Importing from Another Platform

If your church is moving to TimelyChurch from another church management system -- Planning Center People, Breeze, ChurchTrac, Elvanto, Tithely, Realm (ACS), Pushpay / Church Community Builder (CCB), Church Windows, Servant Keeper, a Google Sheet, or anything else -- this guide walks you through bringing your people and family data over.

The short version:

1. Export your data from the other platform as a CSV file.
2. In TimelyChurch, open People in the sidebar.
3. Click the Add Person ▾ dropdown (top right) and choose Import from File.
4. Upload the CSV. TimelyChurch auto-detects the source format and maps fields automatically.
5. Review the import summary. Done.

We support generic CSV imports plus auto-detection of several common platforms' export formats. This page covers the generic CSV format in detail; platform-specific guides (PCO, Breeze, CCB) are on our roadmap and tracked as future articles.

Step 1: Export from Your Current System

Every platform's export process is different, but the goal is the same: produce a CSV file (comma-separated values) with one row per person.

Tips for a clean export:

• Include email and phone if you have them -- these power portal login and member communications.
• Include family relationships if your platform supports it. Family identifiers help us reconstruct households.
• If you have custom fields in the other system, export them too -- you can map them into TimelyChurch custom fields after import.
• Don't worry about column order or capitalization. TimelyChurch normalizes both.

Save the file as .csv (UTF-8 encoding if your platform offers it).

Tip: If you have more than one CSV (people + families + giving), import people first. We'll get to giving and other modules separately.

Step 2: Download the TimelyChurch Template (Optional)

If you're starting from a spreadsheet and want to know exactly which columns we expect, download our template:

1. In the sidebar, open People.
2. Click Add Person ▾, then Import from File.
3. In the Import People window, click Download template.
4. Open the file in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.

The template has these columns:

Only first_name and last_name are required. Everything else is optional but helpful.

Step 3: Upload Your CSV

1. In the sidebar, open People.
2. Click Add Person ▾, then Import from File. The Import People window opens.
3. Drag your CSV onto the upload area, or click Click to upload and select your file. We accept .csv (or .txt) files up to 10MB.
4. Decide whether to keep Skip duplicates checked (recommended -- on by default).
5. Click Import People.

TimelyChurch will:

1. Auto-detect the source format by scanning your column headers (no field mapping needed).
2. Map fields automatically based on the detected source.
3. Create Person records in your directory.
4. Create Family records when family identifiers are present.
5. Skip duplicates if a person with a matching email or name already exists (configurable).

Step 4: Review the Import Summary

When the import completes, a confirmation message appears at the top of the People page:

Detected Planning Center format. 247 people imported successfully. 38 families created. 4 duplicates skipped.

Or, if some rows couldn't be read:

47 people imported successfully. 3 rows skipped due to errors.

The summary tells you:

• The detected source format (so you can confirm we matched your platform correctly).
• How many people were created.
• How many families were reconstructed.
• How many duplicates were skipped (existing people with a matching email or name).
• How many rows had errors (malformed data, missing required fields).

Auto-Detected Formats

TimelyChurch's import service can detect and auto-map fields from these formats:

The import window highlights a few of the most common sources as pills, but the auto-detector recognizes every platform in the table above. If your platform isn't listed, the generic detector still does a good job matching common header names like First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Address, City, State, Zip, etc.

Tips for a Smooth Import

Run a small test first. Before importing your full congregation, try a 5-10 row test export. This catches issues like wrong date formats or special characters before they affect 500 records.

Email is your friend. Email is the first thing we check for duplicates, and it's what powers portal login. Make sure your export has emails wherever possible.

Family roles help. If your export includes a column like Family Role (Primary, Spouse, Child, Other) or Family Position, we use that to wire up household relationships correctly. Without it, we group by last name + address as a fallback.

Date formats matter. Birthdates should be YYYY-MM-DD (1990-05-15). If your export uses MM/DD/YYYY, that usually still works, but 1990-05-15 is foolproof.

Custom fields can come later. If your old system had custom fields (volunteer skills, baptism dates, etc.), don't try to fit them into the standard import. Get the people in first, then create custom fields in Church Settings → Custom Fields, then update the records (manually or via a second import).

Troubleshooting

The summary says "0 imported" with rows skipped. Check your column headers. The most common issue is missing or misspelled first_name / last_name columns -- those two are required. If your export uses First and Last (without the underscore), rename them.

Duplicates I didn't expect were skipped. TimelyChurch flags duplicates on email match first, then on first name + last name. If two real people share an email (e.g., a married couple sharing one address), the second one will be skipped. Re-import those manually with separate emails. You can also uncheck Skip duplicates before importing if you want every row brought in.

Family records weren't created. Family creation needs either an explicit family identifier (such as family_id or Household Name) or a matching last name + address. If both are missing, families won't reconstruct -- you'll need to create them manually or re-export with a household column included.

The wrong format was detected. Rare, but possible if your CSV has unusual headers. Re-save the export using TimelyChurch's template column names instead. Auto-detection is a convenience, not a requirement.

Special characters look broken (José becomes Jos?). Save your CSV in UTF-8 encoding rather than Latin-1 / ANSI. Most modern spreadsheet apps default to UTF-8; older Excel may need an explicit "Save as CSV UTF-8" option.

Migrating More Than People

This page covers people and families. For other modules:

• Giving history -- contact support. We can ingest historical donation data on request, especially if you're moving from a major platform.
• Events / calendar -- export an ICS (iCalendar) file from your old platform; in the Events page you can import it to bring your calendar over. (Calendar lives inside Events in TimelyChurch.)
• Groups, classes, attendance, lessons -- typically rebuilt manually in TimelyChurch. Most churches use the migration as a chance to clean up.

Tip: Many churches migrate during a low-activity month (December or summer) so the new system has a quiet period to settle in before peak Sunday operations resume.

Platform-Specific Guides (Coming Soon)

We're working on detailed step-by-step guides for the most common platforms:

• Planning Center → TimelyChurch
• Breeze ChMS → TimelyChurch
• Pushpay / Church Community Builder → TimelyChurch
• Church Windows → TimelyChurch

Until those land, the generic CSV import described above will handle the vast majority of migration cases. If you hit a snag, contact support and we'll help.

Related Articles

• Quick Start Checklist -- includes "Add Your People" as Step 4
• Church Settings -- custom fields and export
• Magic Link Login for Members -- how imported members get portal access