Welcome to Service Planning! These articles will guide you through the essential steps and cover everything you need to know to get started. The topics we will cover are: Importing People, Creating Roles and Skills, Setting Up Teams, Creating Templates, and Creating Events.
Import People
For effective management of events, you need to have people to work with. Creating records for your workers and volunteers is essential to everything that comes next, like creating teams, assigning to roles and skills, and scheduling for events. You can’t do anything without people!
If you have our Amplify People module, those records will already be integrated into Service Planning. If you don’t have our People module and would like to learn more, navigate to the home symbol located in the top left corner to start a demo.
For people in the integrated Church Management System (ChMS), like Amplify People, you wish to give access to Service Planning, first navigate to People on the left-hand side and select All People.
Once on this page select Add Person in the top right corner.
From here, a pop up will appear saying “Search for Person.”
Type in the name and now Service Planning will show you the records in Service Planning and your integrated ChMS who match this criteria. Select the correct person and click Import.
Next, adding people without a record in or if you don’t have the Amplify People module. Records can be added individually or do a mass import.
To add records individually, click on People located on the left side of the screen and then, from the drop down, choose All People.
Click the add person button located on the top right of your screen in blue.
You will still search for the record, but when none is found, click the blue Create user button at the bottom of the search screen.
When adding a person you will assign them a user type, include contact information, then click save. A record will also be created in your Amplify account dashboard.
To import a mass number of users click Import Helpers from CSV .
You will be provided with two templates to use. Fill out the template then upload to your Service Planning account.
Once you’ve added your people, you can click on the edit button next to their name and change some of them to be a planner, if needed. Here, view the different planner levels for the one most appropriate for a given user.
Create Teams
Creating teams is important for organizing your users. With teams, see what groups users are in, what roles and skills they are assigned, what days they serve, or any other organizational method you want. Let’s see how easy it is to create teams!
To get started, navigate to "Teams” which is located under “People” in the menu on the left-hand side.
When you first click on Teams, you will see a few templates that have been created, these are geared more towards worship. To use this, click on Create a Team Like This.
From here you can edit the roles and people on the team. However, if you’d like to start from scratch, whether to create Teams for your Kids Ministry or for worship for example, you can customize your own.
To create your own, navigate to the “Teams” page.
Click on the add team button located in the top right corner.
Input the team name, description, location (if applicable), and any additional details. Click the Save button at the top right corner when finished.
Once you've saved this information, it will bring you back to the Teams page. From here, select your team you’ve just created and proceed to add your team members using the Edit Members, Leaders, & Roles button.
You can also create or view roles within the team, check members' availability, send messages, and schedule the team from this page.
Create Roles and Skills
Speaking of roles, let’s look at how to create roles and skills for your teams. This will be helpful when scheduling your teams to see what skills people have and roles they can fulfill, avoiding confusing the drummer when they are scheduled to be a Worship Leader if that’s not a skill they possess.
To get started, navigate to "Roles/Skills” which is located under “People” in the menu on the left-hand side.
From there, you can create new roles that can be utilized for assignments. To create a new role, click the Add Role button on the top right.
When you create a new role, you have the option to include a description and assign it to either a team or an individual, you can even add files if necessary, such as a how to guide.
Create Templates
With people, teams, roles, and skills set up, creating a template sets you up for success going forward.
Event Flow Templates are recommended to create services consistently with all the generic worship flow elements, such as the number of worship songs, sermon, and announcements.
These are aspects of your event that are recurring. When creating a new service or event, you’ll be able to select one of the existing templates as a starting point.
To get started, navigate to Events located on the left then click on Templates.
Next click on Create Template.
You’ll be prompted to name the template and provide a description. Once you’ve done that, click Create.
From here, add elements, songs, and people to your template.
Use any of the pre-existing elements located on the left
or you can click on the plus sign located at the bottom of the screen.
Any changes made will auto-save. Once everything is set, apply this template to an existing event by clicking on the small square icon located in the top right corner.
You will be given the option to replace the template already applied to an event or to add the new template to an event.
Create Events
With all the setup out of the way, let’s start creating events!
Events are where details can be centralized and easily accessed by multiple people, keeping everyone on the same page. For example, Sunday morning services have multiple elements such as the sermon, benediction, invitation, etc. and generally has an order of service. Creating an event will include all the details needed to ensure a smooth event.
Navigate to Events located on the left and click on All Events.
Click on the Create New Event(s) button.
From here, you can choose the following: how many Events you’d like to create, the time, series title, a bible passage if applicable, and choose a template you’ve previously created.
You can also create Linked Events which will inherit the event flow from the master event. For instance, if you’re using this for a Sunday Morning service and you have multiple service times or an entire sermon series lasting a series of weeks, you can create linked events for those other dates and times. You can see the events and what dates they’re being created for to the right.
Once you’ve entered the details needed, click on the Create Events button located at the top right.
You’ll be directed to another page to schedule people, plan the event flow if needed, or go back to your dashboard.
Getting Started Video
Now that you’ve learned more about Service Planning and some of the basics of setting up your account for success, you have a solid foundation to plan your services and events with ease. If you do have additional questions, you can access our Help Desk by navigating to the question mark located in the top right corner and selecting Support Center. Happy Planning!
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