My philosophy…

• I believe we need to stay in the ballpark of what our customers can afford.
• We need to remember that while we are a for-profit organization, our customers are not-for-profit organizations.
• I structure our support in terms of annual fees, rather than any "pay as you go" plan, because I don't want any user to hesitate to contact us when there is a problem.
• Finally, I am constantly reminding myself that we need to live up to the commitments that are implied in an annual maintenance and support fee.

Keeping those things in mind, I am looking at individual module support fees increasing between 6 and 20 percent for 2008. The low side represents some modules where I feel we have it set right on target. The high side represents modules whose fee has been set too low to accomplish the things listed above, or where we plan for considerable development over the coming year. On average, support fees will increase about 10 percent for 2008.

If any of you ever have a question about a fee, please don't hesitate to ask.

~ Al Fifhause

"Check, Please"

Most of us love to dine out. But we dislike the part of dining out where the server brings us the check. And yet we know that it's completely necessary in order for us to continue to receive good food and good service at any restaurant.

One of the more difficult things for me to do each year is updating the annual maintenance and support fees. In a week or so I will be sending the 2008 fee schedule to those of you who are responsible for that in your organizations. I thought I would take a couple of minutes here to share some of the questions I ask myself, and my philosophy, in how I go about setting these fees.

will see the billing cycle buttons in a different location. They will move from the long “ladder” of buttons which you scroll through to a form on the right side of the screen which will not require scrolling.

•  In addition to the buttons moving to a new location, there will some animation with them. The most recently run process will have its button highlighted with a blue background. The buttons that are currently available to use will be highlighted with a green background. This animation should help to visually identify what the next step is in the billing cycle.

•  Just below the progress bar for the billing cycle, you will see a grid which lists the current billing month, the current billing cycle when it is running, the most recent billing cycle process completed with start and stop times, and who ran the last cycle.

•  The order of the benefits “eagle” buttons in the slider bar on the left of the main window has changed somewhat. The buttons towards the top are those that are used more frequently, followed by reports, and then

the settings and tools are now at the bottom of the flock of eagles.

•  There is a new report category called “other benefits reports.” Some reports that have been customized for certain customers encompass more than one benefit, such as a summary report that shows CRSP, CPP, medical, flex and life in the same report. Some existing reports will be moving into this new category, so look for them there if you don't find them where they used to be.

UMPIP: The billing component for UMPIP (United Methodist Personal Investment Plan) is scheduled to come on-line in time for the April 1 billing cycle. We already have a commitment from one customer who will begin using the UMPIP billing in April, and several of you have expressed interest in it for next year. If you think your conference wants to use UMPIP in 2008, some time is needed to configure it, so it would be helpful if you could let me know of your intent this summer, but no later than October 1 if at all possible.

  ~ Bill Johnson

New Benefits Are "Live"

Vision and Dental Insurance Billing: The new vision insurance and dental insurance billing components of the benefits module are now “live.” While this is of primary importance for any customer who is using these new components, it generally affects all benefits customers. Here's what you should expect:

• You will see buttons or tree “nodes” for vision and dental in various locations. They will be disabled if you do not have vision and dental as part of your MissionBase configuration.

•  For those who use the combined billing process, over the next several months, you

Here are the simple steps:

1. Make sure BOTH appointments are already entered and saved. If newly entered, click to "Refresh" the Charge Tree.
2. Go to the pastor in one of the appointments, and enter the compensation for that appointment as you normally would. Save.
3. Close the "yellow grid" if it is still open, and click to "Add New Comp Record." (Note: The new compensation record will automatically add for the next year after the current one (if a 2007 is entered, it will be created for 2008). Also, the new compensation record will be created for the same charge that the most recent compensation record has listed. Don't worry! We'll edit it in the next step!

4. Click on the "+" to the left of the newest record to open the yellow grid. Change the "Charge" to the charge of the second appointment served. Select the correct "Paid by" from the drop-list, and enter the compensation. DO NOT change the incorrect Start Date! Save the compensation record with the incorrect Dates.
5. Then change the incorrect Start date, and Save again. That is the trick! Now you have two concurrent compensation records!

GoToMeeting
Wed., March 14, 10:00 AM (CST)
Session Cost: $20 payable to GSS
Entering into Appointment season usually requires a lot of appointment making, charge realignments, new pastors and compensation records. Join this training on Charges & Appointments to ensure you are ready!

Entering Compensation for a Pastor Serving in More Than One Charge

Across the conferences we serve, we are seeing this issue arise more and more frequently as cabinets become increasingly creative in making appointments. GSS strives to be equally as creative to meet the challenges that arise with these unique circumstances. Entering two or more concurrent compensation records is one example.

• Benefits (Pension & Medical, Flex, & Life Insurance billing)
• Property & Liability Insurance billing
• Event Registration
• Cabinet Decision Support
• Certified Leadership (Safe Sanctuary)
• Candidacy Process tracking
• Year-End Statistics (Tables 1,2,3)
• Church Remittance
• Online Local Church Leadership
• Online Statistics entry
• Online Event Registration
• Onsite & web-based training

For more information on any of these modules, contact lori@greatspirit.com