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Service Plans

Service plans organize who is serving and when. Each plan is tied to a specific date and ministry, making it easy to coordinate your volunteer teams week by week and ensure every service is fully staffed.

Training Video​

Creating Plans and Scheduling Volunteers in B1 · Watch on YouTubeNext video: Building the Service Order and Song Library in B1

Before You Begin

  • Set up your ministries and teams in the Serving area
  • Make sure volunteers have been added to your people directory and assigned to teams

Accessing Plans​

  1. In B1 Admin, open the Jump menu (the search bar at the top-left), expand Serving, and click Plans.
  2. Select a ministry tab at the top of the page.
  3. Click on a plan type to see the list of plans for that type. Use Upcoming and Past above the list to switch between future and earlier plans. Upcoming lists plans from today on, soonest first, with undated plans at the end. Past lists only earlier plans, newest first.
  4. Click on a specific plan to open it.

Each plan page shows links back to its plan type and to Plans, so you can move back up without the browser's back button.

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Full admin access is not required to manage plans. Anyone who is a member of a ministry can navigate to Serving and create, edit, and schedule plans for their own ministry without needing the Plans Edit permission. Editors with the Plans Edit role can manage plans across every ministry.

Creating a Plan​

  1. From the plan type page, click New Plan at the top of the page. The Add a Plan form opens.
  2. Give the plan a name or use the date as the name. Select the Service Date. If your church has more than one campus, you can also pick the plan's Campus.
  3. If your ministry has templates, you can pick one under Start from template to fill in the order of service, positions, and notes in one step.
  4. Otherwise, if you would like to copy from a previous plan, use Copy from Previous Plan to choose Positions Only or Positions and Assignments. If you do not want to copy, choose Nothing. You can also check Copy Order of Service. When you copy from a previous plan, the new plan also keeps that plan's Notes, Signup Deadline, Show volunteer names on signup page, and automatic-replacement setting, so you don't have to re-enter them each week. You can change any of them in the new plan's settings.
  5. To set up several plans at once while copying, choose Repeat every and Frequency (Day, Week, or Month), then enter the Number of plans (up to 12). For Month, On lets you keep the same day of the month or the same weekday, such as the second Saturday. B1 lists the dates before you save and creates one plan for each date, each copied from the one before it. If the plan is named after its date, each new plan is named after its own date.
  6. Optionally set the Signup Deadline (hours before service). A new plan starts with the previous plan's deadline, and you can change it here. Leave it blank for no deadline. See Plan Settings for how the deadline is counted.
  7. Save the plan. You can now begin assigning team members and building out the service order.
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The repeat settings are only available while you are copying something from the previous plan (positions, assignments, or the order of service).

The Plan Page​

When you open a plan, its ministry and plan type, name, and service date appear at the top, with Print and Edit details buttons. The page gives you an overview of the whole plan:

  • Run time, Serving team, and Responses tiles show the length of the order of service, how many positions are filled (for example, "10 of 13 filled"), and how many volunteers have accepted, are pending, or declined.
  • Order of Service shows the first items of the order of service with their lengths. Click Edit order of service to open the full order of service on its own page.
  • Serving team lists each position by category with the volunteers assigned and how many are still needed. If anything needs attention, a line such as "1 conflict · 3 not notified" appears with a Review link. Click Manage serving team to open the full serving team page.
  • Times lists the plan's service and rehearsal times. See Service Times.
  • Notes holds notes for the whole team. Click Edit, type your notes, and click Save Notes.

The order of service and serving team pages each have a Back to plan link that returns you to the overview.

Service Times​

Times tell B1 when the service and any rehearsals happen. They are used for the signup deadline, plan validation, volunteer reminders, and the clock times in the order of service.

  1. On the plan page, click Add time next to Times.
  2. Choose the Type: Service, Rehearsal, or Other.
  3. Enter a Display Name (for example, "Sunday Service" or "Rehearsal").
  4. Set the Start Time and End Time.
  5. Under Needed Serving Teams, check the position categories (for example, Worship or Technical) that serve at this time.
  6. Click Save.

Click a time's name to edit or delete it.

Assigning Team Members​

  1. Open a plan and click Manage serving team.
  2. Click Add Position. In the Add a Position dialog, choose or type a Category Name (for example, Worship or Hospitality), enter the position Name and the Volunteer Count, and pick a Volunteer Group. To let anyone in your church fill the position (not just members of one team), leave Volunteer Group set to None. Check Allow Self-Signup to let volunteers sign themselves up for open spots, and add an optional Description that volunteers see when they browse signup opportunities. Click Save.
  3. Click the People Needed link next to the position (for example, "2 People Needed").
  4. In the Assign Position dialog, click a team member's name to assign them. If the position's Volunteer Group is set to None, search for anyone in your church and click the add-person icon next to the person instead. Click Done when you're finished.
  5. Assigned volunteers appear next to the position. A green dot on their picture means they accepted, and a red dot means they declined.
  6. Notify the volunteers from the Validation panel (see Notifying Volunteers). If the plan uses a confirmation workflow, notifying also starts a workflow card that follows up on each request until the volunteer responds.

To change or remove an assignment, click the volunteer's name and click Delete in the Edit Assignment dialog. To change a position, click its name; Delete in the Edit Position dialog removes the position and unschedules anyone assigned to it.

Each position shows a count chip (for example, "2/3", or "1/2 signup" for self-signup positions) so you can see how many spots are filled at a glance. At the top of the serving team page, a summary ("X of Y positions filled") shows your overall staffing for the plan, along with how many are still needed, switching to Fully staffed once every position is covered.

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Set up your teams in the ministry settings before creating plans. This way, you will have a ready pool of volunteers to assign from.

Auto Assign​

Click Auto Assign on the serving team page to fill every open spot from the position's Volunteer Group. Positions without a Volunteer Group are skipped. To take back the volunteers it just added, click Undo Auto Assign. You can also fill many plans at once from the Plans Overview.

Scheduling Preferences​

In the Assign Position dialog, click the sliders icon next to a team member to set their Scheduling Preferences: Max times per month, Preferred service times, and Household scheduling (schedule the household together, or not on the same day). Plan validation warns you when an assignment goes against these preferences.

Copying Positions into an Empty Plan​

If a plan has no positions yet and there is an earlier plan of the same type, a Copy from Previous Plan link appears on the serving team page. Choose Positions Only or Positions and Assignments to fill the plan you have open with the previous plan's positions (and volunteers). The copy goes into the current plan; it does not create a second plan for the same date.

Plan Settings​

Each plan has additional settings you can configure by clicking Edit next to the plan in the plan type's list, or Edit details at the top of the plan page. Click Done (or the plan's name above the form) to return to the plan. The same form has a Delete button that deletes the plan, including its positions, assignments, and order of service. The settings include:

  • Signup Deadline (hours before service) — the number of hours before the service when volunteer signups close. The hours are counted back from the plan's first Service time (rehearsals and other times are skipped unless the plan has nothing else), so a 2-hour deadline on a 10:00 AM service closes signups at 8:00 AM that morning. If the plan has no times, the deadline is counted from 9:00 AM on the service date in your church's time zone. Once it passes, volunteers can neither sign up nor remove themselves. Enter a negative number to keep signups open past the service start time. Leave it blank, or clear it, for no deadline.
  • Confirmation workflow — choose a Serving Assignment Confirmation workflow to follow up on this plan's serving requests by email and text until each volunteer accepts or declines. When you Notify volunteers on the published plan, each new request gets its own card on that workflow's board, and a note above the notify link says "New requests use the confirmation workflow." Leave it on Use existing assignment notifications to keep the usual notifications. Only active confirmation workflows appear in the list; create one under Serving > Workflows first.
  • Show volunteer names on signup page — when checked, signed-in volunteers can see who else is already signed up for each position on the B1.church signup page. Names are never shown to visitors who aren't signed in. It also controls whether the volunteers covering each order-of-service item are printed next to it (see Printing Plans).
  • Penciled in — hides assignments from volunteers until you are ready to publish the schedule. While a plan is penciled in, the Validation panel on the serving team page shows a Publish Plan button (or Publish & Notify when volunteers haven't been notified yet) that makes the assignments visible.
  • Automatically schedule a replacement when a volunteer declines — when checked, if an assigned volunteer declines their position B1 will automatically contact the next available person on the team roster and ask if they can serve. This continues down the list until someone accepts, keeping your positions filled without manual follow-up.
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On the member signup page, each plan's open positions are listed by category and then by name. Members see every upcoming week with open positions unless you turn on Show only the next week of each plan type in Settings > Volunteer Signup.

Volunteer Reminders​

B1 can automatically remind volunteers ahead of the services they are scheduled for, so you do not have to chase down your team each week. Reminders go to everyone scheduled — both those who have confirmed and those who have not yet responded. The exception is a request sent through a confirmation workflow: that volunteer gets reminders only after they accept, since the workflow handles following up until then. Each reminder email includes the volunteer's position(s), the service date, the plan notes, and your custom message.

Reminder timing and content are set per plan type, so each kind of service can keep its own schedule.

  1. From the Serving area, select the ministry that contains the plan type.
  2. In the Plan Types list, click Edit next to the plan type.
  3. Expand the Reminders section and turn on Send reminders for plans of this type.
  4. Under When should reminders go out?, pick up to three timings: 7 days before, 3 days before, 2 days before, 1 day before, or Day of.
  5. Set the Time of Day the reminders go out.
  6. Optionally add a Message. Leave it blank to use the default reminder wording.
  7. Under Send By, choose Push, Email, and, if your church has a texting provider connected, Text.
  8. Click Save Reminders.

Reminders are off for a plan type until you turn them on.

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Volunteers who have not yet confirmed get Accept and Decline buttons right inside the reminder email, so they can respond without signing in.

Text Reminders​

The Text option only appears when your church has a texting provider connected. Texts go out through your church's texting provider, and each text may cost your church. A volunteer only receives a text reminder if they have turned on Text messages in their Notification Preferences and have a mobile number on their profile. Each text starts with your church's name, is kept to a single text message, and ends with "Reply STOP to opt out." Anyone who replies STOP stops receiving texts from your church. For STOP replies to reach B1, paste the Inbound (STOP) webhook URL from your texting settings into your provider's inbound message webhook.

To text everyone scheduled over a range of dates right away, use Text Volunteers on the Plans Overview.

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Each reminder is sent once. Text reminders are sent in addition to push and email, not instead of them.

Associating Groups with a Plan Type​

Below the plan list on the plan type page, the Associated Groups section lets you decide which groups can see the plans for this plan type from their member portal. This is a quick way to surface upcoming services to the right teams without giving them admin access.

  1. On the plan type page, click Associated Groups at the top of the page (or scroll down to that section).
  2. Click Add Group and pick a group from the dropdown.
  3. In the Shows column, choose whether members of that group should see Past plans only, Upcoming plans only, or Past and upcoming plans for this plan type.
  4. Repeat to associate additional groups, or click the trash icon to remove a group.
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Only groups tagged as Standard appear in the picker. Members of an associated group automatically see this plan type's plans on the group's page in the B1 member portal — limited to the window you selected.

If the plans are Lessons.church lessons, members of the associated group also see a This week's lesson card on the group page (bottom line, verse, and a question for parents). Associate a parent group here and set the filter to Past plans only so today's lesson is included. Volunteer teams typically use Upcoming plans only or Past and upcoming plans.

Printing Plans​

You can print a plan for distribution to your team. Open the plan and click Print at the top of the page to generate a printable version that includes assignments and the service order. The top of the printout shows your church logo (the Light Background Logo from Website > Appearance, if you've uploaded one) with your church's name beneath it, and the plan's name, so loose pages are easy to identify. This is useful for handing out at rehearsals or posting in a common area.

When the plan has more than one service time, the printout has a time column for each service, headed with its start time. An item left out of a service (see Including Items in Specific Service Times) shows a dash in that service's column.

The printout leaves off anything that would be empty. If no volunteers are assigned, there's no team box and the service order uses the full page width. If no items have a length, the Length column is left off, and if the plan has no service times and no lengths, so is the Time column. To drop the black Service Order heading bar with the service date, uncheck Show Service Order heading at the top of the print page; B1 Admin remembers your choice on that browser.

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Plans are organized by ministry. Make sure you are on the correct ministry tab before creating or viewing plans.

Next Steps​

  • Use the Plans Overview to see all upcoming assignments across multiple weeks in one grid and spot unfilled positions — and assign volunteers directly from the grid
  • Save a plan's structure as a Plan Template so you can stamp it onto future plans in one click
  • Build out your Service Order with songs, readings, and other elements
  • Add songs from your library directly into the service order
  • Use Tasks to assign follow-up action items to team members
  • Display current lesson content on a lobby TV with Digital Signage