Church-Ops Africa Onboarding Training Script

Course Title: Automating Administration and Extending Pastoral Care
Duration: 60 Minutes
Target Audience: Pastors, church secretaries, treasurers, ushers, media leads, and key volunteers
Training Mode: Use your own church workspace during the session

Session Roadmap

1. System Overview & Mobile Access (10 Minutes)

Facilitator Script

"Good morning, leaders. Welcome to our onboarding session for Church-Ops Africa. Today, we are walking through the live workspace for your church.

Church-Ops Africa is not just software. It is a ministry operations platform designed to simplify administration so your team can focus more fully on care, discipleship, stewardship, and communication.

We will start with the main church dashboard, then open the member portal, and finally move into the tools your staff will use each week."

Steps to Demonstrate

1. Open the staff login at /login.
2. Show the church workspace at /c/{church-slug}/dashboard.
3. Open the member portal at /m/{church-slug}/portal.
4. Demonstrate the Add to Home Screen flow on mobile so members can install the portal as a lightweight PWA.

2. Directory & Member Data Management (15 Minutes)

Facilitator Script

"Now let's organize the church directory. Instead of entering every person one at a time, we can import a well-prepared spreadsheet and then clean up the details from inside the directory.

We also support custom fields for local context, such as neighborhoods, districts, villages, or ministry zones. Those fields help pastors, cell leaders, and follow-up teams work more effectively."

Steps to Demonstrate

1. Navigate to the member import area and download the official CSV template.
2. Open a sample spreadsheet to show:
   • first name / last name formatting
   • phone number formatting with the right country code
   • local location fields used by your church
3. Upload the sheet and run the preview.
4. Open the directory to confirm the imported members are visible.

3. Giving, Finance & Ledger Basics (15 Minutes)

Facilitator Script

"Next, we will open the finance workspace. This is where your church records giving, tracks expenses, monitors budgets, and follows up on payment status when online giving is enabled.

We will also show how the team can record physical offerings and receipts so the ledger stays complete even when contributions do not come through the portal."

Steps to Demonstrate

1. Go to Settings Center > Finance & Payments and review the configured gateway fields.
2. Navigate to Finance > Transactions and enter one sample inflow or outflow record.
3. Open the finance overview or Budget vs Actual report to show the update.
4. Explain the difference between Completed, Pending, and Failed transaction states.

4. Communication & Campaign Workflow (10 Minutes)

Facilitator Script

"Now let's open the communication tools. This is where your church sends WhatsApp messages, SMS alerts, email updates, and follow-up campaigns.

We will write the message using dynamic tags like {{first_name}} to personalize it, and we will apply pacing settings so the church account stays healthy during larger sends."

Steps to Demonstrate

1. Open Settings Center > Communications & WhatsApp and confirm the active church sender details.
2. Visit Communication Hub for templates and signatures, then open Outreach Center for campaigns.
3. Choose a target audience such as a ministry team, small group, or selected members.
4. Insert {{first_name}} in the message body.
5. Preview the message, save a draft, and explain the queue-and-send process.

5. Dashboards, Questions & Next Steps (10 Minutes)

Facilitator Script

"Finally, let's look at the reports and dashboards. These help your church measure attendance, monitor stewardship, and follow through on pastoral care and ministry planning.

After this session, each team lead should know which area they own, which permissions they need, and where to return for their weekly work."

Common Questions & Answers

• Question: "What happens if a member gives online but the transaction remains pending?"
  • Answer: "The finance team can review the record, verify the payment through the gateway if needed, and reconcile it inside the finance workspace."
• Question: "Can we stop volunteers from seeing financial reports?"
  • Answer: "Yes. Review the volunteer role under Access Control and remove any finance permissions that role should not have."