Importing Donations – Getting Started

Here’s a checklist of everything to do in order to migrate your donations. Follow the step below to prepare your file, and then download and purchase a license for our tool. If you have any questions, reach out using the chat box in the bottom left!

1. Import your people into Planning Center People.
   If possible, use the remote_id column, which allows you to import use your previous system’s person identifier. This identifier makes migrating your donations much faster and guarantees accuracy when using our tool.
2. Set up Planning Center Giving with the coordinating funds and payment sources you’ll be importing.
   • Ensure the fund is open. Donations will not be imported into closed funds, and the importer will stall.
   • Use the name of the previous systems as the name of the payment source, so you know where the donations came from (e.g. FellowshipOne, Church Community Builder, Arena).
3. Export contributions from the previous system. Follow specific steps for the most popular systems; if you want to add your system to our list, send an email with the steps.
4. Clean up your file, ensuring these fields are in it:
   • At least one identifier column but all, if possible)
     • remote_id
       This field is the first field to match people together.
     • Email address
     • Phone number
   • First name
   • Last name
   • Fund
   • Type (e.g. online, credit card, cash, check, etc…)
   • Amount
   • Date received (formatted mm/dd/yyy)
   • Fee (optional)
   • Campus (optional)
   • Label (optional)
   • Check number (optional)