Inviting Team Members
Vitals works best when your whole team is on board. Here's how to get everyone set up with the right level of access.
One of the best things about Vitals is that it gets everyone on the same page — literally. When your lead pastor, campus pastors, board members, and office staff all have access to the same dashboard, conversations about church health move from guesswork to data. Let's get your team set up.
Understanding Roles
Vitals has three roles, and the idea is simple: give each person the least amount of access they need to do their job. You can always upgrade someone's role later — it's much easier than walking back access you gave too freely.
The keys to the kingdom. Admins can do everything: manage settings, handle billing, set up integrations, invite and remove team members, and of course view and edit all data.
Think: lead pastor, executive pastor, church administrator
Editors can enter and update weekly metric data — attendance numbers, giving totals, group counts — but can't touch organization settings, billing, or team management.
Think: campus pastor, office manager, data entry volunteer
Read-only access. Viewers can see dashboards and reports but can't enter or change any data. Perfect for people who need visibility but shouldn't be editing numbers.
Think: board members, elders, denominational overseers
Who Should Get What Role? A Quick Reference
Here's what we typically see at churches. Your situation might be a little different, but this is a great starting point.
| Church Role | Vitals Role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lead / Senior Pastor | Admin | Needs full visibility and control over everything |
| Executive Pastor | Admin | Usually manages day-to-day operations and settings |
| Church Administrator / Office Manager | Admin | Often the one managing integrations and team access |
| Campus Pastor | Editor | Enters campus data; can be scoped to their campus only |
| Worship / Creative Pastor | Viewer | Likes seeing trends but doesn't enter data |
| Weekend Volunteer Coordinator | Editor | May enter volunteer counts or attendance for their area |
| Bookkeeper / Finance Person | Editor | Enters or verifies giving data each week |
| Board Member / Elder | Viewer | Needs to see the numbers before meetings — not edit them |
| Denominational Overseer | Viewer | Read-only access for accountability and reporting |
| Data Entry Volunteer | Editor | Enters numbers weekly; consider campus-specific access |
A practical example
At a mid-size church, this might look like: your executive pastor and church administrator are Admins (2 people). Your three campus pastors and your bookkeeper are Editors (4 people). And your 7 board members are Viewers. That's 13 people total, all seeing the same data, each with exactly the access they need.
How to Invite Someone
Only Admins can send invitations. The whole process takes about 30 seconds per person, and invitations are sent by email. They expire after 7 days, but you can always resend if someone misses theirs.
- 1
Go to Settings → Team
You'll see a list of everyone who already has access.
- 2
Click Invite Member
The invite form opens right on the page.
- 3
Enter their email address
Use the email they'll want to sign in with. If they have a church email, that's usually best.
- 4
Choose their role
Pick Admin, Editor, or Viewer. Not sure? Start with Viewer — you can always upgrade later.
- 5
Click Send Invite
They'll get an email with a secure link to create their account or sign in with Google.
What happens next
Once someone accepts their invite, they show up in your team list immediately. They can sign in with the email you invited them with, or use Google if that email is connected to a Google account. Easy peasy.
A Smart Invite Strategy
You don't have to invite everyone at once. In fact, we recommend rolling it out in waves so you can answer questions as they come up.
Wave 1: Core Leadership (Day 1)
Invite your executive pastor and church administrator as Admins. These are the people who'll help you configure settings and decide which metrics to track.
Wave 2: Data Entry Team (Week 1)
Add campus pastors, your bookkeeper, and anyone else who'll be entering weekly numbers as Editors. Make sure they know where to find the data entry screen.
Wave 3: Stakeholders (Week 2-3)
Once you have a couple weeks of data flowing, invite board members and elders as Viewers. They'll be impressed when they log in and see a real dashboard with actual trends instead of a static report.
Managing Your Team
People come and go at every church — that's just the nature of ministry. Here's how to keep your team list current.
To change someone's role or remove them entirely, go to Settings → Team and click the three-dot menu next to their name. Changes take effect immediately — no need to resend an invite or wait for anything.
Things to know
When a staff member leaves your church, remove their access right away. Their login is deactivated instantly. This is important — you don't want a former employee still able to see giving data.
Removing someone doesn't delete their data. Every number they entered is preserved in full. The audit trail stays intact.
There must always be at least one Admin. You can't remove the last Admin from the account. If you need to transfer ownership, add the new person as Admin first, then remove the old one.
Staff transition checklist
When someone leaves your team, here's what to do in Vitals:
- Remove their access in Settings → Team
- If they were the only Editor for a campus, assign someone else
- If they were an Admin, make sure someone else has Admin access first
- Update any weekly email digest settings if they were a recipient
Campus-Specific Access
This one's especially useful for multi-site churches. You can restrict an Editor to a single campus, so they only see and edit data for their location. This keeps things clean and prevents well-meaning campus pastors from accidentally editing another campus's numbers.
How to set campus access
Open the team member's profile in Settings → Team and select their campus under Campus Access. Once set, they'll only see data for that campus when they log in.
Note: Admins and Viewers always have organization-wide access, regardless of campus settings. Campus-specific access only applies to the Editor role.
When to use campus access
Say you have three campuses: Downtown, Northside, and Eastside. Pastor Sarah leads Northside. If you give her Editor access with campus-specific access set to Northside, she'll only see Northside data when she enters numbers or views reports. She won't accidentally enter her headcount under the Downtown campus, and she won't see Eastside's giving numbers. Meanwhile, your executive pastor (an Admin) still sees everything across all three campuses.
Common Questions
Can I change someone's role after they've been invited?
Absolutely. Go to Settings → Team, click the three-dot menu next to their name, and change their role. It takes effect immediately.
What if someone didn't get the invite email?
Check their spam/junk folder first (it happens more than you'd think). If it's not there, you can resend the invite from Settings → Team. Invitations expire after 7 days, so resending generates a fresh link.
Is there a limit to how many people I can invite?
Nope! Invite as many people as you need. Whether you're a church of 50 with 3 team members or a church of 5,000 with 30 staff, Vitals scales with you.
Can board members only see certain metrics?
Right now, Viewers see all metrics for the organization (or their campus if campus-scoped). If you need to restrict which metrics someone sees, let us know — we'd love to hear how you'd use that feature.
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Still have questions? Email us at support@vitals.church — we usually reply within a few hours.