December 2016 Release Notes

Security takes center stage in this release. Make sure to read how to secure your website with SSL. Also notice changes and improvements to how website statistics are recorded.

Learn more about the highlights of this release by viewing this informational webinar. View now.

SSL Login Page Option Available

With the soon-to-be-released Chrome version 56, we are making an SSL login page available for your members - to be enabled at your discretion.

As a trusted voice to your membership, we are allowing you to enable this secure login page when you desire since we realize that a redirect from a familiar login page to a different-looking login page could cause concern without proper warning.

Steps to enable the new SSL Login page

• Notify your members of the new login screen and indicate when this change will occur.
• Login to the database with administrator permissions.
• Select Setup->General Options and Settings.
• Enable the last option In the General Settings section, Redirect /login page to the https:// secure version.
• Members that access your /login page will automatically be brought to the new https:// login page

Don't want this generic SSL Login page? You can purchase your own SSL Certificate which would allow you to keep your current login page but provide the page to users over SSL (HTTPS). Get more information on this topic.

View FAQs on the changes recommended due to Chrome's Browser update.

Attention eCommerce Module Users

Additional security is recommended for customers without their own SSL certificate.

Google is preparing the market for the next phase in internet security by encouraging a transition from the HTTP protocol to the more secure HTTPS protocol (the ‘S’ is for secure) on all websites.

Beginning in January 2017, Google will release Chrome version 56 that warns visitors when they're visiting non-HTTPS pages. We want to assist our customers in this move to greater security. We are encouraging all customers, especially ecommerce module users, to add an SSL certificate to their website

Get more information about the upcoming change and how to secure your website with SSL.

Website Hits/Views

One of the features available through ChamberMaster / MemberZone is the ability to view statistics on web site traffic (views/hits) to the various pages of your web site. Results are found on your Members->Stats tab and in various Website Statistics reports.

Change to Website Statistics Reporting

The removal of bot hits from tracking is considered a best practice. Our intent was to have that be the norm starting in September of 2012. Unfortunately, that change wasn't implemented as we had intended. For that reason, we have made the decision to change all customer settings to automatically remove all bot hits from your web page statistics – a change that occurred already starting with hit stats on 12/8/2016. In addition, over the next several weeks, hit stats/views from the previous 2 years will be updated to show hits/views without bot traffic. Stat changes will appear in the next several weeks. View the full explanation and message.

New Hit Stat Processing Method Produces Almost Real-Time Reporting

Hit stats tracking will now record in almost real-time, delayed by only 5-30 minutes instead of the overnight processing that used to be required. This change is unrelated to the Website Hit Stats Reporting change above.

Groups, Events, Members in the back office

• Multiple back office locations will now display special characters such as "^' ~ appropriately. Public display of these items were corrected in a previous release but now the back office locations will also display those characters as you would expect.
  • The drop-down list displaying the group, event or member names
  • Adding Groups, Members or Events using the Add button on the tool bar
  • When editing the Groups General tab
  • When viewing the Member name shown when deleting that member

Events (updated version) Do I have this free version?

• If an event includes items that are taxable, the tax calculations will now apply correctly when editing the registration and not just when creating the registration. (Effective 11/22/2016)
• Members that register who are tax exempt will be excluded from taxation during event registration if taxable items are included on their registration. (Effective 11/22/2016)
• Event invitations have been reworked to better handle the invitations of members that have the same email address of reps. Previously the system was excluding member emails from subsequent invitations if a primary rep from that member also existed in that set of invitations.

Main left-hand menu

• Webinars has been renamed to Training; Request Support has been renamed to Support Help/Wiki to better reflect the choices that you will see when selecting those menu items.

Culture Code

• Culture Code support was added for United Kingdom / Great Britain under Setup->Association Control Panel. When selected, it will default the currency code to the British pound, a date format of dd/mm/yyyy and the address format on the public and Member Information Center will show the traditional City, State and Postal Code fields in a stacked display. (note field names can be customized on the Advanced tab under Setup->Association Control Panel.

Edge browser

• Edge browser will now save the first time on certain pages where previously the Save button had to be selected twice. Members->Reps tab, Events->General tab, Events->Advanced tab. Jobs->Add New Job Posting and the Add Event creation wizard.

Integrated Billing

• A new fee item type, Point of Sale Fee, is available in the back office drop-down list when creating new fees or when filtering the standard billing reports. This fee item type prepares our software for an upcoming feature that will support Point of Sale capability. Watch the webinar recording (link at the top) at ~23:00 to hear an overview.
• When creating a payment from the Billing->Payments tab, the Reference # field will now clear out automatically for you when clicking New Payment.
• The Class tracking drop-down list on the Journal Entry Export (both on the Accrual and Cash Basis reports) now displays in alphabetical order by Class Name.
• When selecting the CSV (Excel) format, the Journal Entry Export report (both the Accrual and Cash basis reports) will now allow you to export all transactions regardless of whether an account is missing or if both debit and credit sides of the transaction are to an A/R account. All other formats will still require you to have an account assigned to the transaction and will not allow an export on an entry if the entry has both a debit and credit to an A/R account, a change that was made at the Nov 2016 release.
• Journal Entry Export to Quickbooks Online (QBO) has been updated so that if a new customer is being added into QBO that already has a vendor in QBO with that same name, the vendor name in QBO will be modified to include -v at the end of the name. This is a common way of designating the difference yet allowing the same name to be on both the customer and vendor list in QBO. Customers that do not wish for this to occur, must modify the vendor name to something unique in QBO prior to importing.

Reports

• The Password field was removed from the Member Profile report. With the new security move to passwords that are hashed (un-readable to human eyes), including the password on this report is no longer necessary or helpful. Refer to the "Security Tightened" section in the September 2016 release notes for more information on the recent security changes.

Staff Login page

• New banner ad now displays on the purple ChamberMaster staff login page and the blue MemberZone staff login page to advertise the upcoming training opportunities.

eCommerce

• Fixed issue so that Payment Method Friendly Names can be edited and saved. (Took effect 11/7/2016)

MailChimp

• Required update to v3.0 MailChimp API was implemented as maintenance to the current MailChimp synch. Note that the System Event Log that records the transaction will now display different result information that it used to.

Integrated Payment Processing - What is IPP?

• Disputed transactions that have not been resolved will now show immediately when opening the Payment Processing Report and Management Tools. A check box is defaulted to display the unresolved disputes.
• Entries that are all on a single transaction will all appear together in the Payment Processing Report instead of showing each their own transaction based on items in the checkout cart, making it easier to reconcile with the statements.

MemberPlus App

• A tally of push notifications sent in the past 30 days to members using the MemberPlus app are now displayed when viewing the Communication->Push Notifications screen in the back office.

Events that had no visibility check marks selected will no longer display in the MemberPlus App. Update was made to the iOS version of MemberPlus app to ensure continued ability to send push notifications.

Builders Edition - For customers with the Builder's Edition version of MemberZone

• NEW! Ability to import into MemberZone from a CSV file downloaded from WMS. View details under WMS / NAHB ->WMS Import tab.
• New setting where to enter their HBA number.
  • Find the Default HBA Number field under WMS /NAHB on the Settings tab.
  • Once entered, you will no longer have to enter this for each member before exporting to WMS as it will be automatically assumed and included in the export even if you do not enter it.
  • Those organizations that import and manage multiple HBAs should not enter a default HBA Number and will still need to populate the desired HBA number on each Rep under Members->Reps tab.
• A new option exists to specify how the Export will look for your "Renewal" members.
  • Select between Strategy 1 and Strategy 2.
  • Find the Renewal Search Strategy setting under WMS /NAHB on the Settings tab.
  • If not specifically selected, Strategy 1 will be assumed. Strategy 1 will look for invoices in the given month that have paid fee items matching your selections in the "Fees for New Memberships and Renewals" section below and report those as renewals (or new members if they have no MSN# currently.)
  • Strategy 2 differs slightly such that renewals will be triggered when appropriate fee items have been paid in recent months and the current/given month matches the member's assigned renewal month. Under Strategy 2 if a member pays their renewal invoice in January but their renewal month is February then the renewal transaction record will be put into the February queue (instead of January)