Archive for the ‘Business Advice Requests’ Category

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Signing PDF Receipts

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

If you read the Help page “Emailing Receipts” in recent versions of DONATION, there’s a section at the bottom, headed “Concerns for Canadian Users”, about the Canada Revenue Agency’s requirements for electronically-transmitted (e.g. emailed) receipts. The concerns there don’t seem to apply to US receipts, which have much looser requirements. However, US readers of this blog may still have an opinion about the following, because it concerns a feature I plan to introduce into the program that they could use too.

The one CRA requirement for emailed receipts that DONATION does not currently fully satisfy is “the document should be encrypted and signed with an electronic signature”. The emailed receipts (which are PDF files) are indeed encrypted, to prevent modification, but they are not signed with an electronic signature, which guarantees that they have not been modified. N.B. This is not the same as a bitmap signature, which DONATION can already include, but rather refers to a digital signature.

Up until now, the software I use to create the PDF files in DONATION, novaPDF, has not supported the use of digital signatures. They have just released a version that does, but I have realized that there’s an issue. You can get digital signatures in two ways: either purchase them, from a recognized Certificate Authority (CA) like Verisign, or create what is called a self-signed certificate, which is free but does not come from a CA.

I cannot imagine many of my users wanting to go to the bother and expense of purchasing a digital certificate from a CA, just in order to satisfy this small CRA requirement. So creating self-signed certificates, which is fairly easy via the novaPDF software, is probably all they would do. But, if you attach a self-signed certificate to a PDF file, and then open that PDF in the regular Adobe Reader, its tool for checking a signature’s validity will say “Signature validity is unknown”, because it’s not connected to a recognized CA.

My question for you is this. Would users of DONATION not want to attach self-signed certificates to their emailed PDF receipts, because they would be afraid that their donors would see that message about the signature validity being unknown, and then think there might be something wrong with the receipt, or questionable about the charity or church issuing that receipt? Because if a lot of DOATION users would worry about this, I probably shouldn’t even include this feature into DONATION, despite the fact that the CRA officially requires it.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts on this, which as usual would best be sent to me by posting a Reply on the blog, so we can all see each other’s comments.

Posted in Business Advice Requests, Development Advice Requests, General | 12 Comments »

DONATION Beta 3.21 w/ Lite version, pricing changes

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Hello all. I have just released version 3.21 Beta2 to the www.software4nonprofits.com/pretest.htm page, from where you can download it and (hopefully) test it and let me know what you think.

I’m planning to announce to all users tomorrow (December 1st) the pricing changes/simplifications discussed in prevous blog postings, namely:

  • Only one price for the normal (local database) version, for unlimited donors: Full License $80, Annual Renewal for support and upgrades $40. Also, additional organizations/databases on the same computer will now be free, not $20/year as they were in the past.
  • Only one price for the network version, for unlimited simultaneous users: Full License $150, Annual Renewal $75.
  • Availability of the completely free limited-feature Lite version (read the previous blog posting on this at http://www.software4nonprofits.com/blog/?p=115, or the Help topic on Lite Version Limitations in the new version 3.21 Beta2, for details). This will only have free support for the first month, though; after that, $20/year for support. (Since the Lite version is free, obviously upgrades to it will also be free.)
  • Elimination of the current free license criteria (under 50 donors, under $5K total annual income for the organization etc.), in favour of the Lite version. Existing free licenses I have issued will of course be honoured until the end of the one-year period they were issued for.
  • The new pricing will be effective immediately, but for anyone that was already in the process of cutting a cheque, or feels strongly about having the current cheaper prices for under 200 donors, I will accept the old prices through the rest of December.

If some of you could please test the Lite version, that would be great. From the pretest.htm page, you download and install doninstLite.exe to switch to the Lite version. You can then easily switch back to your paid (or free) version by downloading and installing doninst.exe. 

And of course, testing of the other fixes and changes in the program will be greatly appreciated. Although I plan to announce these changes to all users tomorrow, I will probably wait a couple of further days before actually releasing the new version, in case any of you who are reading this blog posting find any bugs in the changes!

And I will also very much welcome any further comments you have on these pricing changes! I do realize that I’m taking a risk with the Lite version, that it will steal away too many of my current paid users, but I’m hoping that when they see the list of the features that are excluded from the Lite version, not too many of them will switch. Hopefully, it will serve as something of a loss leader.

Thanks, all.

Posted in Beta Testing, Business Advice Requests, General | 3 Comments »

Interested in Web-Based DONATION?

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

I’m wondering whether any of you would be interested in switching to a web-based version of DONATION, running on my own servers (so you don’t have to maintain a web application on your servers), if I developed one. To be clear, I have not yet decided to do so!

I would definitely also keep offering the current way of installing and using DONATION on your own computers (not web-based).

Advantages of using a web-based version include being able to access it from any computer with an appropriate web browser (it might require Internet Explorer 7 or 8), and having multiple people access the same data, without needing a network install in your organization. Also, you would never have to worry about installing upgrades again!

Disadvantages would probably include that it would work a bit more slowly, because web applications always work more slowly than installed applications. But I wouldn’t release such an application if it didn’t work fast enough to be very usable.

Charging for a web-based version would probably be based on a monthly fee per user/login, which would probably be a bit more expensive than my current base rates. That’s both because of the advantages of the web-based system, and because it would cost me more to run it. My guess would be it might be about $10/month, per user, but really at this point I have no idea.

Please let me know what you think, preferably by adding a Reply to this blog posting. Thank you!

Posted in Business Advice Requests, Development Advice Requests | 14 Comments »

Eliminating the Pricing Levels

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

One suggestion that came out of responses to my recent blog post about creating a free “Lite” version of DONATION (and other posts I made on a couple of software development/business forums) was to reduce the pricing levels. I like that idea, because it would reduce the confusion about payments, and reduce support for me when people exceed the number of donors for their pricing level.

As most of you probably know, currently Full Licenses (for the initial year) are $60 for under 200 donors with donations, $90 for under 500 donors, and $110 for unlimited donors. For the network version, it’s $110 per simultaneous user (not per computer it’s installed on). The Annual Renewal fees are half of each of those prices.

I did some investigation in my database of users and payments, and found that the average Full License price paid this year so far was $69, $137 for the network version. The average Annual Renewal price was $36, $63 for the network version. (Not surprisingly, the average Annual Renewal prices are not far off from half of the annual Full License prices.)

So, I’m thinking that I could change the Full License pricing to be $80 for the regular version (unlimited donors) and $150 for the network version (unlimited simultaneous users). The Annual Renewal prices would again be half those amounts. That would be a slight increase for those with under 200 donors, but a decrease for everyone else. (And an increase for network version users with only one simultaneous user.)

What do you think? Would the slight increase for those with under 200 donors scare any existing users away? What about new users? Probably my closest competitor is Donarius, which is $60 for unlimited donors, $45 for max 100 “active donors” (which is a complex definition). But they charge extra for extra features, like gift in kind receipts, personalized letters & receipts (which I think is equivalent to my mail merge features) etc.

And of course, if anyone thinks the $80 Full License, or $40 Annual Renewal is too much, they could consider backing down to the free Lite version.

I’m also thinking that the Lite version would replace my current free license criteria (under 50 donors, under $5,000 total annual income from all sources, no paid staff using the program). Anyone who currently had a free license could either switch to the Lite version, or pay, when their next renewal date came up. (That’s assuming, of course, that they did want to continue their eligibility for support and upgrades – otherwise, they could just do nothing and keep using that version.)

Your thoughts? Thanks.

Posted in Business Advice Requests | 16 Comments »

Limited Feature Free Version

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

I just read the very interesting book “Free”, by Chris Anderson, and I’m giving some thought to creating a limited-feature free version of the program. (The full version would still be available to small organizations, using the same 4 criteria I use now for free licenses.) I’m not at all decided that I want to do this, but I thought I would run it by you for your comments and advice.

The rationale behind doing this is that it brings more users in, some of whom may become paid users if and when they decide they want the full version. They would also have to pay for support (other than free help getting it set up initially), probably at the $30 annual fee level.

Here are the features that after my first review, I think I might remove from a free version:

  • All handling of Gifts in Kind, including removing the optional Description field from the Donation fields.
  • The Email Address field, the three renamable Other Info fields and the Comments field from the Donor Details area.
  • Limited User features.
  • All mail merge (Letters menu) features, which thus includes removing the ability to create your own receipt formats.
  • Custom Reports
  • The All Donors and Filtered Donors options on the Receipt menu (so, all receipts must be done one donor at a time). (I’m least sure about removing this one!)
  • From the Database menu, all Importing options, Reassign Envelope Numbers, Switch Databases, and SQL Select.
  • From the Help menu, Request or Install License Key. (That’s just a side effect, because a free version wouldn’t need license keys!)

I’m very open to discussion on any of the above points, as I may not have picked the right ones. (Have I missed anything that you think free version users should not get?)

The free version has to be good enough for a reasonable number of churches and charities with limited needs to use, but it has to omit enough that at least (say) half of all users will either want to start with the full version, or will eventually choose to upgrade to it.

What are your thoughts? Thank you.

Posted in Business Advice Requests, General | 10 Comments »

Online Backups / Database Transfers

Friday, July 17th, 2009

I’m wondering what you would think of my adding a feature to DONATION that allowed you to do online backups to a secure service on the Internet (specifically Amazon’s S3 service), and restores from there. This would be in addition to the current backup and restore options that go to any drive letter accessible from your PC, e.g. your hard drive, a USB memory key, network drive etc.

This could be used both for your regular backups, and also for an easy way to transfer the database between multiple installs of DONATION for the same organization, e.g. at home and in the organization’s office. This would save carrying backup files on a USB memory key or whatever, or emailing them.

Your files would be password-protected with a password you supply (and have to remember!). I still have to figure out how to associate the files uniquely with each organization, since the organization name alone isn’t unique. (I have a lot of churches named “First Baptist Church”, for instance!) Any ideas on that problem?

Does this seem like a useful addition to DONATION overall? Would you use it? (Please respond on the blog, so others can comment on your comments as well, unless of course you have a comment that you want to be private only to me.)

Posted in Business Advice Requests, Development Advice Requests | 13 Comments »

New HTML MessageBox product

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

I have just released a 2nd product from Cooperstock Software. It’s of no direct use to charities or churches, I’m afraid, but if any of you reading this are programmers, you might be interested, or if you have friends who are programmers, you could pass this on!

The product is called the HTML MessageBox, and it’s at www.html-messagebox.com. I developed it for DONATION (it was used in 3.15 Beta1, which I wrote to the beta testers about recently). It’s used to make all message boxes in DONATION use a larger font, and in some cases be able to use boldface or other font changes to provide emphasis, to help you see what is the most important point of them to read. (Message boxes, for those who aren’t clear, are those little popup windows with a message in them, and buttons such as OK, or Yes / No.)

Because programmers use a bit of simple HTML to do this (like “<b>this part is bold</b>”), I call it the HTML MessageBox. It’s an exact replacement for the standard Windows MessageBox that programmers are used to using.

Just thought you might be interested to know about this!

Posted in Beta Testing, Business Advice Requests, Development Advice Requests | No Comments »

Direct Credit Card Payments?

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

I’m considering doing some work to set up the ability to enter your credit card information on the DONATION web site directly, rather than having to be forwarded to the PayPal web site to do that. I’d like your opinions about doing so.

The advantage of this would be that the process of paying by credit card would be more seamless, and would not raise some people’s fears about PayPal (I’ve talked to a couple of people in just the last few days who were very averse to using PayPal.) Mind you, behind the scenes, PayPal would still be processing the credit cards for me, but that would not be visible to the user who was paying. There would also be an option called “Checkout via PayPal” to use your PayPal account, for those who have one and choose to use it. (This latter point isn’t optional – PayPal insists that you also include it if you are using them behind the scenes for credit card processing.)

The disadvantage of this is that the users are trusting me, an unknown person/company (at least for those who are paying their initial Full License fee), with their credit card info. I personally don’t see why they should trust me more than a huge corporation like PayPal – I myself would rather trust PayPal than a small software author I know nothing about. But I don’t know whether that is a common point of view.

I would not store anyone’s credit card info after I sent it off  to PayPal to complete their payment, as I have no further use for it, and don’t want to have to worry about maintaining the security of that information in a database I am keeping or anything like that.

One question I have about this is whether I would have to make clear to the people paying by credit card that PayPal was processing the payment behind the scenes. My inclination is that this is irrelevant to them, but I’m open to other views. I am generally inclined to more disclosure rather than less.

So, any opinions? Thanks, as always.

Posted in Business Advice Requests | 7 Comments »

DONATION business sold to Microsoft!

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

Great news, DONATION users. Microsoft has bought me out, and all future versions of the program will be sold by them.

They will be making great improvements, like integrating their SQL Server database with the program. This will increase the download size for the full version of DONATION to about 500MB, instead of the current 15MB, but I’m sure it will be worth it.

They will also be charging more for the program, probably about $1,000/year, but again, the improvements they make, and the security of knowing the program is made and backed by Microsoft, will surely be worth it.

See a few lines below for more important information about this announcement:

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APRIL FOOLS!

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’m an inveterate April fools prankster.)

Posted in Beta Testing, Business Advice Requests, Development Advice Requests, General | 9 Comments »

DONATION Web Site Upgraded

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

I have just made some changes to the web site (especially the home page), following the directions of a very helpful eBook I purchased on marketing for small software businesses. If you have a few minutes to review the changes and send me any comments you have about them, I’d really appreciate it.

The changes include

  • the addition of BUY NOW and DOWNLOAD NOW buttons to the home page and various other places (what marketers call the “ask”)
  • changing the main messaging on the home page to more clearly describe what DONATION is and why you might want to consider it (what marketers call the “hook”)
  • adding a short additional boxed testimonial to the main text area of the home page (further increases credibility)
  • adding a 30-day money back guarantee after the initial Full License payment (decreases the impression of risk in the purchase)

I’m also still wondering about the “tagline”, shown at the top right of each page: “Simple. Powerful. All you need.” I wonder whether the “all you need” part isn’t a bit untruthful and exaggerated. After all, almost everyone who buys DONATION will also buy a bookkeeping program like Quicken, QuickBooks, Simply Accounting etc. And then there’s all of the rest of their software. Obviously, what I’m trying to say is it’s all you need for what it’s good at – tracking donors and donations and receipting. But even then, for some organizations, it’s not all they need.

Do you think I should drop that tagline, or better yet, replace it with something else? I still like the “Simple. Powerful.” part, but that alone is too short. Any bright ideas, whether using that part or not?

Any other thoughts on the web site, whether related to parts I’ve mentioned or not? If possible, please comment by adding a Reply to this blog posting, so we can all comment on each others’ comments!

Many thanks.

Posted in Business Advice Requests, General | 6 Comments »

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