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Introduction for Service Planners

Service Planners make sure everything is in the order of service! They collaborate with other team leaders to add announcements, worship, message elements, and team members to ensure the service runs the way it's intended. This overview will help you become familiar with some features of Services that will help you streamline your process.

Tip

If you cannot log in, follow the steps in this article.

To learn how to set up your account to start planning your services, watch Planning Center University.

Organize Account

Every church has their own way of planning services. Before you dive into a plan to add your order of service, think through how you want to organize those plans. Service Types hold all the plans in one place. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Notice

If you're the first Administrator, you can set up your account by following our Getting Started guide.

Are there multiple services happening? If so, they need their own plans. Create Service Types based on the services happening on campus:

  • Adult Service

  • Elementary

  • Preschool

  • Young Adult

  • Youth

Creating Service Types for each service helps you organize teams in the correct place and gives access to the right people.

Add Order to Plan

Once you have a Service Type and created a plan, add the order of service to ensure everyone scheduled to the plan knows what's going to be happening in service.

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  1. Add times to the plan, so people know when they're expected to be there.

  2. The order of service is made up of items, songs, and media elements.

  3. To view teams, files, notes, or contributor history, click to expand the section.

Tip

If your future services look similar to the one you're creating, export the plan as a template, so you can quickly import it to other plans in the future.

Songs

Team Members

Add team members to the plan. If your times are assigned to the appropriate teams, you'll see any conflicts when you add them.

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Tip

If you've never added team members to a plan, check out our Scheduling Guide!

Manage Files and Notes

If there's more information you want team members to know outside of what's already included in the plan, add a file or note.

Caution

This section is not for media or song files that need to be used in service. Chord charts can be added to songs, and sermon slides can be added to media.

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  1. Add specific files for people in the plan to access. You can also add files to the service type, which will appear in every plan in that service type.

  2. Any notes are specific to the current plan. If there's information you want your teams to know or be reminded of when you plan, make a note!

Communicate Plan Information

You can communicate with the teams scheduled to the plan in different ways:

  • Send an initial scheduling email letting them know about the plan.

  • If any changes happen, send a text to everyone scheduled to the plan from the Android or iOS app.

  • On the day of the event, encourage team members to use Services LIVE to communicate during service.

Regardless of how you communicate, make sure you communicate clearly and often! Many team members may not have the same knowledge as Services like you do, so help them find the information they'll need!

Get Help and Support

Our Support Team is always here to help! Use the ? at the top right of every page to find articles or open a ticket with Support.

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When you select that, you'll see this helpful dialog box.

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  1. Type in what you're looking for. This will search our online manual and return articles on that topic.

  2. Suggested articles are based on the page you're on when you select the question mark.

  3. View introduction articles, watch video tutorials, or browse documentation to be taken directly to our online manual.

  4. Send an email to our Support Team. For the most efficient support, be sure to include specifics about what you're working with. When you submit your questions from here, we receive lots of information about your account, including the page you're viewing, which allows for fast and accurate support for your request.

    Tip

    Planning Center Support is dedicated to getting you an email response within an hour by investigating the issue in detail, asking for help from other seasoned team members, or even consulting a developer, if necessary. This type of direct assistance and shared knowledge is unavailable on the phone.

Organization Administrator Requests

These requests to Support can only be made by organization administrators:

  • Data removal or corrections you can't make yourself (undo old CSV imports, iCal imports, etc)

  • Request promotional pricing (legacy plans, church plants, Giving contract promotion)

  • Gain access to anything that was created and managed by someone else in the account

  • Restore or fully delete a canceled account

  • Disconnect a Stripe account

  • Request access to Giving (if there are no current Giving administrators in the account)

Articles in this section

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