April 19th 2024 Update
v5 to v6 Alpine - Migration information.
We are nearing the completion of the migration to the v6 Alpine user interface.
Customers using v5 (blue) for all things apart from settings and reports (which are already fully migrated), will start receiving dedicated communications and guidance for moving to Alpine v6. This will include sufficient notice, timescales, important information and support documents.
Customers using v6 Alpine (green) for all things apart from the v5 (blue) Directories features awaiting migration, will receive dedicated communications on those final items to migrate only.
The updates in this article will now state if they only apply to v6 Alpine customers / users, but please still read those if you are a v5 user.
Other updates apply to all users (subject to your product licence choices).
sheepEvents (v6 Alpine customers / users only)
Support for Third-party Events is now available. You can now create an Event which has a link to a third-party website where tickets can be purchased outside of sheepApp. This is useful if you want to showcase partner Events or use an external ticket platform or website. These Events will still display in sheepApp and when you select the ticket button you are redirected outside of sheepApp.
Alpine (v6 Alpine customers / users only)
A new tasks icon has been created on the main menu, next to the notifications bell icon which splits out tasks from notifications to make it easier to differentiate between them.
The modal for Tasks and Notifications has been updated to handle each type more effectively such as separate actions and more informative copy.
Notifications now appear within 30 secs from the notification bell icon meaning you do not have to refresh your page in order to see the latest update.
Please note: The ability to mark notifications as read will be coming soon.
Ability to add connections to an internal event
sheepSettings
Integrations - new sync request buttons so that you can request updates outside of the automated windows for;
Mailchimp
GoCardless
April 10th 2024 Update
sheepEvents
π Various changes and quality of life improvements to editing and managing sheepEvents. See below the main differences and a quick demo.
New 'Configure Event' side panel - putting all the event setup fields in one place rather than spread across several different modals. Just hit the 'Configure Event' button from the main event page in sheepEvents.
New 'Actions' dropdown from the main event page with quick actions for
Making an event live or setting to draft
Event tickets
Recurring dates
Event Questions
Adding event to a team
Cancelling/Duplicating/Deleting the event
Alpine
Improvements to the payments sub-sections on the contact record side panel to better display payments for any given section, such as membership or events.
sheepSettings
Added the ability to manually request a Mailchimp data sync
March 29th 2024 Update
This week's release has consisted of background improvements in both sheepApp and sheepCRM Alpine.
Updated Articles in our HelpCentre
Contacts: Profile & Communication Information - Updated - FAQ
Contacts: Membership>Summary - plans and information - Updated - FAQ
Teams Your Teams - Updated - FAQ
Coming Soon
Settings: General>Fieldsets
Settings: General>Organisation Info & Branding
Settings: General>Groups/Teams
Settings: Communications & Flow>Forms App Settings
March 22nd 2024 Update
Alpine
When adding a New Person to sheepCRM the following fields have been added to the :
Date of Birth
Job Title
Source Lead
sheepApp
Events index page now shows ticket stock indicators;
Sold Out (no tickets available)
Low Stock (30% or less tickets available)
March 15th 2024 Update
This week's release has consisted of background improvements in both sheepApp and sheepCRM Alpine.
Updated Articles in our HelpCentre
sheepApp: Sending password reset links to members Updated - sheepApp Password's
Events: Box Office - Updated - Ticket Sales
Events: Box Office FAQ's - Updated - Ticket Sales
Events: Pay for an Event by sheepCRM Invoice Updated - FAQ
Contacts: Membership>Summary - plans and information Updated - FAQ
Contacts: Events bookings and tickets Updated - FAQ
March 8th 2024 Update
Alpine
Added 'Copy CRM Link' on Contacts records and Event Details which is a tool for you to be able to share links with colleagues to take them directly to specific records.
Updated Segment Export for list of Events to XLSX
Field name changes
Updated Excel styles
sheepApp
Previously buyers of Events, when using guest checkout were not being automatically added as an Attendee. This has now been updated to ensure their details are captured if an Attendee slot was left blank.
A preventative measure has been applied to the 'Stripe Buy' button so that only one payment can be made and cannot be double-clicked when purchasing events.
sheepFlow
When clicking "View Live Form" from Form Builder it will clear the sheepApp cache so that your updates can be seen more quickly than previously.
When building out a Form, there is a new question type to ask for video-links as responses.
Updated Articles in our HelpCentre
Creating/Exporting Segments Updated to include 'How to Clone'
Contacts: Summary Information - Update to reflect new Copy Record Link action
Contacts: Events bookings and tickets - Update to reflect new Copy Record Link action
GoCardless FAQ's New Article to capture FAQ's
Payments FAQ's Updated with new content
Contacts: Flow>Applications Updated to reflect new 'Regarding' link
Contacts: Profile & Communication info Updated advice around maps
Updated to include 'How to cease Ticket Sales';
March 1st 2024 Update
Alpine
Segment exports are now available. These include specific and broader sets of commonly used data fields such as mailing fields for contacts, membership fields and more providing a simple way to access bulk data in preparation for communicating with your members and/or administrating tasks. All templates include a description of what data is included.
Please see our Article Segments: XLSX (spreadsheet) Exports for more information.
This item above is replacing a key feature previously only supported in sheepCRM v5 via the directory as part of the final steps to complete our migration to sheepCRM Alpine (v6)
Whilst on a Contact record within the side panel>Flow>Applications the 'regarding' link can now be used as a quick way of navigating to the related item.
Please Note: sheepForms are only available to users with a Professional or sheepFlow licence - for more information please contact support@sheepcrm.com
Please see our Article Contacts: Flow>Applications for more information.
Automated Reports have been updated to identify lost Xero connections. To access further details please head to Reports>Usage>Action Required.
Please Note: We recommend users check this report on a regular basis.
Alpine Alpha
Whilst on Events>Follow-on Form responses now display in the Buyers/Order sidepanel. Please see sheepEvents Settings: Follow-On Forms (sheepApp) for more information.
(Needs link for follow on forms above - after published by JJ)
Whilst on a Contact record within the side panel>Summary>Actions the option to "Copy Record Link" has been added for use on both Contacts and Organisations to provide a quick way to copy the URl to clipboard.
Whilst on an Event>Summary>Configure Event>Details>Actions within the side panel the option to "Copy Event Link" has been added for use to provide a quick way to copy the URl to clipboard.
Updated Articles in our HelpCentre
Contacts: Flow>Applications - Updated to reflect release detailed above
Segments: XLSX (spreadsheet) Exports - Brand New Feature - Brand New Article
Payments FAQ - Updated with FAQ
Contacts: Summary information -Updated Copy URL info following release
Events: Configuring an Event - Updated Copy URL info following release
Segments: Using Segments - How to clone a segment
February 23rd 2024 Update
Alpine
Monthly Invoice numbers on a Membership Statement now include the month and year for reference
List of Attendees under an Event now refreshes when an update is made to the Attendance status
Events and or Courses options within a Contacts side panel menu are only displayed when there is associated content
Whilst in a Contact record> Admin> System Log a single optimised audit log for all client changes displays for reference
sheepApp
An Organisation Directory Detail Page has been created
The Organisation Directory List Tags Display has been updated
Updated Articles in our HelpCentre
New Article containing guidance on how to deal with these contact records
General update
Limitations updated
Contacts: Events bookings and tickets
Title changed to Contacts: Events, Courses and Payments and content updated to reflect new sidepanel menu
Contacts: Form submissions and applications
Title changed to Contacts: Flow>Applications and content updated to reflect new sidepanel menu
Updated content to reflect new sidepanel menu
Contacts: Documents and uploads
Title changed to Contacts: Library>Files/Documents and uploads and content updated to reflect new sidepanel menu
Contacts: Metadata and duplicates
Title changed to Contacts: Admin> Record Data (Metadata and Duplicates) and content updated to reflect new sidepanel menu
February 15th/24th 2024 Update
Alpine
π New multi-level contact side panel menu
Noticeable changes
Groupings by module for easier access
Teams has been taken out of Contact Summary and into its own section
Payments can now be accessed per module - membership, events etc
'All payments' can be found underneath 'Admin'
'Metadata' has been changed to 'Record Data' and now sits underneath 'Admin'
'Vehicles' can be found underneath 'Library'
'Courses' can be found in 'Events' or 'Library'
'Recent history' can now be found under 'Contact' which shows the last 5 changes on a contact record. Future improvements to come for this.
β
β
β
February 9th 2024 Update
This week's release has consisted of background improvements in both sheepApp and sheepCRM Alpine.
Coming Soon
Following the major feature updates released last year as part of the full migration from sheepCRM v5 to Alpine (v6), such as sheepEvents, we will be releasing various new items which replace v5 features and adding refinements to v6 Alpine to complete this migration.
Therefore, as well as updates that have been released we will also be adding some "coming soon" items to this article, the first of these are below.
β°οΈ Segment exports will soon include specific and broader sets of commonly used data fields such as mailing fields for contacts, membership fields etc.
π Menu improvements to the contact side panel to help make it more user-friendly and consistent.
β
February 2nd 2024 Update
Alpine
sheepEvents
The orders and attendees single export from within an event is now generated for download from your notifications as per segment exports. If you do not see a notification please refresh your page.
sheepApp
The Areas of Interest section can now have a customised introduction set. If you need this set please send your request to support@sheepcrm.com
Courses listings will have automatically generated thumbnail images where a Youtube hosted video is included. You can also set your own thumbnail to override the default if required.
January 26th 2024 Update
Alpine
Course enrolments are now viewable in the side panel of a contact record.
Attendee questions (captured as part of inline event questions) are now available in a grouped view in the side panel of a contact record.
Event category filters have been added in the side panel of a contact record.
Better support for obfuscated people with a new automatic segment.
January 19th 2024 Update
Data Processing
OpenAI added to our list of sub-processors as part of our platform investment in AI. If you would like any more information regarding this please contact support@sheepcrm.com
Alpine
Ability to select the primary email address in Alpine
Ability to filter payments by status under a Contact's payments page
Support for automated invoice numbers for membership with less than a 12-month period.
Other
GoCardless subscription sync has been optimised for clients with very large numbers of subscriptions.
January 12th 2024 Update
Alpine
An update to the Welcome page
From the Alpine contact record historical connections have now been added into the connections tab
Added copy address button in Contact side panel's address section
Updated Articles in our HelpCentre
As part of ongoing refinements to our support articles we have made several updates this week. Below are the article names together with a brief detail of what has been updated for your reference.
New FAQ's added
General update to article as part of review
Published: Contains reports to detail the system usage, notices and download frequency of documents
General update to article as part of review
Admin and Billing Contacts Permissions
December 22nd 2023 Update
sheepCRM
Automatic domain connections, based on email or web addresses are now built periodically rather than after an update which means these auto connections will not show instantly when you first add an email or web address matching others.
sheepApp
Further to our update last week about the 'Your Documents' section which was renamed to 'Your Library', the direct sheepApp URL has now been updated to /library
so if you have set up any direct links to /documents
in sheepApp please update those.
The /documents
link will still be working but will redirect to /library
for the time being to allow customers time to update their direct links.
sheepCRM Courses (V6 Alpine only) - New Feature π
Courses for sheepApp is a way to promote and handle enrolment to online courses including sign-up and payment for those who use an external learning management system or offer remote courses (that are not based on a specific date/time). The courses can be offered for free or they can be paid for if you have a Stripe integration.
They allow you to provide information relating to the course, a course preview in video format, and any other additional information such as how to access the course once they have enrolled.
Courses is restricted to those with an Advanced or Pro licence.
If you are interested in adding this to your system please contact support@sheepcrm.com so we can activate it on your sheepCRM.
An article has been created with full guidance on how to create and manage Courses. Please see here: Settings: Courses
December 15th 2023 Update
sheepCRM (V6 Alpine only)
New automated action payment trigger that allows you to send an email communication when someone buys/purchases a document through sheepApp. document_payment_received
sheepApp
The 'Your Documents' section has been renamed to be called 'Your Library'. This is found via the 'Account' menu for sheepApp users.
The main dashboard documents area will also be renamed in the next release.
This is because some new features coming soon will use this area that are not documents.
Updated Articles in our HelpCentre
As part of ongoing refinements to our support articles we have made several updates this week. Below are the article names together with a brief detail of what has been updated for your reference.
How to add an Order
How to pay by Invoice
To include Ticket Types
Where is the Activation Code for a Member trying to Activate their Account / Reset their Password ?
Further general advice regarding managing linked members
New article providing guidance on how to access and report on deferred revenue
December 8th 2023 Update
sheepEvents (V6 Alpine only)
Attendance to ticketed and internal events can now be recorded on the attendee page of an event. This means it can be recorded on all event types now in sheepCRM, an extension from group session events, which was previously released. You can find the full details in Events: Box Office
sheepCRM (V6 Alpine only)
The main search has been refined to avoid duplicate results when searching for membership numbers.
We have started to publish updated support articles with a new format (questions and answers) and additional user guidance. If you would like to see some of these you could review the reports articles as many have been recently updated, as well as events articles such as the one above.
Fix to invoices where an admin contact could not access an invoice if a billing contact has also been set on a membership
November 2023 Update
sheepEvents
Inline Event Questions
As part of ongoing investment in sheepEvents, we have now released the first part for the ability to capture additional data from buyers about their ticket orders and attendees via the sheepApp Box Office.
This requires the sheepEvents module and a minimum of an Advanced Licence (if you are interested in adding this to your system please contact support@sheepcrm.com)
As this feature is new you will only be able to access it when we activate it for you. If you would like to use this feature, please let us know.
You may require some additional support to implement this and charges may apply for our services.
For full information and guidance on Inline Event Questions please see here.
Order and Attendee Exports
These exports have been updated to include a broader set of data fields where that data exists on those contacts.
These exports are covered in this article: Events: Box Office
sheepCRM (Alpine v6)
Notifications
This has been updated to a limit of ten in view and sort order from the due date.
Notifications will need to be managed / closed to see the next in line if you have more than ten.
The relevant article has been updated with this information: sheepCRM: Navigating around sheepCRM
Recent
π New v2 Search
βοΈ SMS messaging
βοΈ New message types for automated emails: in-app messages and messages that require acknowledgment
β»οΈ Support for copying/cloning a membership
π The authentication pages have a new colour.
βοΈ New settings area (beta launch just for "controls" membership plans, email templates etc)
π API throttling to stop deliberate or accidental over-use
β οΈ New report showing system warnings and notifications (Reports > Usage)
π Our new home for reports is out in beta and the new default.
π° GoCardless and Stripe - improved subscription support
π Support for membership plans with a fixed end date.
πΊοΈ Improved automatic data sharing between people and organisations (based on a shared domain)
π Our new home for reports is available in beta.
βοΈ Real-time Mailchimp campaign information for a contact with quick links to Mailchimp for deeper analysis
π Mute membership communications - because sometime a full opt-out is too much but you want to stop emails about a specific membership.
β»οΈ Next membership type - smoothly migrate your members onto a different plan when they renew.
βοΈ New lifecycle action - send email to a single, fixed address
π multi-factor authentication now available for sheepCRM users.
βοΈ New conditional templates - use rules to control which templates are used in response to a lifecycle event
π New unpaid invoice report, extra output fields and multi currency support.
π Take donations online with sheepApp. See our new app in action with BGCI
βοΈ Email template changes: editing templates will remain 'strict' but sending emails will be more permissive of errors. If a template variable is missing then the email will now send with a blank for the variable instead of failing to send.
π» New servers deploying mid September for improved stability and performance.
β° Support for deferred first payments on payment plans. Great if you want to offer a cooling off period.
π New anomaly reports to help keep your data clean
β Group / Team session attendance - record attendance through sheepTeams
Archive
Memberships are finally VAT aware.
New PDF template for memberships paid by invoice.
Itemised partner payout reports for GoCardless & Stripe - understand which Sheep memberships and tickets were present in a payout.
GoCardless partner support for Intelligent Retries
Improved MailChimp synchronisation: We have doubled the number of synchronisation tasks and increased the synchronisation window three fold.
Three new membership reports: new members, leavers and renewal reports
Deprecation Notice: Theme 4 for contacts is being turned off May 31 2020.
Custom contact links from Xero direct to Sheep contacts
Sharing data from memberships. Sharing data such as admin/parent contacts details is now more explicitly highlighted.Β
Reporting home page now shows some summary stats - more to come
GoCardless partnership integration - a deeper integration enabling, payment plans and more detailed reporting and insight into your direct debit payments.
Membership joining fee
Message and Failed Message reports
Payment List report
Payment plan reporting
Saved filters in reports
New self-service user account filters - find out which members have been registered or logged in recently
New π health data filters
New field selector for easier reporting
Automatic GDPR - automatic privacy records for members, donors and ticket buyers.
Reduced 'recent' journal count for faster loading.
Database hosting in London (move from Dublin)
Discourse single sign on (SSO)
π Confidential (Health, DBS and Equal Opportunities) data has moved to a new section (select from the right hand sidebar)Β
β VoIP integration. We have partnered with Dial9 to provide call logging, imported call recordings and click-to-call in Sheep. (Version 5οΈβ£ only)
β Bulk templated email - send a templated email to a group of people.
Unpaid Membership Report
Tagging and journals added to a contact when Sheep emails are undeliverable.
GoCardless webhook support (for faster updates)Β
Printable address labels. PDF export of contacts for a variety of Avery standard templates. (Version 5οΈβ£ only)
Default export format changes: primary email and phone, membership fields added for clients using membership
π΅ automatic consent withdrawal on unsubscribe (only consent records based on MailChimp are withdrawn)
5οΈβ£ Grouped Calendars for venue management; organise your rooms into grouped calendars (add tags to your bookable venues - takes up to 24hrs to activate)
Incremental, real-time search (deployed for large clients)
Improved journal search and filters. Filter by starred, note, message, reminder & files. Search by title, journal type and tags
5οΈβ£ Copy address to clipboard
5οΈβ£ Related notes & messages showing in journal, authored messages distinguished by colour
New journal filter to show only file attachments
Faster search deployed for large clients
Push a contact to Xero (accounting package). Sheep imports Xero contacts automatically, you can now publish a contact from Sheep into Xero
Automatic connections with organisations and people who have the same email domain.
Printable journals - a simple print template for when you want a hard-copy.
β auto-fill a contact (fill in a contact by looking up public data using their email or website).Β
Membership - advise of lapse. Record that your member has indicated that they will not renew.
MailChimp Tags. Sheep tags and GDPR fields are now sync'd to the new tags section of MailChimp.Β
5οΈβ£ Badges
β Membership Self Service - new app for members to register, renew and update their details.
Evidence and Evidence categories are now filterable - thanks Will
Invoice layout update, VAT percentages and charity number on invoice - thanks Penny
5οΈβ£ New Contact Directory
5οΈβ£ New larger map (click on the map)Β
5οΈβ£ Create MailChimp static segment from report (new directories only)
Phone number validation (UK and International numbers)
Google & Eventbrite linking and simplified booking pages
Change visibility of the email/phone primary selector - thanks Alison
β GDPR - Delete, Move to Bin and Obfuscate changes to the way data is deleted
The activity calendar will now show sessions that have been booked without an activity.
More GDPR... Automatic GDPR contract records for tickets and membership (contact support to turn on)
GDPR - New gdpr_can_email field derived from Consent and Legitimate Interests. Only records with a 'Can Email' field will get subscribed to MailChimp automatically (you can still subscribe them individually)
GDPR - MailChimp interests mapped to consent records
New person template page link
Activity Analysis report - thanks Rosie
Misc improvements to the Events Calendar including more responsive updates
Easy link from Booking to 'view in calendar' - thanks Rebecca
Show Asset name in calendar for quick scanning of asset availability - thanks Luiza
Capacity rollout. Additional database capacity and API servers were deployed with zero downtime.
Session end times (or date-times) in the Session / Venue list - thanks Rebecca
Delete open reminders when a contact is deleted. (Prevents orphaned reminders filling up your notifications) - thanks Matt
Booking Invoice Actions - new report to highlight when you need to chase or update an invoice - thanks Rich
Payment Summary report - new report to show the breakdown of incoming payments
β Event Planning Pack: Agenda/Running Order - thanks Amanda
MailChimp sync button - update MailChimp on demand (if you don't want to wait for the regular sync)
GDPR - Consent data from Sheep synchronised to MailChimp
β User sortable line items in invoices - thanks Amanda
Sheep message bcc. Blind-carbon-copy all your messages to an email address.
Support for Stripe Webhooks, connecting to auto templated emails to automated emails e.g. Membership renewal - we will be charging your card soon
Xero sync button - update Xero payments on demand (if you don't want to wait for the regular sync)
New state ' Acknowledged' in grant applications
β Latest Journal on contacts. A new card on the contact to show the latest journal entry. Great to see at a glance what the last action/note was when you have someone on the phone.
Search - top results: If we find a strong match we now highlight it at the top.
Search - segmented results by type: results are now grouped by type. Old / past event bookings are showed below future events
β Hosted GDPR pages: public pages for your members/contacts to provide GDPR consent. See Anglican International Development privacy page
β Rollback - undo a change. Use the audit log to review the changes and then choose to rollback a given change.Β
Un-complete a reminder
Job title added to new person form, website added to new organisation form - thanks Shaaron
Control which email/phone is the primary - thanks Alison