Creating Your Organisation

Introduction

Welcome to Church Rota! This guide will walk you through creating your organisation and getting your volunteer scheduling system set up. The process takes about 10-15 minutes and involves five steps: organisation details, team selection, service defaults, creating services, and completion.

Once you've completed the wizard, you'll have a fully functioning rota system ready for your volunteers.

Before You Start

Before beginning the organisation creation wizard, have the following information ready:

  • Email address: You'll need a valid email address for your admin account
  • Organisation name: The full name of your church or organisation
  • Location details: At minimum, your town/city and country (full address optional)
  • Logo (optional): A logo image file (PNG, JPG, or SVG, under 2MB) if you'd like custom branding
  • Brand colours (optional): Your organisation's colour scheme if you want to customise the appearance

Step 1: Organisation Details

The first step collects your basic organisation information and creates your admin account.

Account Creation

If you're not already logged in, you'll create your admin account here with your name, email, and password. If you're already authenticated (e.g., via Google), this section will be skipped.

Organisation Information

  • Organisation Name: Enter your church's full name (e.g., "St Mary's Church")
  • Application Address (URL Slug): This creates your unique URL (e.g., "st-marys" becomes "churchrota.app/st-marys"). The slug auto-generates from your organisation name but can be edited. Use only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.

Address Details

Expand the Address Details section to enter your location. Town/city and country are required; other fields are optional. This information helps identify your organisation and may be displayed in communications.

Contact Details (Optional)

Expand the Contact Details section to add your organisation's email, phone number, or website. These are optional but helpful for volunteer communications.

Branding (Optional)

Expand the Branding section to customise your organisation's appearance:

  • Logo: Upload an image file (PNG, JPG, SVG, under 2MB). Your logo will appear throughout your organisation's pages.
  • Colours: Choose four colours (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary) that will be used in buttons, headings, and accents throughout your pages. The default Church Rota green palette is used if you don't customise.

Click Create Organisation & Continue when ready.

Step 2: Select Teams

Teams represent the different volunteer roles in your services (e.g., Hosting, PA, Music, Children's Work). This step lets you choose which teams your organisation needs.

Preset Teams

Twelve common church teams are pre-selected by default. Simply uncheck any you don't need:

  • Hosting
  • Preaching
  • Computer (AV Tech)
  • PA (Sound)
  • Music
  • Singing (Choir/Worship Team)
  • Youth Work
  • Children's Work
  • Welcome (Greeters)
  • Refreshments
  • Lock Up
  • Breaking Bread

Custom Teams

If you need teams not in the preset list, click Add Custom Team, enter the team name, and click Add. You can add as many custom teams as needed.

Skipping This Step

You can skip team selection if you prefer to set up teams later via the admin portal. However, selecting teams now saves time and allows you to set service defaults in the next step.

Click Continue or Skip when ready.

Step 3: Service Defaults

Service defaults specify how many volunteers from each team are typically needed for a service. These defaults apply when creating new services but can be adjusted for individual services later.

Setting Defaults

Each team you selected appears with a number input. Enter the typical number of volunteers needed from that team for a standard service. For example:

  • Hosting: 2 volunteers
  • PA: 1 volunteer
  • Children's Work: 3 volunteers

Special Cases

Breaking Bread defaults to 0 because not all services include communion. You can adjust this if communion is part of every service.

Skipping This Step

If skipped, all teams default to requiring 1 volunteer per service. You can change defaults later in the admin portal under Service Defaults.

Click Continue or Skip when ready.

Step 4: Create Services

This step lets you bulk-create services (e.g., Sunday services) for the coming weeks or months. You can create a recurring pattern of services in one go.

Bulk Creation Form

  • Start Date: The first service date (defaults to next Sunday)
  • End Date: The last service date (defaults to 3 months from start)
  • Day of Week: Which day services occur (default: Sunday)
  • Start Time: Service start time (e.g., 10:30)
  • Preview: Shows how many services will be created

Service Requirements

All services will be created using the default volunteer requirements you set in Step 3. You can adjust requirements for individual services later via Admin → Services.

Skipping This Step

You can skip and create services manually later via Admin → Services. However, bulk creation saves significant time for regular weekly services.

Click Create Services & Continue or Skip when ready.

Step 5: Completion

Congratulations! Your organisation is now set up. This completion screen summarises what you've created and provides quick links to your next steps.

What You've Created

The summary shows:

  • Number of teams configured
  • Number of services created
  • Whether service defaults were set

Quick Actions

Three buttons help you get started:

  • Add Volunteers: Go to the admin volunteers page to start adding your volunteer team
  • View Services: See the services you've created and make any adjustments
  • Go to Dashboard: Visit your organisation's main dashboard

Next Steps

Now that your organisation is created, here are the recommended next steps to get your rota system fully operational:

  1. Add Volunteers: Navigate to Admin → Volunteers and add your volunteer team. For each volunteer, specify which teams they're part of.
  2. Configure Settings: Visit Admin → Settings to refine your organisation details, adjust branding, or modify your service defaults.
  3. Review Teams: Go to Admin → Teams to set up compatibility rules (e.g., PA and Computer can be done by the same person, but Music and Hosting cannot).
  4. Check Services: Visit Admin → Services to review the services created in the wizard and make any date or time adjustments.
  5. Start Assigning Roles: Go to Admin → Rota to begin assigning volunteers to roles, or use the Auto-Schedule feature to fill gaps automatically.
  6. Invite Volunteers: Share your organisation's signup link with volunteers so they can create accounts and start managing their own availability and swap requests.

For detailed guidance on these tasks, see the Administrator Guide.