Getting Started Guide

Welcome to GoDoChurch! Our vision is to make church administration as easy as possible. We have written this Getting Started Guide so you can get up-and-running as quickly as possible. It won't take long to work through, and doing so will really help you make the most of the system.
 By the time we are done you will be able to:

  • Add members of your church into GoDoChurch.
  • Send SMSes or emails to anyone in your church.

This is only a fraction of what GoDoChurch is capable of, but don’t worry, we’ll get to the rest soon. So let's get started!

Note: if you are fairly confident with online technology then you may want to skip this guide and jump straight to An Overview of GoDoChurch.

First steps

The very first thing you need to do is make sure you are logged into your church's GoDoChurch admin system. To log in go to http://admin.godochurch.com and enter your email and password for your log in details.

Only people with a registered database will be able to log in. If you haven't yet registered for a database, click here to sign up for a 30-day free trial.  Once you have logged in, go ahead and bookmark the admin page in your browser for easy access. This is your very own administration hub! We hope you like it as much as we do.


Find your way around

At the top-left of the screen is the menu button. Clicking this button opens up the menu from where you can navigate the system.

Basic setup

There is very little set-up needed to start using GoDoChurch. Every database comes preloaded with 50 free SMSes and the capacity to send and receive emails to anyone on your database using your church's own email address. The only thing that is missing is the info of all the people in your congregation.

 

Adding people to your database

At the very top of the screen is the Quick Add button.

Click that to quickly add a person to your database. In a moment we are going to send a few test emails and SMSes to some people in your database, so go ahead and add two or three people right now. 

Note: if you are the person who registered your church for a trial of GoDoChurch then your details have already been added to the system, so why not add some office colleagues, or if you have another email address, you could use that to create a 'test' person.

  • Clicking the Quick Add button opens the Add a person pop-up.

  • Enter the person’s info, and click Add.

  • If you would like to add another person, click Add another.

  • If you would like to edit a person’s details click Edit this Record.

 

Sending an SMS

Communicating with your congregation is one of GoDoChurch’s strengths. Let’s begin by sending an SMS to yourself. Don't worry, every database comes loaded with 50 free SMSes, on the house. (Sadly, this feature is only working in these countries at the moment, but we will be adding many more nations very soon).

  • Click the menu button (top left).

  • Click Communication >> Messaging.

  • Select Individuals from the drop-down list.

  • Enter your own name in the Type name in the box below field. The system will auto-suggest names based on your entry. When it does, select your name and click Next.

  • Select SMS from the menu and click Next.

  • Enter the message to be sent and click Send.

 

And there you go! You should have sent and received your very first message out of GoDoChurch.

You can send an SMS message consisting of more than one SMS credits. This allows you to send your message without having to worry about fitting in your message in 140 characters.

 

Sending an email

Next up, let's send your very first email out of GoDoChurch. GoDoChurch will use your Church's email address as the 'from' address, so there is no set-up required.
 

  • To send an email follow the same instructions as above for sending an SMS, except, instead of selecting SMS select Email.

  • Next, select Type email from scratch.

  • Enter your subject line and message body and click Send! Easy as that!

 

Wrapping up

Congratulations! You have completed the Getting Started Guide. As you can see, GoDoChurch is designed to be really easy to use. Next up, let's take a look at the big picture and see how GoDoChurch works and how it can serve your church.

Click here to read An Overview of GoDoChurch.