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Parish Onboarding (Admins)

This guide is for parish administrators setting up Sacramentum for the first time.

Not sure if you're an administrator?

Start with Roles and Access.

1) Sign up your parish​

When you sign up, you’ll choose a few foundational settings that affect everything else: your parish name, your parish’s Sacramentum address (subdomain), the default timezone, and the first administrator account.

You’ll also choose your initial defaults for Mass intentions and payments. These are not permanent—you can refine them later in Settings—but it’s worth thinking through them at the start (for example: your suggested stipend/offering amount, whether payment is required for intentions, and whether you allow extra donations).

Set your timezone carefully

Sacramentum displays Mass and Confession times in your parish's local timezone, and a wrong timezone can make schedules look incorrect.

tip

If your first administrator is also a priest, enable the “also a priest” option so that account can appear in priest assignments and lists.

2) Create your first location (church/chapel)​

After you sign in, create at least one parish location (for example: “Main Church”, “Chapel”). Locations are used for schedules, assignments, and public display.

Go to Admin Dashboard → People & Places → Locations and add your first location. As an early step, make sure the address is accurate, and add basic Confession times if your parish maintains them per location.

tip

If your parish has multiple worship spaces (church, chapel, adoration chapel), add them as separate locations so schedules and public information stay clear.

3) Add priests and staff users​

Next, add the people who will maintain schedules and keep information up to date.

Go to Admin Dashboard → People & Places → Users and add priest accounts and any additional administrators/staff. This ensures there is more than one person who can manage day‑to‑day updates.

4) Configure parish settings (the essentials)​

Go to Admin Dashboard → Settings. These settings affect what parishioners see and what your parish can manage.

Parish settings (name, timezone, contact info)​

In Settings → Parish Settings, confirm your parish name and timezone, and set your public contact information (phone, email, website). Adding your parish office address can also be helpful for clarity and for certain printed/exported records.

Payments (Stripe + intention payments)​

In Settings → Payment, decide how online offerings and intention payments work for your parish.

If your parish accepts online payments, enter your Stripe keys (publishable + secret) and the webhook secret. Then choose whether payment is required for Mass intention requests, whether you allow donations above the stipend, and whether you offer an option for covering transaction fees.

info

If you do not enable Stripe, Sacramentum can still track offline payments (cash/check/etc.) for intentions.

Mass intentions (defaults and rules)​

Mass intentions touch both public requests and internal record‑keeping, so it’s worth reviewing the intention defaults early:

In Settings → Parish Settings, confirm your stipend default and any canonical rules your parish follows (for example, whether you accept multiple intentions per Mass). In Settings → Intention Types, review the intention categories your parish accepts (with labels in English and Spanish). Day to day, you’ll manage requests, assignments, scheduling, fulfillment, and history under Admin Dashboard → Masses & Intentions.

tip

If your parish accepts one intention per Mass, keep “multiple intentions per Mass” off (the default). If your parish accepts multiple intentions per Mass, enable it and set a reasonable maximum for your practice.

5) Publish Mass and Confession schedules​

To ensure parishioners see accurate information, set up schedules early. From Admin Dashboard → People & Places → Locations, open a location and add Mass schedules and Confession schedules (including regular weekly times and special schedules as needed). Then review the public page to confirm the times look correct and are associated with the right location.

If you don’t see updates on the public page right away, see Troubleshooting → Updates not showing.

6) Go‑live checklist​

Before sharing your parish address broadly:

  • Confirm the timezone is correct
  • Ensure at least one location is public and accurate
  • Ensure priests/staff can sign in
  • Confirm Mass/Confession schedules display correctly
  • If accepting online intention requests, run a quick end‑to‑end test (request → payment → receipt/confirmation → admin review)

What's next​

Once your parish is live: