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Blog

Apr 07, 2021

Manage Group Events in Church Center

With attendance and messaging already in the Church Center mobile app and on the web, it’s becoming the central spot for Groups-related activities. And with the release of new event management options, attendance alerts, and RSVP responses, we’re excited to bring even more of those day-to-day tasks to your fingertips. Events: Add, edit, and cancel Have you needed to update event details recently or perhaps an event was rained out, requiring you to cancel? Or maybe you finally decided on whe

Scott Myers

Product Manager

2 min read

Mar 23, 2021

Services Mobile Widgets: Song List, Team Status, & Next Up

When you need to prepare for church, you launch the Services mobile app and everything is right there. But you might want to keep tabs on some key tasks without needing to launch the app. With our new mobile widgets, schedulers can make sure everyone is confirmed, musicians can view songs in the setlist, and all team members can check their call times and make sure they’ve responded — right from their home screen. Rehearse The Rehearse widget also nudges team members to accept or decline, bu

Aaron Stewart

Co-Founder / Product Manager

3 min read

Mar 16, 2021

Show Events from Groups in Calendar

Small groups are the textbook example of a flexible event—also known as a planner’s nightmare. Everything from meeting time to location and even day can change on a dime to suit the needs of the group. It gets even more tricky if you have to book facilities for those events! Then you have to update details in Groups and Calendar. Now, just like with Registrations, you can subscribe to a feed of Groups events in Calendar—any changes you make in Groups will automatically update in Calendar! Ble

Evan Lemmons

Product Manager

2 min read

Mar 04, 2021

New Background Check Dashboard

Verifying someone’s background is the bare minimum churches can do to ensure proper care and protection. Background checks are such an incredibly important process, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the feature to make it as easy as possible for you to order, track, and manage checks. Our latest update is a refresh of the background check dashboard to surface the most important information. The first new thing you’ll see on the dashboard are the quick filters right at the top. Th

Daniel Murphy

Product Manager

2 min read

Feb 24, 2021

February Product Update

We made a video highlighting all the major improvements to Planning Center from the last few months—from a new stage layout in Services to some design unification projects! Watch the video for a 3-minute overview of everything new, then check out the blogs below for more details on each feature! Save money on donation processing fees. ACH bank transfer donations have the lowest processing fees, and now it’s easier for donors to add their accounts to Giving—saving you money in processi

Planning Center

3 min read

Feb 16, 2021

Announcing Text Messaging from Planning Center People

Have you ever wanted to send very fast, very short letters to your congregation? Based on our feature-request inbox, that would be a heck yes. Well, today is your lucky day—texting is here! And like everything we want all churches to have easy access to, we put it in Planning Center People. So now whenever you want to quickly get a hold of a group of people, you have the option to send that tiny letter. How It Works Go to the list of people you want to connect with and you’ll have the

Daniel Murphy

Product Manager

3 min read

Feb 11, 2021

Collect Signups for Ongoing Opportunities

When you need to collect general information from your congregation — like a welcome card or prayer request — you can use a form in People. And when you need to collect signups for an event on a specific date — like VBS or weekend gatherings — Registrations is your best bet. But maybe you’re collecting signups for baptisms, and people aren’t assigned to a specific date until later. Or people are signing up for ongoing volunteer opportunities, where signups are always open but you only ne

Allie Rice

Product Manager

2 min read

Feb 04, 2021

Unity Weeks: Improving Design Consistency Across Planning Center

If you could be a fly on the wall at Planning Center these days (more like a Zoom room-crasher, thanks COVID), you'd no doubt hear conversations and even songs about "unity." There are currently eight Planning Center products, each with their own unique, self-sufficient features. There are also features across all Planning Center that perform the same (or similar) functions, but look or act a little differently from product-to-product. One of our company-wide goals this year and beyond is to u

Shane Armitage

3 min read

Jan 28, 2021

The New Stage Layout Editor

You know who's going to be on stage, what they’ll be doing, and when they’re supposed to show up, and with this update, you’ll have a better way to keep track of where everything is supposed to be! If your stage changes from week to week, or even during a single service, the updated stage layout editor will let you keep track of where your people, instruments, and gear should be. What’s New? You read that right; now there’s a library of instruments and gear! Additionally, the whole thing is

Aaron Stewart

Co-Founder / Product Manager

3 min read

Jan 19, 2021

Improved Bank Verification for Donors

Late last year we quietly released an improvement to how donors verify their bank accounts for ACH bank transfer donations—the most cost-efficient way to give at just $0.25 per donation. With this update, we expanded our support for instant account verification from roughly 4,800 banks and credit unions to over 11,100 banking institutions across the US. As a result, more of your donors can connect their bank to Planning Center Giving to give via ACH instead of their credit card—saving you mone

Jeremy Ricketts

Product Manager

4 min read

Dec 03, 2020

Planning Center Publishing is Out of Beta!

Planning Center Publishing is officially out of beta, and we're so excited about it we made a new video. 🎉 Custom pages, live streaming, and a sermon library for your mobile app are truly just the beginning of what you will be able to do on Church Center through Publishing. There will be even more ways for you to customize your app and site for your congregation in the coming months. So be sure to subscribe to the blog or keep an eye on social media to learn what’s new! New to Church Cente

Benson Lee

Product Manager

3 min read

Nov 19, 2020

Group Messaging: Out of Beta and On to the Web!

Since we launched the beta of group messaging, it’s become the place for small groups to stay connected with each other throughout the week. We released a few updates to the beta, but today we are ready to bring this feature home officially because messaging is available on the web! Now leaders can communicate with members from wherever and whenever they please—from their computer or on their phone through the app. This also means that members without smartphones won’t be excluded from the co

Scott Myers

Product Manager

2 min read

Nov 09, 2020

Take Attendance in Services and Registrations

They confirmed their request to usher from Services—but did they show up? They signed up for morning worship through Registrations—but did they attend? Check-Ins is the Planning Center go-to for keeping track of people as they arrive, but sometimes you don’t need everything a Check-Ins station provides, like labels and alerts. Oftentimes, you just need to take basic attendance, and it would be nice if you could do it in the product where you got everyone organized—now you can! Leaders can no

Allie Rice

Product Manager

2 min read

Oct 28, 2020

The New Plan Page

If you’ve been using Services since the beginning, learning one thing at a time and becoming an expert has been a snap. If you’ve just started using it 14 years in, then um...maybe not so much — there’s a lot there! But how do you redesign a page that started your company and that millions are not only familiar with but have come to rely on heavily? Well, you do it slowly and carefully, with just a li—ttle bit of fear. 😬 We started with the following goals to make the page: * Familiar, insp

Aaron Stewart

Co-Founder / Product Manager

6 min read

Oct 26, 2020

New Permission Levels in Giving

Donation data is some of the most sensitive information in your Planning Center account. Now, there’s a new way to make sure people have just the right level of access to do their job while maintaining privacy for your donors—permission levels. Three New Roles Based on customer feedback on permission levels, we created three new roles in addition to the all-powerful level of Administrator (who can still control all parts of the system, including who has access to these permissions). * Count

Jeremy Ricketts

Product Manager

2 min read

Oct 07, 2020

View Household Registrations on Church Center

Ashley registered her middle schooler for camp, but her spouse wants to log in and pay the balance due. A volunteer registered Greg’s kids for VBS but he never received a confirmation email and wants to make sure they’re signed up. Robin’s husband signed their family up for the Sunday morning service, but when they go to show their confirmation, he realizes he left his phone at home. Now Ashley, Greg, Robin, and the rest of your congregants can view registrations for everyone in their household

Allie Rice

Product Manager

1 min read

Sep 22, 2020

New Sharing Permissions for Group Members

Personal information is...personal, and we all want to have control over who can access our email or phone number, even if it's with people at church. With our latest update in Groups, group members now control what contact information they’d like to share with each group they’re a part of. When people log in to Church Center, they’ll see an option to Review Shared Information in their groups. From there, they can choose the information they want to share with that particular group, and save

Jessica Fleming

Product Manager

1 min read

Sep 21, 2020

Take Group Attendance in Church Center

Taking attendance is a huge part of Groups, and now leaders can do it quickly right from the Church Center app—no more going back and forth between the web and app for those day-of-group tasks! The overall process of taking attendance in Church Center is the same as what your leaders are used to in Groups. With the latest update to the Church Center app, leaders will see a new Take attendance button next to any live event for that will show all the members ready to be accounted for. Leaders c

Jessica Fleming

Product Manager

1 min read

Sep 15, 2020

Show Announcements in Check-Ins Stations

Sometimes your church has information everyone should see, and with the new Announcements feature in Check-Ins, you can make that happen! Now, you can share an announcement with every person who checks in by showing them a message they must read before their check-in is complete. You can use announcements for quick reminders like, Don’t forget to check out our upcoming service opportunities in the Welcome Center. But if your church is just beginning to meet in-person again, you also might fin

Scott Myers

Product Manager

2 min read

Aug 24, 2020

Let People Cancel Their Own Registrations

One of the ways we're all keeping each other healthy right now is by staying home when we don't feel well. But with strict capacities on many events, we often have to sign up for gatherings in advance—and if we aren't going to make it, we want to make sure our spots are available to others. Now you can let your congregants cancel their own registrations from Church Center. When you enable self-cancelations for your event, registrants will be given a cancelation link both in their confirmation

Allie Rice

Product Manager

2 min read