Planning Center

Connecting Planning Center to Bellwether takes about two minutes. You’ll sign in with your PCO account, approve the permissions, and you’re done.

Before You Start

You’ll need a Planning Center account with administrator access to your organization. Standard user accounts can’t authorize third-party integrations in PCO.

If you’re not sure whether you have admin access, check in Planning Center under Settings → People & Permissions. Administrators are listed there.

Step-by-Step Connection

1. Open Integrations. From your Bellwether dashboard, go to Settings → Integrations. You’ll also see this option during onboarding if you’re setting up for the first time.

2. Click Connect. Find Planning Center in the integrations list and click the Connect button.

3. Sign in to Planning Center. You’ll be redirected to Planning Center’s website. Sign in with the PCO account that has administrator access to your organization.

4. Review permissions. Planning Center will show you what Bellwether is requesting access to. This is read-only access to people, groups, check-ins, and services data.

5. Click Allow. Once you approve, you’ll be redirected back to Bellwether. You should see a green “Connected” badge next to Planning Center.

What Data Is Accessed

Once connected, Bellwether can read:

• People — Names, emails, phone numbers, membership status, and custom fields
• Groups — Group rosters, types, tags, and enrollment details
• Check-Ins — Attendance records for services and events
• Services — Service types, plans, and team assignments

This is read-only access. Bellwether cannot create, edit, or delete any records in your Planning Center account.

Token Refresh

The connection uses OAuth tokens that refresh automatically. You should not need to reconnect unless you explicitly revoke access from Planning Center’s side (under Settings → Developer → Connected Applications).

Disconnecting

If you need to disconnect, go to Settings → Integrations and click Disconnect next to Planning Center. This immediately revokes Bellwether’s access. You can reconnect at any time by following the steps above.

Troubleshooting

“Connection failed” after clicking Allow — This usually means the account you used doesn’t have administrator permissions. Try again with an admin account.

Planning Center shows the connection but Bellwether doesn’t — Try refreshing the integrations page in Bellwether. If it still doesn’t show, disconnect from Planning Center’s side and reconnect through Bellwether.

Data seems incomplete or outdated — Bellwether queries PCO in real time. If you just made changes in Planning Center, they should appear immediately in Bellwether. If they don’t, check that the data categories you expect are included in the permissions (people, groups, check-ins, services).