Core Docs - Church Management - Set Up the Statement Generator Software
Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-04-24 11:51 AM
Installing the statement generator software is easy. It does require a Windows machine running Windows 7 or better to run. It will not work with other operating systems. To install, follow the steps below:
Using the Statement Generator Software
Once you have it set up, it's pretty simple to operate the statement generator software.
Start by launching it and logging in. Users must be a member of one of the groups below to log in with this software:
First Time Use
Please note that if this is your first time logging in, you'll also be asked for the web address of your Rock server in addition to the Username and Password. Be sure to use HTTPS and not HTTP.
If you need to change the Rock URL, you can do so from the Statement Generator screen pictured below by clicking the Tools button in the upper-left corner and selecting Options.
To generate statements, click the Start button.
Step 1: The Who Needs a Statement screen lets you select whether you want to generate statements for All individuals with transactions and/or pledges, filtered by a dataview, or for a specific individual.
There are several options to consider when selecting All individuals with transactions and/or pledges.
Adding Children to Families and Giving Groups
If your Rock system has a custom job or workflow to move children to new families, don't forget that it will also need to set the child's person record's giving group to the new family (or null to indicate giving individually). If this step isn't done, the statement will go to the address of both the old and new family with the transactions still combined.
The Move Adult Children portion of the Data Automation job that ships with Rock will take care of this automatically.
If you select Single individual, you'll be prompted with a search box where you can type in a person's name. If more than one person is listed in the grid, click on the person you want to generate the statement for. Press Next to go to the next step.
Step 2: Select the template you want to use for the statement output. Rock ships with a default template, which you can customize with your own logo, wording, etc. You can also create your own. The Statement Generator templates are located in Finance > Financial Settings > Contribution Templates.
If you select a data view, it's filters will be in addition to the configuration of the "Statement Template".
Step 3: The Statement Date Range screen is where you specify the date range of the statements you want to generate. The generator defaults to the current year-to-date.
Step 4: The Individual Save Settings screen is where you can optionally choose to save statements to the person's profile under the Documents tab. You can control things like the name of the document, and which members of the family (technically, the Giving Group) should have the document added.
Step 5: The Report Settings screen allows you to choose the location where you want to save the statements, designate a base Filename Prefix to use when saving, and determine how the statements will be sorted. You can also choose how the statements are broken up into chapters by entering the number of statements you want to include per chapter in the Max Statements in Chapter field. These settings and others can be updated by clicking the ti ti-pencil icon, described below. You can also choose to Save Settings so the configuration you choose will be set up for you the next time you generate statements.
Enabling Page Count Pre-Determination runs each statement twice, increasing generation time and overhead. So, why use it? It helps create a cleaner, more professional statement layout, especially for multi-page statements. Pre-determining the page count allows template adjustments to ensure consistent and appealing design across pages. However, for simple, one-page statements, the benefits may be minimal and not worth the extra processing.
You can access the settings described below by clicking the ti ti-pencil icon shown above. How you configure these settings determines how the PDF statements will be created.
You might want more than one report. Often it can be useful to have one for mailing, sorted by zip code, and one for internal or auditing purposes, perhaps sorted by Last Name. You can create as many reports as you need, each with its own settings and sort order.
Opt-Out/In Strategies
Rock includes a person attribute named 'Suppress Sending Contribution Statements,' which enables individuals to opt out of receiving paper statements. By default, if any member within a giving group selects 'Yes' for this attribute, the family won't receive a printed statement.
To transition to an 'opt-in' strategy, ensure that the default value for 'Suppress Sending Contribution Statements' is set to 'Yes.' In this configuration, statements will only be generated for giving groups where at least one person has chosen 'No.' If you're switching from an opt-out to an opt-in approach, consider clearing all existing attribute values. This can be accomplished using SQL queries or bulk updates.
The statement generator will start to process the statements after you press Generate Statements. When the process is complete, the generator will display a summary with the number of statements generated and related details.
An additional file called @Summary of Results will be saved along with the generated statements. This file contains all of the run information pictured in the screen above.
Display Scaling
If you notice the statement generator results are the wrong size (e.g., the font is very small) it could be related to your display's scale setting. The recommended setting is 100%. For Windows computers the Scale and Layout can be adjusted under Settings > Display.
Speeding up Generation
The Statement Generator typically runs quickly, but larger organizations may notice long processing times. Below are some tips to help reduce the time it takes for the process to finish.