New Planning Center Features You Need to Know About

Planning Center has been busy releasing many new features this summer. Because new feature releases may change your processes and documentation, it’s vital to stay up to date. Keeping up with all these new options and features can be difficult, so we’re going to give you an opportunity to catch up by covering some of the big releases in this article.

As a note, these new features are often based on feedback and requests from users so it’s never a bad idea to submit your feature requests. You can submit your ideas/feature requests by clicking on the question mark in the top right corner of any Planning Center page or in a support email.

A Big Update in People Lists

Now, let’s get to some of these new features. First off, People lists have a new option that is a real game changer. Planning Center has introduced the ability to select individuals within a list. This is huge when it comes to sending communications to only certain people within your list or only selecting certain people you want to update with a bulk action (i.e. moving a subset of people into a group within Groups or adding select people to a workflow within People).

This new option is found in Lists in the top left corner of your results. See the image below to review what this feature looks like and where this feature can be found.

Check-ins and Brother Printer Update

If you use iPads or Android tablets and Brother printers, you will want to update to the latest version of the Check-ins mobile app. This new version (3.0.0) addresses some significant issues with the printers disconnecting and adds some major stability fixes. The desktop version of the software, which runs on Mac and Windows computers, has also been updated. One additional feature with these updated desktop versions is the ability to connect to the Brother printers. This is a welcome addition as it allows you to connect your Brother (800 series) printers to a desktop computer with a USB cable. Now, Brother printers can be connected to your desktop computers and mobile devices. Check for Check-ins app updates on your mobile device and desktop stations. If you would like to verify which versions of the software your stations are running, you can do that from the station cards found on the Stations menu in the Check-ins app. See the image below for an example of that page for mobile device and desktop stations.

Waitlist Option Now Available in Registrations

If you have noticed the waitlist button in your Selection types on Detailed Signups in the past but always hated that you couldn’t select this button to give people a chance to get on a waitlist when you had reached capacity, the button is now available! See the image below for where to find the Waitlist option with your Selection Types.

It always felt like a tease to show the waitlist button and not be able to select it in Detailed Signups. It’s been available for some time in Simple Signups, but now it’s universally available for either type of signup. It has some additional features, too! You can now manually promote someone to be an attendee from the waitlist. You can also notify the whole list of people on a waitlist. This is another welcome update for managing events, especially those with limited childcare availability.

Metrics Widgets are Now Available within the Home Dashboard

All the widgets can now live in one place in the Home app. If you start your day with the Home Dashboard (and if you don’t, you should!), you’ll now see the attendances or Giving updates (and many others) live and in real-time. Now, you can add those metrics widgets that you keep an eye on within your People/Metrics Dashboard right alongside your Home Dashboard task widgets. You can view your assigned workflow cards beside your attendance widget for Children’s check-ins. This Home dashboard is now a one-stop location for all your favorite widgets.

But Wait, There’s More!

Planning Center has certainly been busy, and I have only listed a few of the recent updates. Here’s a quick reference to some of the other updates:

Publishing: A new Sermon Channel walk-through wizard to help launch your Sermon pages. They have also updated a new promotional video option with your Church Center logo embedded within the video. You can find this new feature here: Customize > Resources - Publishing (planningcenteronline.com)
Services: You can now set up auto-reschedule when you receive a declined request.
Giving: Non-deductible giving options! This is a big update and you can find out more here: Non-Deductible Giving
People: New permission level “Workflows Only” for volunteers to participate in Workflows without needing to give them “Viewer” access to the whole database.

This is just a sample of the new features and updates. If you would like to see all of them, you can visit the “What’s New” page here: Planning Center Changelog.

How To Keep Up With All Of These Feature Updates?

I have only listed a few of the new Planning Center feature updates above. There are plenty more you should read about and become familiar with. But you might be thinking, “How do I keep up with all of these updates?” The answer is to visit the support pages for each of the apps, and you do that by clicking on the question mark in the top right-hand corner of any Planning Center page. Next, click on the “Browse all documentation” link found just below the search field.

Once there, go down the page and select the card or square on the right-hand side called “What’s new?”. You will now be taken to a page listing the app’s newest features and updates. Look for the “Follow” button just under the title. When you click on the Follow button, you will be asked to create a new account. This differs from your Planning Center login, so create a new account. Now, you will be subscribed to all the latest updates and features and will receive an email each time these updates are released. See image below.

Requesting New Features

Planning Center will continue to develop new features and add enhancements to all their applications. Users' suggestions and feature requests will also contribute to these updates. We encourage you to submit your own feature requests when you feel like a function needs to be added within an app. You can do this by clicking on the question mark in the top right corner of the page and selecting the email support option. Submit your feature request here just as you would a support request.

Conclusion

Staying updated with these feature updates and changes is essential for your teams and users. Your procedures may change, and this may require updating documentation from time to time, but it’s part of having good procedures and worth the benefits these updates bring. Hopefully, with the inclusion of the best practices mentioned, you will now find staying updated with Planning Center feature releases a whole lot easier.

Jason Silbernagel

P.S. Here’s how we can further assist you:

#1: Looking for more tips and tricks? Check out our blog.

#2: Check out our YouTube Channel for all things Planning Center.

#3: Contact us directly at info@threefold.solutions if you have questions or want us to write on a particular topic.