Groups, forms and giving

Groups

Open Groups on the web. Owners, admins and staff see every group. Group leaders see their own groups, with their people, meetings and attendance, even without a staff role.

Categories

Owners and admins sort groups into kinds, like Small groups or Classes, under Church settings › Categories. Choose Add a category and give it a name, colour and icon.

Members and leaders

1. Open the group’s Roster and choose Add people….
2. Choose As members or As leaders, pick the people, and add them.

To change someone later, use the menu on their row: Make a Leader, Make a Member or Take Off the Group…. Staff add and remove people; leaders run the group.

Meetings and attendance

In a group’s schedule, tick Add meetings automatically and Vessel fills in the next two weeks of meetings. You can also add a meeting by hand from the group’s More menu.

1. Choose Take attendance.
2. Choose Mark each person or Just count heads.
3. Mark people present, absent or excused, or choose Mark all present. Add visitors by name if you like.
4. Save. Anyone not marked present or excused is recorded as absent.

Staff can keep Staff Notes… on a group. The group’s leaders and members never see them.

Email a group

Group leaders and staff who manage groups can email a group from Vessel.

1. Open the group and choose Email.
2. Choose who it goes to: Everyone, Leaders, or Choose…. You can also email the parents of kids who don’t have their own email, and send a Vessel app notification too.
3. Write your message. Vessel shows how many people it will reach and how many have no email address.
4. Choose Send a test to me first if you like, then Send….
5. Vessel asks “Email … people in …?” with the exact count. It goes out straight away and can’t be taken back, so check the count, then choose Send to … people.

Build a form

Owners, admins and staff can build forms, under Forms.

1. Choose New form. Start blank or from a template: Connect Card, Family Registration, Volunteer Interest or Event RSVP.
2. On Build, add questions. You can ask for short or long answers, email, phone, numbers, dates, choices, dropdowns, yes or no, ratings, contact details, an address, family members, file uploads and agreements.
3. Use Show only if… to show a question only after a certain answer, or jump to another question.

A file upload question takes photos and PDFs, 1 to 5 files per answer, up to 10 MB each. Uploaded files count toward your church’s storage.

Forms don’t take payments.

Limits, closing and waitlists

On Settings, a form can open and close by itself on dates you pick. Tick Limit how many can sign up to set a number of places. With Waitlist when full, extra people join a waitlist. Tick Move people in when a spot opens and they’re emailed when a place opens up; otherwise you move them in yourself.

You can also link a form to a group. The group’s leaders then see the form and its answers, apart from medical and care answers.

Share a form

1. Choose Open sign-ups….
2. Open the Share tab and copy the form’s link.

The Share tab also has a QR code (Save as PNG or Print a poster…), code to put the form on your church’s website, and a welcome desk iPad mode, where the form starts over by itself for the next person.

Open forms can be listed on your church’s page, and up to six show on your church hub. When you’re done, choose Close sign-ups….

Responses

• See every answer on the Responses tab, and totals on Summary.
• Choose Export spreadsheet… for a CSV file, one row per response or per person registered. Medical and care answers are left out unless you have access to them.
• Use Response alerts… to email chosen people each time someone responds. You can also send the person who filled it in a confirmation email.

Giving

Vessel keeps your giving records. It doesn’t take gifts or process cards. If your church has an online giving page, add its address as the Giving link in your church profile, and your church hub shows a Give online button.

Who can see giving

• Owners always can. Anyone else needs the Giving permission in Staff & roles.
• Add Hide giving amounts for someone who should see who gave, never how much.
• Funds and statements are for owners, and admins with Giving.

Enter gifts

Gifts go in batches, one batch per deposit, like Sunday’s checks and cash. You can do this on the web or in Vessel Ministry.

1. Open Giving › Batches and choose New batch.
2. Choose Add gift for each gift. Find the donor by name, email, phone or envelope number, or mark the gift anonymous. Pick the fund and how it was given.
3. When the batch matches your deposit, choose Commit batch. Its gifts start counting, and their amounts are locked until an admin reopens it.

Gifts without a donor still count toward your totals. Match them on Needs a donor so they appear on the right person’s statement.

Funds

Owners and admins with Giving add funds with New fund, and choose whether each is tax-deductible.

Import gifts

Bring gifts in from your giving platform’s CSV export, under Giving › Import. Vessel knows the layout of Planning Center Giving’s donations export, and works with others such as Nucleus and Tithe.ly. It warns you about gifts that look like ones already in Vessel.

Statements and letters

1. Fill in your church’s legal name, tax number and signer under Church settings › Legal & giving. Choose whether statements go to households or to each person.
2. Make the statements in the Vessel Ministry app. It’s faster on a Mac or iPad.
3. Back on the web, under Giving › Statements, open each PDF, issue them, and mark them printed.

Thank-you letters for non-cash gifts are written in Vessel Ministry too. Vessel Ministry is available on request — email support@vesselworship.org.

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