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Migrate From Church Windows

Welcome to ChMeetings! We are grateful for your decision to migrate your church data into our platform and are here to help make your transition as comfortable as possible.

If you have subscribed to a paid plan and prefer to leave this to us, please get in touch. If you choose any of our paid plans, our team will migrate your data at no additional cost.  

If you have a free account or want to do this process yourself, we provide various import tools to bring your data over as easily as possible.

You can migrate people and contributions from Church Windows to ChMeetings. This guide shows you how to retrieve your data from Church Windows and import it into ChMeetings. 

Export From Church Windows

People

Church Windows provides several desktop and web-based versions, and people exports can get confusing. So, we have put together two methods that should help retrieve your data from Church Windows. Please try the first one, then if it does not help, try the second one. 

Method 1: 

  • Within Church Windows, go to Membership > Reports > Directory > Export > Print Membership Reports:
  • Go to the People tab and make the following selections:
    • Membership > Individual # Is not Blank.
    • Click +.
    • Check Members, Visitors, and Terminated/Inactive, as needed.
    • Click Next.
  • Go to the Options tab and make the following selections:
    • Select Mail Merge/Export.
    • Click the + button to add a report. Name it "ChMeetings_People".
    • Click Select Fields and select all fields.
  • In the Export Options section:
    • For File, click the ... button and choose where to save the export file on your computer. (i.e. C:\Documents\ChMeetings_People.csv)
    • Select a Comma as the Delimiter.
    • Check to Include the Year in the Birthdate. Make sure it's not only for children.
    • Enter ChMeetings_People into the Export Name field.
  • Click Export.

Method 2

  • Within Church Windows, go to Membership.
  • Click Contact List. 
  • In the Contact List window click Print.
    • In the Report Format window:
  • Select Mail Merge/Export.
  • Check to Include the Year in the Birth Date. Make sure it's not only for children.
  • Click New +.
    • In the Mail Merge/Export window:
      • Title: ChMeetings_People
      • File Name: i.e. c:\documents\chmeetings_people.
      • Separate fields with: {Comma} ().
      • Uncheck Include at End of Record.
      • Select the fields to import: click Add all >>.
      • Click OK.
  • Click Next.
  • When you see the report preview, it means the export file has been created.

Contributions

There are two versions of Church Windows’ contributions features. 

  • One version uses the term Donations to manage giving. With this version, the export is easy.
  • The other version uses the term Contributions. In this version, you can only export contributions one year at a time, and only to a .pdf file.

 

Donations Version:

  • In Church Windows, go to Donations > Reports/Export > Donation Reports > Donations Log Report.
    • In the Donations Log Report Window
  • In the Filter tab, set the Date Range
  • In the Column tab, Set Columns & Suppression and select these columns:
    • Trans #
    • Donation Date
    • Batch Code
    • Check #
    • Account
    • Amount
    • Account ID
    • Account Name
    • Pymt. Method
    • Line Item Comments
    • Giver Name
    • Giver #
  • Check to Suppress repeating transaction data.
  • Click Print.
  • In the Preview window:
    • Click Export Document (Disk icon).
    • Select Excel Document.
    • Save the file.

Contributions Version:

  • Set the Year
    • Within Church Windows, go to Contributions > Special Functions > Contribution Profile > Change Date.
    • Select the year.
  • Create the PDF
    • Within Church Windows, go to Contributions > Reports > Log Report.
    • Click Select Printer.
    • Select PDF if possible, if this option is unavailable, select XPS.
    • Click Next.
    • Click Print All.
    • Save the file.

You can only save one year at a time, repeat steps 1 and 2 for each year you want to export.

Import into ChMeetings

To import your people and contributions data into ChMeetings, please use the corresponding report files you got from Church Windows, along with the dedicated tool for each import:

  1. Import people. You can Merge duplicate people if needed.
  2. Import contributions.

If you need any guidance or decide to let our team migrate your data, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

For any issues related to exporting your data from within Church Windows, please reach out to their support.

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