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News
• Newsletters And Articles Archives
Finger-Vein Identification for Payroll Check-In/Check-Out: RDS Advantage supports biometric (finger print) clock-in and clock-out for payroll. You can have multiple PC check-in stations, and each is connected to your server. Employees are identified by their fingerprints or by finger-vein technology. When calculating payroll, employee time worked is imported from the check-in station into the RDS Advantage payroll system with a click of the mouse. This saves time in calculating employee time and helps prevent ‘buddy check-in.’ Finger-vein identification is the recommended option, as it is the newest technology and is highly accurate and secure. When using this technology it can be used for Insta Check-In stations and to identify individuals throughout the system. Remote Deposit Capture: Electronic deposit of check contributions and receipts is the leading edge of ACH Banking. RDS Advantage offers check imagers that integrate with its accounting systems. As checks are scanned, the payee and the check number are entered into the data entry window, encrypted images of the front and back of each check are stored on your computer, the deposit endorsement is automatically printed on the back of each check, and when entries are complete the deposit can be sent to your bank electronically. This combines both data entry and remote deposit into one process and one step. This is new enough that some banks are not yet supporting this technology. Insta Check-In© RDS Advantage Insta Check-In© automates the check in process for people attending Sunday school, worship and other events. • When parents check in children a nametag is automatically printed plus a parent receipt, and the person is recorded for attendance. • Every member of a family can be recorded for attendance at one time for any or all activities in which each participates. Name tags include a photo of the individual. • Enter the phone number or family name or use keytags, membership cards, or proximity cards to identify a family. Touch screen and/or keyboard monitors can be used. Monitors can be set up as kiosks. • Check-in can be set for Family or by Individual. • Express check-in instantly prints nametag and records attendance. • All features can be customized by user. On-Line Forms: On-line forms are available you can place on your website. People can complete the forms on-line, then click a button to send to the staff person (any e-mail address) you designate. RDS will customize the forms at your request and insert the e-mail address for the person who is to receive the information. Forms are provided without cost by RDS Advantage. There is a $25.00 charge for customization. Contact us if you would like to see a copy of a form. Membership Form - The membership form provides data entry for their biographical information. Prayer Request Form - Enables people to enter requests for prayers and prayer chains. Debit Authorization - Contributors enter the information needed to authorize recurring gifts, debited from their bank account into your church account (for security, bank and contributor account numbers are not entered. Combination Vacation Request / Facility Schedule Request - Staff can request vacation, comp time or personal time off, and can request dates, times and information to schedule facility use. Website Development and Hosting: RDS Advantage announces its support for the powerful SkyCMS church website system. This web-based set of tools includes all the features needed to build and manage websites with advanced features such as blog, video, photo gallery, form builder, SEO, RSS, cross-browser compatibility, hosting, calendars, image editor, FTP access, podcasts, donations, file management, website search, statistics, secure private content and more. There is no programming or HTML needed. When using SkyCMS for your website, the events in your RDS Advantage Scheduler can be exported directly into the SkyCMS calendar(s). SkyCMS websites are available in five sizes from free for smaller churches to only $199.00 per month for mega-size churches. All options include all features and free hosting on a Tier IV Data Center. Departmental Financial Reporting: Heads of ministries and departments want to see the financial statements for their areas of ministry. For security reasons this usually means the accounting department must print each financial statement for each ministry head. In RDS Advantage ministry leaders can now print their own departmental financial statements without having access to other sensitive accounting information. There are choices for Revenue and Expense, Balance Sheet, Supporting Schedules, Statement of Changes and Variance Reports. Reports can be selected in many comparative options and for any time periods. USPS NCOAList Management: The U.S. Postal Service has announced that effective November 23rd, bulk mailers must process their addresses through the USPS NCOAList. RDS Advantage now supports this process so you can benefit from discounted mailing through pre-sort labels. Advanced Reporting Selections: RDS Advantage has included the ability to store report selection criteria with user-defined names. Unlimited stored report selections can be accessed from each report window. A new feature allows users to see in one place ALL stored report selections by all users. By clicking on a column header the lists of stored reports can be sorted by description, user’ name, date stored, date modified, system, program name, version of the system, or by user’s initials. Use Electronic Banking in All RDS Advantage Accounting
NACHA (National Automated Clearing House
Association) is the standard in the banking industry for
electronic banking. RDS Advantage Payables, Receivables,
Contributions and Payroll are all NACHA enabled. This means you can make payments to vendors and employees and receive money from contributors and ‘customers’ (CDO, fee payments, school fees, etc.) electronically, without going to the bank. You have no additional costs to third party vendors, and you do not need to use third party software. The only cost you might have would be if your bank charges for NACHA transactions. If so, this should be a small amount. If your bank does not accept NACHA transactions you may want to consider opening an account with a bank that does. Use new technology check imaging for contribution and receivables checks that scan and stores an image of the front and back of each check, prints you deposit endorsement on the back of the check, prints your processing memo on the front of the check, and sends the deposit information to the bank electronically. When the bank acknowledges receipt, you can then destroy the checks. These check imagers are available from RDS Advantage and are programmed to interface with Contribution and Receivables data entry. Check images are encrypted for security. Virtual Village – My Web Congregation is a suite of web applications that are integrated with the RDS Advantage database. These applications allow members, staff, and in some cases, non members, to view, change and print data about themselves, and to authorize gifts/payments and enroll in activities. Security is provided by authorized passwords. At the control of the user, data is exported from the database to the web server, and changed or new data is downloaded back into the database. Imported data is edited before updating the data files. To users, Virtual Village © appears to be a part of the user’s web site. There is a nominal annual cost for these applications. This model of web processing provides the most efficient, secure and satisfactory method of using web based data processing by performing “holy matrimony” between the web applications and the user’s server. The user has complete control and ownership of its data, and more security of its data than with a wholly web-based system. Applications in Virtual Village include:
RDS Advantage is excited to provide telephone messaging capabilities using Voice-over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology. "Phone Messaging" options on the Member and Activity Records print menu. Can select a group of people to be called. After you have selected the people, click on the ‘Phone’ button. This will produce a file of phone numbers and names you want to receive a recorded message, FTP it for the VOIP messaging, and take you to the web site to record your message, and set the parameters of how you want your calls to be placed. This inexpensive method of communicating can be paid by credit card or you can use their automated payment technology. This very economical and speedy service has the ability to phone any number of people and deliver your message in minutes. For example, it will take approximately three minutes to call 1,000 families (with a message of about 30 seconds). Your cost for these 1,000 calls would be about $75.00 (about 7 1/2 cents per call). This service can use up to 200 different phone lines to make your calls. The message can be any length - your cost is based upon the total number of minutes of all the calls. There is no equipment to purchase -- no minimum or maximum number of calls to make, and there are loads of user-defined criteria you can set for your calls. For example, you can have the system include the name(s) of the person called as part of the recorded message, you have ask for a reply, and the system will use your telephone caller ID. You do not tie up your own phone lines. You can see an instant on-line report of the results of the calls. With a person or family identified in a window, just press Shift F9 to automatically display the driving directions and maps from your organization’s address to that person/family. You can print the maps and driving directions or e-mail them. You can also enter different beginning and ending addresses for new maps and driving directions. RDS Advantage can automatically print Postal Service pre-sort labels and reports for your mailing lists. The built-in function of the system non-automated prints first class, standard and periodical pre-sorts, including tray labels. Recurring contributions can be established in batches to process contributions that are received on a regular basis, such as direct deposit contributions handled by bank ACH processing. EFT (electronic funds transfer) using NACHA protocol is built into the system for contributions. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) receivables are supporting using NACHA (National Automated Check Clearing House Association) protocol. This application is built into the accounts receivable system as an integrated capability. Fastrack Conversion© greatly simplifies the process of a church moving from another system to RDS Advantage. A combination of training, data conversion and initial set-up work by RDS makes a new system fully functional immediately following training. A quick entry feature for entry, inquiry and maintenance of family/individual/organization data, in just one window, all the information about families, individuals and organizations is instantly accessed. This feature is possible because of its powerful normalized relational database, and some very innovative programming. The RDS Advantage integrated web calendar, provided without cost to RDS Advantage users, can be installed on your web site. Multiple calendars - run different calendars from the same script - each with their own events and configuration. Language translation - easily modify templates to translate the application to your language. International support - Change day/month names, date format, and which day the week starts on. Bulk Import - Import events and schedules from the RDS Advantage Scheduler in one step. Search - Search events in the calendar using an intelligent search form and a date range. Template Display Preferences allow you to change display options like colors, fonts, sizes, etc from within the web interface. User Authentication - Create users in the system, and allow them to log into the calendar to perform different actions. Protect the calendar display by only allowing registered users to view it. Customize the user database to include any fields you wish, just like events. Assign Permissions - Once you’ve created users, give them permission to perform various actions on your calendar. Add/Edit/Delete events, edit their own events, create new users, assign permissions, login to the calendar display - configure all of these options and more on a per-user or per-calendar basis. Approve Events - Allow the public to submit events, but don’t display them on the calendar until an Administrator has viewed the submission and approve. The events displayed on this calendar(s) on your web site are updated from the RDS Advantage Scheduler, so there is no duplicate entry or maintenance required.
RDS Supports Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Remote Desktop RDS Advantage supports Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Remote Desktop to provide access to your server computer from remote computers (computers not connected by cable). Remote computers can be across the street or around the world, using the Internet as the connection. Remote Desktop The Microsoft Remote Desktop component delivers Windows-based applications to a wide variety of desktops, including those that normally would not be able to run Windows. Through terminal emulation, Remote Desktop allows the same set of applications to run on diverse types of desktop hardware, including Linux, MacIntosh and Unix. Virtual Private Network An efficient and economical way to access data files on an RDS Advantage database server by a remote user is through the use of VPN (virtual private network). In this method, RDS Advantage is installed on the remote computer. With a secure connection established for the remote and host computers, the Internet is used to make the connection. Operation on the remote computer is just as though the remote computer was connected to the host as a workstation. Electronic mail takes a step forward that can save a church more money in a year, and every year, than the cost of the RDS Advantage system, including support. This feature provides the ability to send e-mail and text messages to one or more, all or any part of the database, or to individuals in groups or activities. When sending the e-mail, attachments such as newsletters and photos can be included. The system sends the e-mail to every person selected who has e-mail, and will print either address labels, postcards or envelopes for all those selected who do not have e-mail. One of the mailing expenses you may be incurring is sending
reports of each member’s contributions. This is required by the 1993
Tax Reform Act which requires contributors to have a report from
recipients of gifts which qualify as tax exempt. You can send these free of any mailing, printing and handling
costs by using the e-mail capability in RDS Advantage. |
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