Help
Help center
Plain-English guides to every screen in the back office: what it's for, how to do each job step by step, and what to do when something looks wrong.
Start here
Getting started
A short tour of the back office, what each area is for, and the checklist that walks you through it.
Getting started
Practice sandbox: what's safe to try
Why you can click anything in the back office today, what never leaves your browser, and the one rule to keep until launch.
Help
Find the guide for any screen, open help beside your work, and get a one-line explanation of any field that isn't obvious.
Top tips
One small habit from each area that saves time, or a Sunday-morning scramble.
Practise with a story: invent one family and follow them through a whole week, from their first visit to check-in, a gift and a follow-up message.
Key the checks first, in the order they're stacked, then the cash envelopes, then loose cash: the Checks tile then matches the adding-machine tape on its own.
Print the paper kit every Saturday night, even when everything is working; the week you skip it is the week you'll need it.
Always send yourself a test first: read the text on the "phone" before two hundred people do.
Search by the last four digits of a phone number: it's the quickest way to find a family who has just called.
Put the most important action high on the page: a visitor on a phone sees the first block or two before deciding to scroll.
Ask only what you'll use. Every extra question costs you sign-ups, and every private question is data the church must protect.
Read the Net to income, by Class split before posting: if a fund looks wrong, a mapping or a batch line is usually the cause, and it's quicker to fix before it's in QuickBooks.
Run Auto-fill first and then adjust by hand: it's quicker than assigning from a blank page, and it spreads the load fairly.
Every guide, by area
Grouped as in the menu. Each screen's Help button opens its guide beside the page.
Getting started
- Getting startedA short tour of the back office, what each area is for, and the checklist that walks you through it.
- Practice sandbox: what's safe to tryWhy you can click anything in the back office today, what never leaves your browser, and the one rule to keep until launch.
- Signing inSign in to the back office with a 6-digit code sent to the email address an admin invited, and sign out when you're done.
People
- PeopleFind anyone in the church directory, keep their details current, and merge or archive records without ever losing history.
- HouseholdsKeep families together, choose who receives the household's mail and statements, and handle children who live in two homes.
- Member appA phone app for members and volunteers that is switched off by default, and how to try it in the sandbox.
Sunday
- Kids check-inCheck children in at the iPad kiosk or the welcome desk, release them only against the matching guardian receipt, and keep Sunday running when the printers or the network don't.
- Check-in roomsSet up the rooms children are placed in, with an age band, a grade band or both, so check-in picks each child's room by itself, and choose a room by hand for a child who needs it.
- VolunteersBuild each Sunday's serving schedule, keep kids rooms safely staffed, and follow up on swaps, declines and replies.
- Check-in servicesSet the weekly services the check-in iPads check children in to, when check-in opens for each, which rooms are open, one-off dates such as Christmas Eve, and events with childcare.
- New families from check-inReview families registered at a check-in desk, with both parents or guardians, fix anything typed wrong, then add them to People, mark them entered in Elexio, or reject them with a note.
Finance
- Giving overviewSee what's been given and to which fund, preview the public give page, and find any gift in seconds.
- Cash and check batchesKey in Sunday's plate offering, balance it against the signed count sheet, close it, and mark it deposited.
- Refunds and voidsCorrect a gift the right way, with a refund or a void that keeps the books, the bank and the donor's statement in agreement.
- Recurring giftsSee every weekly and monthly gift schedule, and help a donor change, pause or cancel theirs.
- Year-end statementsOpen, check, print or email any donor's contribution statement, net of refunds and ready for their tax records.
- Payment Links fallbackKeep giving open on a Sunday when the give page is down, by posting one Stripe Payment Link per fund within 15 minutes.
- Accounting overviewHow gifts become tidy, fund-coded deposits in QuickBooks, and how to read the payouts and entries behind them.
- Run the QuickBooks syncPreview exactly what will post to QuickBooks, let the pre-flight checks catch problems, then post it in one click.
- Fund mappingTell the sync which QuickBooks Class and income account each giving fund posts to.
- Bank reconciliationConfirm that every Stripe payout reached the bank to the cent, and sign each match off with your name and the date.
Communication
- Writing a messageWrite one text or email to a group, see exactly who will receive it and why, send yourself a test, then send.
- Consent and opt-outsHow the church records who has agreed to hear from it, why an opt-out is final, and how to look up anyone's history.
- Saved listsSave your own audience, such as a team, a trip or a follow-up group, and write to it from the composer.
- Captured outboxRead every text and email the sandbox would have sent, exactly as the recipient would see it.
- ApprovalsHow a ministry leader's message waits for the communications lead, and how to approve, edit or decline it with a helpful note.
- Website previewBrowse the church's public website as visitors see it, and try every form and button without anything leaving the back office.
- Website inboxSee everything visitors send through the website, with a suggested owner for each, and prayer requests kept to the people who pray.
- Back-office page editorPractise arranging a website page's sections, and place your own forms and events on it, with the page updating beside you.
- FormsBuild a sign-up, registration or contact form from a template, put it on any website page, and read the answers safely.
- Events and registrationsCreate an event with free registration, a capacity and a waitlist, show it on the website, and check people in at the door.
- Sermons and the podcastAdd each Sunday's message to the sermon library, publish it to the website and the podcast, and keep licensed music out of the feed.
Migration
Settings
- Features and settingsSee which church this back office serves, and switch optional features such as the member app on or off.
- Team and permissionsGive each staff member and ministry leader exactly the access their work needs in Messages, review it on time, and check what anyone can see.
- Check-in stationsAdd a station for each iPad that checks children in, pair the iPad with a one-time code, and remove it if the iPad is lost or replaced.
- Staff accessInvite staff to the back office by email with a role, change roles, and remove access when someone leaves.
- View asSee the back office exactly as another staff member or leader sees it, read-only, for 30 minutes at most, with every step logged.
- Who can see whatA plain summary of what each role can see in Messages, what nobody ever sees there, and where the full policy lives.