Hi, and welcome to UCare. This article covers the basics of signing in to UCare for the first time.
When you sign in for the first time, it’s a good idea to note the address and save a bookmark. The address will be something like https://mychurch.ucareapp.com, where my church is the name that was chosen for your church. If you can’t remember the address in the coming days, go to the global sign-in page and enter your email address.
Pick your time zone and password on the welcome page, then tap Continue.
If SMS has been enabled and you have been given SMS privileges, you will also need to enter a verification code. You’ll receive the code via SMS when you open the Welcome page. Normally, this takes a couple of seconds, but it can take up to 30 seconds for the code to arrive.
Mobile apps
UCare is designed to work where you work; this doesn’t just mean your location but also your device. As such, check out our apps for iOS (i.e., iPhone & iPad) and Android. For other devices, simply use your web browser to navigate to your church’s UCare address.
Navigating UCare
Find out more about navigating UCare.
Dashboard
Once you sign in, you will find yourself on the dashboard. The layout will adjust to best suit your device’s screen. So, if you are using it on a phone, it will adapt to best fit the screen. On devices with larger screens, it will look somewhat like the following picture.
On the left-hand side, you will find the navbar. By default, the labels appear, but you can click the very bottom button to hide them. If you are using a smaller screen, the button in the top-left displays the navbar.
The navbar contains the different item sections, e.g., People, Groups, etc. Following this are Check-in, Import, and Sync. You can find more info about each of these after the following picture. If you are migrating from another system, make sure you check out Import.
At the top of the window is the New menu for creating different items, and Search will let you find most things by name. Search is a quick and easy way to navigate if you know the name of what you are looking for. You only need to enter the first few letters of the item you are looking for; with people, you can enter the first few letters of a person’s first and last name, e.g., “Jo SM” would match John Smith. This is very handy if you aren’t sure of the exact spelling of a person’s name. You can also find people by phone number, email address, or profile barcode.
The top right shows who is currently signed in and how many tasks are assigned to you. It lets you access contextual help articles, videos, and our support team. The main part of the dashboard displays recent meeting attendance, your tasks due in the next 7 days, upcoming events, and groups you own. If you have just started a trial, UCare may seem a little blank. Don’t worry; this will change as you add people, record attendance, and assign tasks.
Note: Some things discussed may be unavailable if you haven’t been given permission.
Latest activity
Latest activity shows you all your recent activity on UCare. If you have admin privileges, you can view everyone’s activity. You can use this as an audit log to ensure that people’s information is used appropriately by those given access.
People
You can see everything happening at once, whether you have just a few people or thousands. Quickly find people and view their contact details, address, important dates, attendance, notes, relationships, groups, and more.
Easily send email and SMS messages or assign follow-up tasks to the team.
Make sure you check out Import on the navbar. This will let you import a list of people, groups, or meetings from a CSV spreadsheet so that you can quickly get started with UCare. Once you upload the CSV file, you will be asked to choose what type of information each column represents.
If you have an Excel spreadsheet of contacts that you want to import, make sure you first change the format by tapping File > Save as... > CSV (comma-delimited).
If you are an Admin, you can grant other people access to UCare by tapping ... next to the Access heading on their profile, then select the permissions you want them to have. When you tap save, they will receive a welcome email with a sign-in link.
Households
Grouping people together in households helps you better understand any given family, whether it’s single, newly married, a single parent, or whatever the case might be. A household’s home phone or address only needs to be updated once, and keeping everyone together helps simplify traditional mail delivery.
Groups
Groups are a simple yet powerful way to keep your church, ministries, and teams organized; you can even use them to build small groups or track things such as gifting. You can create groups for tracking any list of people; it helps you organize your church as needed. Groups also allow you to keep people connected with quick and easy email templates and SMS messages or view one of the many reports.
Search groups are like regular groups, except people are included based on easily selected criteria. Use it to create any report you need and to ensure people don’t slip through the cracks.
When your church first signed up for UCare, several groups were added as an example of the type of groups you may need. You can change or delete these groups to better suit your church.
Meetings & Check in
Meetings are an easy way to find where people are connected, and knowing when people stop attending lets you offer the help they need more easily. Once meeting attendance is recorded, task emails will remind you to follow up with the attendees via phone, email, or SMS if required. You can also view different groups’ health and how often members connect.
Check-in makes it easy for children to sign in and out, and a security receipt can be printed in accordance with the requirements of many governments. Name tags that include allergies and contact numbers can also be printed, should they be needed.
Services & Teams
Managing people and services can be daunting when most people are volunteers and when pastors and leaders can change service plans at the last minute.
Teams are for coordinating teams of people who serve in one or more services. At the same time, services are used to plan your service items and manage the team, positions, and scheduling required people. UCare also manages notification for all involved, whether leaders, staff, or volunteers.
Events
Manage ticketing for your events, both large and small. We process payments and help you keep in contact with event attendees via SMS or email. You can add a list of published events or booking forms to your website or church app, this makes it simple to publish new events to your website just by adding the event to UCare. UCare even allows you to use any smartphone to scan tickets, check in kids and attendees, track attendance, and print name tags.
Email Messages
With UCare, sending an email that is anti-spam compliant and looks great is super easy. Select a template, recipients, and attachments, and then you’re ready to send. You can even queue your emails so they automatically send at a specified time.
Simple Mailchimp integration, with its extensive design and reporting features, lets you take your email campaigns to the next level.
Forms & Processes
Processes let you track people through each stage of a process. You can automate sending follow-up emails and SMS and ensure that Leaders follow up within expected time frames. Forms can also be created so that you ensure all required info is collected. This can help keep track of connecting new people, staff leave requests, leadership development, marriage preparation, and more.
An example of how this may work is you create a prayer request form and drop it on your church website. When a person submits the form, they go into the prayer request process, which assigns them to a pastor to ensure that person is contacted, followed up with, and cared for appropriately.
Payments
UCare payment forms can be added to your website or church app so people can make online payments. You can record any giving or payments you receive from people and even export transaction reports later for accounting and tax purposes.
At the end of the financial year, you can select funds and payments and have UCare send a summary of all their giving for the year for use in their tax return.
Stores
Stores provide the ability to manage product sales, you can do things like sell church resources or maybe you want to give away podcasts or your weekend messages.
Sync
Sync supports two options. The first lets you sync people to and from Planning Center Services. The other option is Mailchimp. While UCare is very capable of sending emails, you may want to use Mailchimp if you need a drag-and-drop email design. Sync will help you avoid incorrect information or updating people’s information in multiple systems. Let UCare worry about that so you can focus on caring for people.
Settings
Your account settings are located at the top right under your name. They allow you to change things like your password or time zone.
If you are an Admin, you will have access to UCare settings for check-in, bulk email, security areas, payments, discount codes, and taxes. Check-in settings let you change the design of the name tags and receipts that are printed at check-in.
Discount code settings allow you to create and manage discount codes for use with events and stores.
The email accounts let you add other email addresses you can send on your behalf, while email templates allow people with Email HTML coding skills to create custom email design templates.
To enable UCare to process Credit Card payments for giving, event registrations, and resource purchases, you need to set up one or more of our supported payment providers in payment settings.
The portal provides an easy way for members of your church to register for events and small groups and fill out forms. They can also give, purchase resources, update their contact details, and browse the church directory all from the online portal.
Security areas allow you to restrict information so that it is only visible to people permitted to that area. You may want to add security areas for your Elders or each campus.
If you want to enable SMS, you first request it in settings. Once enabled, you can purchase credits to start sending messages.
The subscription settings allow you to specify the UCare Account manager and enter credit card payment info to pay your church’s monthly subscription to UCare.
If you need to collect taxes when selling tickets or resources, you can set those taxes up under the Taxes settings.
Sign out
If you are using UCare on a shared computer, it is advisable that you sign out when you are finished. The sign-out option is at the top right of UCare. Tap your name (on mobile, tap the person icon/image) and then tap Sign out.
Tasks
UCare allows tasks to be assign to team members, this sends them email reminders and ensures that the tasks get done. The bell icon in the top right shows a number if you have tasks assigned to you. Tapping on it will also show you all the tasks assigned to you and allow you to subscribe to those tasks to your calendar so that you receive reminders on your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Tasks are a great way to improve the care your team can provide people, whatever their needs.
Help
If you didn't find the answer to your question or need assistance, tap the help “?” button at the top right of every page or email support. We are always happy to help.
Continue your learning
Now that you understand the basics, head over to our Getting Started Guides so you can get the most out of UCare