iCal Export — Subscribe to Your Serving Schedule

If you'd rather see your upcoming serving assignments alongside the rest of your life (in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, or any other calendar app), TimelyChurch lets you download your personal serving schedule as an iCal (.ics) file. Once you import it, every confirmed and pending assignment appears as a calendar event, complete with date, time, position name, and (when set) location.

Note: Your personal serving schedule is a download, not a live subscription. The file is a snapshot of your schedule at the moment you download it; download it again after your schedule changes. (Your church's public events calendar can be subscribed to live: see iCalendar and Subscriptions.)

Who Can Export

Any volunteer with a Member Portal account can export their own serving schedule. Each export contains only the signed-in volunteer's assignments. You cannot pull other team members' schedules through this feature.

What's Included

The exported .ics file contains:

• Every assignment with status Confirmed or Pending.
• Only assignments for events that start in the future (past assignments are filtered out).
• One calendar event per assignment.

Each calendar event includes:

Declined assignments are excluded, so a date you declined won't be in your next download.

How to Export

1. Sign in to the Member Portal.
2. Open My Schedule.
3. Click Add to calendar.
4. The browser downloads a file named serving-schedule-YYYY-MM-DD.ics.

Importing the File

Google Calendar

1. Open Google Calendar in a browser (importing isn't available in the phone app).
2. Click the Settings gear, then Settings, then Import & export.
3. Choose the downloaded .ics file, pick which calendar to add it to, and click Import.

Apple Calendar (macOS / iOS)

• On a Mac: double-click the downloaded file (or choose File > Import in the Calendar app) and pick the calendar to add it to.
• On an iPhone or iPad: tap the downloaded file and choose Add All.

Outlook (Desktop / Web)

• Outlook on the Web: click Add calendar in the sidebar, choose Upload from file, select the .ics file, pick a calendar, and click Import.
• Outlook desktop: open the .ics file, or go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export and import it.

Other Apps

Any calendar app that can import an iCalendar (.ics) file will work.

Keeping Your Calendar Current

Because the file is a snapshot, new assignments, declines, or rescheduled events don't flow into your calendar app on their own. After your schedule changes, click Add to calendar again and re-import. My Schedule in the portal is always the up-to-date view, and TimelyChurch still sends you invitations and reminders (see Volunteer Notifications).

Troubleshooting

My calendar shows the events but they're at the wrong time. Check that your calendar app's timezone matches your church's. The .ics file uses each event's start and end times; if your phone is in a different timezone, your calendar app applies the offset.

An event I just got assigned to isn't showing up. The file only contains assignments that existed when you downloaded it. Download it again from My Schedule → Add to calendar and re-import.

An event I declined is still on my calendar. Declined assignments are left out of new downloads, but your calendar app keeps what you imported earlier. Delete that event in your calendar app.

The download is empty / has no events. You probably have no future confirmed or pending assignments. Past assignments and declined assignments are filtered out by design. Once you have an upcoming confirmed or pending assignment, it will appear.

Tip: Set your phone's calendar to send a notification 1 hour and 1 day before each event. Together with TimelyChurch's automatic reminders (see Automation and Scheduled Jobs), you'll get more than one reminder for each service.