Release Notes

Chmeetings 2023.21 – September 26, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Builder Improvements

  1. Settings section: The Member Portal Builder has a new Settings section. Here is where you can find the Church Link and Logo that will apply to the pages you build, the newly added options to set a Home Banner for guests and members and Hide the Blog Tab in All Views and the Language Switcher.
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  2. Calendar Card: This card helps you easily display events for members and guests. Events display based on their visibility settings.
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  3. Card Expiry Date: You can set an expiry date for each card. On this date, the card will disappear from your page. 
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  4. RSS Card Improvements: When using the RSS card, you can now set a title and the maximum number of items you’d like it to display,
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  5. Improved Usability and Performance: We made many other minor improvements to give you a better experience using this feature.

 

Blog Improvements

Blog posts are now sorted by publish date, in descending order. Additionally, you can always change the posts’ publish date if needed.

 

Archived People Report Improvement

We added a date range filter and the option to sort by name or archive date.

 

Subscribe to the Branded Mobile App

If you’d like your church-branded mobile app listed in app stores, you can subscribe from your ChMeetings account under Settings > Subscription. 

 

Chmeetings 2023.20 – September 13, 2023

NEW

Push Notifications for Guests (Branded App)

If you are subscribed to the Branded App, you can now send push notifications to people who have installed your church app but are not logged in. 

 

IMPROVEMENTS

“Member Access” becomes “Member Portal”

The “Member Access” section is now called “Member Portal” for improved clarity. You will continue to see the same features you’re familiar with and configure app access for your members just as before.

 

Add App Download Links To The Invitation Email

In the Member Portal Settings, you can now add app download links to the invitation email. When members get invited, they can see app store links for the app at the bottom of the email.

 

Improved Member Directory Settings

People profiles now contain more detailed settings for the Member Directory. This is available for Members and Admins and provides options to hide someone from the directory. When someone is visible, they can choose what information to display or hide: Photo, Mobile Phone, Birthdate, or Email. These settings apply to the online and printed Member Directory. 

 

New Forms-related Permissions

Users with custom roles can now view the forms they have created (View My Forms) or all forms, regardless of the user who created them. (View Other Forms).

 

Batch Filter, Net, and Fee Amounts for Online Giving

We have improved the Online Giving area by adding a filter for Batches and columns for the Net and Fee amounts. If a donor has covered the fees, their transaction is marked with the following icon: .

 

More Frequent Refresh of the Homepage

The app’s homepage (e.g., Dashboard or Builder Page) updates automatically every 10s.

 

New Language (Swedish)

You can use ChMeetings in Swedish as an Admin or Member. Switch the default languages under Settings > Account Settings > Default Language. Change the language for your own account under Settings > Change Language.

 

 

Chmeetings 2023.19 – August 30, 2023

NEW

Nickname Field

You can now add nicknames to address people in all communication types.

 

Join Another Church (Diocese Feature)

In Diocese accounts, members can join another church. This will be added as a secondary church without changing the home church. Members can add family members to the new church or leave it anytime. 

 

IMPROVEMENTS

Builder Improvements

  1. You can now hide the Blog section from the Members’ main menu.
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  2. For paid accounts, we have removed the welcome message, important links, and custom donation links from the Member Access Settings. If you have a paid account, you can use the Builder to achieve the same functionality, specifically by using the Description and Link cards. Free users still see these features under Member Access > Settings. 

 

Shareable Fund-Specific Donation Links and QR Codes

When configuring Online Giving, you can now copy a shareable link or QR code that people can use to contribute to a specific fund. 

 

Send Signup Sheet Invites Using Push Notifications

When inviting people to sign up to volunteer, you can now also use push notifications.

 

Exclude Archived People From The Recurring Events Report

The Advanced Search section within the Recurring Events Report now contains an option to exclude archived people from the report.

 

Allow Group Leaders to Edit Groups

You can now set permission for the Group Leader Role to allow users to edit their lead groups. This will let them edit the group name, description, and photo.

 

Include the Church Address in the Printed Member Directory

The Directory export now lets you include the church address and other available member details.

 

Enable Event Registration After Having Created the Event

If you want to enable registration for an already-created event, you can now do so, provided that the event has no attendance.

 

Diacritics Support

For languages such as French and Spanish, you can use diacritics to manage and search for data all throughout ChMeetings.

 

Download Event Reports from The Mobile App

Using the mobile app, you can now export and download event-related reports on the go.

 

My Organizations Were Moved to My Giving

In the Member View, My Organizations was a main menu item. Since Organizations are exclusively related to contributions, we have moved the section under My Giving.

 

Quick Overview Videos

If you are new to ChMeetings or just need a quick overview of specific features, you can find a series of videos in our help center. This series does not cover all our major features yet, but the remaining ones will be added soon.

 

Chmeetings 2023.18 – August 16, 2023

NEW

Volunteer Signup Sheets

Volunteer Signup Sheets allow you to invite people to volunteer for your events and choose the date or role. Admins can send invites from the Volunteer Scheduling area of an event, while members can see their Invitations under their Volunteering menu section. Invitees can choose a date or role from the invitation email without logging into their accounts.

 

IMPROVEMENTS

Directory Family Photo

Any family member can now add a Family Photo from within their profile. Once added, this photo will be used instead of the primary photos of all family members in the Printed Directory (Family View) and Online Directory (Family View). 

 

Allow Members to Enter Day/Month Birthdates

You can now decide whether to make the Year of Birth mandatory in your Account Settings. If this setting is enabled, the birth year is mandatory. Otherwise, members can enter their birthday as the day and month without adding the year. This feature can be found under Settings > Account Settings > Birthday Settings.

 

Opened Email Status

The Email History Report now shows you whether an email has been opened. You can see the number of opens per overall email, as well as per recipient.

 

Chmeetings 2023.17 – July 26, 2023

NEW

New Language: Czech (Beta)

You can now change your personal ChMeetings language to Czech, by going to Settings > Change Language. You can change the default language to Czech by going to Settings > Account Settings > Default Language.

Age Distribution Report

This report shows how many people there are within your congregation, according to several age groups.

 

IMPROVEMENTS

Events and Calendars

  1. New Forms button on the event details page: You can now access the forms related to an event (required for registration or check-in) from within the event’s detail page. This button is only visible if the event is associated with a form. Event managers can access this section without being able to edit the forms.
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  2. Events ticket payment user role permission: You can set the Ticket Payments permission for custom user roles to allow users to enable ticket payments for your events.
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  3. Select /Unselect All Calendars: You can now toggle all calendars on or off in the Calendars section.
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Contributions

  1. Show people’s emails and addresses when adding new contributions. This helps distinguish between people with the same name.
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  2. “Include people who pledged but have not contributed” was added to the Statements creation process. This is helpful for keeping track and in touch with people who have pledged but have not contributed as pledged.
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  3. Zapier integration for Contributions: You can now use Zapier to sync contributions between ChMeetings and your accounting app, such as Quickbooks. If you have a Zapier account, you can now find ChMeetings listed among the available apps to integrate with. You can find the integration here.
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Chmeetings 2023.16 – July 17, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Automatic ACH verification

When giving online via ACH, members no longer need to wait for ACH verification before being able to proceed with their donation. They can proceed instantly without waiting. ACH is only available in the US and with Stripe as a payment processor.

 

Contributions now display as gross rather than net amounts

All contribution pages and charts now show the Gross amount instead of the Net. You can find the Gross vs. net amounts for online Giving under Contributions > Online Giving.

 

Column for donations per fund in contributions per person export

The export file for contributions per person now includes the donation for each fund. This is available under Contributions > All Contributions > Export > Group by Person.

 

Separate online giving links for specific funds

If you want members to donate to a specific fund using your online giving link, you can add “?fund=fundname” to the end of your custom donation link. When using this link, members will donate to the specified fund if the name corresponds to an existing fund.

Example link: https://example.chmeetings.com/Giving/C87B5C1F72EA?fund=Building

 

Remaining column for Pledges

The Pledge page for each member now shows the remaining amount according to the amount pledged and paid.

 

Add the address when importing giving

When importing giving, you can add the Address to the sheet, even if it is not included by default in the template. It will be considered when creating non-member contacts.

 

Clearer group visibility settings

When creating or editing groups, you can show them to members. Turning on this option will automatically add the group to the Member’s Main Menu for people who are also members of the group. You can also turn on a toggle to show the group to non-group members and show the list of group members and group leaders to those who can view the group.

 

Interface improvements

We have improved several areas of the ChMeetings interface, the most significant enhancement being the People section. Here, the communication options have been made more visible, and the Bulk Actions menu has been redesigned and reorganized. “Bulk Actions” has also been renamed to “More actions”. 

 

Chmeetings 2023.15 – July 3, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Yearly Events

You can configure recurring yearly events under the Repeats section. These can be set up to recur on a specific date or a specific weekday and month.

 

Volunteer Visibility Member Permissions

You can allow members to see other volunteers: in the same event occurrence and role, all roles or all event occurrences.

 

Online Giving Settings

The Online Giving Settings section lets you choose whether to show a Comments section on the donation page. This setting is only available using Stripe as a payment gateway.

 

Volunteer Leader Push Notifications

Under Settings > Notification Settings, volunteer leaders can choose whether to receive mobile push notifications for rejected assignmnets and unfilled roles. The rejected assignment notifications are sent immediately while those for unfilled roles are sent one day before the event.

 

Communication Reports

Communication Reports are now listed under a dedicated section.

 

Chmeetings 2023.14 – June 26, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Events

    1. Volunteer leaders now receive notifications whenever an assignment is rejected. You can grant them the Events > Volunteer permission within a custom user role to allow leaders to assign volunteers.

 

  1. The Attendance dashboard widget takes you straight to check-in.


 

Calendar

We have improved the Calendar feature by adding a navigation area displaying all your calendars on the left side of the screen. This is helpful when you work with several calendars.

 

Roles & Permissions

There are two new Contributions-related permission changes: 

  1. Online Giving and Online Giving Settings are now separate. You can grant someone access to the Online Giving section to view transactions, but they will not be able to access the Settings unless you also enable the Online Giving Settings permission.
  2. There is a new permission for Statements. This allows you to grant someone access to this section so they can generate statements for contributors.

 

Contact Prefixes

When exporting people as Contacts from the mobile app, you can add prefixes to their names. This helps you group people and create chats in WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.

Chmeetings 2023.13 – June 15, 2023

NEW

Payment Refunds for Events and Online Giving

Event payments and giving transactions made online via Stripe can now be refunded fully or partially. 

For Event payments, Admins can choose the amount to refund when canceling a ticket or registration. Members will automatically receive a full refund when they choose to cancel a ticket or registration they made (which can include multiple tickets). Admins must enable refunds from the Event editing section for both these features to become active. 

 

For online giving, refunds are enabled by default and are available within the options menu of each transaction – both under the All Contributions list and in the list of online giving transactions. This feature only works with Stripe.

 

IMPROVEMENTS

Forms Improvements

  1. Star Rating Field (paid feature): When building forms, you can now add a Star Rating field which you can use for anything you need ratings on.
  2. Export Statistics to PDF and see the number of form views. You can find this feature within the Statistics section of your forms. All data exports into one PDF file.

 

Pledges API

Our API now allows you to pull data related to Pledges and Pledge Campaigns.

 

Extending the Availability of the Elections Feature

Elections used to be a feature specific to Diocese accounts. We have now made it available for churches using the Unlimited plan.

 

Chmeetings 2023.12 – May 24, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Online Member Directory

The home and mobile phone numbers are now visible on the main member directory screen without having to click the person’s name. Additionally, photos uploaded after this release will display in a higher resolution, thus improving quality both online and in print.

 

Forms

You can now use the profile Photo field in forms. When submitting the form, people can upload their photo, and you can use the submission to update the profile picture on record.

Additionally, form submissions can now be exported to .pdf.

 

Contributions

Archived people can be excluded when filtering contributions (using Advanced Search under Contributions > All Contributions) and generating statements (under Contributions > Statements). 

You can also now add 0-amount contributions. This can be used, for example, to add donated goods.

 

Chmeetings 2023.11 – May 18, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Edit Scheduled Emails and Push Notifications Until Sent

You can access the Email History Report and Notification History Report to edit scheduled and unsent emails or push notifications. 

 

Child Check-In Improvements

You can include the child’s name on the parents’ nametag and add two custom fields. You can find the child check-in options when creating or editing events.

 

Event Payments Page

From the main Events section, you can now access the All Payments page, which lists all event-related payments, along with their status.

 

Pledges Improvements

We added a checkbox next to the Pledge Campaigns so you can edit details such as end dates or funds and apply the edits to all Pledges within the Campaign.

 

Builder Support for Audio Files Shared via Google Drive

The Builder Audio Card now supports files shared via Google Drive. Just copy the link from Google Drive, and paste it into the card for the file to play.

 

Chmeetings 2023.10 – May 9, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Events

1. Volunteer Scheduling

  1. There is a new Volunteering tab on People profiles, where admins and members can manage volunteering schedules.
  2. Members can see who else is volunteering for the same event. This is available if you enable Allow members to see who else is volunteering for the same event under Users & Roles > Roles & Permissions > Member. 
  3. Members and Admins can set block dates so the member will not be available to select as a volunteer on those dates. Specific dates and date ranges can be selected.

    The Volunteering tab is available in both the Admin and Member views. Admins can find it within the Member’s profile, while Members can find the same options, including Blockout Dates, within their Volunteering section in the main menu.

2. Check-In

  1. Checkout using a QR-code reader,
  2. Use a QR-code reader in Kiosk Mode,
  3. In Kiosk Mode, the default camera is now the front camera, with the option to switch to the rear camera.

 

Automated Tasks

When creating automated tasks, you can now set the time of day when the task runs. 

You can also now set the task to send SMS messages. Note that you need credits to send SMS from within ChMeetings. Learn more.

Invoicing

You can now view and download the payment receipt for your ChMeetings invoices by going to Settings > Subscription > Invoices. 

 

User Permissions

The Forms permission is now more flexible, allowing you to choose which permission to grant: View, Add, Edit, and/or Delete forms.

 

Reports

The Family Report lets you communicate with families via email, SMS, or push notifications.

 

Chmeetings 2023.9 – April 26, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Events 

You can now publish events on a specific date and time. This way, you can set up an event and publish it later.

 

Registration

The user experience has been improved overall for the event registration process. The following features have been added:

 

Open and close event registration on a specific date and time.

 

Provide Discounts: Group, Early Birth, and Promo Code.

 

Volunteer Scheduling

There are two new tabs available when scheduling volunteers for recurring events:

  1. Recent: Lists members who have recently volunteered for the particular event you are working with. Volunteers from other events are not listed.
  2. Registered in this event: Lists members who have registered to participate.

 

Contributions

New Contribution Charts and options are available:

 

Year-Over-Year comparison for the Contributions over Time and Number of Contributors charts.

 

Givers vs. Non-Givers chart.

 

Builder

RSS Feed Card: You can use this card to link an RSS feed to your church page.

 

 

YouTube Playlist: The Video Card now lets you embed a YouTube Playlist.

 

There is a new section at the top of the Builder that makes it easier for you to see your church logo and URL.

 

Print Member Directory

You can now sort the printed Member Directory by Family. This way, families are listed together, one member after the other.

 

Chmeetings 2023.8 – April 5, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Permission to Access the Builder 

Owners and Admins can now give someone access to the Member Access > Builder section without necessarily giving access to people data. This feature is available for custom roles under Users & Roles > Roles & Permissions and allows users to view the section and add, edit, and delete cards and content. You can now also disable access to People-related features while enabling builder access.

 

Calendar Styles

When sharing your events calendar, you can style it as a list or as tiles.

 

Improvements to Contribution Funds

In the Contributions > Funds section, you can now find the following:

  • A Contributions column providing a count of contributions within a fund;
  • A Total column that shows the total amount available within a fund;
  • A Search filter that lets you filter the Compare Funds chart for a specific period of time.

 

Volunteer Roles Included in Event Copies

When you copy an event, the copy will now also include volunteer roles.

Chmeetings 2023.7 – March 27, 2023

 

IMPROVEMENTS

Form Profile Fields as Merge Fields in Form Confirmation Emails

If a form contains profile fields, you can add them as merge fields within the confirmation email to members after submitting the form. The feature is available in the Form Settings when enabling Send Confirmation Email.

 

Attach Files to Volunteer Emails

You can now attach files to volunteer emails under Events > Volunteers > Email Volunteers. The maximum file size is 20MB.

 

Kiosk Mode Checkout

You can now allow members to check themselves out (or do so yourself) via the kiosk mode.

 

Member Access to Personal or Family Contributions

Members can be given access to personal contributions only; or to those of their entire family. This can be enabled under Users & Roles > Roles & Permissions > Members > Role Permissions > My Giving.

 

Select the Sender for Birthday/Anniversary Automated Emails

When creating a Birthday or Anniversary Automated Task, you can select the Sender’s email address. You must set a Reply-To Email under Settings > Account Settings > Email Settings.

 

Communicate with Members via Telegram

If members use telegram, you can send them messages from within their profile. They must have a valid mobile number for this feature to work.

 

New Languages: Traditional Chinese and Norwegian Bokmål (Beta)

You can now use ChMeetings or Norwegian Bokmål (Beta). As an Admin/Owner, you can change languages under Settings > Account Settings > Default Language. As a Member, you can do so under Settings > Change Language.

 

Reports Improvements

The Households Report now displays individuals without an address.

The Follow Ups Report now allows you to filter by the Pending status.

 

Chmeetings 2023.6 – March 15, 2023

NEW

Organization Contributions (paid feature)

Your church can now collect contributions from Organizations. You can add organizations from under Contributions > Organizations and select Organization as the contribution type. Admins can manage access to the feature from under Roles & Permissions. A member needs to be on record as the organization owner to contribute on its behalf. If Members are given access to Organizations and are also the owner of an organization, then they can select whether to contribute personally or on behalf of the organization.

 

New SMS Provider

You can now use ChMeetings to send SMS messages via SMS Global: http://www.smsglobal.com. You can find it under Integrations > Bulk SMS/Voice Service.  

 

IMPROVEMENTS

General User Interface Improvements

We improved our User Interface for checkboxes, page navigation, text spacing, etc. These are subtle changes that should enhance your overall experience with ChMeetings.

 

Chmeetings 2023.5 – March 9, 2023

 

NEW

Automated Tasks

You can now create automated tasks to send emails or notifications to members on their birthday or anniversary or to create a follow-up for new givers. The feature is only available to paid accounts and can be found under Settings > Automated Tasks.

Communicate via Facebook Messenger

If members have added their Facebook profile link to their Chmeetings profile, you can now communicate with them using Facebook Messenger. You can find the Messenger icon on the user’s profile, underneath their photo. 

 

IMPROVEMENTS

New Languages: Afrikaans and Japanese

You can now use ChMeetings in Afrikaans and Japanese. Admins can change the main default languages from Settings > Account Settings, while members can change their account language from Settings > Change Language. 

 

Chmeetings 2023.4 – February 15, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Assign Volunteers by Group

There are now two new options available when assigning event volunteers: 

  1. Assign all people in a specific group as volunteers,
  2. Select individual volunteers based on the groups they are part of rather than searching the entire member database. 

 

 

Show Events with No Attendance in the Attendance Widget

The attendance dashboard widget now lets you display events with no attendance.

 

Multirole within the same Ministry

The Group Leader role can now be assigned along with any other role (For example, Group Leader and Admin) within the same ministry.

 

Support for the Scottish Grading System

If your church is based in Scotland, you can use the Scottish grading system. To see this grading system, you must set your Account Country to the United Kingdom and the State to Scotland.

 

Chmeetings 2023.3 – January 31, 2023

NEW

Korean Language (Beta)Starting with this release, ChMeetings is available in Korean. Administrators can change the default app language from Settings > Account Settings, while members can change it for their instance from Settings > Change Language. This language is in Beta.

 

Improvements to the Attendance Report

If previously, the Attendance Report could be filtered by Group, there are additional filters for Gender, Event, and City.

Chmeetings 2023.2 – January 23, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Follow-ups

  • Recurrent Follow-Ups: You can now create recurring follow-ups. Once completing an instance, a new one will be created until the recurrence ends.
  1. User Interface Improvements: The user interface has been improved within the Follow-Ups section to enhance follow-up status visibility and allow you to mark records as done or remove the mark.

 

Events

You can now cancel event registrations in bulk from under People & Tickets. This option is available for both free and paid events for which you have enabled registration.

 

Groups

The Group Description field is now a WYSIWIG editor that allows you to create more visual descriptions for groups, including with HTML code.

Member Access Builder

  • Image Card: You can use the Image card to add clickable images to your pages. Clicking an image added via this card will zoom the image in. The card lets you add an image description, alight the description text, set to visible or hidden, and choose whether it displays to guests, members, or both.
  • Move cards between pages: You can now move any card to any previously created page.

 

 

Diocese 

Customizable election settings: You can now customize all requirements for the nomination and voting process, as well as the mandatory fields that members should fill out before participating.

Chmeetings 2023.1 – January 3, 2023

IMPROVEMENTS

Attendance Dashboard Widget

The homepage dashboard now contains an Attendance widget, displaying event attendance statistics for the last 30 days. It is useful when you want to quickly get information about attendance at an event instead of opening each event.

Calendar View for Volunteer Scheduling

There is a new tab in the volunteer scheduling feature which allows you to see assigned volunteers in a calendar view. Here you can assign volunteers, remove assignments, or specify whether the volunteer has accepted or rejected participation. The Calendar is on an expandable screen that you can enlarge to see and work with multiple days in one go.

Import Groups

You can import groups from a spreadsheet by going to Settings > Tools > Import Groups. All you need to do is download the template file and fill out the Groups column to assign each person to a group. If you add a group to the spreadsheet that does not exist in ChMeetings, it will be added. This feature does not make any changes to member profiles. It also does not remove members from groups; it only adds them.

 

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