If you do not find the answer to your questions in the Help Documentation or on the blog just use the Contact Support button after you click ? Help, and we will promptly answer your questions and point you in the right direction. Throughout this article there are links to other Help articles. Just click to read them.
Other Articles
If you have not already read the following articles, you will want to do so. Some of the content applies to the System Admin, but other information is important to all users.
TouchPoint Overview¶
If you have not experienced a personal overview of TouchPoint, a good way to start is to watch some videos on our youtube channel. This will give you a quick look at the basics and help you know what to expect.
Preparing for Sunday¶
If you have classes that meet on Sunday mornings, you will want to print roll sheets for these classes and distribute them to the classrooms so that you can capture the attendance. We encourage you to print roll sheets even for those classes that are using touchscreen check-in, especially if they are children’s classes. The roll sheet provides a roster of those in attendance in case you had to evacuate the building and also can be used for attendance in case of a power failure.
See also
Recording Attendance for Sunday¶
- Worship Service
Create a meeting for the most recent Sunday and enter a headcount (group) attendance. You should have already created an Organization for your Worship Service.
Add to that meeting any guests who visited the Worship Services. Most churches do not enroll people as members in the Worship organization and just track headcounts and individual guests. However, you can enroll people if you want.
See also
- Record individual attendance for your Sunday morning classes.
If you printed roll sheets, there are two ways to enter attendance from a roll sheet:
Manually at your computer using a keyboard and a mouse OR
Using a USB wand scanner
We have a help article that explains not only the recording methods described above, but also the other options for recording attendance such as Self-Check-In (using touchscreens or iPads), iPhone Attendance and iPad Attendance.
See also
- Add new guests to the meetings for these classes.
This process is the same as adding guests to a worship service above.
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Tip
If you are using a wand scanner, you can scan all the roll sheets and then return and add the guests to the individual meetings. Or, you can do everything for each class as you go – that is, scan the attendance for a meeting, add the guests to that meeting and then continue on to scan the attendance for another class.
- Email Attendance Notices
Send these after all the attendance has been recorded and visitors have been added.
See also
- View Attendance Numbers
There are several attendance reports you can view, on the Organizations > Search / Manage page and the Week at a Glance.
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The Week at a Glance requires some set up.
There are a number of reports and convert to search options, so don’t be afraid to try them out.
- Communicate with Visitors and Absent Members
To help staff and lay leaders keep up with their members and visitors, TouchPoint has reports on the individual organizations in addition to those mentioned above.
See also
You can create searches to find first time guests. Then you can use the Blue Toolbar to communicate with them - send an email or print labels for a letter or card. You can also assign Tasks to staff or lay leaders asking them to contact the the new guests.
Miscellaneous Tasks¶
- Organization Management
There are many ways to use organizations. Do not allow yourself to get bogged down in trying to create Programs and Divisions just yet. You will understand more about what you will need after you have used the system for a few weeks.
- People Management
People records are obviously the core of the database. So managing your people records well is vital to maintaining a clean database.
- Family Management
Every person is part of one family in the database. Each person also has a role within that family that we call a Position. Families can also have links to other families, so that you can know which families are related to each other.
- Membership
TouchPoint has business rules for Membership, which are designed to make it easy and efficient for the person in charge of Membership to record changes. If a church chooses not to use these business rules, they can request that those be turned off for their database.
See also
- Contributions
We have a help article that will walk you through the entire contribution process and it contains links to other vital articles relating to Contributions, Funds, Statements, and more.
See also
../Finance/Contributions
Important
To be an effective user of TouchPoint, search the Help Documentation when you have a question; subscribe to and read the TouchPoint News blog to keep up with new features, and Contact Support when you need help. Be sure to be specific with your requests.
Latest Update |
09/09/2020 |
Removed link to outdated webinars.