Q1: I see the User Email field on the User record is no longer used by MinistryPlatform. What are the implications of that for creating User records? And do I need to make sure the User Email field matches the email address on their Contact Record?
The User Email field serves no purpose in MinistryPlatform aside from needing to be populated when creating an User records. If you manually create a User record, you are required to enter something in the User Email field.
If you create a User account on the Portal, the system fills the User Email field with the email address provided for the Contact email address during the User account creation process. Once the User account is created, any future email address updates made on the Portal's "My User Account" page only update the Contact record's Email Address field and not the User record's User Email field. So, keeping the User Email field reconciled with the Contact record's Email Address field is up to you and how you use the User-related pages/views.
Q2: A single contact has two user records. What do I do?
A nightly data quality routine looks for this
scenario. When one is found, the Contact record is duplicated, the additional User record associated with the new record is created, and a "Duplicate of" relationship is added to tie
both records together. You can then use the Combine
Contacts tool. On the Contact page, select the Contact that has two User records, launch the Combine Contacts Tool, and complete the merging process.
Q3: What are some best practices for user passwords?
Although requirements for passwords vary by customer, some tips for good practice for any password are as follows.
Avoid passwords that include:
Personal information (account number, phone number, etc.),
The name or birth date of a family member,
The name of a pet, and
A single word.
Strive for passwords that include:
A combination of letters, numbers, and special characters,
A combination of cases (upper and lower case),
A multi-word phrase, and
A phrase abbreviated using numbers and special characters.
Q4: What are best practices for giving staff and volunteers access to MinistryPlatform?
It is recommended to start with basic, read-only roles for those who first need access to the Platform. From there you can work with their supervisors to determine what tasks they are working on within MinistryPlatform and assign roles accordingly. It is important to start out with a fundamental understanding from their supervisor of: Volunteer Name, Ministry Area, a list of specific tasks they perform for their ministry, and whether or not there is another volunteer who is already performing similar tasks (and their name).
If you have a "Basic Ministry Volunteer" role that is generic and useful, then any volunteer could be put into this role for most things volunteers across all ministries might do. Then you could have very specific roles for things you wouldn't want volunteers to do without making an exception (e.g., Mission Trip Reports).
Q5: Is it possible to give a user access to a single page in the System Setup area?
The system is designed to grant access to the Setup Area - all or nothing. This is granted to Users (not Roles) and is done by setting the Setup Admin bit field to either Yes or No on the User record. The rationale is that anyone trusted with some access to it should be trusted with access to all of it.
Q6: What does the Identities sub-page of the User record pertain to?
Q7: What's the best way to remove a Congregation filter from a user?
If it is a
Global Filter: In the User record, remove the desired Congregation from the Global Filter sub-page.
If it is a
User Congregation (aka "Congregation Allowed"): In the System Setup > User Congregations page, fund the appropriate User + Congregation combination and edit.
Q9: I receive the following error: "User is not authorized to access page data." What do I do?
The user requires permission for the page. If this happens in the context of editing a Series, you need to grant the Assign permission for the page. See
Page Permissions.
Q10: How can I view the password requirements for MinistryPlatform?
To see the password requirements, log into MinistryPlatform, click on your username in the upper right corner of the screen and then put a single character in the New Password field and tab off of it. A red box appears with an exclamation point; click that box and help text appears stating the password requirements for your system. A SPoC can contact Support to request that the password requirements be updated.
Q11: Why do some of the user names have numbers appended to them?
When user accounts are created via certain processes, the system adds the Contact ID to the end of the user name.
Q12: How can I prevent someone from using MinistryPlatform if they are still going to be members of my church and need access to the Portal?
You will want to remove (delete) their security roles from the User Security Roles page.
Q13: Can two users share a the same contact email address? They are receiving an error when they try to create the second account through the portal.
When creating a user account, the system will error if there is another contact with the same email address. Although not best practice, the account can be created manually. This is because having user accounts that use the same email address presents an issue with resetting passwords, and therefore isn't recommended as best practice.
