CAA Product Help

(HELP ?) Circles provide narratives on Training, Explanations, and Hints. These can be related to the overall screen, or to specific items on the screen.

This (HELP ?) Circle narrative is for the "REPORTING ON COLLECTION OF GROUPS" Screen in MemberLink.

There are times when you would like to print reports for several groups, but it is a nuisance to have to do it one report at a time. Using this screen, you can build a Collection of Groups and save it. You can build and save several "Collections" to meet your various printing needs.

** Note: One restriction is that the groups in a Collection must all be the same type of group" Regular Group, Family Group, or Care Group. You cannot mix and match group types within a Collection.

Why build Collections?:

When you are ready to print reports, you can select the Collection to print. That has the effect of printing a report for each group in the Collection without you needing to submit each group report separately or one at a time.

An example of how this might come in handy is when you want to print attendance rosters for groups or classes at the start of the month. You can create a Collection of those groups or classes and print all the rosters in one print submission by printing the Collection. This will be a great time-saver to you!

Building a Collection:

You start by defining named "Collections" of groups as shown on the top right side of this screen.

Step 1:
First, using the "Radio" buttons, choose whether the Collection will be of Regular, Family, or Care Groups. The default is Regular Groups.

Step 2:
Next, give the Collection a name by entering a name in the box provided. A name can be up to 30 characters long. If you create more than one Collection, each has to have a unique name.

Step 3:
Next, use the Checkboxes to select the groups for inclusion in the Collection. Turn "ON" the Checkbox next to each group if you want it included.

** Note: There may be so many groups that you may not be able to see all the groups in the selection window. However, there will be a scroll bar for you to use if there are more groups to view than will fit in the window.

Step 3:
Last, click the [ADD NEW COLLECTION FROM CHECKED GROUP(S)] Button. That creates the named Collection and saves it.

Using a Collection:

The drop-down box on the top left side of the screen lists every one of the named Collections that have already been defined by a representative of your church. This allows you to choose one of the "Collections" for printing the group report for each group in that Collection.

Step 1:
First, under the "Choose Collection" heading and using the drop-down box list of choices, select the named Collection you wish to print. Then click the [USE THIS COLLECTION] Button.

Step 2:
After you click the [USE THIS COLLECTION] Button, you will see that Collection's groups appear in the window on the right side of the screen. If you wish to modify the Groups in the Collection (add or remove groups before you print), adjust the Checkboxes to match your needs and then click the [MODIFY COLLECTION WITH CHECKED GROUP(S)] Button. This will change the Collection to the new way you want it to look (the groups you want it to include).

Step 3:
Finally, to print the report for each group in the Collection, click the [PRINT REPORT] Button. Make sure you have selected a named Collection from the drop-down box BEFORE you click the [PRINT REPORT] Button.

The resulting output will be a downloaded Microsoft Word document to your computer. Using Word, you can open the document and print it. For proper formatting and appearance, we recommend you change the margins to "Narrow" before you print (.5 on top, bottom, left, and right).

** Note: When you view this "report" from inside Word, it may look like the reports of the groups are all going to run together when printed. But when you do a Print (or a Print Preview), you will find that the page breaks are there as they should be and each group does indeed appear on a separate page from the other groups.

"CAA Product Help" from CAA Ministries at Support@CAAsoftware.com or 404-551-4230