Your first week

A checklist for a church that just started with Scheduly, in the order that saves the most work. Each step links to the article that walks you through it.

1. 1
   Add a member (staff).
2. 2
   Make your staff and admins (admins).
3. 3
   Create a group for your teams and ministries (staff).
4. 4
   Create a template for each regular service (staff).
5. 5
   Automate: create events automatically (staff).
6. 6
   Set up the Services page (admins).
7. 7
   The Files page and defaults (admins).
8. 8
   Send an alert to invite everyone (staff).

1. Add your membersStaff

Add everyone who serves, from Members, Add member. Only the first and last name are required, but add each person's phone and email: Scheduly texts people at their phone number, and their first sign-in finds their profile by email or phone (see Sign in).

2. Make your staff and adminsAdmins

Staff plan events and people; admins also run the account. Open each person's profile, select Edit profile, and turn on Staff or Admin. See Volunteers, staff and admins.

3. Create groupsStaff

Make a group for each team and ministry: Worship Team, Sound, Greeters, Young Adults. Groups let you put people on events, send alerts and share files with a whole team at once. See Create a group.

4. Build your templatesStaff

Make one template for each service or meeting that repeats, like Sunday Worship at 9 AM. Set it up once: the schedule rows (The Schedule: fields and times), the roles to fill (Staff roles), the reminders (Alerts: automatic reminders), and who hears about declines (Teams: watch fields). Every event made from it starts ready. See Create a template.

5. Let templates make the eventsStaff

A template can create its events on its own, some weeks ahead, so next month's Sundays are always on the calendar. See Automate: create events automatically.

6. Set up ServicesAdmins

Services shows a month of your regular services and who serves in each role, so staff can fill in the whole month on one page. Admins pick the services and roles in its settings; until then, only admins see the page. See Set up the Services page.

7. Set the defaults for filesAdmins

Decide who sees each type of file by default (bulletins for everyone, manuscripts for the preaching and slides teams) and how long it's kept. See The Files page and defaults.

8. Send a first alertStaff

Tell everyone Scheduly is here: send an alert to your groups with your church's Scheduly address, and ask them to sign in once and add the dates they're away. See Send an alert and Blockouts.