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 actually 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.