Your first 7 days

Scout works best when your team and your data are both in. Here's a 7-day path that gets you there without over-investing.

1. 1

   Day 1: Import your people

   Pick the source you trust most: a CSV export from your old system, a Planning Center account, or a clean spreadsheet. Use Import from CSV or Import from PCO. Don't worry about perfect data. Scout handles duplicates later.

2. 2

   Day 2: Invite your team

   Add the people who will use Scout: staff, key volunteers, the person who runs check-in. See Inviting your team. Keep it small for the first week.

3. 3

   Day 3-4: Set up Sunday

   Create your service template under Services, set your check-in rooms (see Setting up rooms), and add your kids ministry teachers to the schedule.

4. 4

   Day 5: Add your gifts

   If you take giving online, connect Stripe (see Set up Stripe Connect). If you take only cash and check, log a few weeks of past gifts so the picture isn't empty (see Recording offline gifts).

5. 5

   Day 6: Clean duplicates

   Imports always create some duplicate people. Visit People and run through the merge prompts. See Cleaning up duplicates.

6. 6

   Day 7: Run your first Sunday

   Open the kiosk on a tablet or laptop, check kids in, and use the pickup scanner at the end. See Running the kiosk.

After week 1

Scout's intelligence layer needs another two or three Sundays of data before its read on engagement starts to matter. Don't expect rich pastoral insight on day 8. Expect it around week 4.