Changing Administrator Settings

To access Administrator Settings, you must be logged in to ChurchTrac using an Administrator user account. Administrator Settings will be visible on the Settings Screen.

The Admin Settings Screen is where you will configure your account-wide settings, such as your regional settings, email settings, messaging settings, etc. Any changes made in Administrator Settings will impact all user accounts.

This screen has several sections, including Your Church Info, Account & Payment Info, Screen Preferences, Regional Settings, and so on. Click on one of these links to view the settings related to that topic.

In most cases, the options are self-explanatory. Some settings also have built-in help icons that you can click on to get additional information about that setting.

Account & Payment Info

The Account & Payment Info section is where you can pay for ChurchTrac, update payment information, view your account's status and payment history, or permanently close your ChurchTrac Account.

Screen preferences

This section allows you to set defaults for various screens and features throughout the application. For example, you can set the default Member Status that is used, and whether or not you want to show individual and family pictures on the People Screen.

Add Name settings

This section allows you to specify which fields will be available from the Add Name dialog window. You can choose from several built-in fields, as well as the individual and family user-defined fields you create.

Add Name Settings

Report settings

Here you can choose your paper size and default font, but this screen is used mostly for customizing the look of your contribution statements. The Name/Address Horizontal Offset and Vertical Offset fields control the positioning of the Name and Address, which is useful when using windowed envelopes for contribution statements.

Adjust the horizontal position to move the address left or right to match the envelopes of your choosing. Likewise, adjust the vertical position to move the address up or down.

The statement header and footer will be printed on each contribution statement. The number of characters for each of these fields is limited to 512. We recommend that you keep these messages as short as possible. If you wish to include more text or a detailed thank you with your statements, you should consider attaching a cover letter.

In the United States, the IRS requires a statement similar to "No goods or services were received in exchange for these contributions.", appear on your contribution statements.

Email settings

There are several different ways to send email through your ChurchTrac account.

Amazon SES
SendGrid
SparkPost
GSuite

Email deliverability will be an issue if you do not use a service like SendGrid (providers will typically send an email straight to spam or not deliver it at all if it is sent to multiple recipients over their threshold). SendGrid charges a reasonable monthly rate for bulk email.

You also have the option of having ChurchTrac generate a list of email addresses that you can copy and paste into another application. Keep in mind that you may experience deliverability issues if you have multiple recipients and you're not using a service such as SendGrid or those listed above.

While you have the option to specify your own SMTP server for sending email, we do not recommend it. In fact, many SMTP providers will not allow you to send through a third-party application, like ChurchTrac. This is especially true when using free email services, like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.

You should only use the SMTP sending option if you are using your own paid domain name for sending (like yourchurchname.org). Using GSuite would accomplish this method, but understand that there will likely be deliverability issues when using this method with a large number of recipients (more than 20, for example).

Voice and Text/SMS settings

To send a voice or text message from ChurchTrac, you purchase messaging credits which allow you to send a message to people in your database. Each voice message recipient uses 1 credit from your available balance, and each text message recipient uses a half credit from your available balance. Take a look at our pricing page by clicking "Purchase Additional Credits" to see current prices for messaging features.

For text messaging, you have the option to purchase a dedicated phone number. This allows you to send messages to your recipients from a number that is not shared with other churches or ministries. If you don't use a dedicated number, you can still send text messages, but you'll be using a phone number that is shared between multiple churches. Regardless of which method, each recipient will still use a half credit from your available messaging credit balance.

Our credit-based voice and text messaging only works inside the United States and Canada. If you live outside the US or Canada, please contact us for other built-in messaging options.

Regional settings

ChurchTrac's default is set for the U.S. standard format for dates and phone numbers. However, there is an option to choose a different Date Format as well as a different Phone Number Format to allow for international phone numbers.

The Country Field is exclusively used for the Map Reports, and is only supported in the US and Canada.

Do not enter a value in the Canadian Charitable ID field unless you are located in Canada. When you enter a value in this field, we generate a different style of contribution statement suitable for use by Canadian churches.

Dashboard Setup

This section allows you to choose which user-defined fields, Tags, and graphs appear in your Dashboard on the Home Screen. This can be useful, for example, in tracking the number of new members or baptisms in the last x number of weeks, or since a certain date. You can also show the total number of entries relating to certain user-defined fields.

Learn more about Dashbaord Setup