Getting Started, Part 3: Ready to Communicate and Take Attendance

Step 1: Request your SMS Sender ID

This isn't instant, submit your request under Settings as early as possible (see Understanding Sender ID Approval Status), you won't be able to send any broadcast until it's approved, so don't leave this until the week you actually need to message your congregation.

Step 2: Choose your registration methods

Decide how members will get into Sermfy going forward, existing lists usually go through Bulk Registration, new people going forward often work best through Self-Registration links or QR codes at your welcome table (see Best Practices: Choosing the Right Registration Method).

Step 3: Decide your attendance approach

For your first real service, decide whether you're doing full Individual Check-In or a simple Headcount (see Headcount vs Individual Check-In: Which to Use), Individual Check-In takes more setup but unlocks Follow-Up's absentee tracking, which many churches consider worth it from day one.

Do a dry run of check-in with your own staff before your first real service, catching a QR-scanning or search issue with a small internal test group is far less stressful than discovering it live on a Sunday morning.

Best practice

Don't try to turn on every feature (Automation, Finance, Documents, Reports) in week one, get Members, Attendance, and Communication working smoothly first, the rest of Sermfy builds naturally from there once your core data is flowing.