Getting started with the Calendar module

Introduction to the Calendar module

Welcome to the Calendar module. This module enables you to manage all your events in one place, from large events for your members and supporters to smaller, internal events such as a staff meeting. A separate Bookings module manages the allocation of rooms and other resources for the events you run (and for external bookings). You can easily manage each event's visibility and status so that each event is promoted to just the right audience - through the member-facing My ChurchSuite, on social media, in your communications and through your website using embedded calendars and event feeds. Events support sign-up, tickets (free, paid and pay-on-arrival), customisable questions to the sign-up form, event invitations with accept/decline, and event attendance recording.

The Calendar module also includes Leave management functionality. Knowing when key team members are on leave is vital to event management, so we've made it easy to manage user leave requests. For example, if your internal HR processes require an accept/decline response to leave requests, we've included a 'leave approval' feature.

We encourage you to read this article in full to familiarise yourself with the module's key features and customisation options, as well as some of the basic concepts and terminology you'll encounter in it, and in our related support articles and training videos.

Calendar module features at a glance

• Add or import individual and sequence events and categorise them within the calendar
• Set physical event locations or run online events through the meeting URL
• Control event visibility and sign-up settings on an event-by-event basis
• Manage event status, set pending events as confirmed or cancel an event with a button click
• Embed your calendar or event feeds into your website
• Increase engagement by enabling sign-up for events
• Manage event planning to-dos with checklists to ensure everything required happens before and after the event
• Create tickets - free, pay online, pay on arrival, and hidden tickets
• Manage event and ticket capacity
• Add custom questions to the sign-up form to collect all the important information needed to manage the event
• Send event invitations and track responses
• Record event attendance using the check-in functionality
• Allow sign-ups to self-cancel, with an optional reason, should they be unable to attend
• Communicate with those who have been invited, signed up or checked in
• Integrates intuitively with other modules, connecting events to rotas, resource bookings and service plans
• Get your ChurchSuite calendar linked to your calendar application by subscribing to an iCal or Google Calendar feed
• Manage user leave requests with accept/decline approval and optionally auto-add unavailability to the Rotas module

Next Steps

Terminology

Here's a list of key terms you'll encounter in the Calendar module and the related support articles and training videos for this module:

• Events: In the context of this module, events are essentially about 'what is happening, when, and where?' so that those viewing your event calendar—perhaps on your website—know what's going on in your church's life. Events might be public or member-facing or private for just a certain audience.
• Categories are a way to group events together based on the "type" of event they are.
• A Leave Setup defines each user's leave entitlement, working days and line manager approval settings for a leave period/year. Users can then submit leave requests for Holiday, Sickness and a range of other leave types.
• Sequence Events are those that repeat - either following a repeating pattern or a list of ad hoc dates. A sequence always has an end date, but you can easily extend sequences and add/remove dates from a sequence. Events within a sequence are linked together, making updates easier if something changes. For events with signup enabled, you can set whether signup is for an event or the sequence.
• Sign-ups are those who have signed up for your event.
• Check-ins are those who have been marked as attending your event.

Got a question?

You’ll find the answers to most questions in our support articles - they're all available through the Support menu located in the top-right corner of each page in ChurchSuite. Select Get help and 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 get in touch with one of the ChurchSuite team - we’re happy to help!