Quick Start Checklist

This checklist walks you through setting up TimelyChurch for your church from start to finish. Follow these steps in order.

Heads up: Your church account starts with a 30-day Pro trial, every Pro feature to try, with no credit card needed. Sending bulk email is the one thing that waits for a paid plan. The full setup below typically takes 1-2 hours; the trial gives you plenty of room to import real data and run a real Sunday before you decide on a plan. See Trial and Plan Selection.

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:

• Your church's name, address, phone number, and email ready.
• A church logo image file (JPG or PNG, under 2 MB).
• A list of staff and volunteers you want to invite, including their email addresses.
• An idea of which team members should have which levels of access.

Step 0: Sign Up and Create Your Church

Time needed: 5 minutes

If you haven't already created your TimelyChurch account, start here:

1. Go to timelychurch.com/register and choose Create a new church account →.
2. Create your user account (name, email, phone, password).
3. On the Set Up Your Church screen, type your church name. That's the only required field. More options lets you check the contact email, phone, country, timezone, and address TimelyChurch fills in for you.
4. Confirm your email address from the link TimelyChurch sends you. Your admin Dashboard then opens, with a 30-day Pro trial automatically activated. The 🚀 Welcome to TimelyChurch link at the top of the sidebar opens the Welcome page.

For the full walkthrough, see Sign Up and Create Your Church.

Tip: Get the timezone right during church creation. It controls when scheduled emails send, when daily resets happen, and how all dates display. You can change it later under Church Settings → Profile, but it's easier to pick correctly the first time.

Note: Your new church comes with some sample people, families, and forms so you can see how things fit together. Delete them when you are ready to add your real congregation. See Sample data in your new church.

Step 1: Complete Your Church Profile

Time needed: 5 minutes

1. Log in to your TimelyChurch admin panel.
2. Click Church Setting at the bottom of the sidebar.
3. On the Profile tab, fill in:
   • [ ] Church name
   • [ ] Contact email
   • [ ] Phone number
   • [ ] Website
   • [ ] Physical address
   • [ ] About Your Church
   • [ ] Timezone
   • [ ] Country and default language
4. Upload your church logo (Pro plan; included in your trial).
5. Click Save Changes.

See Church Settings for detailed instructions.

Tip: Getting the timezone right is important. It affects how all dates and times display throughout the platform. Double-check this before moving on.

Step 2: Review and Customize Roles

Time needed: 10-15 minutes

1. In the sidebar, expand the Administration category and click Roles & Permissions.
2. Review the default roles that come with TimelyChurch (Administrator, Finance Admin, Team Leader, Team Member, Member, Accountant (Read-Only), and Safety Officer).
3. Note that the Administrator role always has full access. Its permissions are locked and can't be edited here.
4. Decide if you need to:
   • [ ] Adjust permissions on any default roles
   • [ ] Create custom roles for specific positions at your church
5. For each custom role, set:
   • [ ] A clear, descriptive name
   • [ ] The appropriate scope (Own Records Only, Team Members, or All Records)
   • [ ] A permission level for each module (None, View, Edit, or Full Access; fine-tune the individual view/create/edit/delete checkboxes underneath if you need to)

See Setting Up Roles and Permissions for detailed instructions.

Tip: You do not need to get roles perfect right away. You can always adjust permissions later as you learn what your team needs.

Step 3: Invite Your Team

Time needed: 5-10 minutes

1. In the sidebar, expand the Administration category and click Team Members (you can also use the Team & Roles link near the bottom of the sidebar).
2. Click Invite Member on the Team Management page to invite your core team members:
   • [ ] Senior pastor / lead administrator
   • [ ] Office staff
   • [ ] Ministry leaders
   • [ ] Key volunteers
3. Choose the method that works best:
   • Email invitations for specific people.
   • Directory invitations for people already in your database.
   • Invite links for onboarding a group of volunteers at once.
4. Assign each person the appropriate role.

See Inviting Team Members for detailed instructions.

Tip: Start by inviting just your core team (2-3 people). Once you are comfortable with the platform, invite the rest of your staff and volunteers.

Step 4: Add Your People

Time needed: Varies (10 minutes to 1 hour depending on your congregation size)

1. From the sidebar, expand People and click People.
2. Remove the sample people that came with your new church (the Smith, Johnson and Williams families and two others).
3. Add people to your directory. You can:
   • [ ] Add individually: click Add Person and fill in their information one at a time.
   • [ ] Import from a file: if you have a spreadsheet (CSV) of your congregation, open the Add Person menu, choose Import from File, and add them in bulk. See Importing from Another Platform.
4. For each person, consider including:
   • [ ] First and last name
   • [ ] Email address
   • [ ] Phone number
   • [ ] Mailing address
   • [ ] Birthday
5. After adding people, organize them into families:
   • [ ] From the sidebar, expand People and click Families.
   • [ ] Create family records and link people together.

Step 5: Set Up Groups

Time needed: 10-15 minutes

1. From the sidebar, expand People and click Groups.
2. Create groups for your church's ministries and programs:
   • [ ] Sunday School classes by age group
   • [ ] Small groups or life groups
   • [ ] Ministry teams (worship, ushers, greeters, and so on)
   • [ ] Committees or leadership teams
3. Add members to each group.

Step 6: Create Your First Event

Time needed: 5 minutes

1. From the sidebar, expand Planning and click Events.
2. Click New event. A Create event drawer slides in. Toggle Quick for one short form or Guided for a step-by-step version.
3. Fill in the event details:
   • [ ] Event type (pick a type, worship, class, meeting, or event, which seeds sensible defaults)
   • [ ] Event title
   • [ ] Date and time
   • [ ] Description (optional)
   • [ ] Address for directions and/or a room
   • [ ] Capabilities you need (Service Plan, Serving/volunteers, Check-In, Tasks, Registration, and more; some are turned on automatically based on the type you picked)
   • [ ] Flip the Repeats switch if it's a recurring series (it's off by default for one-time events)
4. Click Create event.

Tip: Start by adding your regular weekly services as recurring events; just flip the Repeats switch. This populates your calendar right away and gives your team a place to track attendance and volunteers. The Calendar grid lives inside the Events page now; there is no separate Calendar sidebar item.

Step 6.5: Connect Stripe (if you'll take giving on opening Sunday)

Time needed: 10 minutes

If your church plans to receive online donations starting on opening Sunday, set up Stripe Connect before the day arrives, not the morning of. Stripe needs to verify your identity and bank account, which can take 1-3 business days.

1. Click Church Setting at the bottom of the sidebar, open the Integrations tab, and find the Stripe - Online Giving card. (You can also expand Finances → Giving and click Activate online giving, which takes you to the same place.)
2. Click Connect with Stripe.
3. Follow Stripe's onboarding. Have your EIN/Tax ID, bank account info, and a photo of an authorized signer's ID ready.
4. After Stripe approves, online giving becomes live on your portal.

See Stripe Connect Setup for the full walkthrough.

Tip: If you're not collecting giving online yet, skip this step. You can come back to it any time. Online giving requires the Pro plan to remain active beyond your trial.

Step 7: Post Your First Announcement

Time needed: 5 minutes

1. From the sidebar, expand Communications and click Announcements.
2. Click New Announcement.
3. Write your announcement:
   • [ ] Title
   • [ ] Content
   • [ ] Pin it if you want it to stay at the top
4. Save and publish it.

Your announcement will appear on the Dashboard and in your member portal.

Step 8: Invite Your Members to the Portal

Time needed: 5-10 minutes (then ongoing)

Inviting your team (Step 3) is for staff who manage the church. Members, your congregation, get a different, simpler login experience using magic links. There's no password to remember.

You don't need to do anything special to "invite" them. Once a person is in your People directory with an email address:

1. They open your church's member portal sign-in page.
2. They enter their email.
3. TimelyChurch emails them a one-tap login link.
4. They click it. They're in.

To kick this off:

• [ ] Share your member portal link with your congregation (in a Sunday bulletin, group text, or your first announcement).
• [ ] Optionally post an announcement letting members know the portal exists. (Sending a bulk email campaign needs a paid plan; see Trial and Plan Selection.)
• [ ] Consider setting up a custom domain (Pro plan) so your church's public website lives at your own address, like www.yourchurch.com.

For the full member-facing flow, see Magic Link Login for Members.

Step 9: Explore Additional Features

Once the basics are set up, explore these features at your own pace:

• [ ] Check-In: set up child check-in for services and events. Configure label printing with the Check-In Settings (gear) button at the top of the Check-In page. See Check-in Label Settings.
• [ ] Drive: create curriculum and lesson plans for Sunday School classes.
• [ ] Forms: build registration forms, surveys, or volunteer sign-up forms.
• [ ] Reports: generate reports to track attendance, giving trends, and membership growth.
• [ ] Messaging: send direct messages to church members.
• [ ] Custom Fields: add custom data fields to people profiles for tracking church-specific information.
• [ ] Custom Domain: set up a custom domain for your church portal. See Custom Domain Walkthrough.
• [ ] Import from another platform: bringing data over from another church management system? See Importing from Another Platform.

Setup Summary

Total estimated time for basic setup: 60-90 minutes (you have 30 days of full-feature trial to experiment).

Need Help?

• Click the Help button in the bottom-right corner of any page to ask Sam, TimelyChurch's support assistant. See Getting Help and Chatting with Sam.
• Click Help at the bottom of the sidebar to visit the Help Center.
• Contact our support team for personalized assistance. Have your Support PIN ready (on the Profile tab of Church Settings).

Tip: You do not need to set everything up in one sitting. Take it step by step, and involve your team as you go. The most important thing is to get started; you can always refine your setup later.

Related Articles

• Sign Up and Create Your Church
• Trial and Plan Selection
• Welcome to TimelyChurch
• Dashboard Overview
• Navigating the Admin Panel
• Inviting Team Members
• Setting Up Roles and Permissions
• Church Settings
• Magic Link Login for Members
• Stripe Connect Setup
• Importing from Another Platform
• Custom Domain Walkthrough

Verified against TimelyChurch 8.205.308 on 2026-10-22.