Data Migration from Planning Center

If your church is currently using Planning Center Online, 1st Flock provides a guided data migration wizard to help you transition seamlessly. The wizard walks you through each step: selecting what data to import, connecting your Planning Center account via OAuth, reviewing the data before import, and completing the migration. Your progress is saved at each step, so you can pause and resume whenever you're ready.

Why Migrate Your Data?

Migrating your data from Planning Center to 1st Flock consolidates your church management tools into one integrated platform. Rather than toggling between Planning Center for member data and 1st Flock for subscriptions and donations, you'll have a unified view of members, attendance, giving, and finances. The migration preserves all your historical data and maintains relationships between members, families, and giving records.

What Can Be Migrated

The Data Migration wizard supports importing members, families, attendance records, financial data (funds, giving history), and group memberships. Some data—such as custom fields you've created in Planning Center—may require manual mapping during the import process to ensure it maps correctly to 1st Flock fields. Complex workflows or automation rules from Planning Center will not be automatically migrated and may need to be recreated in 1st Flock.

The Migration Wizard: Step by Step

Step 1: Select Data to Import — Review all available data types (members, families, attendance, funds, giving) and choose what you want to bring into 1st Flock. You can select all at once or import different data types in separate migrations if you prefer to take it gradually.

Step 2: Connect Planning Center — Click the OAuth button to authenticate with Planning Center. A secure window will open asking you to log in to your Planning Center account and grant 1st Flock permission to read your data. Once authorized, the connection is established and ready for data extraction.

Step 3: Review Data — After extraction, you'll see a preview of what will be imported. The preview shows member counts, attendance records, fund definitions, and giving totals. This is your chance to verify that all expected data is included. If something looks incomplete, you can disconnect and re-extract to ensure all data is captured.

Step 4: Map Custom Fields — If you have custom fields in Planning Center, you'll map them to corresponding fields in 1st Flock. For fields with no direct match, you can choose to skip them or store them as notes. This step ensures your custom data isn't lost during the transition.

Step 5: Complete Import — Once you've reviewed and mapped all fields, click "Complete Import." The process will begin, and your data will be transferred into 1st Flock. Depending on the size of your database, this may take several minutes to several hours. You'll receive a confirmation email when the import is complete.

Progress and Resumption

The migration wizard saves your progress after each step. If your browser closes or you navigate away mid-migration, you can return to the Data Migration page and resume from where you left off. This is particularly useful for larger churches with significant data volume—you can allow the import to proceed overnight and check the status in the morning.

Handling Duplicates

If you've already manually added some members to 1st Flock, the system will detect potential duplicates during the import preview. You can choose to keep the existing record, replace it with the Planning Center data, or merge the two records if they have complementary information. This prevents duplicate entries while preserving any data you may have already entered.

Data Verification After Migration

Once the import completes, take time to spot-check your data. Verify that member counts match what you expected, review a few member profiles to ensure all fields migrated correctly, and spot-check attendance and giving records. If you notice missing data or inconsistencies, our support team can help troubleshoot and re-run portions of the migration if needed.

Disconnecting Planning Center

Once your migration is complete and you've verified your data in 1st Flock, you can optionally disconnect the Planning Center OAuth link for security. This prevents any further data pulls from Planning Center and is a good practice if you no longer need the integration.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Missing attendance records — Planning Center stores attendance differently than 1st Flock. Verify that your Planning Center instance has attendance data entered; if not, you may need to backfill manually.

Incomplete giving history — Some older Planning Center setups may not have complete fund definitions. Work with your finance admin to map historical funds correctly before import.

Custom fields not recognized — If Planning Center has dozens of custom fields, the mapping step may take longer. Plan accordingly and reference your Planning Center backup before starting.

Rollback and Recovery

If you discover an issue after import, we can revert to your previous state within a limited time window (typically 30 days). Contact our support team immediately if you need to roll back a migration. For this reason, it's recommended to create a backup or export of your 1st Flock data before initiating a migration.

Next Steps After Migration

After your data is imported, complete your member profiles by adding missing contact information, set up any custom member groups or lists you need, configure your fund structure in the Finance app, and adjust any automation or notification preferences to match your church's processes.

Need Help?

If you encounter issues during migration, need help mapping custom fields, or want to understand how your Planning Center data translates to 1st Flock, contact our support team at support@1stflock.com. We can guide you through the process and ensure a smooth transition.