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Switching from a Desktop Program

One import instead of a fresh start

Congregations that already plan on a desktop computer have years of data in that program: who is a publisher, which field service group they belong to, what they are qualified for, and the program for the coming weeks. CongPlan reads that data from the CSV exports the desktop program produces. Nothing has to be installed, no backup file is needed, and no password has to be handed over. The import is built for one specific desktop program; the import guide (opens in a new tab) names it and lists the four exports the import expects.

What lands in CongPlan

  • Publishers with their field service group and role in it, gender, active status, baptism status, privilege and pioneer status, and the meeting parts, technical duties and field service assignments they are qualified for.
  • The weekend program with the public talks and their speakers, whether they come from your own congregation or from elsewhere.
  • The midweek program with the Our Christian Life and Ministry Meeting assignments.
  • Technical duties such as attendants, microphones, audio and video, stage and video conference.

You select all exported files at once. CongPlan recognizes each file by its content, so their names and order do not matter, and you can import only some of the lists.

What you add by hand afterwards

The desktop program does not export everything. After the import you enter absences, families and any custom weekend assignments yourself. Imported people arrive as member records without a login and without permissions: you invite them and assign permissions in a separate step, so nobody gains access by accident.

What CongPlan deliberately never reads

The exports contain more personal data than a planning tool needs. CongPlan ignores dates of birth, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, postal addresses, emergency contacts, publisher reports and family relationships. Of the baptism it keeps only whether a person is baptized, never the date.

Nothing disappears silently

The last step of the import is a result screen. It counts what was created and updated, and it lists in a separate panel everything that was deliberately left out: files that are not part of the import, attributes CongPlan does not support, unmapped duty numbers, people the desktop program marks as moved or removed, and entries beyond the chosen time frame. By default the import reaches a limited distance into the future, because the program further out often still changes, and you widen that range yourself before you start.

You can repeat the import at any time. People are matched by their identifier from the desktop program first and by name second, so a second run updates the same records instead of creating duplicates.

What changes for the planners

Planning no longer sits on one computer. Everyone with a permission works on the same current plan, every publisher sees their own assignments, enters absences and asks for a hand-over without a single message going back and forth. What used to be an export, a print and a chat message becomes one plan that is always up to date.

Step by step, with every export, every dialog and every troubleshooting case: see the import guide (opens in a new tab) in the documentation.