elvanto Help & Support

There are plenty of features to discover which is why we've created this quick guide which will show you how to set up and use your elvanto account. One thing to understand is there is no set way to set-up your account as every church is different. elvanto is highly customisable which allows it to be shaped and molded to the way you run things.

This guide will lead you through the steps you should take to get started and as you go you can add your own churches flare.

 

Navigating your account

First things first. Understanding how to navigate your account. You'll notice that on every page you have a small black menu at the top right of every page that says 'Welcome!'. This menu contains links to main account functions and is also where you can log out.

Below that menu is a grey menu that spans across the entire screen. This contains links to different features in your account. When you mouse over each item, a drop down menu will appear, each clearly marked, that takes you to different sections.

On a lot of pages, you'll notice on the right hand side a 'Filter' box, which allows you to filter the results (e.g. filter people) and a 'Quick Links' box, which allows you to navigate to other features.

There are two areas attached to your elvanto account. The "Admin Area" which is the area that controls your entire account. Here you can add people, manage groups, create services, style your account and more. Only the people you allow will be able to see this area.

The "Member Area" is where your church members and volunteers can gain access to edit their account details, view their roster, view latest blog updates, access the songs database and more.

 

You can switch between areas by clicking the "Admin" or "Member Area" link at the top right hand corner of every page.

 

Account Settings

The next big thing you'll want to do is set-up your account settings. There are a lot of settings that you can configure to make elvanto run the way you want. What I suggest you do is log into the Admin Area and at the top right hand side click the Account Settings​ link. This will show a drop down listing different sections in your account which you can modify the settings for.

When changing a setting, a description is provided to help you understand what you are changing and what the setting is used for. It's ok if you don't tweak all the settings at the very beginning, you van always come back. But it would be worth looking through to see what powerful features elvanto contain.

Below I have included some information about some of the settings you can modify.

Customise your layout

elvanto allows you to use your own colours and upload your own logos and backgrounds to the design. You can even change widths, add sidebar widgets and use your own site domain (e.g. roster.yourwebsite.com) instead of a sub domain (e.g. yourwebsite.elvanto.com).

elvanto has support for multiple layouts within your account, so that different departments can have their own sub domain, logos and colours. You can read more about this in the Help File.

Locations

Locations are perfect if your church is based in multiple locations, and even in different states and countries. You can assign church members and volunteers to locations.

Locations also make it easier to filter through results (such as only viewing people from a certain location) and when assigning volunteers to a service.

If you only have one location at your church, there isn't any need to set this up.

You can read more about locations in the Help File.

Departments

Departments are used to determine what areas your volunteers serve in. Each department is broken up in sub-departments and positions. An example of this is: Music Team (department), Vocals (sub-department), Worship Leader (position).

You can add as many as you like. Departments are also used when volunteers are assigned to a service, making it easy to see who serves in what department.

Departments are required before setting up volunteers and services.

You can read more about departments in the Help File.

Demographics

Here you can add the different demographics in your church. So for example you could add Adults, Young Families, Youth & Kids as your demographics.

When editing people you can assign them to their demographics making it easier to find people within them.

You can read more about demographics in the Help File.

Access Permissions

As we mentioned earlier, you can control what people see. For example your Worship Leader needs to access services and volunteers but don't need to see your financials. You can create an Access Permission for your Worship Leader and choose what areas they can see.

You can create as many access permissions as you'd like

You can read more about access permissions in the Help File.

 

People & Volunteers

Now that we've finished with our settings, we can now start looking at people. Go to the People​ link in the Admin Area menu. This is where your people & volunteer accounts are stored. Here you can search for people, create different views and so much more.

Each volunteer has their own account which they can log into and view latest posts, their roster, submit unavailability and more.

You can read more about using People in the Help File.

People Categories

Under the People​ menu you'll see a ​People Categories​ link. This is where you can define the different types of people you have within your church. For example you might have a New People, Members​ and Inactive​ categories. You can customise the fields of information that you want to record within these categories and a few other settings. Using People Categories also assists with filtering people when creating reports.

You can read more about people categories in the Help File.

People Flows

Also under the People​ menu you'll see ​People Flows​. This is one of the most powerful features in elvanto. It allows you to create processes that people are put through. For example you might have a New Person​ people flow. When a new person is added to that flow, they are put through a process to get them to a point; either being connected into the church or not. Obviously this is a basic example.

You can read more about people categories in the Help File.

Importing People

And of course you can import people from a CSV file. This makes it easy moving across from a current database.

More details about importing in the Help File.

 

Groups

Groups allow you to group your people. You can assign leaders to groups and the people who are apart of it. Groups can be used for anything. Whether they are used for small groups or ministries in your church, they are useful for any type of group of people.

You can categorise groups making it even easier to manage. So for example you could have a Small Groups​ category that houses all of your small groups. You could then have a Ministries​ category that houses all of your ministry groups and so on.

You can even do reports on groups to track attendance.

More details about groups can be found in the Help File.

 

Services

This is where you can create services and roster your volunteers. When a volunteer who has been rostered logs into their account, the service will show up on their roster and notify them that they are rostered on.

There are quite a few features (such as service types, editing multiple services) that make up the services section so we highly recommend that you check out the Help File to find out all the cool things you can achieve.

Songs

The Songs page under the Services menu allows you to first create songs before they are assigned to services. You can add lyrics, chords and different keys to songs. You can even upload files.

Songs also show up in the Member Area so your volunteers can view song details and also have access to audio, videos, charts and lyrics if you choose to provide them.

We have a whole section in the Help File dedicated to songs which you can read.

 

Reports

Reports is where the power happens. You can generate different types of reports from a list of people and families based on a criteria to a comprehensive report that can contain lots of different reports and data.

You can control different sharing options making it easy to give the people who need access to view the reports. You can also export reports with a couple of clicks.

You can read more about using and creating reports in the Help File.

 

Content

Under the Content menu you can manage things like pages, posts, emails and links.

Financials

Financials allows you to keep track of giving and pledges in your church. You can easilly import batches of transactions which link up to the people in the database.

Read more in the Help File.

Posts

Posts allows you to set-up your very own blogging platform that allows you to share information with your volunteers.

Read more in the Help File.

Pages

Pages allow you to add static pages of content to your account. An example of a static page could be an About page that displays information about volunteering in your church.

Emails & Letters

Emails & Letters allow you to create templates which can be sent out to people in your church.

Links

And lastly, Links allows you to provide useful links for your volunteers. These can be links back to your main website, links to external websites, and even to downloads.

 

That's A Wrap!

Thank you for taking the time to read through the elvanto Help Guide. We hope this guide has been of assistance to you.

Remember that at any time you can click the Help button at the top right of every page if you require any assistance, or you can email us for support.

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