Quickstart
Create your organization, connect Planning Center, and get your first insights
Get Parable Running
Setting up Parable takes about ten minutes of your time. Most of the elapsed time is the first Planning Center sync, which runs in the background while you explore.
Before You Start
You'll authorize with an account that has Organizational Admin permissions — plus Giving Administrator if you want giving data
The 30-day trial doesn't ask for payment details
You do not need to bring your own database. Parable hosts the warehouse and provisions a read-only connection for you once your data has synced.
Setup in Four Steps
Step 1: Create Your Organization
Tell us about your church so we can size and contextualize your data.
Organization Details
- Organization Name — your church's name
- Mailing Address — street, city, state/province, and postal code
Demographics
- Denomination
- Average Weekly Attendance
- Age of Organization
- Number of Staff Members
These help benchmark your data against similar churches and set sensible defaults for engagement scoring and metrics.
Step 2: Connect Planning Center
People is required — it's the backbone every other module links to. Then pick any of:
| App | What it brings in |
|---|---|
| Giving | Donations, funds, pledges, recurring gifts, batches |
| Check-Ins | Check-ins, events, locations, headcounts |
| Groups | Groups, memberships, events, attendance, RSVPs |
| Services | Plans, teams, positions, scheduling, songs |
| Calendar | Events, resources, room bookings, approvals |
| Registrations | Signups, attendees, waitlists, selection types |
| Publishing | Series, episodes, speakers, watch counts |
| Home | Organization hub (authorization only — no data sync) |
Connect everything you use. Cross-module questions — do people who serve also give? — only work when both modules are synced.
You'll be redirected to Planning Center to approve access. Make sure your account has Organizational Admin, and Giving Administrator if you selected Giving.
Give the integration a nickname if you'll connect more than one Planning Center organization.
Step 3: Start Your Free Trial
Thirty days of full access, no credit card required. You can add billing details later under Settings → Billing.
Step 4: Let the First Sync Run
Parable begins importing immediately. The first full sync pulls your complete history and can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on your church's size — it runs in the background, and you can start exploring as data lands.
After the initial import, Parable keeps everything current automatically. Sync status is visible under Settings → Sync.
What to Do First
On the Overview page, ask something in plain language — "how many first-time guests did we have last month?" — and get an answer, chart, or report back
Open any person to see their engagement score, giving pattern, attendance history, and group involvement in one profile
Assemble tiles for the metrics your leadership meeting actually needs
Save a report and have it emailed on a recurring schedule, or export it to PDF or CSV
Going Deeper With SQL
Two ways to query your data directly:
Open SQL Editor in the sidebar. It includes schema autocomplete, query history, saved queries, and CSV export — no setup required.
Your First Queries
Every Planning Center table lives in the planning_center schema, and
relationships live in separate *_relationships tables rather than foreign-key
columns.
-- Active people, by membership status
SELECT
COALESCE(membership, 'Unspecified') as membership,
COUNT(*) as people
FROM planning_center.people_people
WHERE status = 'active'
GROUP BY COALESCE(membership, 'Unspecified')
ORDER BY people DESC;-- Weekly check-in trend over the last 12 weeks
SELECT
DATE_TRUNC('week', c.created_at) as week,
COUNT(DISTINCT cr.relationship_id) as unique_attendees,
COUNT(*) as check_ins
FROM planning_center.checkins_check_ins c
JOIN planning_center.checkins_check_ins_relationships cr
ON cr.check_in_id = c.check_in_id
AND cr.relationship_type = 'Person'
WHERE c.created_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '12 weeks'
GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('week', c.created_at)
ORDER BY week DESC;-- Giving totals by fund, this year
SELECT
f.name as fund,
COUNT(DISTINCT d.donation_id) as gifts,
SUM(des.amount_cents) / 100.0 as total_dollars
FROM planning_center.giving_donations d
JOIN planning_center.giving_donations_relationships dr
ON dr.donation_id = d.donation_id
AND dr.relationship_type = 'Designation'
JOIN planning_center.giving_designations des
ON des.designation_id = dr.relationship_id
JOIN planning_center.giving_designations_relationships desr
ON desr.designation_id = des.designation_id
AND desr.relationship_type = 'Fund'
JOIN planning_center.giving_funds f
ON f.fund_id = desr.relationship_id
WHERE d.payment_status = 'succeeded'
AND d.received_at >= DATE_TRUNC('year', CURRENT_DATE)
GROUP BY f.name
ORDER BY total_dollars DESC;Don't filter on tenant_organization_id or system_status — row-level
security applies both automatically, and adding them yourself can hide rows or
slow the query down.
Where to Go Next
- Accessing Your Data — connect PGAdmin, TablePlus, Power BI, or Tableau
- Planning Center Overview — how the synced schema is organized
- Engagement Scoring — how scores, tiers, and warning lights work
- Giving Stages — how donor patterns are classified
Need help? Join the community Slack or email michael@getparable.io.