Skip to content

Guide

Switching from spreadsheets, calmly.

A practical overview of the four-week pattern small and midsize churches use to move off spreadsheets onto Congregation Portal without losing the team agreements the sheets quietly encoded.

Reports
People
412
Households
168
Groups
23
Sunday service
Small groups
Youth
Volunteer teams

Why does switching from spreadsheets usually stall?

Because the spreadsheets encode quiet agreements about who edits what and what a blank cell means. Moving the data is mechanical. Moving the agreements is the actual project. The four-week pattern spends the first half of the month on agreements and the second half on the import itself.

What the four-week pattern covers

Week one: inventory

Make every spreadsheet visible before deciding what to move.

Week two: cleanup

Standardize the source data before any import, not after.

Week three: import and access

Move the data and give every owner a live walkthrough.

Week four: first real week

Work in the new platform with the old sheets archived.