​

Planning Center Data Architecture

​

Overview

​

Module Overview

​

Module Interconnections

​

People as the Central Hub

• Giving: People as donors, joint givers, and batch creators
• Groups: People as group members, leaders, and owners
• Check-ins: People checking in to events
• Services: People as team members, leaders, and plan assignees
• Calendar: People as event creators and resource bookers
• Registrations: People as registrants and attendees
• Publishing: People as speakers and content creators

1. Sequential Processing: Workflows execute sequentially to respect dependencies (People before Giving, etc.)
2. Bulk Operations: Data is collected and inserted in batches for performance
3. Multi-tenant Isolation: Row-level security ensures tenant data separation
4. Heartbeat Pattern: Long-running activities send heartbeats to prevent timeouts

​

Database Schema Organization

planning_center.{module}_{entity}

​

Examples

• planning_center.people_people - People entities
• planning_center.people_households - Household entities
• planning_center.giving_donations - Donation entities
• planning_center.groups_groups - Group entities
• planning_center.services_plans - Service plan entities

​

Common Patterns Across All Modules

​

System Fields

• system_status - All tables have a system_status column that filters to only show active records
• system_created_at - When record was first created
• system_updated_at - Last modification timestamp
• tenant_organization_id - All tables have a tenant_organization_id column that filters to only show records for the current organization

​

Entity ID Pattern

• {entity}_id - Original Planning Center identifier (e.g., people_id, donation_id)

​

Row Level Security (RLS)

• Filter data by current database role
• Ensure tenant isolation
• Restrict access to system_status = 'active' records

​

Module Details

​

People Module (84 tables)

• People, Households, Household Memberships
• Addresses, Emails, Phone Numbers
• Campuses, Organizations
• Forms, Form Submissions
• Workflows, Workflow Cards
• Lists, Notes, Messages

​

Giving Module (24 tables)

• Donations, Batches, Batch Groups
• Pledges, Pledge Campaigns
• Recurring Donations, Refunds
• Designations, Funds
• Payment Methods, Payment Sources

​

Groups Module (25 tables)

• Groups, Group Types
• Memberships, Enrollments
• Events, Event Notes, Attendance
• Locations, Resources, Tags

​

Check-ins Module (26 tables)

• Check-ins, Check-in Groups
• Events, Event Times, Event Periods
• Locations, Location Labels
• Person Events, Attendance Types
• Stations, Passes, Themes

​

Services Module (55+ tables)

• Service Types, Plans, Plan Times
• Teams, Team Positions
• Songs, Arrangements, Keys
• Items, Media, Schedules
• Blockouts, Signup Sheets

​

Calendar Module (27 tables)

• Events, Event Instances, Event Times
• Resources, Resource Bookings
• Room Setups, Resource Questions
• Conflicts, Attachments, Feeds

​

Registrations Module (14 tables)

• Registrations, Signups
• Attendees, Emergency Contacts
• Categories, Selection Types
• Locations, Campuses

​

Publishing Module (15 tables)

• Channels, Channel Times
• Episodes, Episode Times, Episode Resources
• Series, Speakers, Speakerships
• Note Templates

​

Performance Characteristics

​

Table Sizes (Approximate)

​

Sync Performance

• Full sync time: 5 minutes - 2 hours (depends on data size)
• Typical interval: Every 24 hours
• Bulk insert performance: 1K-10K rows/second per table

​

Multi-Tenant Architecture

​

Tenant Isolation

1. Role-based access: Each tenant has a dedicated database role
2. Automatic filtering: Views filter by CURRENT_ROLE to show only tenant’s data
3. No cross-tenant queries: Impossible to access other tenants’ data
4. Schema-level isolation: All Planning Center data in dedicated schema

​

Common Query Patterns

​

Cross-Module Queries

-- Get all donations from small group members
WITH group_members AS (
    SELECT DISTINCT person_id
    FROM planning_center.groups_memberships_view
    WHERE group_id = 'group_123'
)
SELECT
    p.first_name,
    p.last_name,
    d.amount_cents / 100.0 AS amount,
    d.received_at,
    f.name AS fund_name
FROM group_members gm
JOIN planning_center.people_people_view p
    ON gm.person_id = p.people_id
JOIN planning_center.giving_donation_relationships_view dr
    ON p.people_id = dr.relationship_id
    AND dr.relationship_type = 'person'  -- Via relationship table
JOIN planning_center.giving_donations_view d
    ON dr.donation_id = d.donation_id
JOIN planning_center.giving_designations_view des
    ON d.donation_id = des.donation_id
JOIN planning_center.giving_funds_view f
    ON des.fund_id = f.fund_id
WHERE d.received_at >= '2024-01-01'
ORDER BY d.received_at DESC;

-- Find people serving in both groups and services
WITH group_leaders AS (
    SELECT DISTINCT person_id
    FROM planning_center.groups_memberships_view
    WHERE role = 'leader'
),
service_team AS (
    SELECT DISTINCT person_id
    FROM planning_center.services_plan_people_view
    WHERE status = 'C'  -- Confirmed
)
SELECT
    p.first_name,
    p.last_name,
    p.primary_email AS email,
    COUNT(DISTINCT gm.group_id) AS groups_led,
    COUNT(DISTINCT pp.plan_id) AS services_on
FROM planning_center.people_people_view p
JOIN group_leaders gl ON p.people_id = gl.person_id
JOIN service_team st ON p.people_id = st.person_id
LEFT JOIN planning_center.groups_memberships_view gm
    ON p.people_id = gm.person_id AND gm.role = 'leader'
LEFT JOIN planning_center.services_plan_people_view pp
    ON p.people_id = pp.person_id
GROUP BY p.people_id, p.first_name, p.last_name, p.primary_email
ORDER BY groups_led DESC, services_on DESC;

​

Next Steps

​

Additional Resources