A clear next step.

Know when your work is saved.

Look for the confirmation after Save, then check the updated record. A spinning button, an error, or a closed browser is not confirmation.

Unsaved drafts stay in this open tab. They are not backups and do not survive every browser crash, restart, or sign-out. Finish and confirm one task before moving on.

A dependable office routine.

Start with people who need attention.

The Overview care cards show due plans, unassigned plans and gaps in monthly Sunday school or quarterly deacon care. Open a card to review that queue. These are plan counts, so one person can appear in more than one care role. The totals cover the loaded office records and do not follow a search or person filter. A dash means unavailable, not zero. These care-plan reminders stay on screen. Intake actions has its own email-notification queue, described below.

1. Open Overview and My follow-ups. Review your leaders who are due for a personal check-in.
2. Review Guest register and Intake actions. Check the assigned owner and due date. Search People before creating a visitor and confirm the identity before linking historical records.
3. Open Guests & care. Check overdue and unassigned plans. Keep the deacon and Sunday school plans separate.
4. After reaching out, record what happened and when. An attempted contact and a completed conversation are different outcomes.

The planned rhythm is a welcome within two days, Sunday school contact every 1 month, and deacon contact every 3 months. Choose months for these calendar intervals. A 29- or 30-day Sunday school plan can skip February; use 28 days or fewer if choosing days. A coverage warning does not change an existing plan or its due date. Someone still needs to own each task and check the queue. A free-text name in a care plan does not send a notification. Choose an approved staff recipient in Intake actions to route new intake and queue its staff alert.

From a QR signup to personal care.

When direct intake is activated, the QR opens profile setup for first-time visitors. Their saved profile appears in Guest register, including contact details, reported visit and optional birthday, address and family information. Open the profile details for the household. Member status is self-reported: check the church record before treating it as verified membership. Profile submission does not overwrite a historical People record.

Each first registration creates an Intake action due within two days. Each new app prayer creates a private review action due today. The Office queue is the default. Administrators can select an approved staff route for future submissions; update an existing action to change its owner, due date or completion status. The Guest register shows that action’s owner and due date. Use Record visit for the separate staff-recorded visit date.

Welcome emails and generic staff alerts are queued after a saved submission. A scheduled worker retries them. Alerts ask staff to open the Office and contain no names, prayer text, addresses or children’s details. Provider accepted does not prove inbox delivery; Needs attention means an administrator should inspect the delivery issue before resending. The initial shared limit is 80 first message attempts per UTC day, including staff alerts; further jobs stay queued.

Use Export current view as CSV only when you need a spreadsheet copy. It includes the filtered guests and their private profile details. Store exports with the same care as the membership ledger. Completing a task records work; it does not send a personal call or text. Record the actual conversation in the care history after the identity is linked.

Check the person before adding a record.

Search People first, including former names and membership numbers when you know them. When saving someone new, review any possible matches the office shows. Two people can share a name. Check the original ledger or other agreed source before deciding whether to use an existing record or continue with a separate person. No warning does not establish that the person is new.

New People records start with active selected. Verify the person's recorded current status before saving. After review, use inactive for a historical-only record so it stays out of active-member care coverage; its history is retained. An old ledger entry alone does not establish whether someone is deceased or currently active. If status is uncertain, ask the person responsible for the membership roll before choosing it.

Choose History beside a person to open their archive with earlier search terms cleared. Choose Care beside a person to see their plans, guest follow-up and recorded contacts together. The selection stays on that person as you move between care views. Choose Show everyone to return to the wider care list.

Keep the source with the history.

Search for the person first. Attach a clear photo of the original page, transcribe what it says, and review the whole entry before saving. Preserve uncertain dates as written. Ask about unfamiliar columns rather than guessing. History and visit entries preserve earlier records; report a correction with enough context to keep the trail understandable.

Use the right calendar.

Change public church events in the church’s shared iCloud calendar using an invited editor account. Staff calendar records stay inside Creek Office. A request sheet entry or a private planning event does not update iCloud or publish to the app.

To remove a staff event from the active list, archive it. To bring it back, choose Archived events, open it, and restore it.

Prepare Sunday’s content.

Announcements, slide records, and prayer edits stay in the office. Ready means prepared for staff use. Sharing approval records permission; it does not publish or send a prayer request. Every approved office editor and administrator can read prayer records, including staff care notes. Choosing prayer team or church as the sharing scope does not change that access. Review the final public copy separately before sharing it.

Keep files easy to find.

Use a clear title and the right category when uploading a policy, spreadsheet, form, minutes, or ministry file. Confirm it appears in Documents and opens. General Documents are readable by every approved staff role, including viewers. Categories organize files; they do not restrict access. Keep files that need a smaller audience outside general uploads; ask the workspace administrator where they should be kept.

Keep the approved working spreadsheet in its agreed location; uploading an Excel file does not create a shared spreadsheet editor or sync it to Google Sheets.

If the office will not connect.

The connection check may identify staff access, workspace setup or office records, followed by a fixed reason such as request timed out. Open Connection details for support and copy its fixed labels and check times for the administrator. The last core record read is historical; it does not mean the office is connected now. It excludes private record details and does not prove which network or service caused the failure.

1. Check your internet connection. Keep an open draft in place. When the browser reports that the connection has returned, the visible Office tab checks again automatically; it also checks about once a minute while visible. You can use Refresh workspace to try sooner. Reconnecting reads saved records and does not submit your draft.
2. If the office says setup is incomplete, ask the workspace administrator to finish setup. Repeatedly entering your password will not fix missing setup.
3. If the server no longer recognizes your sign-in, Office closes the private workspace and asks you to sign in again. A permission refusal keeps editing paused; it does not grant additional access. If sign-in succeeds but a section cannot load, tell the administrator which section and the on-screen message. Keep member details and source photos out of general support screenshots.

A viewer can read the permitted core sections. Approved editors can work in the private modules. Personal leadership follow-ups belong to the signed-in staff member. Having office access does not grant access to iCloud, Google Drive, or One Call.

Forgot your staff password?

Choose Staff password help and enter your approved staff email. Open the newest reset email, choose a password of at least 12 characters, and enter it again to confirm. After the saved message, choose Return to staff sign in and use your new password.

If the link is expired or already used, request a fresh one. If no email arrives, or you no longer have access to that inbox, ask the workspace administrator for help. Password help does not create a staff account or restore removed staff access. Never share the email link or your password.

For a first staff invitation, open the invitation only after the administrator has approved your office access, then follow the same password and sign-in steps.

Before relying on it for church work.

This guide accompanies the prepared office build. It does not mean the live backend, real staff accounts, notifications, or backups have been activated.

• Name the workspace owner and a backup administrator. Document how access is granted and removed.
• Run a short rehearsal with fictional records: signup to welcome contact, a completed visit, a photographed history entry, an interrupted save, conflicting edits, and an archived event restored.
• Confirm how both database records and uploaded files are backed up. Rehearse recovery into a separate test environment and record who can perform it.
• Agree who checks overdue and unassigned work each week. Calendar reminders must be imported and enabled in the staff member’s calendar.
• Keep the existing ledger and working communications process available through the pilot. Reconcile any imported history before treating the office as the authoritative copy.

If a task fails, the next step should be visible, the source should be recoverable, and a named person should know who owns the problem.