Each spring we attempt to contact all of the known software developers who offer record keeping software for Awana clubs to track records. There have been several that have come and gone over the years and so we try to keep you up to date with active products to help you select the best product for your Awana club.
Note that Awana does not offer a digital recordkeeping solution and does not endorse, nor support any of these products.
We send the developers a few questions to answer. They are basic questions designed to give you a feel of the updates and any new features that they may have added in the last year, or may plan to add. All of the developers update their software with the latest handbooks supplied by Awana though it may take them to to update as they often have to physically see the material after it is released and available from Awana.
Though basic questions are asked, each year there seems to be one focus addressed. This year the focus was on small churches/clubs. To see a general overview of what each product offers along with a comparison chart, click the RecordKeeping Tab above.
Below are the questions sent to the various developers and their responses, listed in order of when they were received.
What is new with your product, or known updates for 2020-21?
- Report (and maintenance program) to estimate costs at start of club (e.g. by family)
- Notes icon in upper right of most screens for general notes by user
- Add Gender sort option to Find Individual
- Export button goes to csv files instead of PDF (online only)
New since last year
- Additional customization options of what fields show on clubber & household pages (registration form, query page, information page)
- Automated tracking of Blue Jewel attendance awards
- Book Progress report
Planned major enhancements this summer
- Two-factor authentication login option
- Inventory tracking
I am planning to launch an updated user interface once this club year wraps up (late May/early June). There aren’t any entirely new features with this, but many current features will be improved. In addition, I am hoping to expand help and support materials.
Throughout this last club year we delivered a variety of enhancements requested by our customers. We will of course keep up with any new curriculum introduced in the coming year, and we will continue to provide support and enhancements to meet the expressed needs of our valued customers.
We are continuing to expand our mobile device offerings – making it even easier to run club night with only your phone.
How can your product benefit a small Awana club?
Low cost, sometimes purchased by individuals. Use only the features that help the most.
TTT is designed to be intuitive & simple to use. TTT is priced to be affordable for small clubs as they often have small budgets. While TTT can be customized by each church to include additional details, it can also be used with very basic information & functions that small churches need.
Shine is an inexpensive product, and is an especially good solution for clubs that just want to track awards, attendance and points.
Although it doesn’t have a native mobile app, Shine was designed from the ground up to work well on phones. Smaller clubs can take advantage of this and have leaders use their phones instead of having to purchase laptops and tablets for their club.
Even in a small club, diligent recordkeeping can require a significant amount of time. Doing records only on paper can be error-prone and time-consuming, and when the data is trapped on paper you can’t really do much with it. Our Approved Workman Database enables much greater efficiency and accuracy, and the data can be easily shared by multiple leaders for a wide variety of purposes such as: contact management, outreach, handbook progress with automatic award triggering, and end-of-year award projections. You can also print photo nametags, mailing labels, achievement reports, pre-filled registration forms and so much more.
We offer our product at $99 per club year for unlimited leader and parent access.
If you only offer a web-based option, what options/advise would you give to a club who would like to use a record keeping product but wifi, or wireless data (mobile signals), are not viable?
N/A, a desktop option is available
There are quite a few churches that use TTT that don’t have reliable (or any) wifi during club. In this case, TTT provides forms that can be pre-printed & used during club to record activity. The data entered on the forms is entered into the site after the meeting (from somewhere with internet access). The forms include: Checkin, Handbook Agenda (for recording sections & buck balance for store), & Awards distribution.
If you don’t have any internet access, then I would recommend going with one of the available solutions that works completely offline. If you don’t have wifi, but do have reliable cell service, an online product like Shine may be workable. I always recommend clubs try a demo before purchasing to get an idea of how the setup will work ahead of time.
We offer both a web-based solution as well as a local desktop solution. If a club is using our web version but is having issues with WiFi, we first suggest they implement a password protected WiFi account for their leaders that is configured for priority bandwidth. If that’s not possible, then we suggest that they use the data plan on their cell phones (AWdb uses very little data). If they can’t get decent 4G cell reception, we suggest that record keepers print their paper worksheets from home (where good internet connectivity is available) and then use those paper worksheets during club time and then take them home and do their data-entry from there. For clubs that don’t want to use a web-based solution, we continue to support our legacy (local) desktop database.
For those clubs that do not have WiFi or mobile data available, club secretaries can print out a clubber list that includes check-in options as well as the next few sections a clubber should complete. These sections can be marked and then entered into the system at a later date.
Your brief sales pitch
Most everything a leader needs is now available on their native smart phone app. Along with synchronized section and check-in information, call, text, email or get map directions on anyone in the database.
While Awana describes standards for their programs, in practice many churches tweak the details to best fit their church & club. TTT allows a church to customize the settings (including the clubber and household registration form) to match how their club actually functions. TTT also supports varying processes & preferences that are different among clubs including:
- Registration – (a) Entry by staff, (b) Online by Parents (including accepting credit card payments), (c) Upload
- Checkin – (a) Centralized, (b) By Leaders, (c) Combination
- Handbook Recording – (a) Centralized by secretary, (b) By Leaders, (c) Combination
- Handbook formats – Customizable sections, reviews & additional boxes
Shine can benefit smaller clubs in particular as a simple, inexpensive, and effective solution to make running your club more efficient.
We have been developing and supporting the Approved Workman Database for over 15 years. We believe it is the most comprehensive recordkeeping system available for Awana clubs and our support is excellent. Our cloud version has become very popular over the past 4 years. Our web-browser app runs beautifully on smart phones and tablets and is very customizable and user-friendly. It also allows the admin user to set granular permission levels for other users. You can of course run the web browser app on Mac and Windows PCs too. Our Windows Remote Client app is great for power users and enables impressive ad-hoc reporting features through our powerful grids and reporting tools.
ClubberDB.com makes record keeping easy and affordable. Stay in contact with your club through the built in email system. You can also view graphs showing when your email was opened.
The Grand Prix race software is also included and can be configured to work with a variety of lane configurations.
Any other items to share of interest.
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We’ve been developing and supporting the Approved Workman Database since 2005. This is our full-time ministry project and we take it seriously. Our support phone number is listed on our website. We also publicly provide many training videos as well as an active forum. We are available by phone, email, and remote support sessions to answer questions and help clubs accomplish their tasks in the most efficient manner.
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