Planning Center messages provide communication between families and funeral home staff in one place.
✋ Planning Center Messages require some set up.
Want Messages turned on? Email us at support@passare.com or call (800) 692-5111.
💡 Use Planning Center messages in the mobile app to get the most out of this feature.
Jump ahead
- Manage access within your organization
- Alert preferences
- Send messages in Planning Center
- 🎬 Add status message
- 🎬 Add collaborators to messages
- 🎬 Lock messages
- Message history
Manage access within your organization
Messages access will need to be assigned on the Roles page.
Click the Settings icon.
Messages must be assigned from the Parent organization.
Click Roles under Organization, then select which roles you'd like to give access to messages.
Once you've selected a role, check the box next to Planning Center Messages.
Read-Only will give your staff access to view all messages, but they won't be able to send any messages in the Planning Center.
Alert preferences
Customize your alert preferences to get notified by text or email when a new message is received.
Click the bell icon in the navigation menu, then click the gear icon.
Use the toggle to select how you want to be notified when new messages are received.
Save.
Send messages in Planning Center
With Planning Center Messages enabled, you will now see the Messages card on the Planning Center page within a case in Passare. This card will be blank until the first message is sent.
Families will need to be invited to the Planning Center to have access to Messages.
Click here to learn more about sending Planning Center invitations.
Type your message in the text field in the Messages card.
Click Send.
Click Send again to confirm you want to send the message to the family.
Families with access to Planning Center will see your messages on their Dashboard.
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View the message from the family on the Planning Center page in the case.
Add status message
Give your staff permission to set statuses.
Click Roles under the Organization section, then select which role you'd like to give access to.
Once you've selected a role, check the box next to Planning Center Status.
Check the box next to Personal Status to give the role the ability to set a personal status message, or Branch Status for roles you want to grant branch-wide status permission.
Add personal status
A personal status can be set under the user’s profile.
Only one personal status can be active at time.
Go to your Profile to set a personal status. 
For roles with Planning Center Status enabled, a new section called Personal Status will be visible.
Toggle On Show status in Planning Center messages and schedule when your status message should be displayed. Only one personal status can be active at a time.
When a personal status is set, the status owner can designate another staff member with access to the feature to be notified of incoming messages under Notify.
Once status information has been added click Save at the top of the page.
Add branch status
A branch status can be set on the Messages page under Planning Center settings.
A table will show the status name, the branch it applies to, and the dates the status will be active.
When active, branch status will apply to all staff members of the branch the status is applied. Branch status will override personal statuses set at the same time.
To add a new branch status, click Add in the Branch status section of the Messages page. 
A new page will open to edit the branch status. Use the dropdown under Branches to select the branches to apply the status.
Status name, start date, and status message fields are required before saving.
Once you click Save you will see a reminder message that the branch status will override personal status. Click Override to confirm.
Add collaborators to messages
Add branch collaborators
Staff with access to branch settings in their organization will be able to add additional Passare users as branch collaborators to receive notifications for Messages for any case within that branch.
The collaborators section is located on the Messages page in the Planning Center settings.
Add a branch collaborator to give others access to view and reply to all messages, and receive notifications when messages are received by clicking the Add button under Collaborators. 
Use the dropdown below Branch to select the branch or branches you want to add collaborators to.
Then add collaborators in the Collaborators field. 
Add case-specific collaborators
Additional users can also be added to receive Messages notifications on a case-specific basis.
Click the Plus icon at the top-right of the messages card to add a collaborator to the case.
A modal will appear to add a collaborator.
Type the name of the person you want to add in the search bar.
Once the name is entered, click Add. 
Lock Messages
Messages can be locked using the Planning Center side-bar section in a case.
Locking messages will display a Messages closed banner in Planning Center and will disable the input field. If no messages exist, this will turn off Messages for the case.
Click the box next to Messages under Lock individually to lock Messages. Otherwise, Messages will automatically lock on the Lock all on date. 
When Messages are locked, a closed status will appear for the conversation. 
Click the Edit button to the right of the closed status to edit the message to be displayed.
Edit the status you want to be displayed, then click Save. 
Message history
Families can scroll through messages in Planning Center to see the history of the conversation along with name and date for each message posted.
Staff can view message history from the Planning Center page of the case in Passare.
Name, date, and timestamp will be visible for each message in the conversation. 
It's as easy as that! Start connecting with your families in Planning Center today!