NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[orodriguez]

58 minutes ago, jayrtom said:

Ok, I understand but it would have non sequential territory numbers, besides having repetitions
But maybe it would work if the territories would all be unique. 1-(1 to 10); 2-(11 to 20); 3(21 to 30)....

The best way would be for the categories to be on the end rather than upfront, like 1(West); 10(North), etc...
Or even better to be on a column of it own

There are NO repetitions because the territory number is the combination of the category and territory.  A picture speaks a thousands words so I've included some screenshots to help clarify.  

sample s-13.pdf

[jayrtom]

On 8/10/2025 at 12:50 PM, orodriguez said:

There are NO repetitions because the territory number is the combination of the category and territory.  A picture speaks a thousands words so I've included some screenshots to help clarify.  

sample s-13.pdf 434.91 kB · 2 downloads

I'll try that approach when we make a revision on territories

For now, I can't change the territory numbers written on the card

[Floyd]

On 8/8/2025 at 6:36 AM, jayrtom said:

but on our last visit the CO said that he doesn't want the S-13 report with the territories listed with the categories. 

 

I know I am a bit of a rebel but I don't think the CO can require that. I would ask for the branch direction he has regarding how to identify the territories. Before a CO makes me do a lot of work and completely change how we do things there has to be a good reason for doing so and a personal whim is not good enough for me. If it were me I would keep it the way it is and let him include it in his report to the branch. A CO's opinion carries some weight but it is not absolute. I have been down this road before. Our CO didn't want us using NWS and NWP at all. He wrote the branch. The branch told him that it is a decision for the body of elders.

[carlos]

21 hours ago, Floyd said:

Before a CO makes me do a lot of work and completely change how we do things there has to be a good reason for doing so and a personal whim is not good enough for me.

 

I think we are all changing COs now in September. It might be good to wait and see what the new CO says. 

[jayrtom]

On 8/17/2025 at 11:48 AM, Floyd said:

 

I know I am a bit of a rebel but I don't think the CO can require that. I would ask for the branch direction he has regarding how to identify the territories. Before a CO makes me do a lot of work and completely change how we do things there has to be a good reason for doing so and a personal whim is not good enough for me. If it were me I would keep it the way it is and let him include it in his report to the branch. A CO's opinion carries some weight but it is not absolute. I have been down this road before. Our CO didn't want us using NWS and NWP at all. He wrote the branch. The branch told him that it is a decision for the body of elders.

I agree with you, our CO has some strong personal opinions  - Like Carlos said we'll have a new CO this September so I'm not doing anything for now 😉

However the current CO said that to the coordinator who in turn told me to change that... I'll have to convince him to do nothing

 

[Floyd]

On 8/19/2025 at 1:09 PM, jayrtom said:

However the current CO said that to the coordinator who in turn told me to change that... I'll have to convince him to do nothing

 

I would just wait a few months because likely he will forget all about it. I have done that many times.

[osito]

Hello everyone, this is my first topic and in my congregation we are considering using the application. I am afraid of not knowing how to use it among those mentioned, but I have a series of questions. First, is the program free of bugs that affect the siblings' performance? Can the territories be tracked in real time, as progress is being made? Are the hours notified when they are sent?To the secretary? Are the brothers notified when the activity guide is created? Can publishers also use the app, or are they only designated? 

 

Sorry for the comment bombardment but I've never used the program. By the way, when creating an account, who of you created it, the coordinator or yourselves? And also, if you San the 60 days free with everything unlocked to try the app in its entirety? 

[carlos]

 

8 hours ago, osito said:

First, is the program free of bugs that affect the siblings' performance?

 

In general, the software is reliable and works fine. Sometimes updates introduce bugs, and then they quickly release a patch that corrects them. You can (and must!) do backup copies regularly, so in case of a serious bug you can always go back to the previous version.

 

8 hours ago, osito said:

Can the territories be tracked in real time, as progress is being made?

 

In my congregation we are not using the Territories functionality, so I won't comment on that aspect.

 

8 hours ago, osito said:

Are the hours notified when they are sent?To the secretary?

 

When publishers send their hours, the secretary and his auxiliary can see who has sent their report and who hasn't yet. Group overseers see the reports of their group. Then at the end of the month you can calculate the S-1 form automatically. It saves a huge amount of time from receiving the reports through Whatsapp and then adding all the details as our secretary used to do before. He's saving some 10 hours of work every month.

 

8 hours ago, osito said:

Can publishers also use the app, or are they only designated? 

 

Publishers use a mobile app named NW Publisher that is synced with NW Scheduler. Elders use NW Scheduler to schedule, then publishers receive the notifications in NW Publisher.

 

8 hours ago, osito said:

Are the brothers notified when the activity guide is created?

 

When a publisher is given any assignment, whether a talk, a demo, a prayer, chairman, reading the WT, or also audio/video, attendant, cleaning, conducting a meeting for service, cart witnessing, whatever, they receive a notification in their NW Publisher app. They can see a list of their assignments for the next weeks. Then they receive an additional notification one week and one day before the assignment. When a change is made, for example a brother cannot have a talk and another one is selected, both brothers receive a notification with the change. 

 

I am the midweek meeting overseer and this software saves me countless hours. In the past I had to manually prepare over 120 slips a month and then send each one of them to the friends by Whatsapp. Now NW Scheduler takes care of all this automatically. 

 

 

8 hours ago, osito said:

who of you created it, the coordinator or yourselves?

 

Any of the elders can create an account and pay the subscription. One month before the end of the license all the elders using NW Scheduler will receive a notification so that they can decide how to pay the next subscription.

 

8 hours ago, osito said:

if you San the 60 days free with everything unlocked to try the app in its entirety? 

 

The test version of the app is functional but limited in some aspects. For example, you can only create a reduced number of territories. It's enough to see how it works.

 

 

[foghorn]

16 hours ago, osito said:

Can the territories be tracked in real time, as progress is being made?

Yes - they CAN be - If the congregation chooses the most advance version of the program. Our congregation has used this feature extensively for the last 3 years. This advanced version supports territories that include an entry for each address within the boundaries. As the publishers work an address, they can mark the result of their visit (home, not home, do not call, no trespassing, vacant, etc). These entries update in real time so others working the same area can easily tell which addresses have been covered. There are provisions for apartments and businesses as well. This detail allows us to work our territory in a very thorough and accurate way.

An extra feature is that after a territory has been completed with in-person witnessing, any remaining not-homes can be quickly transferred to a new letter-writing or a telephone territory.

[trottigy]

1 hour ago, foghorn said:

Yes - they CAN be - If the congregation chooses the most advance version of the program. Our congregation has used this feature extensively for the last 3 years. This advanced version supports territories that include an entry for each address within the boundaries. As the publishers work an address, they can mark the result of their visit (home, not home, do not call, no trespassing, vacant, etc). These entries update in real time so others working the same area can easily tell which addresses have been covered. There are provisions for apartments and businesses as well. This detail allows us to work our territory in a very thorough and accurate way.

An extra feature is that after a territory has been completed with in-person witnessing, any remaining not-homes can be quickly transferred to a new letter-writing or a telephone territory.

 

Did you have to enter every address in the system to make that work?

[Eejay]

4 hours ago, foghorn said:

As the publishers work an address, they can mark the result of their visit (home, not home, do not call, no trespassing, vacant, etc). These entries update in real time so others working the same area can easily tell which addresses have been covered. There are provisions for apartments and businesses as well. This detail allows us to work our territory in a very thorough and accurate way.

It is illegal for this level of detail to be recorded where I live. The only detail we can have is an overal list of territory areas (not addresses other than what is publicly available and do not calls. We cannot even record interest shown unless the householder gives us their personal detail.

 

Maybe having those details your end helps you work the territory more thoroughly as you say,  but, maybe at the same time, it frees up a few angels to come end to help guide us the "rightly disposed" ones??  😀

Edited August 24 by Eejay

[foghorn]

5 hours ago, trottigy said:

Did you have to enter every address in the system to make that work?

Yes - that is correct. That definitely takes some time to accomplish, but payoff is considerable. Several tools make this faster than you might think:

1. Addresses can be imported from csv files (after creating accurate headers). If your town uses an orderly addressing system (for example: 1st avenue has addresses 1000, 1002, 1004, 1006 etc on one side, and 1001, 1003, 1005 etc on the other side) you can use spreadsheet tools to manually create an import file pretty quickly.
2. Addresses can be created one-by-one by right-clicking on a spot on a map. The program magically creates an address record for that coordinate with street, house number, city, state, zip, and GPS coordinates - all in about 3 sec (for me, anyway). So I basically just 'walk down the street" repeatedly right-clicking at regular intervals. I can do about 8-10 addresses per minute. So for a territory with about 100 addresses, it will only take about 15 minutes to populate it.

[osito]

8 hours ago, foghorn said:

Sí, pueden serlo si la congregación elige la versión más avanzada del programa. Nuestra congregación ha usado esta función ampliamente durante los últimos 3 años. Esta versión avanzada admite territorios que incluyen una entrada para cada dirección dentro de los límites. A medida que los publicadores trabajan en una dirección, pueden marcar el resultado de su visita (domicilio, no domicilio, no llamar, prohibido el paso, vacante, etc.). Estas entradas se actualizan en tiempo real para que quienes trabajan en la misma área puedan identificar fácilmente qué direcciones se han cubierto. También hay opciones para apartamentos y negocios. Esta información nos permite trabajar en nuestro territorio de forma muy exhaustiva y precisa.

Una característica adicional es que después de que un territorio se haya completado con testimonio en persona, cualquier lugar que no sea un hogar puede transferirse rápidamente a un nuevo territorio de escritura de cartas o de comunicación telefónica.

Great, that's good to know, now my question is, if at the time of registration who did it, the coordinator, and if they give you the two months that the application tells you, unlocking everything? 

 

I have one more question: Is it easy and simple to use? I mean, it's not that I find it difficult to use the technology, but I mean that the interface is user-friendly. 

[Indapipe]

10 hours ago, osito said:

I have one more question: Is it easy and simple to use? I mean, it's not that I find it difficult to use the technology, but I mean that the interface is user-friendly. 

It's a very robust and complete application, with several different modules. I wouldn't exactly describe it as intuitive or even user friendly. It will take time to discover all of the different aspects of the program, what they do, and how to use them. But there is a very good help system on the website along with several video tutorials for the most common tasks. There is a learning curve, but like anything the more you use it, the easier it becomes.

[trottigy]

Okay next couple questions as we start practicing with some territories. 

 

1. Is there a way for the territory servant to be notified that a new do not call has been added? I'm just wondering about accidents. 

 

2. And what about apartment buildings? I see that there's a way to right click and add the number of them, but short of driving to every apartment building and counting up how many units are in each one? Is there a simpler way to know how many units there are?

[osito]

27 minutes ago, Indapipe said:

Es una aplicación muy robusta y completa, con varios módulos diferentes. No la describiría exactamente como intuitiva ni fácil de usar. Llevará tiempo descubrir todos los aspectos del programa, qué hacen y cómo usarlos. Sin embargo, el sitio web cuenta con un excelente sistema de ayuda, además de varios videotutoriales para las tareas más comunes. Tiene una curva de aprendizaje, pero como todo, cuanto más se usa, más fácil se vuelve.

I understand, well it will be a matter of testing now. When you registered, did you try the 60 days that the application gives you? Or did you just pay now? Who was the one who did the registration? The coordinator? Or did one do it himself and then register each person named in the congregation? 

[jwhess]

34 minutes ago, trottigy said:

Okay next couple questions as we start practicing with some territories. 

 

1. Is there a way for the territory servant to be notified that a new do not call has been added? I'm just wondering about accidents. 

 

2. And what about apartment buildings? I see that there's a way to right click and add the number of them, but short of driving to every apartment building and counting up how many units are in each one? Is there a simpler way to know how many units there are?

We don't have any 'high-rise' apartments.  Most of ours are limited to 10-29 units.  We use the county auditor's website to determine names and addresses.

[trottigy]

Unfortunately, our county assessor doesn't list individual apartments as they are not individual APNs. For condos I could get that, but not apartments

[foghorn]

3 hours ago, trottigy said:

short of driving to every apartment building and counting up how many units are in each one

You are right - the only way to be sure about apartments is to actually go there. You need 3 things: (1) Street address (2) Number of apartments (3) Numbering scheme (ie, 100,101... or maybe A,B,C,D. Also how are multiple floors handled?). The good news is - you don't have to do it yourself! Your army of publishers can help tremendously. 

You have many options:

1. Ask experienced publishers/pioneers - they may already know the numbering method
2. Assign some publishers to make a special trip to the address and scout it out for you. They could probably do a building in about 15 minutes.
3. Mark the address as apartments, and ask the next group who work it to enter a note for that address detailing the layout. Then you modify the address accordingly.
4. Some mapping apps or municipal real estate websites can give useful information about apartments.

[carlos]

17 hours ago, osito said:

Great, that's good to know, now my question is, if at the time of registration who did it, the coordinator, and if they give you the two months that the application tells you, unlocking everything? 

 

Osito, just download the software, enter a random congregation number and name, and see what the interface looks like. Introduce a few invented publishers and play with the different functionalities. The interface is reasonably easy to use, a few aspects could be made simpler in my opinion, but it can be used as it is.

 

If you like the software and the body of elders decides to give it a try, then uninstall everything and install it again, this time using your real congregation number and name. Create a number of real publishers and then have all the relevant elders install it too. They have two months to check if they like it. After that time, if the body decides they want it, someone will have to pay the license. It doesn't matter if it's the coordinator or anyone else.

[More4me2do]

9 hours ago, trottigy said:

Okay next couple questions as we start practicing with some territories. 

 

1. Is there a way for the territory servant to be notified that a new do not call has been added? I'm just wondering about accidents. 

 

1. The DNCs are a hot topic and it would be a disadvantage to automatically notify the territory servant who then enters any DNCs since the majority of publisher have no idea what a DNC is.

 

For example some have marked extensive No Soliciting descriptions as a DNC since it stated no Religion. A DNC is when the householder tells you directly face to face please Do Not Call at this door again. It creates additional work as now the Elders have to check in a year is this still a DNC. If there is an extensive No Soliciting sign you have to address the white elephant in the room FIRST.

 

I have knocked on a door that was for 12 years listed as a DNC because no one did a follow up. After doing my introduction, come to find out the owner has lived there for 30 years and the DNC was not from him, and we had an excellent discussion starting with complaining about our HOAs.

 

You have to educate the territory holders and the publishers of what a DNC is. If someone marks a door as a DNC while I am in the territory, I quiz them why do you say this is a DNC? Well the person answered the ring bell and said he doesn't want to be disturbed. How do you know he was not indisposed while being in the bathroom and used the first excuse that came to his mind. This whole DNC marking is a mega educational job. So don't take the publishers word for it when included in a returned territory find out why this was marked DNC.

 

And don't get me even started on those that did telephone witnessing and marked houses as DNCs because they wanted to be taken of OUR list.

Edited August 25 by More4me2do

[Landon1285]

It would be cool to have the auxiliary pioneer application available in the app and that upon submission the service committee and the publishers group overseer would be notified. 

[Landon1285]

21 hours ago, More4me2do said:

1. The DNCs are a hot topic and it would be a disadvantage to automatically notify the territory servant who then enters any DNCs since the majority of publisher have no idea what a DNC is.

 

For example some have marked extensive No Soliciting descriptions as a DNC since it stated no Religion. A DNC is when the householder tells you directly face to face please Do Not Call at this door again. It creates additional work as now the Elders have to check in a year is this still a DNC. If there is an extensive No Soliciting sign you have to address the white elephant in the room FIRST.

 

I have knocked on a door that was for 12 years listed as a DNC because no one did a follow up. After doing my introduction, come to find out the owner has lived there for 30 years and the DNC was not from him, and we had an excellent discussion starting with complaining about our HOAs.

 

You have to educate the territory holders and the publishers of what a DNC is. If someone marks a door as a DNC while I am in the territory, I quiz them why do you say this is a DNC? Well the person answered the ring bell and said he doesn't want to be disturbed. How do you know he was not indisposed while being in the bathroom and used the first excuse that came to his mind. This whole DNC marking is a mega educational job. So don't take the publishers word for it when included in a returned territory find out why this was marked DNC.

 

And don't get me even started on those that did telephone witnessing and marked houses as DNCs because they wanted to be taken of OUR list.

That's an excellent point. 

 

Our congregation territory is massive so our letter writing and telephone witnessing territories are comprised of buildings we can't physically work. For us that eliminates the crossover dnc for the in person ministry. 

[Indapipe]

5 minutes ago, Landon1285 said:

It would be cool to have the auxiliary pioneer application available in the app and that upon submission the service committee and the publishers group overseer would be notified. 

We actually do include the auxiliary Pioneer application in the document section. Then the publishers can either download it, print and fill it out or fill it out electronically and email it to a member of the service committee.

[Tortuga]

7 minutes ago, Landon1285 said:

It would be cool to have the auxiliary pioneer application available in the app and that upon submission the service committee and the publishers group overseer would be notified. 

We have the application PDF in the Document section of NWP. Some print it out and turn it in, others have found a way to email it and some fill it out, take a picture of it and text the image to the SC.