ParishSignUp Docs

Roles in a parish

Everyone on a parish's roster is a parishioner. On top of that, a person can hold one or more positions, and each position decides what they can do in the app. Positions add up: a council member who also heads the sisterhood gets both. Positions are set in Parish Admin → People with the Positions picker, by anyone who can assign positions (see below) or a site admin.

• Priest — A council officer. Full parish management (members, invites, join requests, settings, sign-up sheets, the plan and billing, and the Parish Plus tools: memberships, surveys, stewardship, catechesis, and analytics) and can assign positions. Priests appear as confessors on confession signup sheets and can see who signed up for their own confession slots (this respects the seal of confession — other priests and even admins cannot see confession signups that aren't theirs). They create confession sheets and recurring confession schedules. They do not see pledge dollar amounts, which stay with the treasurer.
• Warden and Secretary — Council officers. Full parish management, billing, and assigning positions. The secretary also sets each person's membership standing (see "Membership standing").
• Treasurer — A council officer. Full parish management, billing, and assigning positions, and the only position that can see pledge amounts and stewardship totals. A site admin is not an exception. Pledge amounts and stewardship totals stay hidden from a site admin unless that person is also the treasurer of that parish.
• App manager — A volunteer who runs the app for the parish without holding a council office. Full parish management, but not billing, pledge amounts, or assigning positions. Parishes that had "admins" before positions existed had each admin converted to app manager.
• Council member — Sign-up sheets, plus read-only oversight of the parish: a "Council" link (header on a computer, bottom bar on a phone) opens Memberships and Time and Talent, where they read submitted membership and survey answers (including time and talents) and see membership standing. They cannot send forms, delete a form, or change anything there, and never see stewardship or pledge amounts. No settings, positions, or billing.
• Head of brotherhood / Head of sisterhood — Can create sign-up sheets. Managing their group's own membership list is not available yet.
• Catechist — Uses Catechesis (roster, classes, attendance). Anyone who manages the parish can name catechists from the Catechesis page.
• Officer — A mark on top of someone's positions, not a position of its own. It lets someone assign positions without holding a council office; parishes used it before positions existed, and the person who creates a parish gets it so someone can assign positions from day one. Only priests, wardens, secretaries, treasurers, officers, and site admins change positions, approve role requests, and remove an officer from the parish. A parish always keeps at least one person who can assign positions. Officers show an "Officer" badge in Parish Admin → People.
• Coordinator — A position assigned in Parish Admin (not a self-serve request). Coordinators can always create, edit, and delete signup sheets they created. That does not depend on the member-create setting. They can create surveys only when the parish already has Parish Plus, and they can submit Time and Talents there, but they cannot see other people's answers. They cannot change parish settings, members, roles, billing, groups, or who can see a sheet. They do not see the plan price, pledge amounts, the membership or stewardship management pages, analytics, other people's drafts, or confession names. They can use Catechesis only if an admin names them a catechist. The 2027 forms show on Home only after an admin or treasurer sends that form to them. They can still submit Time and Talents from Time and Talent when the parish has Parish Plus.
• Parishioner (no position; called "Member" before) — Everyone else. Parishioners browse published signup sheets, sign up for slots, and manage their own signups. Anyone who joins a parish starts as a parishioner. A parish can optionally allow members to create signups too (an admin enables this in parish settings). Being allowed to create signup sheets does not grant access to membership management, surveys, or parish analytics. A member an admin names as a catechist can use Catechesis. Members do not see the 2027 forms on Home until an admin or treasurer sends that form to them. After that send, and when the parish has Parish Plus, they can open it there and submit it.

People in a parish: visitors, catechesis, and roles

Four separate things describe a person. They do not overlap.

• Visitor — Someone who signed in at the door with the parish's visitor QR code. A visit is logged for the parish. A visitor is not on the parish roster and gets no access.
• Catechesis stage — Inquirer, then Catechumen, then Received, each with a date. This is a person's path into the Church, kept in Catechesis. A stage never gives anyone access to anything. An inquirer or catechumen may also join the parish in the app; that is separate from their stage.
• Positions — What someone can do in the app for this parish: none (a parishioner), or one or more of priest, warden, secretary, treasurer, app manager, council member, head of brotherhood or sisterhood, catechist, and coordinator (see "Roles in a parish"). The officer mark sits on top and lets someone assign positions.
• Parish membership under the bylaws — Being a parishioner in the app only means the person joined the parish on ParishSignUp. It is not the same as a voting member under the parish bylaws. Voting membership is recorded separately as membership standing. The membership form a person submits each year is kept under memberships, and they can see what they sent in Profile Settings.

A usual path: a visitor comes to a service, starts catechesis as an inquirer, becomes a catechumen, is received, and then submits the parish membership form.

A site admin runs ParishSignUp itself, not a parish. Site admin is granted only by the people who operate ParishSignUp, never from inside the app.

Membership standing

Membership standing records who is a voting member under the parish bylaws, year by year. It is a record about a person and gives no access in the app.

• Values: Voting member or Non-voting member for a given year, or not set. It does not carry over: each year's membership drive sets it again.
• Who sets it: only the parish secretary (and a site admin), on the Memberships page, in the "Membership standing" card. It lists everyone who sent that year's membership form.
• Who sees it: people with council oversight (priest, warden, secretary, treasurer, app manager, council member). Each person sees their own standing in Profile Settings → My parish forms.
• Received first: someone still listed as an inquirer or catechumen in Catechesis can't be given standing. Once they are received, they can.

Finding Parish

Admins, treasurers, and priests open Parish for members, settings, and Parish Plus. On a phone it is a tab in the bottom bar. On a computer it is in the header, next to Home and My Signups. Coordinators see Time and Talent in that same place. Members do not see Parish.

Parish plans

Volunteer signups (sheets, confession, groups, calendar, guests) stay on the free plan. Parish Plus is an optional per-parish subscription that unlocks memberships, surveys, stewardship, catechesis, and analytics. For the parish you have selected, those pages are /my-parish/stewardship, /my-parish/memberships, /my-parish/surveys, /my-parish/analytics, and /my-parish/admin. The parish id is not in that address. A link that names a different parish still includes the id, then drops it once that parish is the one you have selected. The shared confession link keeps the id. Prices are public on the Pricing page, /pricing. Inside the app, a parish's own plan and billing are shown only to parish admins, treasurers, and priests in Parish settings → Plan. A site admin who is not an admin, treasurer, or priest of that parish does not see its plan price and cannot open its billing. Only admins, treasurers, and priests can subscribe. A site admin is the only person who can open memberships, surveys, stewardship, and analytics without the parish paying. Every other parish stays on the free plan until an admin or treasurer subscribes, and no other role is exempt. St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in McKinney has Parish Plus without a subscription. No other parish does. A coordinator can create surveys only when the parish already has Parish Plus, and cannot open memberships, stewardship, or analytics. The price depends on the parish's size: when subscribing, the admin or treasurer picks Mission (up to 50 households), Small (51–150), Medium (151–400), or Large (more than 400), and yearly or monthly billing. Households are counted, not individuals. Yearly: Mission $240, Small $480, Medium $900, Large $1,500. Monthly: Mission $24, Small $48, Medium $90, Large $150. Paying yearly costs the same as ten months. The first month is free. The parish chooses "Start free month, no card" or "Start free month with a card". During the free month the Plan tab shows the date it ends and whether a card is on file. Without a card by then, Parish Plus pauses: memberships, surveys, stewardship, catechesis, and analytics turn off until the parish subscribes, and volunteer sign-up sheets keep working with nothing lost. To keep it, an admin or treasurer adds a card in Manage billing before the free month ends. With a card, the subscription renews automatically each year or month until it is canceled in billing. Discount codes (for example for missions) are entered on the checkout page. A parish that already subscribed does not get a second free month. When that checkout is completed, each site admin is emailed and, if they have linked Telegram, messaged there. A later renewal does not send that notice again.

Each parish is given three 2027 forms: Membership, Time and Talents, and Financial Support. The membership form starts with one adult. Buttons add another adult or a child. A blank section is not saved as a person. The parish name, city, and state are filled in. They cannot be submitted until the parish has Parish Plus. Members and coordinators do not see "2027 parish forms" on Home until an admin or treasurer sends that form to them. A send to selected people shows it only to those people. A send to every member shows it to members of the parish at that time, not to people who join later. Admins and treasurers see all three forms on Home under "2027 parish forms", to fill in for their own family, each with a "Send to members and see answers" link to Memberships, Surveys, or Stewardship, where they send it and review the answers. A site admin can open those pages without the parish paying, but still cannot submit a form unless they are a member and the parish has Parish Plus. Pledge dollar amounts are stored apart from the form answers. Only the treasurer can see them. The person who submitted can still see their own amount on the form. A site admin is not an exception. Coordinators do not manage memberships or stewardship and do not see other people's answers or pledge amounts. An admin, treasurer, or priest can send the membership form, the time-and-talents survey, or the financial-support form to selected members or to every member. The site asks them to confirm before anything is sent. That send is what places the form on Home for those people, including people whose notifications are off. Each person is notified by email or Telegram, whichever they turned on. The message links to that form. For the parish they have selected, the page is /my-parish/forms/<template-key>. A link that still includes the parish id also opens it, then drops the id once that parish is selected. After they submit, they see a thank-you screen. They can open the membership form or Time and Talents again at any time during the year, change answers, and save to update it. The financial-support pledge cannot be changed until the next membership drive, because the parish budget is planned from it. For a survey such as Time and Talents, an admin or treasurer can name up to three parish admins, priests, or treasurers to be notified when it is submitted, and a contact person for each area. The person filling it out does not choose who receives it. Membership and financial-support forms never send a notice per submission, because a parish receives many at once; they are reviewed under Memberships, Stewardship, and Analytics. If the family last name is already on another membership in the parish, the form warns them and still lets them submit. Analytics is only for admins and treasurers, and for a site admin opening the tools. It lists membership forms, survey responses, and pledges on one page, and it reads the submitted answers. For a survey such as Time and Talents, each checked area, such as Trapeza or Brotherhood, lists the people who signed up, using the full name written on the form. Pledge dollar amounts stay treasurer-only. A site admin is not an exception. An admin or treasurer can delete a submitted form of any kind (membership, Time and Talents, or financial support, with its pledges) after confirming, from the answers list on Memberships, Surveys, or Stewardship. That is for a test form or an invalid form; the person can then fill it in again. The Time and Talents form is sent and reviewed under Surveys; Stewardship points there. On the Time and Talents survey's page, "Who gets each area's names" lets a parish admin choose one contact person for each area (Trapeza, Brotherhood, Myrrhbearers, and so on). Any member of the parish can be the contact, a parishioner included, or "No one". When someone checks that area, its contact gets their name and email. Each choice saves at once. Jurisdiction does not affect the price. A parish that already subscribed keeps the price it started with; to change its size, contact us.

Catechesis (Parish Plus)

Catechesis keeps a roster of inquirers, catechumens, and people who were received, and records attendance at every class. It is part of Parish Plus; a parish without Parish Plus sees a prompt to subscribe instead. For the parish you have selected, the page is /my-parish/catechesis.

• Who can use it: the priest, parish admins, treasurers, and catechists. An admin names catechists under Parish Admin → Access. A catechist sees the roster and takes attendance, and nothing else in Parish Admin. Members, coordinators, and other people do not see Catechesis unless they are named as a catechist. Priests and catechists find Catechesis in the header (on a phone, in the bottom bar).
• Taking attendance: tap "Start today's class". It shows a QR code that works for 12 hours. Show it on a screen or hold up a phone. People scan it, sign in to their ParishSignUp account, and are checked in. Someone coming for the first time fills in a short form (name, and optionally phone, a photo, and comments) and is added as an inquirer. Staff can also tick people present or absent by hand.
• Stages: staff move a person from Inquirer to Catechumen to Received, each with a date. "Undo last step" goes back one stage.
• Records: staff can archive a person (and restore them later) to keep their history, or delete a record entered by mistake. Deleting removes the person, their photo, and their attendance and cannot be undone.
• Export: attendance can be downloaded as a CSV file with "Export CSV".

Dioceses

A diocese is separate from a parish role and from Parish Plus. It is not a paid plan.

• When creating or editing a parish, an admin or treasurer can optionally choose the parish's diocese. The list depends on the jurisdiction (ROCOR, OCA, Greek Archdiocese, and so on). Changing the jurisdiction clears a diocese that no longer matches.
• A parish admin, treasurer, or priest can open Dioceses from Profile Settings and claim a diocese. Members and coordinators do not see that request. The claim does nothing until a site admin approves it. There can be more than one admin for the same diocese.
• Any parish member can leave a parish from Profile Settings. The only parish admin cannot leave until another admin is added. Treasurer, priest, coordinator, and member can leave. Leaving does not delete the parish.
• An approved diocese admin sees only the parishes that selected that diocese — not every parish in the jurisdiction, and not parishes that have not chosen a diocese. They can open a read-only view of that parish's published signup sheets (name, city, member count, sheet count, last active). They do not see member emails, draft sheets, invite-only sheets, pledge amounts, or confession names, and they cannot edit the parish, its billing, or its roles.
• Site admin approves or rejects claims under Site admin → Dioceses, and can also grant or revoke a diocese admin without a claim, or add a diocese that is not in the catalog.

Getting started / onboarding

• Create a free account (no credit card needed).
• Add your parish, or find and join an existing one:
• If your parish isn't on ParishSignUp yet, choose "Add a new parish" — you become its first admin, and the parish is auto-verified.
• If your parish already uses ParishSignUp, choose "Find existing parish", search for it, and request to join.
• After creating a parish, you get a shareable QR code and invite link to give to your parishioners — they scan or open it, sign up, and are added to your specific parish automatically (no searching required).
• Create your first signup sheet from the dashboard.
• On your first visit to the dashboard, a short welcome guide explains what that parish role can do. It only appears once, and it does not quote a price. Admins hear about parish settings and that pledge dollar amounts are the treasurer's. Treasurers hear that they alone see those amounts. Priests hear that confession names stay with the assigned priest and that an admin or treasurer subscribes. Coordinators hear about their signup sheets and surveys, not billing. Members hear how to sign up, not how to run the parish.

Joining a parish

• Search for your parish under "Find existing parish".
• If the parish requires approval to join, your request is sent to the parish admins (by email or Telegram, depending on each admin's notification settings) and you'll be added once an admin approves.
• If the parish does not require approval, you join immediately as a member.
• The fastest way to join is to scan the QR code or open the invite link your parish admin shares — that adds you to that exact parish automatically.

Creating a signup sheet (admins, treasurers, priests, coordinators, or permitted members)

• Click "Create" — on a phone that's the + in the bottom bar; on a computer it's in the header, or use the button on the dashboard.
• Choose a category (Coffee Hour, Trapeza, Potluck, Confession, Meal Train, Altar Servers, Cleaning, Fundraiser, Event RSVP, Custom, etc.).
• Fill in title, date, location, and slots. At least one named slot is required — a slot is one role or time people sign up for, and "Spots" is how many people can take it.
• Confession sheets additionally REQUIRE choosing the priest hearing confession. If the parish has no priest yet, give a member the Priest role in Parish Admin first.
• Optionally set the sheet to recur weekly/biweekly/monthly to generate many future sheets at once. If the parish has hospitality groups, you can assign one group or rotate them automatically across those Sundays. Anyone can still bring a dish; the assigned group is on duty, not exclusive. (For confession, prefer the recurring schedule on the confession page instead — see below.)
• New sheets are created as Drafts. Publish to make them visible — choose a visibility level (see below).
• To let people sign up from the link without creating an account, turn on Allow signup without an account (Guests). This is the setting the marketing copy refers to. It cannot be used on confession sheets.

Cloning / duplicating a sheet

From My Signups, clone a sheet you created. On a sheet page, Duplicate is for parish admins and treasurers, including a sheet a colleague created. The copy is a new draft you own. The title keeps "(Copy)" only when the new sheet stays on the same date, so the two can be told apart. If you choose a different date, the name stays as it was. A title you type yourself is kept. When the duplicate repeats across several dates, each later date is saved without "(Copy)"; only a sheet that stays on the original date gets that word.

Signup sheet visibility

Only admins, treasurers, and priests can change a sheet's visibility, and changing it shows a confirmation explaining who will be able to see it. The person who created the sheet cannot change visibility unless they also hold one of those roles. The levels:

• Draft — The creator, plus parish admins, treasurers, and priests. Coordinators do not see drafts they did not create. Members do not see drafts.
• Invite only — Not listed on the parish dashboard. People need the direct link. They still must sign in unless you also turn on "Allow signup without an account."
• Parish — Visible to all parish members.
• Cross-Parish — Visible to members of selected parishes.
• Global — Visible to all logged-in users.

Allow signup without an account is a separate switch (on Create, Edit, and the sheet page for admins). When it is on, anyone with the link can open the sheet in a private/incognito window and sign up with just their name (and dish, for potluck). They do not create a ParishSignUp account. Use this with Invite Only for a bulletin/text link. Confession cannot use guest signup.

Common questions (guest / public links)

• "I set Invite Only and the link asks people to sign in." Invite Only only hides the sheet from the dashboard. Turn on Allow signup without an account, then re-test the link while signed out.
• "How do parishioners sign up without an account?" Open the sheet → enable Allow signup without an account → share the same link.

Categories and special features

• Coffee Hour — Weekly Sunday host rotations, optional dish slots. Use hospitality groups if several families share a week.
• Trapeza / Potluck — Dish coordination. Trapeza sheets have an optional toggle to hide the "What are you bringing?" field if you only want a headcount.
• Hospitality groups — In Parish Admin → Groups, create named teams (for example eight Sunday fellowship groups) and add families to each. On a recurring signup you can rotate those groups automatically so each Sunday has an on-duty group. Anyone can still bring a dish; the group is responsible, not exclusive. Change a single Sunday to a different group or an open parish potluck without rebuilding the year.
• Confession — See the dedicated Confession section below.
• Meal Train — For parishioners in need (new mothers, surgery recovery, bereavement). Auto-generates one slot per day across a date range; shows drop-off info and dietary notes.
• Event RSVP — Collect attendance headcounts (adults/children) plus dietary needs for an event like a parish dinner or pizza fundraiser.

Confession — for parishioners

Every parish has ONE confession link to print and send: parishsignup.com/parish/<parish-id>/confession It gathers every upcoming confession date and every priest in one place. You must be signed in to see it. That link still opens that parish. When you are signed in and that parish is the one you have selected, the address shortens to parishsignup.com/my-parish/confession. A signed-out visitor, or someone whose selected parish is different, stays on the long link. parishsignup.com/confession opens the parish you have selected. It is not the link to put on a bulletin, because a signed-out person has no parish.

• Pick your confessor once — the choice is remembered on your account and you can change it any time with the "Change priest" button.
• Next available shows the soonest open time with your priest; below it, Browse by date shows each upcoming date as a button, with that day's times listed underneath.
• Sign up in one click: tap an open time, confirm in the small dialog, done. You get a confirmation notification.
• Times already taken by someone else appear grayed out with a "Taken" badge and can't be clicked. Your own booked time is highlighted with a "Signed up" badge.
• To cancel: click your own booked time and confirm "Cancel signup" — the time opens back up for someone else. (Your signups are also listed under My Signups.)
• Privacy: only you and the priest can see your confession signup. Other parishioners only see that the time is taken; even parish admins cannot see who booked.
• On the dashboard, confession appears as a single "Confessions" tile showing the next upcoming date and how many times are still available; clicking it opens the confession page.

Confession — for admins and priests

• Jump to a date: on the confession page, "Browse by date" shows a month calendar when there is more than one date; days with times are bold. On a confession date's own sheet, "Pick a date" opens the same calendar for that confession's other dates.
• Manage confession sheets lists one row per confession (same title and priest) with how many dates it has; open it to see each date. A weekly schedule makes one sheet per day on purpose, so each day can be edited or cancelled on its own. Two sheets for the same confession on the same date are marked "Duplicate", and one can be cancelled.
• Cancel a date: on the confession page, Manage confession → Manage confession sheets, anyone who manages the parish (priest, warden, secretary, treasurer, app manager) taps Cancel next to a date. They can write a reason. Everyone who booked a time on that date gets an email or Telegram message (whichever they turned on) with the reason, and the date comes off the confession page. A recurring schedule won't add that date back. If the notices can't be sent, the date is not cancelled.
• Cancel a date from Telegram: the same people can do this from the Parish Signup Telegram bot once Telegram is connected in Profile Settings. Send "/cancel 2026-11-06 Father is ill" (date as YYYY-MM-DD, then an optional reason), or just "/cancel" to see the next three weeks of confession dates. Tap the date, then Yes, cancel this date. The same notices go out as on the website.
• One-time dates: create a Confession-category sheet from Create Signup — pick the date, the time range and minutes per slot (slots are generated for you), and either a specific priest or Any priest. A specific priest is locked for that signup; Any priest shows each parishioner their preferred confessor. Clicking a named confession tile (e.g. office hours) opens that signup's title, not the generic parish confession heading.
• Recurring schedule (recommended): on the confession page, everyone lands on "Your confession" (pick a priest, next slot, browse dates). Admins and priests also see a collapsed "Manage confession" button above that. Open it for schedule, upcoming dates, and (admins) priest order. Under "Recurring schedule", set a weekly pattern — day of week, start and end time, minutes per slot, the priest, and optionally a location — and confession times are generated automatically about two weeks ahead, continuously. You can pause, resume, or delete a schedule; deleting only stops future dates, it never removes dates already on the calendar.
• Editing a date: open Manage confession; the list of upcoming dates has an Edit button — change the description, times, priest, or location there. A confession sheet's date itself is fixed; to move a day, cancel it and add a new date.
• Location: the sheet has a location, and each individual slot can override it (e.g. most slots in "Church", a few in "Hall").
• Priest order: admins can drag-reorder priests on the confession page; the order controls how priests are listed in the picker for everyone.
• Sharing: Parish Admin has a "Confession link" card with a copy button — put that one link in your bulletin or website. Note: confession slots only appear on the page when the sheet has a priest assigned.
• Confession description: the same "Confession link" card in Parish Admin has a "Confession description" text box — one parish-wide note (e.g. languages spoken, arrival instructions) shown on the Dashboard confession tile and at the top of the confession page, covering every date and priest. It's separate from any individual sheet's description.

Language

ParishSignUp uses your device/browser language by default. To pick a different language, open Profile Settings (gear icon, or the Settings tab in the bottom bar on a phone) and use the Language card. Choose "Device language" to follow the phone or computer again.

Guests who are not signed in can change language from the header.

Church photos behind pages

Browse (Home), My Signups, Profile, Parish Admin, and the confession and sheet pages show a photo of a church of your parish's own tradition behind the page, a different one each visit. Each photo's author and free license are credited on the page. To turn them off: Profile Settings → "Church photos behind pages".

Services and attendance

Parish Admin → Attendance keeps a record of each service, like a paper service book: the date, location, service (Divine Liturgy, Vigil, Vespers, and so on), celebrant, concelebrants, peak attendance, communicants, kids, homilist, homily topic, vestment color, and notes.

• "Record a service" adds one; the location and celebrant start from the last record. Each record can be edited or deleted.
• "Weekly attendance" shows the last 12 weeks, Sunday to Saturday: the peak at the Divine Liturgy, every service's peak added up, communicants, kids, and how many services.
• "Export CSV" downloads every record as a spreadsheet.
• Priests, council officers, and app managers record and edit services; council members can see them.

Gospel of the day

Anyone signed in can get the day's Gospel reading every day: Profile Settings → Gospel of the day → "Send me the Gospel of the day". It arrives by Telegram when Telegram is connected in Profile Settings, otherwise by email.

• The reading follows the Orthodox church calendar. "My parish's calendar" uses the old (Julian) calendar for ROCOR parishes and the new calendar for others; a person can pick the new calendar (OCA, Greek Archdiocese, Antiochian) or the old calendar (ROCOR) themselves.
• The card shows today's reading; "Read" opens the full text. Once someone gets the Gospel, Home shows today's reading too. Before that, Home suggests it, with a language choice and "Maybe later", which hides it for a month. Readings and their English text (King James) come from orthocal.info.
• "Time to send it" picks any time of day, in the person's own time zone (the one their device is set to). It arrives within a few minutes of that time; without a choice it comes at 7:00.
• On the old calendar, when a saint or feast has its own Gospel that day (for example a martyr's, a hierarch's, or the Theotokos'), it follows the day's reading. Then the day's own reading is labeled "Рядовое" ("Daily reading" in English), and the saint's reading says whom it is for: "Мученику", "Святителю", and so on in Russian; in English "For Martyr Longinus the Centurion" when the day names that one saint, otherwise "For the martyr". Those come from azbyka.ru's list of the day's readings; the English text of them is the King James text from bible-api.com. The new calendar shows the day's reading only.
• The card reads top to bottom: "Today", the day's name (for example "Thursday of the 22nd week after Pentecost"), then each reading under its label with its text. References are written like "Luke 9:7–11". The same order is used in Telegram and email.
• Today's reading is kept on the device until local midnight, so it shows at once on every page; the next day's is fetched after midnight.
• "Language" picks English (King James) or Russian (the Synodal translation, from azbyka.ru). Turning the Gospel on while using the app in Russian picks Russian. If azbyka.ru can't be reached that morning, the English text is sent.
• Turn it off with the same switch. It's free and has nothing to do with Parish Plus.

Calendar subscription (see your signups in your own calendar)

One signup at a time: right after signing up for a slot, the confirmation has an "Add to calendar" button, including for guests signing up without an account. In My Signups, each signup has "Add to calendar" too, with a choice of Apple, Outlook, or phone (an .ics file) or Google Calendar. Times are the parish's local times.

Every signup, kept up to date: In Profile Settings there is a "Calendar subscription" card:

• Click "Show my calendar link" and copy the link.
• In Proton Calendar: Add calendar → Add from URL, then paste it. Google Calendar and Apple Calendar use "Subscribe from URL" / "Add subscription calendar".
• The calendar updates automatically and shows times in your own timezone.

What it contains: everything YOU signed up for (any category). Priests additionally see each booked confession — the parishioner's name and time. Empty confession times are omitted, so a Sunday with no signups does not appear; the earliest booking is how early to be there.

Notes:

• Treat the link like a password — anyone who has it can see your schedule. If it leaks, click "Generate a new link"; the old link stops working.
• Google Calendar can take several hours (sometimes up to a day) to first sync and between refreshes — that's Google's polling, not ParishSignUp.
• For times to convert correctly across timezones, the parish admin should set the parish's Timezone in Parish Admin → Details.

Parish timezone (admins)

Parish Admin → Details has a Timezone field (searchable list, with a suggested value). Set it so calendar subscriptions show your service times correctly for people in other timezones. Without it, times still display correctly for anyone local to the parish.

Reminders and notifications

• When you sign up for a slot, you get a confirmation by email or Telegram (whichever you have enabled in your profile).
• You also get a reminder before the event, based on the lead time you choose in Profile Settings (e.g. 2 hours, 4 hours, or 1 day before).
• Set your notification channel and reminder timing in Profile Settings.

Deleting your account

In Profile Settings, at the bottom, there is a "Delete account" option. It asks you to confirm and warns that the action cannot be undone.

Deleting your account permanently removes:

• your profile and login
• your parish memberships
• your signups
• your notification settings (email/Telegram) and calendar subscription link

Signup sheets you created stay with the parish so other members are not affected. If you were the only remaining member of a parish, that empty parish is removed too.

Adding someone else to a slot (admins)

An admin can sign up a parishioner who isn't on the app by entering their name (and, for food categories, what they're bringing). Useful for older parishioners who don't use the app.

Privacy

• Confession signups are private to the signer and the assigned priest only — enforced in the database, not just hidden in the interface. Parish admins and other priests cannot see them; other parishioners only see that a time is taken.
• Phone numbers shared on certain sheets (e.g. Psalter Vigil) are visible only to adjacent signers for handoff coordination, not the whole parish.
• Your calendar subscription link is private to you and revocable at any time.

Visitors at the door

Parish Admin → Visitors has the parish's door QR code. A visitor scans it with their phone camera, reads the parish's welcome message, and leaves a card: a name, optionally a way to reach them, a note, and a photo. It does not create an account or make them a parish member.

• "At the door": write the "Welcome message" and "Save message"; "Preview greeting" shows what a visitor sees. The code stays the same every week, so it can be posted by the door or the candle desk. "Copy link" copies the door link; "Print" prints a door sign with the parish's name, the code, and how to scan it, with a small "Made with ParishSignUp · parishsignup.com" line under the frame.
• Visitor cards are seen by the priest, parish admins, and treasurers, never by the public. Each card can be marked "Mark greeted" (it then shows who greeted them), invited to the parish with the join link ("Invite to the parish", "Copy join link"; join approval still applies), or removed.
• The parish header counts new visitors who have not been greeted. It shows "Join requests" only while someone is waiting to be approved.

Trash and activity (admins)

Parish Admin → Trash & activity keeps what was deleted for 30 days and shows who changed what.

• Trash: when someone deletes a signup sheet, a form, someone's form answers, a member, a group, a catechesis person or class, a service record, a visitor card, a category, or a confession schedule, it is kept for 30 days with everything deleted along with it (times, signups, pledges, positions, attendance). "Restore" brings it back; each item says who deleted it and until when it can be restored. A few parts may not come back, for example a person who has since deleted their account.
• Activity: who deleted, restored, joined, left, created, edited, changed a position, sheet visibility, settings, invites, or officers, and when. It can be filtered by person ("Who") and shows the last 30 days.
• Parish admins, council officers, and site admins can open it.
• Not kept: deleting your own account (that removes your data for good), a person leaving the parish (logged, not trashed), and a whole parish deleted by a site admin.

Exporting your parish's data

• The priest, parish admins, and treasurers can export everything the parish keeps in ParishSignUp: Parish Admin → Export data. It's free on every plan.
• The export is one document — parish profile, members and roles, groups, every signup sheet with who signed up, the confession schedule, membership forms and surveys, pledges, the catechesis roster and attendance, and visitor cards. "Print or save as PDF" prints it; "Download data file (JSON)" saves the complete data for any other system.
• It follows the same privacy rules as the app: confession names only for the priest the confession belongs to; membership forms, surveys, and pledges only when an admin, treasurer, or priest exports; pledge amounts only for the treasurer.
• Why it exists: ParishSignUp is run by one person, so a parish can keep its own full copy at any time, whatever happens to the service.

Common questions

• "Is it really free?" Volunteer signup sheets, confession, groups, and calendar stay free — no ads, no per-volunteer fees, and no subscription required to use them. Parish Plus is optional for surveys, memberships, stewardship, catechesis, and analytics. Parish admins, treasurers, and priests can see the price for each parish size in Parish settings → Plan. A site admin does not, unless they hold one of those roles in that parish. A site admin can still open memberships, surveys, stewardship, and analytics without the parish paying. That is the only payment exception. Pledge dollar amounts and stewardship totals are treasurer-only, including for a site admin. The price depends on the parish's size in households; every price is on the Pricing page, /pricing.
• "How do I become an admin?" Whoever creates the parish is the first admin and first officer; a parish officer can promote a member to admin in Parish Admin → People. Admins who are not officers cannot change roles.
• "Where can I see the form I sent?" Profile Settings → My parish forms shows each membership, time and talents, or financial support form you sent, with your own pledge amounts. Membership and Time and Talents can be updated during the year; a pledge can't be changed until the next membership drive.
• "Can members create signups?" Admins, treasurers, priests, and coordinators can always create signup sheets. Members can only if an admin enables that option in parish settings. Creating sheets does not grant Parish Plus tools.
• "Where are the membership, time and talents, and financial forms?" On Home, under "2027 parish forms", after an admin or treasurer sends that form to you and the parish has Parish Plus. They are not listed before that send. Members and coordinators submit a form there only after it was sent to them. Coordinators can also submit Time and Talents from Time and Talent. Admins, treasurers, and priests review them under Memberships, Time and Talent, and Stewardship. An admin or treasurer can send one of those forms to selected members or to everyone, after confirming. The person is notified by email or Telegram, whichever they turned on, and the link opens the form. After submitting they see a thank-you screen. Analytics, for admins and treasurers, lists membership forms, surveys, and pledges together. For a survey such as Time and Talents, each checked area lists the people who signed up. An admin or treasurer can delete a submitted membership form after confirming. If the parish has not subscribed, the form cannot be submitted yet.
• "Why does a duplicated sheet say Copy?" Only when it stays on the same date. A duplicate for a new date keeps the original name.
• "How do parishioners join my parish?" Share your parish's invite QR code or link (shown right after you create the parish, and available in Parish Admin).
• "I set Invite Only and the link asks people to sign in." Invite Only only hides the sheet from the dashboard. Turn on Allow signup without an account on the sheet (Create, Edit, or the sheet page), then re-test the link while signed out.
• "How do parishioners sign up without an account?" Enable Allow signup without an account, share the sheet link. They enter their name (and dish for potluck). No ParishSignUp account. Not available for confession.
• "How do I cancel my confession time?" Open the parish confession page, click your booked (highlighted) time, and confirm "Cancel signup".
• "Why don't I see any confession times?" Make sure you're signed in and a member of the parish. If the page shows no times at all, the parish may not have scheduled any yet, or the sheets may not have a priest assigned — ask your parish admin.
• "How do I get confession times into my Proton/Google/Apple calendar?" Profile Settings → Calendar subscription → Show my calendar link, then add it to your calendar app as a subscription URL. Priests see each booked confession with the parishioner's name; empty times stay off the calendar.
• "How do I change the language?" Profile Settings → Language. By default it matches your device. Guests can also use the language button in the header.
• "What's new in ParishSignUp?" Profile Settings → What's new, or parishsignup.com/whats-new. Only user-facing changes are listed.
• "How do I delete my account?" Profile Settings → Delete account. Confirm the warning. This cannot be undone.