Permissions in Groups

Updated March 10, 2025 18:21

Groups is a place for your congregation to connect online. Access is scaled so that only the appropriate information is posted to the group and allows members to interact safely.

Share these articles with people based on their roles in your church to help them get the most out of Groups:

	Administrator	Group type manager	Group leader
Edit someone else's profile	✓
Set up group types	✓
Manage shared locations	✓
Create new events and resources	✓	✓	CC
Update groups in bulk	✓
View report dashboard	✓	✓
Manage group type settings and defaults.	✓	✓
Access admin notifications	✓	✓
Add and remove group type managers.	✓	✓
Create new groups	✓	✓
Create new tags	✓

Individual group

	Administrator	Group type manager	Group leader	Group member
Create and cancel events	✓	✓	CC
Delete events	✓	✓	✓
Add and remove resources	✓	✓	CC
Add and remove members	✓	✓	CC
Accept or reject membership requests	✓	✓	CC
Manage reports	✓	✓	✓
Take attendance	✓	✓	CC	CC*
View and edit RSVPs	✓	✓	CC
Modify group information	✓	✓	✓
View contact information for leaders or members	✓	✓	CC	CC*
View exact location of group and event	✓	✓	CC*	CC*
Manage enrollment and visibility settings	✓	✓
Edit group settings	✓	✓	*
Manage personal contact information	✓	✓	✓	CC
Participate in group messages			CC*	CC*
Manage group tags	✓	✓	✓

Notice

Visitors are not considered group members until they are officially added as members.

Contact information permissions

Giving people access to Planning Center depends on their role at your church. Staff and background-checked leaders may have enough trust to access people's information, whether to edit or view, but people outside of that trusted circle should be given lower permissions.

This table outlines who can access people's contact information based on their permissions in another product.

	Can edit	Can view	No access
Account settings	Organization administrators (in all products except Giving)		Billing managers
Calendar	People editor	People viewer	Any event, room, or resource permission
Check-Ins	Editor	Viewer	Headcounter
Giving	Administrator Bookkeeper Counter		Reviewer
Groups	Administrator	Group type manager Leader (everyone in their group) Member (everyone in their group who has made info visible)	Members under the age of 13
People	Manager Editor	Viewer
Publishing		Administrators
Registrations	Administrator Manager (only attendees in signup)
Services	Administrator Editor (based on settings) Scheduler (based on settings)	Viewer (based on settings)	Scheduled viewer

Organization administrator-only tasks

Organization administrators have access to specific parts of Planning Center that no other permission can access, so please familiarize yourself with them as early as possible.

Product	Task
Groups	Enable Church Center for group engagement Change the localization settings that all event times are based on
Services	Choose default permission settings Update default settings for the Lyrics & chords editor Create shared email templates Add/remove Music Stand Deactivate two-step verification for a profile

Product

Task

Groups

Enable Church Center for group engagement

Change the localization settings that all event times are based on

Services

Choose default permission settings

Update default settings for the Lyrics & chords editor

Create shared email templates

Add/remove Music Stand

Deactivate two-step verification for a profile

Add or edit permissions

Follow the steps below to edit a person's permission level, as well as manage any additional permissions that may apply to their permission level.

Choose the People page from the top navigation.
Select the person's name for whom you want to edit permissions.
On their profile page, select the Actions button to the right of the person's name and profile photo.
Choose Manage permissions from the dropdown.
Select the Update button at the bottom of the window to save your changes.

Remove permissions

If you remove administrator or group type manager permissions, the person will retain leader or member access for any of their groups.

To remove permissions:

Choose the People page from the top navigation.
Select the person's name for whom you want to remove permissions.
On their profile page, select the Actions button to the right of the person's name and profile photo.
Choose Manage permissions from the dropdown.
In the Permission level dropdown, choose No access .
Select the Update button.

When is someone notified of permission changes?

When you change someone's permissions in Planning Center, they may receive a notification, depending on the type of change.

Add a new person

When someone who has never logged into your organization is granted access to Planning Center, they receive an email notification.

The email welcomes them and lists all of the products they've been given access to, their permission levels in those products, and explains how to log in.

Upgrade an existing person's permissions

When someone already in Planning Center has their permission levels upgraded, they receive an email notification.

The email tells them that their access level has changed, lists all of the products they have access to and their permission levels in those products, and highlights which permission levels were upgraded.

Remove or downgrade an existing person's permissions

When an existing person's permission levels or product access are removed or downgraded, they don't receive an email notification unless any change is made to an organization administrator, then all other organization administrators are notified.

If a person's permissions are upgraded in one product and downgraded in another, their notification email will show their new downgraded permission in the second product. However, there will be no indication that it was changed.