Getting started with Vessel

Which app does what

Vessel is one church with one directory. Every app below signs in to the same church, so something you change in one shows up in the others.

Start your church

The person who starts the church becomes its owner. Your first 30 days include everything, and you don’t need a card.

1. Go to app.vesselworship.org/signup.
2. Type your email and choose Send code. You don’t need a password.
3. Check your email for a 6-digit code. Type it in and choose Continue. No email? You can ask for a new code after 60 seconds.
4. Under About your church, fill in:
   • your church’s name,
   • your first and last name,
   • your time zone (Vessel guesses it from your computer),
   • about how many people are part of your church.
5. Tick the box to agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy.
6. Choose Create church.
7. When you see that your church is ready, choose Start setting up. This opens your setup list (see Your first steps).

You can change everything you typed later, in Church settings.

Your new church starts with a few things in place, ready to rename or remove:

• a “Sunday Morning” service at 10:00,
• a Worship team and a Production team, with their positions,
• three kids’ rooms: Nursery, Preschool and Elementary,
• a General Fund for giving,
• the membership statuses Member, Regular attender and Visitor, and a set of care tags.

When your trial ends

After 30 days your church moves to the Free plan unless you choose a plan. Nothing is deleted.

Signing in

Everyone signs in with the email address your church has for them. Vessel emails you a 6-digit code. There are no links to click and no password to remember.

Sign in with an emailed code

1. Go to app.vesselworship.org.
2. Type your email and choose Send code.
3. Open the email from Vessel and copy the 6-digit code.
4. Type it into Sign-in code and choose Sign in.

If you belong to more than one church, Vessel asks you to choose one. Vessel signs you out after 12 hours without use.

In Vessel Worship on your phone, it works the same way: choose Email me a code.

Admins and staff: adding a password

Admins and staff sign in the same way, with a code. If you’d rather not wait for an email each time, you can add a password:

1. Sign in with a code.
2. Open your Account from the menu, then Password.
3. Choose a password of at least 8 characters.

Next time, choose Use a password instead on the sign-in page. The first time you connect to a church, you always need an emailed code.

“Your email isn’t set up for Vessel yet”

This means your church doesn’t have you in Vessel with that email, or you don’t have staff access yet. Ask your church admin to add you with that email address and give you a role, then try again.

Invite your staff and choose their roles

Only owners and admins can invite staff.

1. On the web, open Church settings, then Staff & roles.
2. Choose Invite your staff….
3. For each person, type their first name, last name and email, and pick a role: Staff or Admin. Choose Add another person for the next one (up to 20 at a time).
4. Choose Send invites…, check the count, and confirm.

What each role can do

To make someone an owner, open them in People.

You can also give one person extra permissions on top of their role, such as Care notes, Giving, Plans services or Manages check-ins. In Staff & roles, choose What each role can do to see the full list.

Volunteers and team members

You don’t invite worship team members and other volunteers here. Add them to a team under Teams instead. Welcome emails for a team are sent from the Vessel Worship app.

Bring your people in from Planning Center

Vessel reads Planning Center’s People export just as it is. Any other spreadsheet works too, if you save it as a CSV file. Only owners and admins can bring people in.

1. Export your people from Planning Center

In Planning Center People, export your people as a CSV file and save it on your computer.

2. Bring the file into Vessel

1. On the web, open People. Choose More, then Bring in people from a file. (On an empty directory, or on your setup list, it’s Bring in your people.)
2. Drop the file onto the page, or choose Choose a file….
   • Using Excel or Numbers? Save the file as CSV first (in Excel: File › Save As › CSV UTF-8).
   • A file can be up to 10 MB and 25,000 rows.
3. Vessel shows Planning Center People export recognised and matches the columns for you. For any other spreadsheet, you match the columns yourself.
4. Choose how to make households: from Planning Center’s household column, by same address and last name, or not at all.
5. For each membership label, keep it or choose Skip these people.
6. Leave Also bring in Medical Notes off unless you want them.
7. Choose Check against your directory.
8. Look over the preview. Rows are sorted into Need a look, New, Matched and Skipped.
9. Choose Add … and update … and confirm.

What comes across

• Names, nicknames, gender, birthdays, anniversaries and marital status.
• Whether each person is a child, and their grade.
• Email, mobile, home phone and address.
• Households and who heads each one.
• Membership, active or inactive, and campus.

These never come across: Planning Center’s custom tab fields, its permission columns and background checks. Medical notes only come across if you tick the box.

People already in Vessel

Vessel matches people by email first, then by mobile and last name, then by name and birthday. If you tick Fill in missing details of people already in Vessel, it adds what’s missing and never overwrites what they already have.

You can bring in up to 3 files a day.

Your first steps

On the Today page, Vessel shows a setup list for your church. Each item ticks itself when Vessel sees it done. When you’re finished, choose Hide this list.

1. Add your church’s logo and address. Church settings › Church profile.
2. Invite your staff. See Invite your staff.
3. Bring in your people. See Bring your people in.
4. Plan a Sunday. Open Services and plan your next service.
5. Check your kids’ rooms (if you use Check-Ins). Open Rooms and make sure each room has the right ages or grades. See Check-Ins help.
6. Switch on your church hub. Church settings › Church hub.
7. Get the apps on your phone. Install Vessel Worship, then tick this item yourself.
8. Choose a plan. Until you do, your trial carries on, then your church moves to the Free plan.

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