Your first hour setting up your church

Welcome! If you set up your church, you’ll do most of the first jobs from Administration. This article walks you through them in a sensible order. The setup checklist on Administration follows the same order, and each step links to a fuller article.

Before you start

• Sign in with your phone or email. You’ll get a code; there’s no password. See Sign in with a code.
• Look for Administration at the top of the member area. You only see it if you have a staff role.

Follow the setup checklist

At the top of Administration you’ll see a card called Set up your church. It shows how many steps are done and the one to Do this next, with a button that opens the right page and a How to do it link to the matching article here.

• Steps tick themselves off when the work is done. For example, once three or more families are in the directory, Bring in your directory is marked done.
• Open See every step (or Administration → Set up your church) for the whole list. There you can Mark done a step you’ve handled another way, or Skip one that doesn’t fit your church. Undo brings it back.
• Some steps are marked Optional, like family photos or small groups. They never jump ahead of a needed step.
• Connect online giving is done by the treasurer, since only the treasurer can open Giving.
• Done for now? Choose Hide this. The full checklist stays under Administration → Set up your church, where you can show the card again.

The checklist is for the secretary and the webmaster (or whatever your church calls those roles).

Find your way around Administration

Below the checklist, the Administration overview has three parts:

• This Sunday: what’s left to do for the coming Sunday (on Sunday itself it says Today).
• Needs attention: one tile for each thing waiting on you, like Account requests or Prayer requests to review. Tap a tile to open it. When nothing is waiting, it says “All caught up.”
• Your tools, grouped as Every week, As needed and Now and then. You only see the tools your role allows.

Steps

1. Check your church details. Open Administration → Church settings. Check your Sunday times, address, phone and office email. These show on your public website. See Church settings.
2. Give out staff roles. Decide who runs the office, who posts the livestream link, and who keeps the books. Each person signs in once, then you give them a role in Administration → People & access. See Give someone a staff role.
3. Bring in your directory. If you have a spreadsheet of families, use Administration → Import the directory. You’ll see a preview before anything is saved. See Import your directory from a spreadsheet. You can also add families one at a time; see Add and update households.
4. Invite your people. Open Administration → Invite the directory to email everyone how to sign in. When they sign in with the email or mobile number in the directory and type their name the way the directory has it, they’re let in straight away. See Invite your directory to sign in.
5. Get ready for Sunday. Open Administration → Sunday to add the bulletin, the service and who’s serving. See The Sunday page.

After that, keep an eye on Needs attention. New sign-ins that didn’t match the directory wait there for you. See Approve new sign-ins.

If something goes wrong

• I don’t see Administration. Your account doesn’t have a staff role yet. Ask whoever set up your church’s website to give you one.
• A tool is missing from the list. Some tools only show for certain roles, and some only show when your church has that feature switched on.
• A checklist step won’t tick itself off. Some steps need a certain amount done first (for example, two people with staff roles). If you’ve handled it another way, choose Mark done under Administration → Set up your church.
• A tile shows a dash (—) instead of a number. That count couldn’t be loaded. Tap Refresh at the top, or reload the page.