Statistician's Corner

How to Get Started

1. The General Council of Finance and Administration database is ready to be accessed: EZRA.  (http://ezra.gcfa.org) 
2. Your log-in USER ID and Password from last year are still good.  The Forgot Password is available on initial login if you typed last year your email address in the appropriate box.
3. If for some reason, you have forgotten (or never knew) your USER ID or your password and your attempt to reset on EZRA itself fails, send a note here and we will reset it for you. 
4. If we reset your USER ID and Password for you, please quickly log-in the first time, and re-set a new password. PLEASE TYPE IN AN EMAIL ADDRESS. Doing so will help if you forget your password (see item 2 above)
5. You are now registered!

As a practical matter, the journal information on appointments is not generated from this database, so errors here do not percolate into other MSC databases.

Please notice that I am now available via email at stats@mtnskyumc.org.  Please use that to reach out to me.  Also please text me if you want some personal coaching at (801) 889-7013.  Let me know your church and a Mountain Standard Time we can talk. You may also call Julie at the conference office, (303) 325-7048.

Requested Timetable

Please plan to be finished with your statistics by Feb. 21, 2021, if possible. Grace will be granted in emergency cases but following this deadline for registration will help in knowing each church's status for communications and assistance.

Questions? Please email Dennis Shaw or Julie Gladney HERE.

Special COVID Year Instructions:

• For Line 7: For 2020 only use the weeks that you had full in-person service.
• For Line 7a: In 2020, many churches initiated online services using various platforms.  See instructions from the platform you are using (FaceBook, Zoom, GotoMeeting, etc.) to determine views that were hits or watches based upon viewing time (the length of time considered a watch may vary by church but several platforms show 3 second and 10 second views – those seem too liberal to count).  The best indicator of how many watched is to ask people to comment or remark how many are present.  If you did not do that for 2020, a multiplier of 1.5 for longer duration views is suggested but not mandatory.  See thoughts HERE.
• Line 27: If the church received a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as part of the CARES Act that has not been forgiven, include the loan balance here.
• Line 54c: Enter the amount received from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as part of the CARES Act here (whether it has been forgiven or not).
   

Quick Additional Thoughts:

Responsibility: Please note: Senior pastors may delegate the authority to complete the stats to another person, but they are responsible for data accuracy and mission accomplishment.

Please, all money is whole dollars: Ezra is only looking for money accuracy to the dollar. You do not need to put in numbers to the right of the decimal.

Save.  EZRA will endeavor to try and (over) ensure you have saved your work.  But saving your daily work is a good thing.  EZRA will save tables that have errors.  Saving does not submit -- Read on. 

Submit.  When you are finished and have nothing else to do, there is a SUBMIT button on your EZRA home screen.  Please click that and follow the instructions.  You can if you have a “whoops” be un-submitted.  Easy.  Send a note. 

Tabs.  Tabbing down the cells seems to work better and activate various auto-addition. 

I am having trouble getting all three tables completed at one sitting, what do I do? Remember, clicking on the Save button on each table does not submit the data. Save as you go. You can change entries up to the time you submit the completed tables using the Submit Stats Process option.

I am getting errors over my addition.  There are a few places in EZRA where the totals must be accurate, e.g., Number of males and females must equal the total membership. Number by ethnicity and race must also equal total membership.

Grand Total is not changing when I type in new expenses!  No.  For reasons I cannot explain, I must tell the system to calculate the Grand Total at the end of Table II.   I will work with Nashville to try and get this fixed, but for now, know that if line 50 does not update, it is not you. 

May we have a second user and password at our church? Yes. Look under ACCOUNT there is an option called CREATE ACCOUNT. You can do it there.

Can I have a different username than the GCFA number? Yes. Any name not claimed by someone else is potentially yours.

What happens if we are not done by Feb. 21? Send me a note and I will allow you some extra time. We do want to get this done as soon as practicable.

I cannot update Mission Shares or Special Sundays?  Some of Table II data will be done by the conference treasurer's office. Cells shown in Goldenrod (a shade of yellow) cannot be updated by the local church.  Goldenrod cells are loaded by me or the Conference. 

Grace and Peace,

Dennis Shaw and Julie Gladney

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Statistician
Mountain Sky Annual Conference