If you use a couple of Planning Center products, but you're ready to try out Planning Center as your Church Management software, you're in the right place!
Tip
Bookmark this page, so it’s easy to find later.
Some churches start using Planning Center by using one product, like Services for scheduling or Check-Ins for taking attendance. If you or your church already uses Planning Center for another product, follow these steps to gain administrative access.
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Log in to the Planning Center account.
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Ask the current Organization Administrator to make you an Organization Administrator, so you have access to all Planning Center products.
If you're not sure who the Organization Administrator is, or you are no longer in contact with that person, reach out to our Support Team to gain access to your account.
Warning
There is no way to merge Planning Center accounts. If your church already has a Planning Center account, do not create another one.
If you're unsure that your church is using a Planning Center account, these tips will help you find out.
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Ask your team.
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Your finance team will see Planning Center charges if your church is subscribed.
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Your worship team might schedule team members or use the song library.
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Go to the signup page and put in your church name and your email address.
If your church uses Planning Center, you'll see a notification asking you to not make an account.
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Reset your password on the Planning Center login page, using your personal and work email addresses.
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Contact Support.
For your church's security, Support may not be able to give you extensive information; however, they can point you in the direction of finding your account.
If you don't already have an account, we can help you set one up.
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If you've never used a ChMS before, check out our guide for those who are brand new at Using Planning Center as a ChMS.
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If you currently use a ChMS and want to use Planning Center instead, check out our guide on Transitioning from another ChMS.
Accounts is the place for you to set up your account information. You will also go here to manage your Planning Center billing and subscriptions and add Organization Administrators.
After you've signed up for Planning Center, it's time to set up your account!
To access your account settings, use the product switcher and select Account settings at the bottom of the list.
Go to the Organization page to update your account information.
Complete as much of the setup process as you can. Some of the information might be required, depending on which products you're subscribed to. The sections below describe what you need to fill out in each tab.
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Enter your church information, Your church information, including your church name, email, phone number, website, and tax ID number will be used on Giving donor statements.
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Add your church's mailing address, which will be used in donor statements, reports, and web searches.
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Your main campus time zone and date format entered in the Localization tab will affect times in Services, Calendar, Check-Ins, and Registrations, and how that information is displayed in Church Center.
The currency applies to Giving or Registrations.
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Church Center is a public-facing web portal and app that allows your church members to manage their profile information, donations, events they've registered for, and groups they attend or lead. They can also view a church calendar or directory, check in to events, view their volunteer schedule, and fill out forms.
You can wait to set up Church Center or not set it up at all if you don't want to use it; however, if you plan to use forms or the Giving or Registrations products, Church Center set up is required.
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Any campus information that you add will be used by other Planning Center products to identify the campus and provide information for members when they log in with the Church Center app.
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We partner with other companies that integrate with some of our Planning Center products:
If you have an account with these systems, connect those accounts. If you don't have an account already and you plan to use any of these Planning Center features, you can sign up for an account in order to use those features.
From the Billing page, set up your payment information.
Since you can upgrade or downgrade at any time, we send your Billing Manager an invoice every month, regardless of your chosen payment frequency. An Organization Administrator or Billing Manager can access billing statements from the Payment History tab on the Billing page at any time.
Organization Administrators have full access to all subscribed products, account information, and account settings. Billing Managers have access to only the billing page and Stripe payouts.
Notice
Giving is the only exception to this rule. The Organization Administrator who subscribed to Giving can initially give permission to other people to be Giving Administrators. Other Organization Administrators won't have access by default.
Tip
If you're not sure who to add as an Organization Administrator, check out the tips on who should be on the team for rolling out Planning Center to your church.
Before you subscribe to new products, make sure you're familiar with the products you already have. From the products page, view the products you're already subscribed to.
Go to the article on Rolling Out Planning Center Products to see the order in which we recommend that you begin to use the products and view the initial set up tasks to get you up-and-running with each product.
You have plenty of support available to assist you along the way.
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For step-by-step instructions on setting up and using each product, access our help articles from the support site or the ? in the upper right corner of any product.
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Once you've started diving into a product and want more in-depth training, check out Planning Center University, which has videos on best practices for each product.
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If you have any questions that can’t be answered in our docs or videos, feel free to contact our friendly Support Team. They are happy to help!
. Additional Resources
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Use the 30-day free trial to save money when adding a new product.
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To get your team on board, follow this guide: Preparing to Use Planning Center with Your Staff.