Planning Center Zapier integrationAutomate Planning Center with Zapier.
The Planning Center Zapier integration gives you 6 triggers and no action: donations, form submissions, service plans, profiles, list members and workflow cards can start a Zap, and another tool does the work. All six are polling triggers, checked on your plan's timer.
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What the Planning Center Zapier integration does
Planning Center is the software a church uses to keep its people records, prepare its services, follow giving and run event sign-ups. The Planning Center Zapier integration connects it to Zapier, a tool that runs automations between apps without code. Zapier watches Planning Center for new items and hands each one to another app, which does something useful with it.
A giving log the treasurer doesn't type. New Donation picks up each gift and adds it to a shared spreadsheet or your accounting tool, so the books follow without a re-keying session.
Newcomers who get a welcome. New Form Submission catches the connect card a visitor fills in, and an email tool sends the welcome message from there.
Volunteers told about the next service. New Plan notices a plan created in a service type, and a chat tool lets the worship or tech team know it's there.
Here is what Zapier doesn't do for Planning Center. There is no action: a Zap can't create a person, record a donation or add someone to a list in Planning Center. There is no search either. Every trigger works by polling, so nothing is instant, even on the top plans. And a Zap never picks up what existed before it was switched on.
For a wider view of the tool itself, the Zapier review and n8n vs Zapier are good reads before you build.
Zapier words, explained once
Seven terms that come back on this page, in plain words.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event that starts a Zap. With Planning Center, it's always a Planning Center trigger, such as a new donation or profile.
- Action
- What the Zap does once started. Planning Center has none on Zapier, so the action always comes from another app.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action that completed. Your plan's number counts these, and only these.
- Polling trigger
- A trigger Zapier checks on a timer, keeping only what it hasn't seen yet. All six Planning Center triggers work this way.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap continue only when the incoming data meets your condition, and stops it otherwise.
- Connection
- Your Planning Center account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every Planning Center trigger you set up.
What a Planning Center Zap costs
Planning Center itself costs nothing in tasks: the trigger is free, and so are all the checks Zapier runs on it. You pay for the action in the other app, one task each time it succeeds.
- Planning Center on the free planYes, not a paid-only app
- Free tasks per month100
- Free plan Zap length2 steps (trigger + action)
- Planning Center triggers on a timer6 of 6
An action that fails is not counted. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, each limited to two steps, so New Donation plus one spreadsheet row fits. A filter, a search or a second action makes it a multi-step Zap that needs a paid plan. Timing is the real difference between plans here: every Planning Center trigger polls, so the grid below sets how long a new item can wait.
Count the actions before you publish.
Connect Planning Center to Zapier in 3 steps
- 01
Start the connection
On the Apps page of your Zapier account, click + Add connection. In the dialog, type Planning Center and pick it from the list of results that appears.
- 02
Sign in to Planning Center
Click Add connection. Planning Center opens in a new tab; sign in with the account whose data the Zaps should read. It has to be an account of your own on the app.
- 03
Grant access
Let Zapier into the account. If a Zap must read lists, forms or workflows you don't own, your account needs read access to them in Planning Center, or the trigger will have nothing to show.
Your first Planning Center Zap
GoalOnly the donations that meet your condition are posted to the finance team's channel.
- 01
Set the trigger
Start a new Zap, choose Planning Center and the New Donation event, then your Planning Center connection. It's a polling trigger, so Zapier checks it on your plan's timer.
- 02
Test on a real donation
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent donations of the account, so you build the next steps on a real gift rather than on blanks.
- 03
Add a filter
Click the plus icon, choose Filter, pick the donation field to check, a rule that matches its type and the value to compare with. A text rule on a number never passes.
- 04
Add the Slack action
Add a Slack step that posts the donation to the finance channel, mapping what the trigger brought back into the message.
- 05
Test and publish
Run each step once, read the result, then click Publish. With a filter, this Zap needs a paid plan. Donations from before this moment are not picked up.
Planning Center triggers in Zapier
6 events start a Zap when something happens in Planning Center. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.
New List Result
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when the specified List has a new Person added.”
Fires when a person is added to a list you choose in Planning Center. Whoever lands on that list can be followed up by another tool, without anyone watching the list by hand.
New Donation
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a donation is received.”
Picks up each gift received in Planning Center and passes it on. Zapier puts it forward among the app's main triggers, and it's the natural start for anything financial: a ledger, a thank-you, a report to the board.
New Form Submission
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a form submission is received.”
Starts a Zap when someone sends one of your Planning Center forms. Connect cards, event sign-ups, prayer requests: whatever the form collects can reach the right person or tool without someone checking responses.
New Plan
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new plan is created in the selected service type.”
Reacts when a new plan is created inside the service type you select. It's the trigger for teams that prepare services ahead and want musicians, technicians or volunteers to hear about each new one outside Planning Center.
New Profile
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new Profile is created.”
Fires each time a profile is created in Planning Center, whoever created it. That makes it the broadest people trigger of the app, useful when every new person should exist in another system too.
New Workflow Card
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new workflow card is created in a specific workflow.”
Runs when a new card appears in a workflow you pick. It tells another tool that someone has a new card in that workflow: a call to make, a visit to plan.
When a Planning Center Zap breaks
Zapier links no help article of its own to Planning Center. The cases below are Zapier's general limits, applied to an app whose triggers all poll.
Four things to know before you rely on a Zap. If one still misbehaves, the Zapier troubleshooting guide is the next stop.
No backfill
A Zap reacts only to what is created after you switch it on. Donations, profiles and submissions already in Planning Center are not picked up.The wait is normal
Every trigger polls. On Free, a new donation or form can wait up to 15 minutes before the Zap runs. Paid plans shorten that, or let you run a check by hand.Bulk imports held back
Importing many people or donations at once makes the trigger return a huge batch, and Zapier's flood protection can hold it back.No duplicates
Zapier remembers what it has already seen on a polling trigger, so the same donation or profile never starts the Zap twice, which keeps your logs clean.
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