Last week saw a couple of exciting updates to our software products. First, we are thrilled to announce Schedules have been built into the Lead App, released in version 5.0 on Tuesday, March 13. And in our Browser Software, we added more information and features into the Profiles area of the Mobile Preview. Those features were released on Thursday, March 15. And as always, we released out another weekly batch of bug fixes. Check it out!
Lead App: Schedules
You can now access your Schedules from the Lead app. This feature will allow you to view and manage your schedules, fill and edit your schedules' positions, and communicate with your volunteers. Be sure to update your app to version 5.0 to get this new feature, and more.
Don't have the Lead app yet? Download it today!
View and Manage Schedules
When you click into a specific schedule week, you can see a list of all the positions for that week, who is scheduled in each position, and what their volunteer status is. Tapping on a specific person's name will give you to ability to communicate with them, change their volunteer status (like accepting on their behalf), or remove them from the schedule entirely.
The large red circle at the top indicates the number of people you still need to accept their serving requests for your schedule to be full. Clicking on that number will filter your view to only show the positions that still need attention, so you can quickly focus on getting your schedule filled.
When you choose to Add Volunteers, you will see a list of people filling in that position who are available to serve at that time, or you can search the database to add new people to the position.
Communicate With Your Volunteers
If you tap a volunteer's name, you are given the option to email or text that person, based on what contact information is available in their profile. You can also communicate with several volunteers on the schedule at once by clicking on the paper airplane icon.
Send Requests allows you to send out volunteering requests to people who haven't yet been informed or people who are in a 'pending' status. New feature: You can now customize the email language that gets sent out through the app when sending requests to volunteers.
Open Schedule will send an email to any volunteers in a position who are not scheduled, to allow them to sign up for open slots.
Message Volunteers allows you to send out a custom email/text message to all volunteers based on their serving status.
You can now customize your bottom menu bar in the Lead app, so your most-used features are available right at your fingertips. When you download or update your app, you'll be presented with a screen to customize your menu bar, or, if you need to change it later, you can access this feature by going to More > Settings > Customize Menu Bar. Just drag and drop the icons to sort your features. Everything left over will be accessible through the 'More' tab.
Tip: Whatever feature you put in the first spot will be the page that you land on first every time you open the app!
Profile Updates to the Mobile Preview
We have finished building all profile fields into the new People pages in the Mobile Preview, including all custom fields. We've also updated the 'Edit Profile' modal to include all these new fields. Now you will only see 2 tabs on that modal: About and Admin.
Create Profiles
We've also added the ability for you to create profiles in the Mobile Preview. You can access this button on the top right corner of the People Search page in the Mobile Preview (assuming, of course, that you have the right permissions to create profiles in your site). As you are entering contact and other profile information into the Create Profile modal, the system will automatically start to check for duplicates, and will present you with a banner if any potential duplicates are found. You can view those duplicates without disrupting your workflow, or choose to ignore them and keep creating the new profile. After you've saved, you'll be given the option to create another family member for that family, so you can get them all entered into your system in one seamless flow.
Serving Tile
We are continuing the work that was started in January related to the Involvement tab Tiles and Timeline. The newest addition is the Serving tile. This tile will show you how frequently someone has served in a schedule in the last year, as well as what positions they are currently filling and any needs they are managing. Like some of the other tiles, you also have the option to 'Include Family' to see the serving patterns of the entire family.
Hovering over the ellipsis will present you with options to edit that person's serving availability, scheduling assignments, and 'My Fit' information.
Accessing the Mobile Preview
We are continuing to release improvements to the Mobile Preview so you can get familiar with the new look of profiles before our major software update, People: Reimagined, happens later this year. (In beta testing we called this release 'The Merge'. If you don't yet know what we're talking about, be sure to watch the recording of January's Quarterly Software Webinar to see a sneak preview.) Having trouble logging in to the Mobile Preview? You can find the link on your site's login page under the big Login button:
You can also get into the mobile preview by manually typing it in the URL for your site:
https://yoursubdomain.ccbchurch.com/goto/login
Remember, the Mobile Preview is a sneak peek at our new responsive site, so try it out on a desktop and your phone!
Bug Fixes Faster
On Monday, February 12, we started a new process of releasing batches of bug fixes every week, to make sure that your software experience stays fast and clean. These weekly bug fix releases will typically happen on Monday or Tuesday afternoons (MT). You can see a rolling list of bug fixes and filter by feature on our new Bug Fixes blog. Bookmark it today to stay in the know about how we're cleaning up the software.
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