Church Settings

Church Settings is where you configure your church's profile, manage your subscription, set up custom fields, export data, configure integrations, and more. This guide walks you through each settings tab.

Accessing Church Settings

1. Log in to your TimelyChurch admin panel.
2. At the bottom of the sidebar, click Church Setting.
3. The Church Settings page opens, organized into tabs.

The Church Settings page has up to seven tabs:

Tip: The Church Setting link appears only for people whose role includes Settings. Anyone without permission to edit settings sees the tabs read-only, and Billing & Plans and Activity are shown only to church administrators. If you do not see something here, ask your church administrator.

Profile Tab

The Profile tab is where you set up the basic information about your church. This information appears across the platform and on your public portal.

Editing Your Church Profile

1. Click the Profile tab (this is selected by default).
2. Fill in or update the following fields:
   • Church Name: the official name of your church (required).
   • Contact Email: your church's primary email address (required).
   • Phone Number: your church's phone number.
   • Website: your church's website address. You can leave off the https://; it is added for you.
   • Address: your church's physical address.
   • About Your Church: a brief description of your church, its mission, and values. This may be shown on public pages.
   • Timezone: select your church's timezone. This affects how dates and times are displayed throughout the platform (required).
   • Country: sets your church's currency (required). The currency in use is shown under the field.
   • Default language: the language TimelyChurch uses for team members who haven't chosen their own. See Choosing Your Language.
3. Click Save Changes to apply your updates.

Uploading Your Church Logo

Uploading a custom church logo is part of the Custom Branding feature, available on the Pro plan.

1. In the Profile tab, find the Church Logo section.
2. Click the file picker and select an image from your computer.
3. The logo should be a PNG or JPG image no larger than 2 MB. Square images work best.
4. The logo uploads once selected; click Save Changes to keep it.

To remove your logo, click the red X button on the logo preview and confirm.

Note: On the Starter and Growth plans, the Church Logo section is locked with an upgrade prompt. Upgrade your plan from the Billing & Plans tab to unlock custom branding.

Tip: Your logo appears on the admin panel sidebar, your public portal, statements, check-in labels, and email communications. Use a clear, high-resolution image for the best results.

Setting Your Timezone

Choosing the correct timezone is important because it affects:

• Event start and end times.
• Schedule dates.
• When announcements and scheduled emails go live.
• Dashboard date displays.

Common timezone options include:

• Eastern Time (ET): for churches in the eastern US.
• Central Time (CT): for churches in the central US.
• Mountain Time (MT): for churches in the mountain region.
• Pacific Time (PT): for churches on the west coast.

Your Church Web Address

The Your church web address card shows the link to your church on TimelyChurch, the short name after /c/ in every link, QR code, and email. Click Copy to copy it, or Change (if your role can edit settings) to pick a new one. Your old address keeps working and forwards people to the new one. See Your Church Web Address.

TimelyChurch App Listing

The TimelyChurch app card controls how people find your church in the TimelyChurch app. Tick Show my church in the TimelyChurch app's church search and click Save to let people search for your church by name or city and join it from the app. Your church is listed only while your public website is published, and only your church name, city, and logo are shown.

Donation Privacy

The Donation Privacy card controls who inside your church can see what members give. Tick Restrict donation access to finance roles and click Save Donation Privacy. Only finance roles (Finance Admin, Finance Manager, Accountant) can then see member giving, donation records, and giving statements. Administrators keep every other permission (people, events, groups, settings) but stop seeing donations.

Only someone who already has donation access can remove the restriction again. See Who Can See Giving and Donations.

Group Leaders

The Group leaders card (church administrators only) decides how leaders add people to the groups and classes they lead. It has one setting, Leaders can search the church directory:

• Off (recommended): leaders whose role reaches only their teams can find people already in their teams, and invite anyone else by email; the person accepts and the leader approves.
• On: they can search everyone in the church (names and photos only) and add them straight away.

Click Save after changing it. See Setting Up Roles and Permissions for what "Their teams" roles can see.

Admin Security (Two-Factor Authentication)

The Admin Security card sets two-factor authentication requirements for church administrators. Tick Require two-factor authentication for church admins and click Save Security Settings. From then on, church administrators must enroll an authenticator app before they can use the admin portal: anyone who hasn't yet is taken to an Enable Two-Factor Authentication page the next time they open the admin area. See Security Settings.

Tip: Turn this on only after you have set up two-factor authentication on your own account, so the first person it applies to isn't you, mid-task.

Billing & Plans Tab

The Billing & Plans tab shows your current plan and lets you upgrade, downgrade, or cancel. Only church administrators see it.

1. Click the Billing & Plans tab.
2. You'll see:
   • A Trial: N days left notice if you're still inside your trial.
   • Usage rings showing your Team Members and File Storage against your plan's limits.
   • A Monthly / Yearly toggle. Choosing Yearly shows a Save 17% badge, about two months free compared with paying monthly.
   • The available plans displayed side by side.
3. To change your plan, choose monthly or yearly and click the plan's button (Lock In Pro during your trial, Upgrade or Downgrade to … once you are on a plan), then enter your payment details and confirm.

Once you have a paid subscription, a Manage Billing link opens the Stripe billing portal, where you can update your card, change plan, or cancel.

The Plans

Note on Pro pricing: The first 25 Pro subscribers lock in the $129/month founding price for the life of their subscription. After those founding slots fill, new Pro checkouts use the list price of $149/month.

Multi-campus plans are also available for churches with several locations. Contact support if you need one.

For full feature lists per plan, including the bulk email limits, see Trial and Plan Selection.

Tip: Not sure which plan is right? Run through the Trial and Plan Selection page. It has a complete feature comparison.

Fields Tab (Custom Fields)

Custom fields let you track information that is unique to your church, beyond the standard fields like name, email, and phone number. Creating and editing custom fields is part of the Pro plan.

What Are Custom Fields?

Custom fields are additional data fields you create for your people records. For example, you might want to track:

• Spiritual milestones (baptism date, membership date).
• Volunteer preferences or skills.
• Medical information (allergies, special needs).
• Custom categories specific to your church.

New churches start with a few ready-made fields (such as T-Shirt Size, Allergies and Emergency Contact) that you can edit or delete.

Creating a Custom Field

1. Click the Fields tab.
2. Click Add Field and choose the field type:
   • Text: a single line of text.
   • Long Text: a multi-line text area.
   • Number: a numeric value.
   • Date: a date picker.
   • Yes/No: a simple toggle.
   • Dropdown: a single selection from a list of options.
   • Multi-Select: multiple selections from a list.
   • Email: an email address field.
   • Phone: a phone number field.
   • URL: a website link field.
3. In the Edit Field window, enter a Field Name and choose a Category, the section of the people profile the field appears in (Custom, Spiritual, Volunteer, Medical, or Other).
4. Configure any other settings (placeholder, help text, options, Required, Show on Profile, Show in Directory, Member Editable).
5. Click Save Field.

Tip: Organize your custom fields into categories to keep people profiles clean and easy to navigate. For example, put baptism date and membership date under "Spiritual," and allergy information under "Medical." For the full walkthrough, see Custom Fields.

Export Tab

The Export tab lets you download your church data for backup or use in other tools.

1. Click the Export tab.
2. You will see two cards, Export People and Export Families.
3. Click Export CSV on either card to download that file.

CSV exports open in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet app. The people export contains the standard profile columns (name, contact details, address, membership status, family, classes and notes that everyone on your team can see); custom field values are not included. If your role only reaches the teams you lead, the export contains only those people.

Tip: Regularly exporting your data is a good practice for backup purposes. We recommend exporting at least once a month.

Integrations Tab

The Integrations tab lets you connect TimelyChurch with other services: Stripe for online giving, Telegram for bot broadcasts, and the MCP Connector for AI assistants. Below them, website apps such as VoxLive can be connected; once connected, their elements appear in the Website Studio's Build palette under Apps.

Stripe - Online Giving

If your church accepts online donations, you can connect a Stripe account:

1. Click the Integrations tab.
2. In the Stripe - Online Giving card, click Connect with Stripe.
3. Follow the prompts to link or create your Stripe account.
4. Once your account is ready, your congregation can give online through your church's giving page.

After connecting, this card shows your account status (such as "Setup In Progress" or "Ready to Accept Donations"), a setup checklist, and links to open your Stripe Dashboard or Disconnect the account. When Stripe is ready, an Online Giving card below it shows Your Giving Page URL with a copy button.

For a step-by-step walkthrough including the documents Stripe will ask for, see Stripe Connect Setup.

Telegram - Bot & Broadcasts

You can also connect a Telegram bot to send announcements, volunteer reminders, and digests to Telegram chats:

1. In the Telegram - Bot & Broadcasts card, follow the steps to create a free bot token from @BotFather on Telegram.
2. Paste the token into the Bot token field and click Connect Bot.
3. Once connected, you can register the chats and groups that should receive your church's broadcasts.

MCP Connector

The MCP Connector card lets people on your team connect an AI assistant they already use to your church's data, with exactly the same permissions as the person who connects it. If TimelyChurch has enabled MCP for your church, the card shows Enable MCP for this church (off by default; turning it off immediately disconnects every connected app); otherwise it says "Coming soon." See Connect an AI Assistant (MCP Connector).

If you also allow assistants to propose changes, every change needs an approval first, and the card's Pending approvals row is where a church administrator approves the few that need more than a reply in the chat. See Approving Changes an AI Assistant Proposes.

Domain Tab

If you want your church's public website to be available at your own domain (like www.yourchurch.com instead of the standard TimelyChurch address), you can set up a custom domain. Sign-in pages always stay on TimelyChurch's own address.

Note: Custom domains are part of the Pro plan. If your current plan doesn't include them, the Domain tab appears greyed out with a lock icon. Clicking it takes you to the Billing & Plans tab.

Setting Up a Custom Domain

1. Click the Domain tab.
2. Enter your domain in the Your web address field (for example, www.yourchurch.com), without http:// or https://.
3. Click Add domain. Your domain is shown with "Waiting for your domain company to point the name here", and a DNS Configuration section appears.
4. At your DNS provider, add the records shown there:
   • A TXT record named _timelychurch with the verification value shown on the tab.
   • Records that point your domain to TimelyChurch. Option 1 — Recommended is a CNAME to sites.timelychurch.com, for both www and your root domain. Option 2 is two A records (root and www) with the address shown on the tab.
5. Come back to this tab and click Check that it is connected.
6. Once verified, the status changes to "Connected · secure · certificate renews automatically" and your custom domain is live. A free SSL certificate is set up automatically; there is nothing to buy or upload.

Tip: DNS changes can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours to spread across the internet. If verification fails on the first try, wait a while and try again. For a full walkthrough including troubleshooting tips, see Custom Domain Walkthrough.

Activity Tab

The Activity tab (church administrators only) shows everything your team changes, who, what, and when. Nothing here can be edited or deleted.

1. Click the Activity tab.
2. Narrow the list with the filters at the top:
   • Search: search the activity text.
   • Person: Everyone, or one person on your team.
   • Module: All modules, or one area: Events, People, Groups, Worship, Giving, Roles & Team, Forms, Check-In, or Other.
   • When: All time, Today, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, or Last 90 days.
3. Click Apply filters (or Clear filters to start over).
4. Click Details on an entry to see what changed; sensitive values such as medical notes are hidden. Click Load more at the bottom for older entries.

Support PIN

Along with a Church ID, each church has a unique Support PIN that our support team may ask for when you contact us. Together these help us verify your identity before discussing account specifics.

• Both your Church ID and Support PIN are displayed in the Support Verification section near the top of the Profile tab. Each has a copy button.
• If your PIN has been shared too widely (or you suspect it has been seen by someone outside your team), click the Regenerate PIN button next to the PIN and confirm. A fresh PIN is generated immediately, and the old one stops working right away.
• Keep your Support PIN private. Only share it with TimelyChurch support staff during a verified support request.

Tip: Treat your Support PIN like a temporary password. We will never ask for your account password or any banking/Stripe credentials, only your Support PIN.

Related Articles

• Welcome to TimelyChurch
• Trial and Plan Selection
• Navigating the Admin Panel
• Setting Up Roles and Permissions
• Inviting Team Members
• Stripe Connect Setup
• Custom Domain Walkthrough
• Quick Start Checklist
• Security Settings