Building a Run of Show

The Run of Show is the production document for one dated service: the order of what happens, how long each piece runs, and what time each piece starts. It is a separate page from the Volunteer schedule, which is where who is serving lives.

Open the plan for one service

Go to Services in the sidebar. Under This week, a service with no sections is the loudest row and carries a Start the plan button. A service that already has a plan reads Open. Both open the same page.

The header tells you what you're looking at: the eyebrow Run of Show, the service name, a Draft or Shared pill, then the date, the total duration, and one chip per service time on the template.

The service name is an editable field. Click it, type, then click away. There is no Save button: it saves when you click away, and a small tick next to the name is the only confirmation. Production Notes below the header behaves the same way.

Sections are the spine

At the bottom of the plan click Add Section, type a name (the placeholder suggests "Worship", "Message", "Closing"), then click Add Section again to create it.

• Rename: click the section name, type, press Enter or click away. Escape cancels.
• Reorder: drag the grip in the section header, or use the up and down chevrons next to it.
• Delete: the trash icon opens Delete this section? with the body "The section and all its elements will be removed. This can't be undone." Confirm with Delete section.

Add elements to a section

Elements are the individual cards inside a section: one song, one message, one transition.

1. 1

   Click Add element

   The link sits at the bottom of each section card.
2. 2

   Pick a Type

   Song, Message, Transition, Video, or Custom. Song is preselected.
3. 3

   Give it a title

   For a song, search the library or use Or enter title manually. Every other type uses Title *.
4. 4

   Set Duration and Notes

   Duration takes 5 for five minutes or 4:30 for four minutes thirty seconds. Notes is for director notes and cues, and stays staff-only. Click Add Element.

To change one later, hover the row and click the pencil (Edit element), then Save Changes. The chevrons move it up and down. The trash icon deletes it immediately, with no confirmation step.

An element can only be reordered inside its own section. Drag and drop is wired per section, so there is no way to drag a song from Worship down into Response. Delete it and add it again in the section you want.

How the start times are worked out

Every element row shows one start time per service time. Scout begins at the service start on the template and adds each element's duration to get the next start time. Durations, and only durations, drive the clock.

• An element with no duration still prints a time, but it does not advance the clock, so the element under it shows the same time.
• There are no pinned or absolute times. You cannot hold the message at 9:32 regardless of what runs before it. Lengthen a song near the top and everything below it moves.
• There is no hard-stop marker. Scout will not flag a plan that runs past the hour.
• One plan serves every service time. The 9:00 and the 11:00 read from the same sections and the same elements, so you cannot give the 11:00 a different closing song. Only volunteer slots can differ by service time.

Service times live on the template, not on the service. Changing a time on the template moves the columns on every service built from it, including services already shared and services already past.

The pre-service run

Above the first section, click Add Pre-Service Section (the placeholder suggests "Doors Open", "Pre-Service Music", "Tech Check"). The button disappears once one exists, because a plan holds one pre-service block. It renders as a recessed, dashed card with a Pre-Service chip, always sorts to the top, and a divider reading Service Start · 9:00 AM (your first service time) separates it from the rest of the plan.

Pre-service timing runs backward. Scout totals the durations of every pre-service element and starts the block at the service start minus that total. Adding a five-minute tech check moves the block's start five minutes earlier. It never pushes the service start later.

Two limits to know. The shared link does not do this backward math: it walks every section forward from the service start, so pre-service times read later there than they do in the builder. And a template cannot hold a pre-service section, so it is a per-service decision every week.

Songs, key, BPM, and CCLI

With Song selected in Add element, type at least two characters into Search Song Library and click a result. The title and duration fill in, and the key, BPM and CCLI number copy across from the library song. Nothing found returns "No songs found. Enter a title below to add manually."

On a song row, the small line reading Add key, BPM, CCLI... opens the Song details modal (Key, BPM, CCLI Number, then Save). Key and BPM then show inline next to the title.

Filling the library from Planning Center

If your songs live in PCO Services, Song Library has an Import from PCO button (it needs the Import data permission, the same as the people import). Paste a Personal Access Token with access to Services and Scout shows how many songs it found before anything is written. Titles, authors, CCLI numbers, themes, keys, tempo, and chord charts come across; a chart arrives as ChordPro text, marked confirmed like one you pasted yourself. Every arrangement comes over with it; the song opens on the one with the most recent chart.

Three limits, up front. Attached files stay in Planning Center: Scout lists them by name and links back to the song there, because PCO's file links expire. Service types and past plans don't import. Songs archived in PCO stay out. Re-running is safe: a song you already have is matched by CCLI number, or by title and author, and never duplicated or overwritten.

Pull your library from Planning Center, paste charts in ChordPro, or attach files. SongSelect import is not available.

You can also put a name on an element with Assign (roles Lead, Co-Lead, Assigned). That name is a label on the plan and nothing more. It notifies nobody, and it does not count toward the roster coverage on the Services hub, which reads only the volunteer slots you fill when scheduling volunteers.

Attachments are links you paste

Hover an element row and click the link icon (Add attachment). Fill in Name *, URL *, pick a Type (Chord Chart, Lyrics, Slides, Video, Notes, Other), then click Add. The chip appears under the element and opens in a new tab.

There is no file upload anywhere in Services. Put the chart in Drive, Dropbox, or wherever your team already keeps it, and paste the sharing URL.

Production Notes

The recessed Production Notes box under the header is for mic assignments, the input list, stage notes and cues. It is staff-only and never appears on the shared page. It saves when you click away.

What the builder does not have

There is no undo, no revision history, and no comments or mentions. A deleted element is gone with no confirmation; a deleted section takes its elements with it and warns you first. There is also no way to duplicate a service, no "import last week's plan", and no delete button for a service anywhere in Services.

Pushing a template change into weeks already scheduled

Sections and elements you add to a template copy into every new service Scout schedules from it. To get a change into the weeks already on the calendar, look for the bar that appears on the template page right after you add or rename a section, or add an element: "You changed this template. Apply to the next 4 services?" with Not now and Review and apply. Review and apply lists each date with what it will add ("Adds 1 section, 2 elements"), and you confirm with Apply to 4 services.

Three things shape what actually happens:

• The offer only appears in the same visit as the change. Navigate away and it is gone, and there is no way to summon it back. Deleting a section or an element never raises it at all.
• Applying only adds. "Nothing already in a plan is renamed, reordered, or removed", which also means an element you deleted by hand can reappear.
• A week is skipped if any section name in its plan no longer matches the template. Rename one section by hand and that date is listed as no longer matching, and it stays skipped from then on.

Getting it to the team

When the plan is ready, see Sharing the Run of Show for what publishing does, what the band and the tech booth actually see, and why the link cannot be revoked once it exists.