The main responsibility of a scheduler is managing teams--assigning team members to positions in teams, communicating with team members in order to get their preferences, and then scheduling team members to plans. Services streamlines these tasks to help you set up the information and let the system work for you!
Tip
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For a deep dive into scheduling your teams, check out Planning Center University.
If you're creating a team from scratch or repurposing a pre-existing team, you'll be doing it on the team page. This page holds lots of information valuable to you as you add team members to positions.
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The header gives you insight into your team: the name, service type it lives in, and type of team it is.
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Use the Settings tab to update the type, scheduling defaults, and options for what team members see.
The Members tab holds all your team members in their positions.
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The person who created the team is the default team leader, but you can manage Team Leaders and their notifications.
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Add positions that belong to this team, and then add people to those positions.
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People can add their own preferences for being scheduled, or you can add their preferences for them.
As a scheduler, you can only communicate with the teams you lead. There are multiple places you can email your team members:
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Send general information to the whole team from the People or Teams Page.
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Email a specific person from their profile.
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Communicate with those scheduled to a specific plan.
Regardless of how you communicate to them, make sure you remind them about setting their preferences and blocking out dates. When they do that, you can have a more predictable schedule.
When your teams and positions are set up, it's time to schedule people to your plan! Navigate to the plan you want to schedule people to, and then click the Actions button to choose how to schedule.
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Browse all team members, schedule everyone on a team, or schedule a guest.
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If your team members serve on a rotation templates are for you! Create a template with your team members assigned to their specific positions, and then import it into your plan!
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Not totally sure who you want to schedule, but you know how many people you want in each position? Start with adding those numbers as needed positions.
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If you use needed positions, and your team members have put all their preferences in, let the Auto-Scheduler do the work for you! It will look at the number of positions you need as well as those preferences, and then schedule accordingly.
Once you've gotten the hang of scheduling one plan at a time, try scheduling multiple weeks at a time by creating a custom matrix. When you use the matrix, you can send your team one email with all of their requests for a time frame, which cuts down on the amount of emails your team members receive.
Notifications
Administrators can see any notifications related to them in the Admin Notifications Inbox. You can find this inbox at the top right corner of any page by selecting the bell icon.
If you have login permissions to Planning Center, you will be able to see both read and unread notifications and customize your notification settings.
If you get stuck and need a hand, Planning Center's support team is always here to help! Use the ? question mark icon in the toolbar to open the Help and support sidebar.
From here you can:
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Search online documentation for an instant answer to your question. The toolbar also suggests help articles based on the page you are currently viewing.
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Access getting started resources or jump into Planning Center University (PCU). You can also connect with other Planning Center customers in the customer communities and see what's new by checking out the changelog.
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Connect with a support agent for one-on-one help. You can email them directly from the toolbar, or schedule a phone call if you prefer.
When using the mobile app, tap your profile picture, followed by Help, to access online documentation or open a ticket with support.
The following requests to Support can only be made by organization administrators:
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Data removal or corrections you can't make yourself (undo old CSV imports, iCal imports, etc)
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Request promotional pricing (legacy plans, church plants, Giving contract promotion)
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Gain access to anything that was created and managed by someone else in the account
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Restore or fully delete a canceled account
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Disconnect a Stripe account
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Request access to Giving (if there are no current Giving administrators in the account)