FlockConnect Help and Setup Guides

Bringing your people in

Every church already keeps its records somewhere. FlockConnect adds a shared care layer on top of that system rather than replacing it, so the first step is getting your people in.

If your church uses Planning Center, you connect it directly: FlockConnect is an Official and Authorized Planning Center Integration, and Planning Center is the one system it syncs with. Coming from Notebird, a dedicated importer carries your people and your full notes history. Every other church management system comes in by CSV import: you upload a file, map the columns, and review before anything is created. And week to week, the person form and the add-a-family wizard cover the visitors who arrive one household at a time. The guides walk through each path, start to finish.

• Connect Planning Center, the one system FlockConnect syncs with directly, through its Official and Authorized Planning Center Integration.
• Import people from any other church management system by CSV, with column mapping and a review step.
• Send member assessments by email first, with a secure link. Members never log in.
• Let one text reminder follow a form left unanswered for 72 hours, on the Collie plans and only with the member's permission.
• Write a pastoral follow-up to a connected calendar using generic text and a secure link, after a person approves it.

Getting started by role

Four short guides walk each kind of teammate from their first email to feeling at home: the account owner's first week, the church leader or elder path from accepting an invitation to knowing their flock, the care partner's rhythm of assigned people and quick logs, and a page written for church members about how FlockConnect reaches them without an account.

If you only read one guide, read the one for your role. Each links onward to a deeper article wherever a step deserves more than a paragraph.

Caring for people week to week

The everyday loop has its own guides. The quick log captures care in the moment, person first. Care visibility explains who can see a note and where each role's notes start. Care assignments write down who is caring for whom, and quietly route follow-ups, filters, and suggestions to match.

On Sundays, a group's leaders share one list and mark who was at the service, and new families arrive whole through the add-a-family wizard. Each guide covers one habit, in the order a church usually picks them up.

How member assessments and reminders work

FlockConnect is pastor-facing. Members never log in or hold an account. When a church sends a member assessment, it goes out by email first, with a secure link, so a member can answer a few simple questions without signing up for anything.

If a member leaves a form unanswered for 72 hours, FlockConnect may send one text reminder, only with the member's permission and outside your church's quiet hours, and it never carries sensitive care content. Text reminders are part of the Collie plans. The Starter plan includes none. The member assessments guide and the text reminders guide explain exactly what is sent, when, and what is not.

How calendar writeback works

FlockConnect can place a pastoral follow-up on a connected Google or Microsoft calendar so it does not get lost. The event uses generic text and a secure link, so the details of who needs care never travel inside a calendar invite.

A follow-up reminder reaches a calendar only after a person approves it; a booking goes straight to the calendar of the staff member who was booked. The calendar writeback guide shows how that approval works and what the event looks like.

Watch FlockConnect in action

If you would rather see it than read about it, four narrated tours walk a practice church from each seat: the account owner, start to finish in about six minutes; a church leader, the seat most of a leadership team sits in; a care partner, who sees only the people in their care; and one minute on a phone, logging a conversation from the parking lot.

They were recorded on made-up people on the Starter plan, so what they show is exactly what a new church sees. Each tour page lists its chapters with timestamps and links onward to the written guides that go deeper.

A note on Collie and approval

Several guides mention Collie, the advisory assistant. It is worth saying plainly in one place: Collie can show how a person you are looking at is doing and draft a note or a next step. Nothing it drafts reaches a member or a connected system, and no care record is created, until a person approves it.

The guides describe what Collie drafts and where a pastor signs off, so there is no confusion about what is suggested and what is sent.

When a guide does not cover it

These guides cover setup and the launch behavior of FlockConnect. They do not cover account-specific settings or anything tied to one church's private workspace, by design, since this help center is public.

If you have a question a guide does not answer, email our support team. If you would rather see the product first, you can walk through pricing or arrange a demo from the links below.