There are two options for using the church management solution on multiple computers.

The easiest and most flexible way is to use our cloud solution – Excellerate Atom.
With Atom you can easily access it from anywhere you have an internet connection – work, home, on the go.
And you can have as many users you want accessing it at the same time.

The other option is to use multi-user add-on for Excellerate Desktop.
This option is usually intended for churches with a wired network and server, and only allows access from the church office.
You usually need an IT person to set up file sharing on the server.

Here are the requirements for the multi-user desktop solution:

• Everything is installed on your servers and workstations
• All workstations must have a WIRED connection, not Wifi
• All servers and workstations must be Windows computers
• You must be at that office to access the data, you won’t be able to access it from other locations
• You are responsible for data backups and server maintenance

So, the cloud solution is obviously a better solution, but does require a monthly payment.
The multi-user desktop solution is a one-time cost, but more complicated to set up and not as flexible.

Some computers come with a stripped-down version of Windows that only run simple apps, and will not allow you to install Excellerate

If you have that version, you can switch it to full Windows for free.

First, check to see if you have “Windows S-Mode”

You can check whether you’re using S Mode by heading to Settings > System > About. 
On the About page, scroll down to the “Windows Specifications” section. 
If you see the words “in S mode” to the right of the Edition entry, you’re using an S Mode PC.

To switch out of S Mode to regular Windows, open the Store app on your PC and search for “Switch out of S Mode.” The Store will guide you through taking your PC out of S Mode.

Make sure you reboot your computer after that, then you can install Excellerate.

On certain computers, you may experience Excellerate shutting down right after you login.

To fix this, you need to change Windows “DEP” setting:

Click Start and select Settings.
Type “View Advanced System Settings” and choose the same option in the drop-down menu.
Tap on Advanced in the new window and select Settings under the Performance section.
Click on Data Execution Prevention in the menu bar and check the box “Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only” option.

Restart your computer

Excellerate should load correctly now.

If you are using the iDPRT label printers with Excellerate check-in, you may need to adjust the label settings for “Check-In”, ” Check-In Receipt”, etc..

First make sure you have downloaded and installed the iDPRT printer driver from here.

Now, make sure the actual printer settings for the iDPRT are set to the default:

Next, from the check-in program, click the Modify button (“…”) next to the Checkin label:

Then click the “Modify” button:

Then click the “Layout” button:

Now adjust the Papers size to custom, Width to 2.75, and Top margin to .40:

That’s it. Close and save your changes

Watch the Installation video here

If you have the Excellerate Desktop solution, you can share your database from a server or “main” computer that’s always on.  You would need the multi-user network option for this. 

Each workstation would have the Excellerate program installed, but would open the database from the server or main computer.  For this solution, the computers would need to be connected to your church network – preferably a wired network. Wifi networks can drop out and cause database problems.

If you have really strong, reliable Wifi, and you don’t move your laptops while using Excellerate, you might be able to use wifi, but make sure you take frequent back ups just in case.

First, share your Excellerate folder from the main database computer over the network

Typically you should consult your IT person about sharing information across your network, but if you don’t have an IT person, here are the basic steps:

• Share your c:\Excellerate folder on the main computer that holds the Excellerate database.  Here’s one how-to article:  https://pureinfotech.com/setup-network-file-sharing-windows-10/
• Make sure users have full read,write,delete access to the c:\excellerate\ folder
• Write down the address listed in the window, for example:     \\DESKTOP-VMN9GIN\Excellerate

Next, install Excellerate on your other computer

Tell the other computer to open the Excellerate database from the main computer share

• Start Excellerate on the other computer, and if prompted, choose “Open other database” (If you don’t see that option, you can go to the File menu, and choose Open Database)
• Now, you need to open the database from the main computer, so you should enter the full path to the main computer. For example: \\DESKTOP-VMN9GIN\Excellerate

(Note – if you get an error trying to access that folder, it means you don’t have sharing set up correctly, or you don’t have the correct user id & password to access the share. You will need to further investigate your steps for sharing.)

• When you open that path, you should see your database file, possibly called “database” or “database.mdb”. Or you may have called the database something else when you created it.
• Log into Excellerate, and answer YES to the prompt “Make this your default database?”

That’s it. Now both computers can access the same database.

Here’s how to add your logo to the contribution statements.

For best results, make your logo 108 pixels tall and save it as logo.jpg
If you can’t do that, it will still work, but may not look as good.

In Excellerate go to Reports, Members, Member Contribution Statements

-Find the style “Full page with logo”, and hit the Modify button.
-You’ll see a square at the top for the logo, that says “PICTURE:…”

-Click in that square, and then in the “fx” field above, change it to:

PICTURE:’c:\excellerate\logo.jpg’

-Close the report and save it with a new name

-Put your logo in the c:\excellerate\ folder, and it must be called logo.jpg

Preview the report, you should see your logo. You can modify the report and adjust the size if needed.

You will first need to set up your texting account

From here you can hit “Create my account”.  This will take you to the order page on our web site, where you can log in, and purchase some text credits.

Scroll down to the middle and find “Excellerate text credits” and order some credits, and check out. This will create your texting account, and you will get the following email:

Your new Excellerate texting account is ready to go!
 
Next, enter the following account settings in Excellerate.
Go to the Options menu, Preferences, and click "Texting Options."
Enter the following:
 
Text Server: http://text.excellerate.com
Username: xxxxxx
Password: xxxxxx
 
You can use the "Manage My Account" button to do the following:
Add more text credits
View your text messages
Cancel a bulk send
Change your password

Simply enter that information in the screen above, and you’re ready to start texting

When you delete a member in Excellerate, you’re really just flagging it for delete in the future.  We do this so that when you delete someone, you have some time to recover in case you made a mistake, or the person starts attending again.

When you’re ready to permanently remove those members, you just need to go to the Utilities menu, Maintenance, Remove Old Records.

Typically, you would “Create ARCHIVE backup”, and then choose “Remove all DELETED members”, then hit “REMOVE Records”

There are many options in this screen, so for more information, you can also check the built-in help for “Remove Old Records

Just be careful about the options you choose, because you could remove all of your members.

With one check-in station, the database and the check-in program are usually running on the same computer, so everything easily stays in sync.

If you want to run an additional check-in station, you must decide how it will sync to the main database (located on another computer).

There are several ways of syncing the additional station.

Automatic over a WIRED network connection

The best solution is using a WIRED network connection between the check-in stations and the main computer with the database.

In this method, there is no “syncing” involved, because the check-in station talks directly to the database over the wired network.  Changes in the database are immediately reflected in the check-in station, and vice versa.

This is really only recommended for wired connections.  Wifi connections can drop and this can damage your database. 

If you have really strong, reliable Wifi, and you don’t move your check-in station while connected, you might be able to use this method over wifi, but make sure you take frequent back ups just in case.

• Share your Excellerate folder from the main database computer over the network

Typically you should consult your IT person about sharing information across your network, but if you don’t have an IT person, here are the basic steps:

• • Share your c:\Excellerate folder on the main computer that holds the Excellerate database.  Here’s one how-to article:  https://pureinfotech.com/setup-network-file-sharing-windows-10/
  • Write down the address listed in the window, for example:     \\DESKTOP-VMN9GIN\Excellerate

• Set the check-in stations to “online” mode, and connect to the shared database
  • On the check-in computers, see if you can access the shared folder by going to your start button and enter the share path (for example: \\DESKTOP-VMN9GIN\Excellerate )
  • You may have to enter an ID & PW (save password)
  • You should see your Excellerate files
  •  
  • Now set your check-in station to Online mode:
  • Start check-in, go to the Options tab, and choose “Online”
  • Hit “Open Different Database” and choose your database from the \\DESKTOP-VMN9GIN\Excellerate folder
  • Restart check-in

Manual sync with a USB stick

If you don’t have any network access, you can sync the check-in stations manually using a USB stick.

In this method, you load up a USB stick with data from the main database, and insert it into the check-in station to operate.  At the end of the day, you bring the USB stick back to the main computer and sync your data.

• • Insert your USB stick in the main database computer
  • Go to Utilities menu, Synchronize Check-In Stations
  • Make sure you set the “Path for attendance files and offline database” to your USB drive letter (example  E:\ )
  • Hit “Import offline attendance” to import any attendance data from the USB
  • Hit “Export latest information for offline use”
  • Insert the USB stick in the check-in computer
  • Start check-in, and go to the Options tab, and make sure  “Station Mode” is Offline
  • Set the “Transfer path” to the drive letter of the USB stick (letter may be different on this computer)
  • Restart the check-in program

Now each week, just make sure the USB stick is in the computer before starting check-in, and after check-in is complete, take the USB stick back to the main computer and sync as described above.

Manual sync over WIFI using a network share

If you have wifi available to your computers, you can sync over wifi and not use a USB stick.

When you use the “Synchronize check-in Stations” feature, you’re just reading/writing to a network share instead of USB.

• • Share your Excellerate folder from the main database computer over the network (See instructions above)

• • Create offline database and transfer folder
    • On the main database computer, go to Utilities, Synchronize Check-In Stations
    • Set the “Path for attendance files and offline database” to c:\excellerate\transfer
    • Hit “Export latest information for offline use”

• • Set the check-in stations to “offline” mode, and connect to the shared folder
    • On the check-in computers, see if you can access the shared folder by going to your start button and enter the share path (for example: \\DESKTOP-VMN9GIN\Excellerate )
    • You may have to enter an ID & PW (save password)
    • You should see your Excellerate files
    •  
    • Now set your check-in station to Offline mode:
    • Start check-in, go to the Options tab, and choose “Offline”
    • Enter the share path in “Transfer Path / Cloud”.  Example: \\DESKTOP-VMN9GIN\Excellerate\Transfer
    • Restart check-in

Now each week, you simply have to run the “Synchronize Check-In Stations” feature from the main database computer.  Make sure you first hit “Import offline attendance files”, then hit “Export latest information for offline use”

Manual sync over WIFI using cloud storage like Dropbox, or Onedrive

If you have wifi, but are unable to create a network share, you can use a cloud storage service as the transfer path.

• Setup Dropbox, Onedrive, etc on the main database computer, and the check-in stations.  Make sure you use the same account.

• Create offline database and transfer folder
  • On the main database computer, go to Utilities, Synchronize Check-In Stations
  • Set the “Path for attendance files and offline database” to your dropbox or onedrive path, for example:  C:\Users\Pete\OneDrive\Excellerate
  • Hit “Export latest information for offline use”

• Set the check-in stations to “offline” mode, and connect to the cloud storage folder
  • On the check-in computers, make sure you can see the Excellerate folder and files in the cloud storage folder 
  • Now set your check-in station to Offline mode:
  • Start check-in, go to the Options tab, and choose “Offline”

• • Enter the share path in “Transfer Path / Cloud”.  Example: c:\Users\Checkin\OneDrive\Excellerate
  • Restart check-in

Now each week, you simply have to run the “Synchronize Check-In Stations” feature from the main database computer.  Make sure you first hit “Import offline attendance files”, then hit “Export latest information for offline use”

Automatic sync over WIFI using a network share or cloud storage

It’s possible to get the “Synchronize Check-In Stations” process to run automatically, every 10 minutes or so.  This way you don’t have to manually run it yourself.  This involves installing a special service on your main computer.

• Share your Excellerate folder from the main database computer, or use a cloud storage solution as described above
• Create offline database and transfer folder as described above
• Set the check-in stations to “offline” mode and connect to the shared folder or cloud storage folder as described above
• Install the check-in service (the main computer must have an id & pw)
  • From the main database computer, go to Utilities, Maintenance, Check-In Sync Service
  • Set the “Transfer Path” to your shared folder or cloud storage folder
  • Set the “Real time sync interval” to 10 minutes
  • Hit “Install Scheduled Task” button at the bottom.  You will need to enter the computer password

Now when the check-in stations are done at the end of the day, they will send the attendance info to the main computer.  The main computer will automatically sync the data ever 10 minutes.

Please contact support if you have any questions