Quick start: your first week

This is a friendly setup path for getting Forge ready to use, taking you from an empty workspace to recording your first gift and creating your first request. You don't have to do it all at once, and you can return to any step later.

Before you begin

You'll move through five steps, roughly in this order:

1. Set up your organization.
2. Invite your team and assign roles.
3. Add or import your people and households.
4. Record your first gift.
5. Create your first request.

Each step stands on its own, so feel free to pause between them.

Step 1: Set up your organization

Start in Settings, where your organization's basics live.

1. Open Settings.
2. Add your organization name and logo.
3. Set your address and contact information.
4. Set your timezone and currency.

These details appear on statements, messages, and reports, so it's worth getting them right early. If your community uses different words for things, you can adjust terminology in Settings > Preferences (for example, "Member" can become "Parishioner," and "Contribution" can become "Gift").

Step 2: Invite your team and assign roles

Bring in the people who'll work alongside you.

1. Go to Settings > Team.
2. Click Invite Member.
3. Enter the person's email address.
4. Select the role or roles to assign.
5. Send the invite.

They'll receive an email with a link to create their account. Roles control what each person can see and do, from full admin access to read-only. You can change roles later under Settings > Permissions.

Step 3: Add or import your people and households

Your directory is the foundation everything else connects to. You can add people one at a time or bring in your existing records in bulk.

• To add someone, open the Community directory and use Add Person. First and last name are the only required fields.
• To bring in existing records, import from a CSV or another church management tool.
• Group related people into households so they share an address and can receive combined statements.

For the full walkthrough, see Managing people and households.

Step 4: Record your first gift

Once you have people in the directory, you can record giving.

1. Open Finance > Contributions.
2. For a single gift, use the quick form from a person's profile.
3. For a stack of gifts from a collection, start a New Batch.
4. Enter the amount, fund, and method for each gift.

If you haven't set up funds yet, create at least a General fund first. See Recording gifts and giving for details.

Step 5: Create your first request

Requests are how needs and tasks enter Forge, from prayer to facility issues.

1. Open Requests.
2. Click New Request.
3. Choose a category, write a short summary and details, and set a priority.
4. Optionally link it to a person and assign a triage owner.

For care-specific needs like prayer or a hospital visit, use the Care lane. See Requests and the care queue to learn how triage works.

You're set up

With your organization, team, people, giving, and first request in place, the rest of Forge builds on this foundation. Explore the other articles as the need comes up.

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