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Some users may wish to use ACCOUNTS from two or more computers (for instance, one at work and one at home) and have access to the same database from those computers. This could be for themselves, or for different people.

 

The cloud-based OnDemand Version, introduced in late 2020, is an excellent way to do that.

 

Unlike all other versions of DONATION, the OnDemand version can also be run on Apple Macintosh (Mac) computers, though it will still look like a Windows program. It can also be run, for limited uses, on Android and iOS (iPad) tablets.

 

There are also several other options for multiple users accessing ACCOUNTS, detailed on the Multiple User Options page, with pros and cons for each option, including the Standard version's Cloud Storage Service, and the Local Network Versions.

 

This page is only about the OnDemand Version.

With this version, you do not have to install the ACCOUNTS program itself on your computer. Rather than installing the program, you install a small OnDemand client program. The ACCOUNTS program and your database are stored on servers ("in the cloud"). The client program will securely access the ACCOUNTS program and your database directly over the Internet, via remote control.

Screen images and your keyboard actions and mouse movements are transmitted over the Internet with this version, so it will be a bit slower than fully local versions like the Standard and Local Network versions. You should only consider this version if you have reliable fairly high-speed Internet.

This OnDemand technology is very similar to Citrix, Microsoft Remote Desktop and Remote Desktop Services (previously called Terminal Server), and other remote access solutions like TeamViewer, LogMeIn and AnyDesk. Unlike some of those solutions, it allows for multiple simultaneous users of the same program and database, safely. While the OnDemand version of ACCOUNTS is not exactly web-based (it is not accessed through a web browser such as Edge, Internet Explorer or Chrome) it is the closest to a web-based application of any of the versions of ACCOUNTS, because you do not have to install the ACCOUNTS program itself.

The OnDemand servers that support this version of ACCOUNTS are maintained by the church software vendor ACS Technologies (ACST), with whom we have a partnership for sharing some technology such as this. We pay them for our OnDemand users. ACST are the makers of the church software programs Realm (an entirely web-based online program) and ACS Church Management (installed software, that is also available as an OnDemand version).

Each user of this version for a given organization will have their own user name and password required to access the database.

Like the Local Network version, with this version there is only one copy of the database file, so there are no real dangers of users making independent changes to independent copies of it, that cannot then be merged. (The Cloud Storage Service of the Standard version also eliminates that danger, though in a different way.) The OnDemand Version is accessible from any computer on which you have installed the small client program.

Pricing Issues

The OnDemand Version of ACCOUNTS has the same price as the Local Network Version, which is higher than the price of the regular Standard version, because they all allow you to have multiple users doing data entry simultaneously (at exactly the same time). We have to pay a significant monthly cost for each simultaneous user of the OnDemand version, across all organizations using it, which is another reason for the higher price.

Because the OnDemand Version involves a service (hosting the program and your database on remote servers), Annual payments are required to keep using it after the first year, unlike other versions for which you have not made a payment in 2022 or later. If you do not pay when your current annual support expires, you will lose access to your database until you pay again, after a 30-day grace period.

Like all other versions, the first user to start ACCOUNTS after you have made a payment will have to request an updated license key, so that the program knows your payments are up to date. (It may also be automatically retrieved for you, rather than you having to request it and wait for us to send it to you.)

 

Backups

 

Backups are routinely made by ACST of all of the contents of the remote servers, to protect against hardware failures etc. However, you should not depend on them for backups of your database - that is still your responsibility. You should set up a backup reminder frequency in the Backup/Restore ⇒ Backup Frequency and Options window.

 

Because your database is already stored on a server that is routinely backed up, the Internet Backups feature is not needed and so is not included in the OnDemand version. (All that feature would do would be to save it on a 2nd server.) With this version, it is perfectly all right to just save your backups to the Backup subdirectory of your Data Directory (which is the initial default location you are prompted to save to). Other versions prompt you to save backups off of your hard drive, for instance to a USB memory key, in case your hard drive dies.

 

Updates to the Program

 

Unlike all other versions of ACCOUNTS, you do not have to either install or update the ACCOUNTS program itself on your computer. We will ensure that the program is updated regularly on the server when we do new releases with improved features and/or bug fixes.

 

Login and Startup

 

As mentioned above, each user from an organization using the OnDemand Version will have their own login. Please see OnDemand Version Login and Setup for how your program and its database are initially set up.

 

That section also explains potential problems connecting to the server, particularly about firewalls.

 

Conversion from Previous Versions of ACCOUNTS

 

To switch to the OnDemand version from any other version of ACCOUNTS, you will have to first contact us and give us the contact information for a person who should be the Site Administrator of your users for the OnDemand version. Usually that will be the main user of the program, but it could alternatively be someone who doesn't routinely use the program but who you still want to do that administration. Further Site Administrators can be added later.

 

We will then have an OnDemand login set up for that Site Administrator. They can then download and install the OnDemand client from our web page https://software4nonprofits.com/pricing/accounts-cloud/#step-2. After running that client program, they will be able to use a User Maintenance application to set up further user logins, and specify whether each of those users is also a Site Administrator.

 

The Site Administrator can then run ACCOUNTS via the OnDemand client. Please see OnDemand Version Login and Initial Setup for the rest of the details about what you do next.

 

If one user in your organization is using the OnDemand Version, all users have to, or you will not be accessing the same copy of the database!

 

Managing Users and Logins

 

Each user of the OnDemand Version should have their own login user name and password. One slight complexity with the OnDemand version is that there are actually two places that users must be set up, and assigned appropriate permissions:

 

1.The OnDemand User Maintenance application (not part of ACCOUNTS), which allows any Site Administrator to set up logins, and determine who is a Site Administrator in that application itself. It also allows the Site Administrator to determine which Software4Nonprofits programs each user has access to, for our customers who own both ACCOUNTS and DONATION.
 

2.The Maintenance ⇒ Administer All Users menu option in ACCOUNTS, which allows you to specify the permissions of each of those user logins, such as whether they are an Administrator with full permissions, a Full user (except for Administration), a Read Only user, Limited user, or Donors Only user.

 

See OnDemand Version User Management for full details on setting that all up and managing it.

 

Printing and Saving to PDF

 

If you go to print reports, you will normally see two printers on the list - your local computer's default printer, and one called "Preview PDF (from COMPUTERNAME)", where COMPUTERNAME is replaced by the name of your local computer.

 

Using the "Preview PDF ..." printer will actually create a PDF with a filename such as "Job #2.PDF", which you are not prompted for, in your local computer's TEMP directory, and then display it in Acrobat Reader on your computer (as opposed to using Acrobat Reader on the OnDemand server). We recommend instead using the specific features in ACCOUNTS for saving reports to PDFs, which will generate them on the server, prompting for your desired filename as required, and display them (when necessary) using Acrobat Reader on the server. Those features we recommend using are the Save PDF and Save As buttons in reports.

 

If you have additional real printers on your local computer that you need to be able to print to from your OnDemand ACCOUNTS program, please see the instructions at https://wiki.acstechnologies.com/display/OnDemand/Setting+up+a+Printer+in+OnDemand for setting them up. (The Windows instructions there actually have a step you won't need to do, namely picking Printers from the File menu, but it should be pretty obvious.) In brief, just select OnDemand Printing from the main OnDemand menu that comes up after you login, to get to the window where you can configure printers.

 

Accessing the Data Directory, and Drives on your Own Computer

 

Your database and other files in your data directory will be on the S: drive under OnDemand, not on the C: drive as in all other versions.

 

You do have access to the drives (including plugged-in USB memory keys and mapped drives) on your own computer, when you are running the OnDemand version of DONATION. However, their drive letters will be changed.

 

Your computer's C: drive will show up as J: when you are using the OnDemand version. Any successive drive letters on your computer will come up on successive drive letters under OnDemand, so a USB on D: will show up as K: etc.

 

The access to the drives on your computer allows you to save exported files or reports, or make backups, to your own computer, and import files or restore backups from your own computer, etc.

 

Mapped drives on your computer, like Z:, will normally show up with their drive letter unchanged. However, if your computer has a drive mapped to S:, that could cause a conflict with the way your data directory is mapped to the S: drive, so please avoid that.

 

If you have any difficulty with any of that, please see our short video demonstrating how to access your computer's drives from OnDemand programs, here.

 

Security

 

Please see the OnDemand Version Security page.

 

Users with Multiple Databases

 

With the OnDemand version you are allowed to use the File ⇒ New Database and File ⇒ Open Database menu options and have multiple databases, at no additional charge, just like in the Standard and Local Network versions.

 

If you are switching from another version of the program and you already have multiple databases, please follow the relevant instructions in the Help topic Move the Program from One Computer to Another to get those additional databases into your OnDemand version.

 

However, if there really is just one main person using each database, who is different from the main person using each other database, and other users never (or only rarely) access that database, that is not the intention of our allowing this to be done at no extra charge. In that case, we would expect that the main user for each organization / database would register and pay for the program separately.

For instance, if one user uses ACCOUNTS for two organizations, but occasionally another user needs to look at both of those databases, or take over while the first user is away on vacation, that's fine.

But suppose you have one primary user using ACCOUNTS for one organization, and a different primary user using ACCOUNTS for another organization, with perhaps occasional switching places while one or the other is on vacation. If they have only one registration and payment, and they are using multiple databases and, that would not be considered to be a reasonable application of our pricing structure. They should register and pay separately.

 

Simultaneous Users and Limitations

 

With the OnDemand Version you are allowed up to 5 users simultaneously accessing the same ACCOUNTS database. When you are first evaluating the program (before you pay), only one user can use it at a time.

 

While you can have simultaneous users running ACCOUNTS, there are some actions in the program that can only be run when you are the only user running ACCOUNTS, because we have judged that there is too much danger of conflicting or inconsistent data being put into the database if more than one person tries to do the same actions at the same time. For instance, restoring database backups. In these cases, you will receive a message from the program informing you of why you cannot do that action at that time, and what you can do about that.

 

In some other cases, two or more users can do the same thing at the same time (for example entering or editing transactions), but in unusual circumstances, you may get an error message. For instance, suppose two users are simultaneously making a change for the exact same transaction on a Register window. The first one who clicks Save will have their changes saved, but the second one will probably get a slightly technical-looking error message saying "Record changed between retrieve and update", and will not be able to save their changes. They will have to click Cancel to abandon their changes.

 

Although the ACCOUNTS program almost never crashes, if it does, or if a user running ACCOUNTS restarts or turns off their computer without exiting ACCOUNTS first or there is a power failure, a minor problem can occur. Any user on another computer that tries to run ACCOUNTS may get a message that the maximum number of simultaneous users has been exceeded, when it in fact hasn't. (That includes if only one simultaneous user is allowed!) That's because the copy of ACCOUNTS that crashed, or wasn't exited properly when its computer was restarted, didn't have a chance to notify the database server that it had exited, and thus the server thinks it is still using up one of your simultaneous users. Fortunately, this problem is easily resolved - wait two minutes and try again, and it will be OK, because indications in the server that any given simultaneous user is using ACCOUNTS are automatically cleared after two minutes.

 

Another similar problem that can happen if your entire computer crashes is that when you try to sign on to the OnDemand client again, it can say that your user is already logged in. (On OnDemand user name can only be logged in from one computer at a time.) That may require contacting us to clear that.

 

WARNING: The Program will Exit after Two Hours of Inactivity

Because you are using server resources, you should exit ACCOUNTS when you are not using it. If you are using the OnDemand Version and you leave ACCOUNTS running for two hours without doing anything in it, it will automatically give you a message then exit the program, so that others can use it and you are no longer using up server resources.

Please note that this automatic exiting after two hours of inactivity will also abandon any unsaved changes to transactions you are editing on a Register window or any of the single-purpose transaction windows like Write Cheques etc. So you should never leave the program alone for that long when you are in the middle of unsaved data entry!

In addition, it is crucial that you exit the OnDemand Client program window as soon as you are finished using ACCOUNTS, because we are charged for each simultaneous user of the program across all organizations using the OnDemand version. The program will actually give you a message each time you exit it, reminding you to do that.

 

Switching Back from the OnDemand Version to another Version

 

This is actually quite simple, and is basically done by following the instructions in the Help topic Move the Program from One Computer to Another.

 

Please be sure to inform us if you have made this switch, so that we can turn off your access to the OnDemand version.

 

See also: Differences between the OnDemand Version and all Other Versions

 

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This topic was last edited on Sep 5, 2023