Planning Center Integration
Connect PushPulse with Planning Center Online (PCO) to keep your people directory in sync and target alerts to whoever is actually serving today.
What You Get
People sync. Select Planning Center lists and PushPulse will automatically create and update users from them on a schedule. No CSVs, no manual cleanup.
Serving-aware alerting. When sending a notification, you can choose to deliver it only to people who are on a service plan that day — so the safety team gets the alert during the service, not on their day off.
The integration uses OAuth, so there are no API keys to manage. Sign in with Planning Center and you're connected.
Setup Overview
Getting Planning Center connected involves four steps:
Authorize the integration — connect your Planning Center organization via OAuth
Map campuses to locations — tell PushPulse which PCO campus corresponds to which PushPulse location
Create list syncs — choose which PCO lists to pull people from and how to handle them in PushPulse
Configure serving-aware delivery — optionally filter alert recipients to only people on a service plan
Step 1: Authorize the Integration
In PushPulse, navigate to Manage → Integrations and find Planning Center in the list. Click Connect.
You'll be redirected to Planning Center to sign in and approve access to the following: API, People, Groups, Check-Ins, and Services. Click Allow.
You'll land back on the Planning Center settings page in PushPulse with a green Connected badge. You only need to do this once per organization. To revoke access at any time, click Disconnect from the same page.
Step 2: Map Campuses to Locations
Before any people sync, you need to tell PushPulse which Planning Center campus corresponds to which PushPulse location. This mapping is the foundation everything else relies on.
On the Planning Center settings page, find the Campus → Location Mapping section. For each Planning Center campus, select the matching PushPulse location from the dropdown.
Campuses left unmapped will show as Unmapped and people assigned to them won't sync. If your organization has a single campus, map it to your primary location and you're done.
Step 3: Create List Syncs
PushPulse pulls people from Planning Center using list syncs. Each list sync points to one PCO list — such as "Campus is set", "Volunteers", or any smart list you've built — and controls how those people are created or updated in PushPulse.
To create a list sync, click New list sync from the Planning Center settings page and configure the following:
Planning Center list — select the PCO list to pull from. PushPulse will show you how many people are currently on it.
Default role — the role new users will receive in PushPulse. App User is the most common.
Fallback primary location — used when someone on the list doesn't have a campus that PushPulse can map.
Add to groups — optionally place synced users into one or more PushPulse groups.
Send invite emails automatically — toggle on to notify new users when they're added.
When someone is removed from this PCO list — controls what happens in PushPulse if a person leaves the list. "Do nothing" is the safest default. Removing someone from a PCO list does not automatically revoke their PushPulse account; manage that separately from User Management if needed.
Click Create list sync.
The sync runs on a schedule and also picks up changes when the underlying PCO list updates. You can create as many list syncs as needed — for example, one for staff, one for volunteers, and one for a specific campus.
Step 4: Configure Serving-Aware Delivery
When creating a notification or notification template, open the Audience section. You'll find a toggle called Planning Center serving filter. Turn it on and the alert will only be delivered to people who are on a service plan on the day the notification fires.
A few things to know:
The filter is additive on top of your existing audience selection. If you choose "Send to All" with the serving filter on, only people currently serving will receive it.
People in your audience who aren't linked to Planning Center are unaffected — they receive the alert normally. The filter only narrows PCO-linked users.
You can combine the serving filter with the location and check-in filters for more precise targeting.
This is most useful for templated alerts triggered during services — drills, medical events, security pages — where you want to reach the people on the floor without notifying everyone on the broader volunteer roster.
Troubleshooting
Someone isn't syncing. Check that their Planning Center campus is mapped to a PushPulse location. Unmapped campuses are skipped entirely.
A list shows 0 people. PushPulse only sees what your Planning Center account permissions allow. Make sure the account used to connect the integration has access to that list.
The serving filter isn't filtering anyone out. Confirm those users were created or updated via a list sync — they need to be linked to Planning Center in PushPulse for the filter to apply. Also verify they're scheduled on a service plan for today's date in Planning Center.
I need to switch the connected Planning Center account. Click Disconnect on the Planning Center settings page, then reconnect using the new account. Campus mappings and list sync configurations will need to be reviewed after reconnecting.
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