Getting started with the Planning module

PlanningIntroduction to the Planning module

The Planning module enables organisations/churches to produce plans for services, events and bookings or to create an unlinked plan. Plans are a great way to keep everyone in the loop about the running order for an occasion so that those involved know precisely who's doing what and when within the running order. Essentially, plans keep the occasion and those involved on track.

Next Steps

Terminology

Here's a list of terms you may see across the ChurchSuite modules and in our support articles:

• Items are things that happen in a service. You can add items to your Library, or add them ad-hoc to a Plan. You're optionally able to link files to Library/Plan items.
• Linked People are people who are linked to plan items. You're able to link a Rota into your plan, so that the linked people update according to who is on a rota on the plan date. You can also communicate with these people from the plan page.
• Plans are a form of service run sheet or schedule which refer to a specific date. Plans list items, times and other information. They can be linked to a Service (Rota module), Event (Calendar module) or Booking (Bookings module) but each plan can only be linked to either one of those three per plan.
• Songs are similar to items but can hold more data, such as scale, key and tempo plus chord charts.
• Plan Templates can be set up so that you have a basis for plans which are similar. For example, you may set up a template for a Sunday Service, with similar items, times and linked people, so that you don't have to start from scratch each time. You can also save a Plan, after you've created it, as a Template.

Planning module features at a glance

• Create plans and optionally link them to Services (Rotas), Events (Calendar) or Bookings (Bookings)
• Add library, song or ad hoc items to a plan; optionally set the item's duration and start time, or have plan items run consecutively
• Drag and drop user experience - change the running order of plan items with ease
• Build and maintain your library of commonly-used library items and songs
• Access our in-house database of preloaded Songs, with their associated arrangements.
• Powerful song library capable of storing multiple song arrangements, with chord charts, transposition, lyric charts, Spotify and video links
• Access a plan page file viewer and see all your plan files in a single view on your music stand. You can even transpose songs on the fly
• Optionally further customise library item 'types' with additional fields to collect and maintain additional information for library items
• Create plan templates for plans that you commonly produce time and again - you can save a great plan as a template, or create great plans from a great template!
• Upload files to library items and song items, or upload ad hoc files directly to a plan - ideal for sharing chord charts, lyric sheets, a sermon powerpoint, announcement graphics
• Assign people to plan items - either ad hoc or using criteria to link to rotas - as your rotas change, your linked plans remain up to date
• Publish and share plan pages with ease
• In-built CCLI tracking and reporting
• Download and share plans to MediaShout
• Stay on time by seeing real-time plan progress when a plan is running in real-time
• Integrates seamlessly with services, events and bookings in your Rotas, Calendar and Bookings modules

Got a question?

You’ll find the answers to most questions in our support articles - they're all available through the Support beacon in the bottom-right corner of each page in the Planning module - just search by topic, phrase or keyword. You can also access the Support Article library on our website. And if you still can't find something you're looking for, click to contact one of the ChurchSuite team - we’re happy to help!