Made with care for the volunteers who keep Britain's halls running.
Product updates
Everything we have changed, and when
Most of what is on this page started as an email from a village hall. We write these in the same words we send our
halls, so you can see for yourself how often this thing actually moves.
Management accounts open on a month the budget actually covers
The management accounts open on last month, because that is the month a committee discusses. But when a new budget year has just begun - a hall whose year runs September to August, looking at it in September - last month was before the budget existed, so every actual read nought and the spending you had just entered was nowhere to be seen. Go to Finance, then Management Accounts: the page now opens on the first month of the budget when last month falls before it, and changing the budget in the picker moves the month with it. Under the picker there is also a new note, Recorded but not on this sheet, which says when something you entered is not counted and why - a bill still to pay, an entry dated after the month shown, or one dated outside the budget's year - so the answer is on the page rather than in an email to us. Thanks to Duncan Brown at Whatfield Village Hall for asking.
Fix
A hall with one room no longer makes hirers choose it
When a hirer asked for a booking through their portal, the form asked which room even at a hall with only one - a dropdown with a single answer, and a "please choose" if they skipped it. The public enquiry form already picked the room for them; the portal now does the same, and simply states the room instead of asking. Halls with two or more rooms still get the choice. Thanks to Duncan Brown at Whatfield Village Hall for spotting it.
New feature
One Action Log for everything your committee agrees
The actions agreed at your meetings now come together in one place. Go to Governance, then Action Log. Open actions come first, anything overdue is in red, and finished ones stay out of the way unless you ask for them - use the filters to see just one person's, just yours, or one meeting's. Press Add a note on an action to record how it is getting on, and Mark done when it is finished to say what came of it, so the story of each one is kept. An action can now be given to anyone on your Committee list, even if they never log in, and linked to a maintenance job or a reported issue so each shows the other. On a meeting's Actions tab, Find actions in the minutes lets Hallie read your minutes and suggest the actions in them for you to tick. And when you write the next agenda, press Add open actions next to Insert standard agenda to put everything still open under matters arising. Thanks to Sarah Peacey at Binfield Memorial Hall for the idea.
New feature
App
Hirers can sign in to the app with their email address and a code
Hirers no longer need to paste a long link into the app to sign in. In the latest version of the app, rolling out now on iPhone and Android, a hirer types the email address you already have for them, and we email them a six-digit code to type in - it works for fifteen minutes. If they hire from more than one hall, the app asks which hall they meant. The old way still works: they can press I have a link and a PIN instead, and a portal link in one of your emails still opens the app directly. There is nothing for you to set up - the email address on the hirer's record is the one they use.
New feature
App
Maintenance jobs are now in the app, and work with no signal
The maintenance list is now on your phone as well as the website. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play - the new version is rolling out now - then open the app, press More, then Maintenance. Jobs are listed worst first: overdue, then due soon, then by date. Press Mark this done on a job, put in when it was done, who did it, any notes and what it cost, and it moves on to its next date. It works in a hall with no signal too: the job is saved on the phone and sends itself once you are back in range. A cost entered in the app is kept as a note on the job; to put a cost into Spending, or add a photo, mark the job done on the website instead.
New feature
A maintenance job can come round on a timescale of your own
Some jobs come round less often than every five years - the electrical wiring, the outside decorating, a roof survey. Go to Building Safety, then Maintenance, and open the job (or press Add a job). Under When is it due?, choose Custom from How often?, then put in the number and whether that is months or years, such as every 10 years or every 18 months. The list shows it in plain words, and when you mark the job done its next due date moves on by exactly that. Thanks to Alison Dickens at Rampton Village Hall for the idea.
New feature
Move up a plan part way through your year, and only pay the difference
If your hall pays for its plan by bank transfer and wants to move up - from Standard to Professional, say - you no longer have to pay for a whole new year and lose the months you have already paid for. Go to Subscription, then Billing, and in the panel headed No card? Pay by bank transfer press Upgrade to Professional. It shows the price before you ask: just the difference between the two plans for the time you have left. We email your hall an invoice as usual, and as soon as it is paid you move up and keep the same renewal date. From then on you renew at the new plan's price.
New feature
Bank & Cash has its own place in the Finance menu
Bank & Cash used to be reached only through the Cash and savings button on the Cashflow page, which is not where anybody thought to look. It now sits in the Finance menu for everybody who can see the accounts. Go to Finance, then Bank & Cash. If your hall has not added a savings account or the cash you hold yet, the page explains what it is for and how to start - nothing changes until you add one.
New feature
Search for a page, not just a record
The search box at the top right of every page now finds pages as well as your records. Type what you are after in plain words - "cash", "VAT", "safety", "invoices" - and the pages that match appear at the top under Pages, with where each one sits in the menu, so one click takes you there instead of hunting through the menu. It also finds more of your records than before: a hirer by their group, their email address or their phone number as well as their name, and a booking by the name of whoever booked it, with the next one coming up listed first. The box now says "Search for anything - a hirer, a booking, or a page" so it is easier to spot, and pressing Ctrl and K together (Cmd and K on a Mac) jumps straight to it from anywhere.
New feature
Tell Hallie what happened, and she sets it up for you
Hallie, the assistant in the corner of every screen, can now do the everyday jobs as well as answer questions. Tell her what happened in your own words - "we paid British Gas £240 today", "the bar took £85 on Saturday", "the gutters were cleared this morning", "the gents tap is dripping", "add the WI as a hirer", "the Brownies paid £120 by cheque", "book the AGM for 12 November at 7pm" or "I banked £200 of the cash" - and she puts a card on screen showing exactly what would be recorded. Check it and press the button, or press No thanks. Nothing is saved until you press it, and she can only set up what your own login could do by hand. She can also now tell you what you have spent, how you are doing against the budget, what is in the bank, savings and cash, what maintenance is due, and how your 100 Club stands. To make starting easier, when you open her there are a few question buttons that fit the page you are on - press Ask Hallie at the bottom right, then tap one.
Fix
Sub-headings now always open under their own heading
On Finance, then Spending Headings, pressing the arrow next to a heading with sub-headings did not always show them underneath it - they could appear higher up the list, or not at all. A sub-heading was being put in the list by its own order number rather than beside the heading it belongs to, and a longer list could leave a heading on one page and its sub-headings on the next. Every sub-heading now sits straight under its own heading, the list shows up to 100 headings on a page, and the arrow opens them where you expect them. Thanks to Duncan Brown at Whatfield Village Hall for reporting it.
Fix
See what you kept back from a deposit, and why
When you returned a deposit and kept some of it back - an hour's overstay, say - the bookings list went on showing the whole deposit as "Returned", and opening the booking only said "Returned to hirer". What you kept and your reason were recorded, but nowhere showed them. Now the Deposit column on the bookings list says what actually went back and what was kept, such as "£80.00 returned, £45.00 kept", and when you open the booking the Cost & deposit section shows the amount returned to the hirer, the amount kept by the hall, the reason you gave and the date it was returned. Thanks to Andrea Vaughan for asking how to check it had worked.
Most of this came from a village hall asking
If your hall needs something this does not do yet, say so. That is how nearly everything above got built.