Integrations

Audience: This article is for church administrators.

The Integrations tab in Church Settings is where you connect TimelyChurch to external services. Two integrations live here today:

• Stripe Connect — accept online giving (donations) from your members.
• Telegram Bot & Broadcasts — send announcements, volunteer reminders, digests, and form-submission alerts to your church's Telegram chats.

Important — two different Stripe products:

• Stripe Connect (this page) — payouts go to your church's bank account, used for online giving.
• Stripe Checkout (Subscription tab) — payments go to TimelyChurch, used for your monthly/annual TimelyChurch subscription. They are separate accounts. Connecting one does not affect the other.

Accessing Integrations

1. Navigate to Settings in the left sidebar.
2. Click the Integrations tab.

The tab shows two stacked cards: Stripe – Online Giving at the top, and Telegram — Bot & Broadcasts below it. Each card shows its current connection status along with the relevant setup and management actions.

Stripe Connect for Online Giving

Stripe Connect lets your members donate online with a credit/debit card or ACH bank transfer. Payouts go directly to your church's bank account.

Plan requirement

Online giving is included in the Pro plan and the Multi-Campus plans. On the Starter and Growth plans the Stripe onboarding actions are blocked — clicking Connect with Stripe takes you to the Subscription tab to upgrade.

Connecting Stripe (First-Time Setup)

1. Open Settings > Integrations (or Finances > Online Giving).
2. Click Connect with Stripe.
3. You will be redirected to Stripe to:
   • Verify your church's legal name, EIN, and address
   • Provide a bank account for payouts
   • Identify a representative (typically the treasurer or pastor)
4. After completing Stripe's onboarding, Stripe redirects you back to TimelyChurch.
5. The Stripe card now shows your account status, with a checklist of Details Submitted, Charges Enabled, and Payouts Enabled.

If onboarding is incomplete, click Continue Setup to resume where you left off.

Toggling Online Giving On/Off

Once Stripe is connected and ready, an Online Giving card appears below the Stripe card. You can temporarily disable online giving without disconnecting:

1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
2. Flip the Enable Online Giving toggle.

When enabled, the card also displays your public Giving Page URL with a copy button. When disabled, your public giving page stops accepting new donations. Existing recurring donations are not affected.

Opening the Stripe Dashboard

Click Stripe Dashboard to access the Stripe Express Dashboard for your connected account. From there you can:

• View payouts and timing
• Update bank account details
• Download tax documents (1099-K, etc.)
• Review payment disputes

Disconnecting Stripe

To fully disconnect:

1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
2. Click Disconnect on the Stripe card.
3. Confirm. Online giving is disabled and donors will no longer be able to give online.

Note: Disconnecting does not affect historical donation records in TimelyChurch — those remain in your Giving history. To stop receiving payouts entirely, also close the account in the Stripe Dashboard.

Telegram Bot & Broadcasts

The Telegram — Bot & Broadcasts card lets you push church updates to Telegram. Once connected, your bot can post announcements, a weekly events digest and reminders, new-sermon alerts, Sunday service reminders, volunteer assignment reminders, prayer requests, birthday/anniversary shout-outs, a daily verse, and new form-submission alerts to any group or channel you register.

Telegram is available on all plans — there's no plan requirement. You only need permission to edit Settings.

See also: For the big-picture guide — what members receive, the two-tap actions (volunteer Yes/No, meeting RSVP, booking approvals, giving heads-up), and how to connect your own Telegram — see Telegram — Messages and Two-Tap Actions.

Step 1 — Connect a bot

1. In Telegram, search for @BotFather and send /newbot. Follow the prompts; BotFather replies with a bot token that looks like 7234567890:AAH-….
2. In TimelyChurch, open Settings > Integrations and find the Telegram card.
3. Paste the token into the Bot token field and click Connect Bot.

Your token is encrypted at rest and is never displayed again after this step. Once connected, the card shows the bot's @username and a connection status.

Note: TimelyChurch must be reachable on a public HTTPS URL for Telegram to deliver updates. If the webhook fails to register, use the Reconnect webhook button on the connected card.

Step 2 — Add the bot to a group or channel

1. On the connected card, use the t.me/your-bot link to open your bot and pick a group or channel to add it to.
2. In that chat, send /register (only group admins can register a chat).
3. The chat appears under Registered chats with a Pending approval status. Click Approve to activate it.

For each active chat you can also Send test (post a test message), Pause (stop posting without removing it), or remove it entirely.

Step 3 — Choose what to send (post categories)

Under each active chat, tick the Post categories you want sent to that chat — for example Church announcements, Weekly events digest + reminders, New sermon published, Sunday service reminder, Volunteer assignment reminders, Prayer requests, New form submissions, or Daily verse of the day. Changes save automatically as you toggle each checkbox; a small status pill shows "Saved" / "Saving…" / "Couldn't save".

Step 4 — Schedule the time-based digests

When you enable a time-based category (such as the events digest, service reminder, or birthdays/anniversaries), a Schedule card appears under that chat. For each one you can set:

• Day — a specific day of the week, or Daily.
• Time — in your church's timezone.
• Lookahead (days) — how many days ahead to look for events (0 = today only).

Birthday and anniversary digests add audience filters: Who to include (Everyone opted-in / Members + regular attenders / Members only), an optional Minimum age (birthdays), and an Active people only checkbox. The card also shows the next scheduled run.

Step 5 — Route form submissions

The Form submissions section controls where alerts go when someone submits one of your forms, so responses don't have to post in your main group. Choose one of:

• Post to group chat(s) — the default.
• Send to a private chat — pick one of your registered chats (tip: make a leaders-only group, add the bot, register it, then choose it here).
• Direct-message people — pick specific people who have linked their Telegram. Leave all unchecked to notify every admin who has linked Telegram.
• Don't notify on Telegram — turn off form alerts entirely.

Note: A bot can only DM people who have first started a conversation with it. People link their Telegram from their Member Portal; until someone links, they can't receive direct messages.

Recent posts

The connected card includes a Recent posts table listing the last sends across all chats — with the time, chat, category, status (Sent / Failed), and a short preview — so you can confirm broadcasts are going out.

Disconnecting Telegram

Click Disconnect on the Telegram card and confirm. This removes the bot token and all registered chats. You can reconnect later, but you'll need to re-register each chat with /register.

See Also

• Online Giving Setup walkthrough — full giving module docs
• Subscription & Billing — your TimelyChurch subscription (Stripe Checkout, separate)