Jewel Won't Let Me Move On to My Next Step!
Frequently we are asked to help a treasurer figure out what is “wrong with Jewel,” because it is "not letting me remit or print reports." And when I ask them what their “Next Step” button says, they tell me that it says "Start New Offering." That tells me that, even though they may think that they are nearly finished closing the month, they have not even started the process yet.
Let me illustrate it this way.
Let's say you are ready to take a trip. You pack and load the suitcases, make lunch to eat on the road, and get in the car. Then you sit there and fix the mirrors and the position of the seat, connect to your bluetooth and turn on your favorite travel playlist, enter your destination in the GPS so you know where to go, then you realize you are hungry so you pull out some sandwiches and eat your lunch while you talk on the phone with a friend or family member. Then you look at your GPS to see how far you have gone and how far you still have to go.
Hmm, something is wrong. You look out the windshield, and you still see your house - you have not left your driveway! In order to take a trip, you must leave your driveway. Doing all those other things, though important, will not result in arriving at the destination.
Sometimes treasurers do the same thing in Jewel. They enter all their offerings and checks/payments and are ready to remit and close the month. But instead of telling Jewel that they are ready to actually leave on their trip to close the month, they click on “Reconcile,” make end of month transfers, maybe even print reports one by one. All the while wondering why Jewel hasn't asked them to remit or print monthly reports. But since their NextStep still says "Start New Offering," they haven't left the driveway yet!
So how do you leave your driveway in Jewel? How do you close the month?
The "NextStep" in Jewel is like your GPS on your trip to close the month. You know where to find your "NextStep," right? The "NextStep" button is at the top of the list in the middle of your screen, on the Jewel home page. Whatever is just to the right of the “NextStep” is where you are in your journey to close the month.
All through the month, the "NextStep" button says "Start New Offerings," because that is what you do all month. Entering offerings and payments is like loading your suitcases in the car. But at some point, you must finish loading, put the car in gear and leave the driveway. And to do that, you must tell Jewel that you are ready to take the next step, which means that you click on "Start New Offering" and then click on "No More Offerings in (the current month)." Clicking on "No More Offerings" begins the process of closing the month. This tells Jewel, "I have loaded all the suitcases and am ready to leave the driveway." Jewel will then begin to lead you through the journey of closing the month, and you can just follow the steps.
No matter where you think you are, you can find out where you really are in the process of closing the month by looking at your "Next Step" button. Just like a GPS, the "Next Step" button says "You are Here."
When a treasurer calls for assistance, we often ask them "What does your NextStep button say?" Because the "NextStep" button moves from one step to another in a very precise order and we can quickly tell exactly which parts of the month they have completed and which parts they have not, just be knowing their “NextStep.”
This is the order of the NextSteps:
- Start New Offering
- Remit to Conference
- Send Remittance Report
- Make Budget Allocations
- Reconcile Bank Statements
- Print Monthly Reports
- Back up Data
- Sent Backup to Conference
If you reconcile before the "NextStep" tells you to "Reconcile Bank Statements," after finishing the reconcile, you may assume that the next step should be "Print Monthly Reports." But if Jewel's "NextStep" is still "Start New Offering," you may have eaten your lunch, but have not left the driveway.
- Note: It is often helpful to go to "Reconcile" to verify that Jewel and the statement are in harmony, but don't complete the reconciliation (i.e. click OK and print the bank rec report) until the Jewel "NextStep" tells you to Reconcile.
Taking the steps in order will result in less frustration and cleaner reports. Skipping steps and bouncing around will result in confusion and less accurate reports.
There is one more time when you need to tell Jewel you are ready to move on, and that is when you reconcile. Some churches have one bank account to reconcile. Some have several. Some accounts need to be reconciled monthly, some quarterly or even annually, so once you are finished with whatever bank accounts your particular church has, you need to tell Jewel that you are ready to continue on your journey to close the month, because until you do, the "NextStep" will continue to say "Reconcile Bank Statements."
Once you have completed reconciling, in order to move to the next step, you will again click on "Reconcile Bank Statements." Then find and click on "Finished All Bank Reconciliations (continue to Month-End closing)."
This tells Jewel that you are again ready to continue down the road on your trip.
If you reconcile out of order - before the NextStep button tells you to, that message will not appear, because Jewel knows you have not remitted and so are not ready to continue to the month-end closing.
Knowing how to close the month is easy if you follow the GPS - the "NextStep" button. So instead of eating your lunch in the driveway, cruise down the road and enjoy the scenery!