September 2023 Update (9-3-23)

09/3/23

We have some news to share about an upcoming update for the site!

First of all, we want to express our appreciation for your patience. We recognize that it has been a while since our last update, and that things may have been challenging. While we have indeed been keeping busy, it can be hard at times to post an update on what work is going on. Rest assured though, the last several months have been filled with activity for us behind the scenes, for the developers and the support team.

This update will be our first to the application in quite a while. There are various reasons it worked out this way. One of the changes we have made internally has to do with how future updates will take place. It is our hope that moving forward, instead of releasing a few large updates a year, we will instead be able to release smaller updates more often.

Now, regarding this September 2023 update.

As mentioned on the front page, it is planned to include:

• A new feature to invite and manage helpers on your congregation account.
• Begins to address various issues with the S-13 report.
• Fixes to printing and template issues.
• And more.

A video is planned to be released alongside the helper management and invitation feature to demontrate it’s use.

Here is a recap of how the process will work, as mentioned in the prior article News: Adding Helpers.

1. A Congregation Admin will visit the helpers tab and create an invitation web link.
   • This link can be shared any way you choose. For example, an email or text.
2. The recipient clicks the link, and is sent to Territory Assistant to register, and request to join the congregation.
   • Here the recipient can review and verify the invitation. For example, the congregation they are being invited to.
3. Once accepted, an existing Congregation Admin must visit the helpers tab and approve the recipient’s request to join.
   • The existing user will be able to review the email address to verify the identity of the recipient before approving.

During testing, we received a lot of excellent feeback on various aspects of the process to improve. One such improvement is the implementation of a basic Roles system. There will be “Congregation Admins”, “Editors”, and “Basic”. Right now the roles are very simple and only implemented for the invitation feature. The actual effects and abilities of the roles can be expanded to other actions on the congregation account over time.

Please note the following:

When this update rolls out, only the creator of the congregation account, or the person last registered as an owner, will have the congregation admin role. He will have the ability to invite helpers or assign others the congregation admin role.

We recognize that this means in some cases the person who needs the congregation admin role will not have it when the update rolls out. The support team is aware and will be ready to process requests for assigning that role for you after the update is released. Just contact us and we will process it. Afterwards, you should be able to manage users directly.

Please note, no one will be locked out of TA when the update is released. It will still be possible for everyone to use TA as before. This includes adding, editing, and printing territories and contacts. The only thing restricted to the congregation admin role will be the ability to manage users.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us here: Contact Us

Other news: Some may wonder why it has taken so long for this update to be released. A blog article on that subjet has been posted here on that topic: Summer 2023 Blog