Version 6.59

This is an enhancement release for Theatre Manager.

The primary new features are enhancements to the to-do list and emailing capabilities, searching for best seats by seat priority and display of combined giving level history on the patron window.

Version 6.58 • Updates

Released Mar. 1, 2005

Key changes:

Added functionality to the payment window to allow confirmation letters/emails to be added at time of purchase.
Added ability to set priorities on seats and include those priorities in finding 'best available seats' at the box office and on the internet. For internet sales, this is mostly designed for plug-ins at the moment.
Added the display of 'combined giving history' on the patron window to track achievement levels in Theatre Manager. This data was always available for mail list building - it is now visible for the end user.
Added the ability to select specific to-do's (letters or emails) from the to-do list and ask for them to be printed/emailed directly instead of having to use the Form-Letter 'task' menu item.

Note: Read prior release notes for any mandatory web pages changes. There are no mandatory changes for this version. You may wish to copy two fields into certain pages for use in best seat searching on the internet.

We suggest reading the prior release notes completely - especially if you are not at version 6.57.

Theatre Manager will

The user will need to

Before upgrade	if upgrading from a version before 6.48, read version 6.48 release notes Complete your end of day. Deposit all funds, create all sales entries and post to the GL. Verify the database using data utilities and ensure that everything is ok. Make a backup copy of the database.
After upgrade	None
Optional Steps	if donation 'prospects' were deleted, you may wish to verify the donation campaign balances. Update the payment method 'check' to set the check number as mandatory. If you are using web pages, you may wish to edit the pages as suggested below.
Time Required	It will take a long time from version 6.48 (see release notes) From any version 6.5x or later, it will be relatively fast.

Before upgrade

if upgrading from a version before 6.48, read version 6.48 release notes
Complete your end of day. Deposit all funds, create all sales entries and post to the GL.
Verify the database using data utilities and ensure that everything is ok.
Make a backup copy of the database.

After upgrade

None

Optional Steps

if donation 'prospects' were deleted, you may wish to verify the donation campaign balances.
Update the payment method 'check' to set the check number as mandatory.
If you are using web pages, you may wish to edit the pages as suggested below.

Time Required

It will take a long time from version 6.48 (see release notes)
From any version 6.5x or later, it will be relatively fast.

Web Sales

Payments

Added the ability to attach a merge letter to the order/payment window that relates to information about the order and patron (see form letters).

Fixed a bug so that credit card payments taken on the internet can be properly voided. This situation could only arise if the default payment method in code tables was not of a type 'credit card'. If you had credit card as a default payment method, you would not see this problem. (note: the credit cards were authorized just fine - you just couldn't void them).

Updated the security settings for viewing payment details and deleting payments so that they correspond to the settings in employee security.

Fixed code tables to allow the 'check number' to be a required field for payments by check

The reasons to buy on the payment window now shows only those 'reason to buy' appropriate for a donation or a ticket sale. This is set in code tables where the reason to buy is marked for box office, donation, and/or internet sale.

Added code to check for alternate settlement responses from NOVA when using PC charge.

Donations

The donation detail window now shows 'bullets' on the tabs that indicate there is information in the tab, just like the patron window. For example, if there are pledge letters, that tab will have something in it. If there are soft credits, that tab will have a bullet on it as a visual reminder.

Fixed an issue with donations marked as prospects. When adding a new prospect, the totals for the donation campaigns were calculated properly. When removing a prospect, the prospect amount was inadvertently subtracted from the total donation field in the donation campaign totals. If you have added and deleted 'prospect' donations, you may need to rebuild the donation totals using the data utilities (Select verify data and pick the verify donation balances)

Corrected the display of total donations and donation statistics in the donation list window. The gift totals for first gift, last gift, and maximum gift now excludes the 'prospect' and 'soft pledge' totals as they are not real donations.

Fixed a user interface issue when donations were deleted from the donation detail window. Previously, the donation window was left open and the fields were cleared. However, this caused some issues where Theatre Manager though that that the user could have been entering a new donation (especially if there was a refund involved to the old donation). Now, if a donation is deleted, the window is always closed prior to going to the payment refund window for clarity and cleaning up the user experience.

Theatre Maps

Added a new data field to the seat settings. This allows each seat to be given a priority of some form ranging from 0 to 255 (0 is the default) and is intended to be used for special privileges seating. This is accessed through the 'name seats' button on the Theatre Map window. The example below shows some seats with priority '0' and others with priority '5'.

It can be used in two places:

The 'Best Available Seat' button on the patron window can be told to search only for seats matching a priority, less than or equal to a priority, greater than or equal to a priority (or the priority can be ignored). For example, you could set donor seats as priority 5 and major sponsor seats as priority 10. Then it is a simple matter of asking TM to search for all priority 10 seats and all others will be ignored until those seats are found. Alternatively, you could ask TM to look for priority 0 seats and it will ignore seats that are reserved for special purposes.
This same setting can be used for checking seat availability for internet sales and or plug ins. It could be put on the screen if you wish, but is really designed for plug ins. It could allow you to have 'sections within sections'. For example, you could give aisle seats (and the next one in) priority 1. Then you could include a search for 'aisle seats only' if you wished in the internet sales. Thus, you could find section 'A seats' with a checkbox for 'Aisle only' if you added the appropriate scripting to a page.

Patron Window

Added a new tab to the bottom of the screen that shows a list of the 'combined giving level summary' records that have been created for a patron. The purpose of this is to track when a patron attained a certain status based on combined gifts (optionally including matching gifts and soft credits) and how that has changed over time. For example, suppose a donor gave $100 on jan 1st allowing them to be at the 'supporter' level. On may 1st, they give another $150 that gets them to the 'Benefactor' level. If combined giving levels are built at the time of creating the program listing, then this could show that they were a 'supporter' on jan 1st, a benefactor on May 1st, and dropped back to a 'supporter' the following january. This feature is helpful if a site uses evergreen type of donation classifications.

This data is built when running the 'program listing' report (see reports)

The example below shows the tab and the data on the patron window. Note, you have to have donor security to see this information. Also, if a donor is marked as restricted viewing, then you must also have that ability to see this data. The conditions for access to this tab are the same as for the 'donor' button on the patron screen.

Reports

The code table report now accepts criteria. As originally conceived years ago, the number of code tables were small. We've seen a growing use of the code table values recently, especially with internet sales and the way each venue can customize Theatre Manager. The code table report can print only active code table values, or you can select a specific table if you wish. From the Code Table Window, if you click the printer icon, Theatre Manage will now print only that table and active values.

Corrected a message that asks you to select the proper file for mail merging to display what you asked Theatre Manager to do. This is a cosmetic message fix and did not affect any operation of Theatre Manager.

Added a new report to print off a range of patrons and their relationship records.

Enhanced the program listing reports to allow a giving level summary to be rebuilt for any date. This is to allow a user to create a quarterly program of building combined giving levels to see what level that patron has achieved at that time based on a number of gifts. We suggest quarterly to limit the amount of data. Although, it may just be as valid to do this each time a program needs to be built. Additionally, for the purposes of the combined giving history, you can now combine donations based on patron number (instead of sort name or program name. Note that depending on your venue, this might just be as preferable). There are two steps to the process:

Decide which donations are to be included in creating the program listing and make settings similar to the 'parameter' window below. Note that the ky item to set is the 'Create donor summary while calculating the combined giving levels'. If this box is not checked, then the donor summary records for the patron window are not created.
Then when all information has been compiled to create the program listing, you will see a dialog (like below) that gives instructions about entering a date that the donor summary is effective for. It defaults to today, but you can set the date in the past. Doing so will create a summary as if it were effective in the past. This may be the sort of thing that you do to evergreen the donation giving level and build it once or twice a year. There are a couple of buttons worth noting.
- The 'Remove Summary' will remove any combined giving history records for that date before starting to create new ones. This is the suggested course of action.
- The 'Build Summary' ignored any existing records for that date and simply adds new records. If you run this report for the same date and just click 'Build Summary' button, you'll end up having two records dated on the same day for the same patron.
- NOTE: if you do have 2 or 3 major kinds of achievement levels for patrons (this is rare - most venues have none, some have one), then you should 'Remove Summary' for the first group you build. Then for the second and subsequent groups build for a specific day, use the 'Build Summary' button to add the second and third groups. (using the 'Remove Summary' each time would cause the other data to be deleted).

Mail Lists

Added the ability to build a mail list of patrons with certain relationship records. eg. You can now build a mail list of 'people who sit with' where the original patron gave over $xxx.xx

Form Letters

Fixed the issue where the 3 custom pop-up fields on a donation could not be included in a form letter merge. The upgrade should correct the field names. If it does not, you will need to remove those fields and then add them to the appropriate letter again.

Added the ability to connect an order to a form letter instead of inferring it from a donation, pass, etc.

Added a 'letter' button to the payment window so that you can send out confirmation of purchase letters (or emails) to patrons when they are purchasing over the phone. These confirmation letters can only include patron and order information (you cannot put a list of tickets/donation/pass or the payment information in the letter).

On the to-to list, added two new buttons that allow you to select a group of unprinted letters and then merge/print only those selected letters directly instead of having to go through the 'Form Letter-> task' menu. There is also a button to merge/email the selected emails.

Miscellaneous Changes

Season Renewal notices now print the prompts H: and W: in front of phone numbers on the renewal even if you remove all headings. This is to avoid the need to do form alignment in pre-printed forms.

Fixed an issue on the PC where the data utilities window to repair freeblock would open off screen and the buttons could not be clicked. Theatre Manager would appear to be hung, when hitting 'esc' might simply cancel out of that window. Mac users were not affected.

Fixed an issue on the volunteer screen that gave an error message about the patron email being duplicated. This only occurred if the patron window was not open. This problem has been fixed and Theatre Manager now reports the correct error.