Accessing Your Data

Parable gives you two ways to query your synced Planning Center data directly: the built-in SQL editor, and a read-only PostgreSQL connection you can point any tool at.

Option 1: The Built-In SQL Editor

The fastest path — nothing to install or configure. Open SQL Editor from the sidebar. It includes:

Schema browsing and autocomplete across every synced table
Query history and saved queries
CSV export, including background export for large result sets
Query cancellation for long-running work

Start here. Use an external client only when you need a tool Parable doesn’t provide — scheduled extracts, a BI semantic layer, or a notebook workflow.

Option 2: Your Own Database Client or BI Tool

Getting Your Connection String

Open Settings → Database

Select Create Connection and give it a name you’ll recognize (for example, “Power BI” or “Michael’s laptop”).

Copy the credentials

Parable generates and displays the username, password, host, database name, and a complete connection string.

The password is stored encrypted, and you can reopen it later — press Connect on the connection under Settings → Database to see the password and full connection string again. You can hold several connections at once and revoke them individually.

Your connection string looks like this:

postgres://username:password@host:5432/database

You don’t supply a database — Parable hosts the warehouse and provisions a dedicated role scoped to your organization.

What the Connection Can Do

The role Parable creates is deliberately narrow:


Access	`SELECT` only
Schema	`planning_center`, plus the `giving_custom_units` tables used by custom giving reports
Isolation	Row-level security restricts every query to your organization
Filtering	Only `active` records are visible by default

You cannot create tables, views, materialized views, or indexes through this connection, and you cannot write to any table. INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and DDL will all be rejected. This is by design — your Planning Center data stays authoritative and unmodified.

A “permission denied” error on a write or CREATE statement is not a misconfiguration. It’s the guardrail working.

Connecting a Database Client

TablePlus
PGAdmin
DataGrip
psql

Click + to create a new connection and choose PostgreSQL
Fill in Host, Port (5432), User, Password, and Database from your Parable credentials
Set SSL mode to Require
Test, then Connect

Right-click Servers → Register → Server
On General, name the connection
On Connection, enter host, port 5432, database, username, and password
On Parameters, set SSL mode to require
Save

Click + in the Database tool window → Data Source → PostgreSQL
Enter host, port 5432, database, user, and password
On the SSH/SSL tab, enable SSL and set mode to require
Test Connection, then OK

psql "postgres://username:password@host:5432/database?sslmode=require"

Connecting a BI Tool

Power BI
Tableau
Metabase

Get Data → PostgreSQL database. Enter the host and database name, choose DirectQuery for live data or Import for a cached extract, then supply the username and password when prompted.Import mode is usually the better choice — it keeps report interactions fast and reduces load on the warehouse.

Admin → Databases → Add database → PostgreSQL. Enter host, port, database, username, and password, and enable Use a secure connection (SSL). Metabase will scan the planning_center schema automatically.

Understanding the Schema

All synced Planning Center data lives in the planning_center schema, named {app}_{entity}:

-- List everything available to you
SELECT table_name
FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_schema = 'planning_center'
ORDER BY table_name;

Common starting points:

Table	Contains
`planning_center.people_people`	Every person record
`planning_center.people_households`	Household groupings
`planning_center.giving_donations`	Individual donations
`planning_center.giving_funds`	Fund definitions
`planning_center.checkins_check_ins`	Attendance check-ins
`planning_center.groups_groups`	Small groups and classes
`planning_center.groups_memberships`	Group membership records
`planning_center.services_plans`	Worship service plans
`planning_center.calendar_events`	Church calendar events
`planning_center.registrations_signups`	Event signups

Relationships Live in Their Own Tables

This is the single most important thing to know before writing queries. Entity tables carry no foreign-key columns. Every link between records lives in a matching *_relationships table:

-- A donation's donor is NOT giving_donations.person_id.
-- It's a row in giving_donations_relationships.
SELECT
    p.first_name,
    p.last_name,
    d.amount_cents / 100.0 as amount,
    d.received_at
FROM planning_center.giving_donations d
JOIN planning_center.giving_donations_relationships dr
    ON dr.donation_id = d.donation_id
    AND dr.relationship_type = 'Person'
JOIN planning_center.people_people p
    ON p.person_id = dr.relationship_id
WHERE d.payment_status = 'succeeded'
ORDER BY d.received_at DESC
LIMIT 100;

Each relationship table has three meaningful columns: the parent entity’s ID (named after the parent table, for example donation_id), relationship_type (what kind of record it points at), and relationship_id (the ID of that record). See Planning Center Overview for the full model, and each module’s data-model page for its relationship types.

First Queries

-- How many active people do we have?
SELECT COUNT(*) as active_people
FROM planning_center.people_people
WHERE status = 'active';

-- Giving by month over the last year
SELECT
    DATE_TRUNC('month', received_at) as month,
    COUNT(*) as gifts,
    SUM(amount_cents) / 100.0 as total_dollars
FROM planning_center.giving_donations
WHERE payment_status = 'succeeded'
  AND received_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '12 months'
GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('month', received_at)
ORDER BY month DESC;

-- Group participation
SELECT
    g.name as group_name,
    COUNT(DISTINCT mr_person.relationship_id) as members
FROM planning_center.groups_groups g
JOIN planning_center.groups_memberships_relationships mr_group
    ON mr_group.relationship_id = g.group_id
    AND mr_group.relationship_type = 'Group'
JOIN planning_center.groups_memberships_relationships mr_person
    ON mr_person.membership_id = mr_group.membership_id
    AND mr_person.relationship_type = 'Person'
WHERE g.archived_at IS NULL
GROUP BY g.name
ORDER BY members DESC;

Best Practices

Let Row-Level Security Do Its Job

Every query is automatically scoped to your organization and to active records. Adding these filters yourself is redundant and can slow queries down:

❌ WHERE tenant_organization_id = 1
❌ WHERE system_status = 'active'

Understand the Two Kinds of Timestamp

created_at / updated_at — when the record changed in Planning Center. Use these for ministry metrics.
system_created_at / system_updated_at — when Parable synced the record. Use these to debug sync behavior, not to measure ministry.

Query Performance

Filter by date range before joining relationship tables
Add LIMIT while exploring
Select the columns you need rather than SELECT * on large tables
Cache heavy summaries in your BI tool — you can’t create materialized views through this connection

Security

Treat the connection string like a password; never commit it or share it publicly
Create a separate connection per tool or person so you can revoke one without disrupting the others
Delete connections you no longer use from Settings → Database

Troubleshooting

“Could not connect to server” Confirm the host and port (5432) are exactly as shown in Settings → Database, and that SSL is enabled in your client. “Authentication failed” Passwords can’t be recovered after creation. If you don’t have it saved, delete the connection and create a new one. “Permission denied” on a write or CREATE Expected. The connection is read-only by design. A table looks empty Check that the corresponding Planning Center app is connected and has finished its first sync under Settings → Sync.

Getting Help

Ask in the community Slack
Email michael@getparable.io
Browse module-specific query examples under Planning Center

Getting started

Release Notes

Giving Engagement

Planning Center

Accessing Your Data

Option 1: The Built-In SQL Editor

Option 2: Your Own Database Client or BI Tool

Getting Your Connection String

What the Connection Can Do

Connecting a Database Client

Connecting a BI Tool

Understanding the Schema

Relationships Live in Their Own Tables

First Queries

Best Practices

Let Row-Level Security Do Its Job

Understand the Two Kinds of Timestamp

Query Performance

Security

Troubleshooting

Getting Help

​Option 1: The Built-In SQL Editor

​Option 2: Your Own Database Client or BI Tool

​Getting Your Connection String

​What the Connection Can Do

​Connecting a Database Client

​Connecting a BI Tool

​Understanding the Schema

​Relationships Live in Their Own Tables

​First Queries

​Best Practices

​Let Row-Level Security Do Its Job

​Understand the Two Kinds of Timestamp

​Query Performance

​Security

​Troubleshooting

​Getting Help

Option 1: The Built-In SQL Editor

Option 2: Your Own Database Client or BI Tool

Getting Your Connection String

What the Connection Can Do

Connecting a Database Client

Connecting a BI Tool

Understanding the Schema

Relationships Live in Their Own Tables

First Queries

Best Practices

Let Row-Level Security Do Its Job

Understand the Two Kinds of Timestamp

Query Performance

Security

Troubleshooting

Getting Help