Connecting Planning Center to MinistryStats

Planning Center is where many churches already record their weekend attendance. Connect it once, and MinistryStats pulls those attendance numbers into your dashboard for you — no more typing them in by hand.

What you get

Pulls in: your weekly attendance headcount totals.

Doesn't touch: MinistryStats reads your numbers and never changes anything in your Planning Center — not your people, not your check-ins, nothing.

Before you start

• You need an Admin or Owner role in MinistryStats. (Staff and volunteers can't see the Integrations screen.)
• Your attendance must be recorded in Planning Center Check-Ins as Headcounts. If you only keep attendance in a spreadsheet, there's nothing for MinistryStats to pull — see Recording attendance in Planning Center below first.
• This connection is read-only. MinistryStats reads your numbers and never writes back.

Recording attendance in Planning Center (only if you don't already)

1. In Planning Center, open Check-Ins.
2. Create an event (for example, "Sunday Service") with your service time(s).
3. Open the event and go to the Headcounts tab.
4. Enter your attendance number for each service. These are "custom headcounts" — you can enter them on the website or in the free Headcounts mobile app. You do not need to check in individuals; a headcount is just the number.

Connect it

1. Sign in to MinistryStats as an Admin or Owner.
2. Go to Settings → Integrations.
3. On the Planning Center card, click Connect Planning Center.
4. On Planning Center's screen, approve access to People and Check-Ins (read-only).
5. You'll return to MinistryStats showing "Connected to [your organization]."

Using it

1. On the Integrations page, click Sync attendance from Planning Center.
2. You'll see "Synced — N date(s) updated," and your headcount totals appear as weekend attendance in your dashboard.
3. Click Sync again anytime to refresh. Re-syncing updates the numbers safely — it never creates duplicates.

The first time you sync, Planning Center asks for one extra approval for Check-Ins (the initial connect only asked for People). Approve it once and syncing just works from then on.

What it does and doesn't do

• Does: pulls your attendance headcount totals into your weekend-attendance number. All services on a day are summed into that day's total.
• Doesn't: write to or change anything in Planning Center; pull giving, groups, or individual people. Attendance only, for now.

Disconnecting

Go to Settings → Integrations → Disconnect. This removes the connection. Numbers already pulled in stay in your dashboard.

If something looks wrong

• "No attendance found to sync" — make sure you've entered at least one Headcount in Check-Ins.
• Numbers off or missing for a campus — multi-campus mapping is still being added. For now, the sync fills your primary campus. Contact support if you need a specific campus mapped.
• Still stuck? Email support at ken@ministrystats.com.

Your data is safe

The connection is read-only by construction — MinistryStats can read from Planning Center but has no ability to write to it. Your access is stored securely on the server, in your own church's database, never in your browser and never in our logs. Only Admins and Owners can see or manage this integration.