Connect Planning Center

Church tools link existing people and write results back. Other organizations pick a direction.

Connecting Planning Center without Church tools. Church tools accounts do not see a Direction menu. · click to enlarge

Planning Center People is the most popular church-management and volunteer-scheduling platform. Disconnect asks you to confirm first. Disconnecting does not change anyone's status.

With Church tools on

There is no Direction menu and no Outbound choice. The connection is already two-way. Sync now links people who already exist in both systems, matched by email. It does not import your Planning Center directory, and it does not create people in Planning Center.

It also writes a result back. A person on a ministry is sent as cleared, expiring, or not cleared. A person who is not on a ministry is sent from their finished background check: a clear result stays clear, including when the recheck is coming due, and any other finished result is sent as not clear. A person with no finished check is left alone. Someone who is not linked yet is looked up in Planning Center by email when they have a finished check, so you do not wait for the full directory to be walked.

Already connected

A Church tools connection saved as inbound already writes results back. You do not disconnect and pick a different direction. Use Sync now. Ministry clearance is also on Planning Center status.

Without Church tools

You pick a direction. Inbound pulls people in. Outbound pushes approved volunteers back. Both ways does both. Sync now writes a Background Check record in Planning Center for each linked person who already has a finished check. That includes an inbound connection. A person with no finished check is left alone. A clear result is sent as clear, including when the recheck is coming due. Any other finished result is sent as not clear. Sending again updates the record VolunteerBadge created rather than adding another one, and a background check entered by another provider is never changed. No link to a report is sent.

1. Create a Personal Access Token

Sign in to Planning Center and go to api.planningcenteronline.com/oauth/applications.
Under Personal Access Tokens, create a new token and give it a name like “VolunteerBadge”.
Copy the Application ID and Secret.

2. Connect in VolunteerBadge

Go to Settings → Integrations → Planning Center → Connect. Paste the Application ID and Secret. Without Church tools, pick your direction. With Church tools on, there is nothing to pick. Click Test & connect, then Sync now.

The screenshot on this page shows a connection without Church tools, where Direction is still on the form. Church tools accounts do not see that menu.

Good to know

Planning Center supports real-time webhooks and has a 100-request / 20-second limit, so large syncs run in the background. Birthdates sync when present; email, phone, and address come across automatically.