Planning Center Integration
Your church probably already lives in Planning Center. Now Vitals can pull that data in automatically — no spreadsheets, no copy-pasting, no Monday morning data entry.
Native Integration
One-click setup, automatic weekly sync — it just works.
Why Connect Planning Center?
If your church uses Planning Center Online (PCO), you already have a goldmine of data about your weekend services — who showed up, how much was given, how many small groups are meeting. The problem is that data lives inside PCO, and getting it into a format where you can actually see trends and share it with your board or staff takes time.
That is where this integration comes in. Once you connect PCO to Vitals, your attendance, giving, and groups numbers flow in automatically every week. No more Monday morning spreadsheet sessions. No more asking the finance person to pull a report before your staff meeting. It is just there, ready to go.
And because Vitals shows all your metrics side by side — attendance, giving, online viewers, groups — you can start seeing the full picture of your church health in one place instead of bouncing between three or four different apps.
Before You Start
Before you connect, take a quick minute to make sure you have everything lined up. This will save you from the “why isn't it working” headache later.
- You have a Planning Center account with the right permissions. You need at least “Viewer” access to Check-Ins, Giving, and/or Groups — whichever apps you want to sync. If you are not sure, ask your church admin or whoever set up PCO.
- Your church is actively using PCO Check-Ins on Sundays. This means families are tapping their names on iPads, scanning name tags, or your volunteers are checking people in at the welcome desk. If your church counts heads manually instead of using PCO Check-Ins, you will want to enter attendance manually in Vitals.
- You know which PCO locations to sync. If your church has multiple campuses or locations in PCO, decide which ones you want Vitals to pull in. Most single-site churches just have one, but multi-site churches will want to think about this before connecting.
- Your PCO Giving is set up (if you want giving data). This is the part of Planning Center where online and in-person donations are recorded. If your church processes giving through a different platform (like Pushpay or Tithe.ly), you will enter that data separately.
- You are an admin in Vitals. Only team members with admin access can set up integrations. If you are not sure about your role, check Settings in the top right corner.
What Gets Synced
Vitals pulls data from three Planning Center apps. Here is what each one brings in, explained in plain English.
Check-Ins
This is the app you use on Sunday mornings when families tap their name on the iPad at the welcome desk, or when volunteers scan name tags in the kids area. Every time someone checks in, PCO records it.
Vitals pulls those numbers in so you can see exactly how many people came to each service.
- Total attendance by service time (9am, 11am, etc.)
- Kids ministry check-ins with room breakdowns
- Volunteer check-ins (optional — you choose)
- First-time guest tracking
Giving
PCO Giving tracks donations that come in through your church — whether someone drops a check in the offering plate, gives online through your website, or sets up a recurring gift. Vitals pulls in the weekly totals so you can see giving trends without logging into a separate system.
- Weekly giving totals
- Online vs. in-person breakdown
- Fund-specific tracking (general, missions, building, etc.)
- Year-over-year comparisons
Groups
If your church uses PCO Groups to manage small groups, Bible studies, or life groups, Vitals can pull in participation data. This helps you track whether people are actually getting connected beyond Sunday morning — which most pastors agree is where real growth happens.
- Active group count
- Total people participating in groups
- Leader counts
- Group health trends over time
How to Connect (5 Minutes)
This is genuinely one of the easiest things you will set up all week. Most churches are done in under five minutes.
- 1
Go to Settings → Integrations → Planning Center
From your Vitals dashboard, click on Settings in the sidebar, then find the Integrations page. You will see a Planning Center card right at the top — it is the most popular integration.
- 2
Click “Connect Planning Center”
This will open a new window that takes you to Planning Center's website. If you are already logged in to PCO, you will go straight to the authorization screen. If not, you will sign in first.
- 3
Click “Allow” to Authorize Vitals
Planning Center will show you exactly what Vitals is asking to access. We only request read-only access — we never change, delete, or add anything to your PCO account. Think of it like giving Vitals a library card, not the keys to the building.
- 4
Choose What to Sync
Back in Vitals, you will see checkboxes for Check-Ins, Giving, and Groups. Turn on the ones your church uses. If you are a multi-site church, you will also pick which PCO locations should map to which campuses in Vitals.
Tip: If you are not sure which PCO apps your church uses, ask your office admin or check your PCO dashboard — each app (Check-Ins, Giving, Groups, etc.) shows up as a separate icon in the top bar.
You are all set! Data syncs automatically.
Vitals will do an initial sync right away to pull in your recent history. After that, everything runs on autopilot every Monday morning. You can also hit “Sync Now” anytime if you want to pull fresh data on demand.
When Does Data Sync?
Automatic Weekly Sync — Monday Mornings
After your last Sunday service wraps up, Vitals waits until Monday morning to pull everything in. Why? Because late check-ins, last-minute offerings, and any corrections your team makes on Sunday evening all get included that way. By the time your staff walks in Monday, the numbers are ready.
- Check-Ins: Synced Monday at 6:00 AM (your timezone)
- Giving: Synced Monday at 6:00 AM (your timezone)
- Groups: Synced weekly on Mondays
Need data sooner? You can always click “Sync Now” on the integrations page to trigger a manual sync anytime. This is handy if you have a mid-week staff meeting and want the latest numbers.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Here is a typical week at a church using Vitals with Planning Center:
Sunday: Families check in on iPads in the lobby. Kids get name tags printed in the children's area. The offering is collected during the service, and online gifts come in throughout the day. All of this is recorded in PCO automatically.
Monday 6:00 AM: Vitals automatically reaches into your PCO account and pulls in everything from the weekend — total attendance, kids numbers, giving totals, the whole picture.
Monday 9:00 AM: Your senior pastor opens Vitals before staff meeting. She sees that attendance was up 8% over last month, giving was steady, but small group participation dipped — all in one glance. No spreadsheets. No hunting through reports.
What If My Numbers Don't Match?
This is the most common question we get, and it almost always has a simple explanation. Here are the usual suspects:
“Vitals shows fewer people than I see in PCO Check-Ins.”
This usually means your location mapping is off. Here is an example: say your church has three locations in PCO — “Main Campus,” “Youth Room,” and “Wednesday Night.” If you only mapped “Main Campus” in Vitals, the youth and midweek numbers would not show up.
Fix: Go to Settings → Integrations → Planning Center and check which locations are selected. Make sure every Sunday location is included.
“My giving numbers are lower in Vitals than in PCO.”
Check your fund settings. Vitals may be set to only sync certain funds (like “General Fund”) while PCO is showing everything including designated funds like “Missions,” “Building Fund,” or “Benevolence.” It is also possible that donations entered after Monday morning will not show up until the next sync.
Fix: Review your sync settings to make sure all the funds you want tracked are included. Or hit “Sync Now” to grab the latest totals.
“Vitals shows more people than what I expected.”
This often happens when volunteer check-ins are included. If your worship team, kids volunteers, and parking team all check in through PCO, those are counted too. Some churches want that (they are attending, after all!) and some prefer to exclude them.
Fix: In your sync settings, you can choose whether to include or exclude specific check-in types like volunteer stations.
“The numbers were right last week but wrong this week.”
Did someone on your team go back and adjust check-ins or giving in PCO after Monday morning? Vitals syncs at a specific time, so if corrections are made in PCO after the sync runs, Vitals will not pick them up until the next sync (or until you manually sync).
Fix: Click “Sync Now” to pull in the latest data, which will include any corrections made in PCO.
“My kids check-in numbers seem doubled.”
Some churches check kids in at the front door and again at the classroom. If both stations are set up as separate check-in types in PCO, the same child might be counted twice. This is a PCO configuration issue, not a Vitals bug.
Fix: Talk to whoever manages your PCO Check-Ins setup about consolidating check-in stations, or adjust which check-in types Vitals pulls from.
General Troubleshooting
Data is not syncing at all?
- Head to Settings → Integrations and make sure the Planning Center connection still shows as “Connected” with a green indicator. Sometimes PCO sessions expire and need to be reauthorized.
- Try clicking “Sync Now” to manually trigger a sync. If it works, your automatic sync may have just been delayed.
- Verify you have the right PCO permissions. You need at least Viewer access to the PCO apps you are trying to sync. If your church recently changed PCO admins, your access may have been reset.
Need to reconnect?
If your connection seems broken, do not worry — disconnecting and reconnecting is painless. Go to Settings → Integrations → Planning Center and click “Disconnect.” Then follow the setup steps above to reconnect. All your historical data in Vitals is preserved — you will not lose anything.
Changed your PCO password?
If you recently changed your Planning Center password or your church switched PCO accounts, you will need to reconnect the integration. The old authorization is tied to the previous login session.
Pro Tips from Churches Using This Integration
- Set up a Monday morning routine. Many pastors open Vitals first thing Monday to review the weekend. Since data syncs at 6 AM, everything is ready before your first cup of coffee.
- Use Vitals for your board reports. Instead of pulling separate reports from PCO for attendance, giving, and groups, use Vitals as your single source. It is especially helpful for elder boards and denomination reports.
- Watch the trends, not just the numbers. A single Sunday with low attendance might mean there was a snowstorm. But if you see attendance declining for four weeks straight, that is worth a conversation. Vitals makes trends easy to spot.
- Combine with YouTube data for total reach. If your church livestreams, connect the YouTube integration too. Then you can see in-person attendance plus online viewers for a true picture of how many people your church reached on Sunday.
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Still have questions? Email us at support@vitals.church — we usually reply within a few hours.