Tech Support onboarding

Who We Help

Link to list of [Supported Conferences]

If someone from an unsupported conference calls, use your judgement. If it's a quick fix/answer, help them and ask them to call their conference next time. Repeat offenders should get reported to me, but this has not been an issue in the past. If it's an involved question, refer them to their conference office. We do not have a list of contacts, though I sometimes google for them.

What we help with

Tech Support Contract

Sample tech support contract (the part that's relevant to those doing tech support)

Fix treasurer errors

Teach the treasurer to make the correction when the mistake is in the current month, if you think they can handle it.

Fix older errors by entering corrections in the current month. The common exceptions to this general rule are errors in the immediately preceding month, and errors that affect donor receipts.

If a treasurer forgot an offering and you back them up to Start New Offering, do not let them submit a second remittance report. They usually catch missed offerings at reconciliation. In that case, back it up, then once the offering is entered, put them back forward past the remittance report. If an exception is needed for some reason, the conference office must be contacted. Multiple reports can result in multiple ACH withdrawals, and nobody wants to deal with that! Even if they still write a paper check, a second report is confusing to the conference, so we generally just let Jewel included the added deposit with the next month's remittance.

Leave an audit trail whenever possible. When you enter a transaction, put your initials in the memo.

Help Treasurers with Jewel Features

Names/accounts accidentally marked inactive, Get Receipt not checked, how to use reports,..

Budget setup

Starting a new database, correctly entering beginning balances, first-month reconcile

How to enter a new account

How to transfer funds

When to use General Journal and when not

Straighten out databases

Clear old items from bank reconciliations (watch out for duplicates if remittances are involved!)

Balance the adjusted bank balance from the bank rec report and the financial summary

Suggest zeroing out old accounts when appropriate (being careful of the Trust Fund rules)

Set old bank accounts to “reconcile never”

Use your judgement. The goal is usable reports and accurate bookkeeping

Help with bank recs

Catch them up when years behind by skipping to a month or two back and entering an adjustment

Help w current bank rec

In general, don’t do the bank rec for them, but teach them to do it

Universal Auditor Usage

Pay attention to which server you’re sending to! Send it back where you got it, or the treasurer can't get it.

Enter EntityID (from eAdventist) when needed.

Check Universal when you can’t find one.

Options When You Aren't Sure

Ask them to send an email to support@jewelsda.com (include church name and conference, and Send to Auditor is usually good to include)

Call Linda or Myla and ask for help/advice, then call them back

Reporter questions go to Myla (or I was just told you know it, so feel free if you're comfortable!)

People needing an install file should email support, and include church name and conference

Support Limitations

There's a lot of "use your judgement" in here. If you're not sure, feel free to ask, or to ask if you did the right thing after the fact.

Unlimited (or inexhaustible) amount of time per Church or Treasurer

This clause has only come into play once, to my knowledge. It was a large church, where treasury was a well-paid position, and we were being asked to complete complicated remittances every month while the treasurer didn't follow our instructions. We, in consultation with his conference office, asked to get his support from the conference. He was replaced the next year, so problem solved.

Support to individuals who are not properly authorized to be using the Jewel Software

This one is kinda obvious.

Hardware support: such as computers, printers and internet issues

We do help isolate the problem. For example, if they can't print, ask them to print from a non-Jewel program. If they can't, this verifies for them that the problem is not Jewel, and then we can tell them to go find someone else to solve the printer problem. If they can print elsewhere, we work on why Jewel won't print.

Doing the treasurer's work: such as contribution entries, Bank Reconciliations

Use your judgement. Sometimes it's less tech support time to do the occasional work for the treasurer.

We reserve the right to limit the number of “corrections/fixes” made in a database

This clause has never been used to my knowledge. But we could, if someone was abusing "tech support".

General treasurer training

We will help with how to use Jewel, but not general “how to be a treasurer” and the non-Jewel-related duties. Again, use your judgement. If you can quickly point a treasurer in the right direction, please do so. The Online Jewel Handbook (aka the Wiki, linked at the top left of this page) has some general treasurer-duty information that can be helpful. Beyond that, they may need to ask for help from their conference office.

Support shall not be construed as legal, financial or Conference policy advice

Feel free to point them to their conference office for legal advice, policy-related questions, etc. Again, use your judgement and don't hesitate to give general advice when it would help.

How Support Works

Treasurers call our main support line. The call is forwarded to all the people who are working at that time. The first person who picks up and confirms they want it (by pressing 1) gets the call. If no one answers, the call goes to voicemail. Everyone has access to the voicemails via the app, and can return them as they have time.

We do not have a way for treasurers to contact a specific tech support person. If they call and get the "wrong" one, we text and ask the "right" person to call them back. So far, this hasn't been an problem, since most issues are resolved in a single call, but is something to consider as we grow.

Each tech support person chooses their own hours. Since you are a contractor, you are not required to be on at any specific time, nor to answer all calls during the hours you choose. If you are busy, sick, or just not feeling it, you can skip a call or a day or a week. Communication is appreciated for longer absences, of course. We do our best to have someone available during the entire 9am-midnight ET "open hours", but at this point our available hours are long, and inevitably we have to deal with children, eat meals, etc, and calls go to voicemail then. It's fine, we just call back as soon as we can. (Currently, calls ring through to Leonard from 9am-3pm, to me from 9am-midnight, and to Kristi from noon-1am. Breaks are necessary, and none of us is always available during "our" hours!)

You track your own hours and send a bill to myrtle@jewelsda.com at the end of each month. She will then mail you a check.

What We Need From You

Schedule: when you want calls to ring through, and when you'll try hardest to be “on” (You're welcome to pick up occasional calls or return voicemails outside of your usual hours. Since you are a contractor, not an employee, your schedule is your own. Letting us know when you'll try to be "on" is a much-appreciated courtesy.)

Phone number to forward calls to

Preference for voicemail notifications (text, email, or just in the app)

Email address to use for now (You will have a Jewel email address within a few days. In the meantime, you can ask treasurers to send things to support@jewelsda.com, and I can forward them.)

What I Need to Send You

Auditor download link (will work for all conferences, so no need for multiple installations) and password

List of phone numbers (Me, Kristi, Leonard, Linda)

eVoice app link, password

Access to shared documents (bug list, conf usage)