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.
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:
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Adult service
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Elementary
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Preschool
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Young adult
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Youth
Creating service types for each service helps you organize teams in the correct place and gives access to the right people.
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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Add times to the plan, so people know when they're expected to be there.
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The order of service is made up of items, songs, and media elements.
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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 are stored in your account to be used in any plan! You can add a new song from the plan or add songs to your song library one by one.
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Click the arrow to the left of a song to view the available song arrangements.
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Click the menu to the upper right of the page to change the columns on the page or change the view to expanded or condensed.
Add team members to the plan. If your times are assigned to the appropriate teams, you'll see any conflicts when you add them.
Tip
If you've never added team members to a plan, check out our scheduling guide!
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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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.
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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!
You can communicate with the teams scheduled to the plan in different ways:
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Send an initial scheduling email letting them know about the plan.
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If any changes happen, send a text to everyone scheduled to the plan from the Android or iOS app.
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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!
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)