Administration

Super administrators

Users and roles, exchange rates, the monthly statistics email, church structure maintenance (new Regions, Provinces, Zones, Areas and Parishes with their pastors), remittance percentages, activity log, backups and the email outbox.

The Admin menu is visible to super administrators only. It has these tabs: Go live, Users, Exchange rates, Maintenance, Remittance %, Activity log & backup, Email outbox and Monthly statistics email.

Go live

Admin › Go live is a checklist for the switch from testing to live use: it shows whether real email and the church's web address are in place, and has two buttons.

• Clear the test data — deletes every monthly report (with its sign-offs and history) and, if ticked, the Province receipts, the email outbox and any testers you invited. The church structure, the pastors' accounts, sign-off authority, exchange rates and settings are kept. Type GO LIVE to confirm. A copy of the database is saved on the server first (backups/before-go-live-….db); ask for it to be restored if something was cleared by mistake. The monthly statistics email starts with the first live month. This can be done only once: after going live the step shows Done and the button is removed, so live reports are never deleted from here.
• Send the welcome email — once real email is on, emails everyone who has not yet activated a personal activation link (valid 7 days). Progress is shown on the page; undelivered emails are kept in the Email outbox.

Admin › Users lists everyone, with status (pending, active, disabled), whether two-step verification is set up, their access and last sign-in. Use Search and the status filter to find someone, then click Edit.

On a user's page you can:

• Details — change the sign-in email, name and Status (set Disabled to stop someone signing in; their history is kept).
• Tick Super administrator (full access to everything) or Treasurer (records receipts; sees arrears for every Province).
• Send activation link (not yet activated) or Send password reset link (active users).
• Reset two-step verification — for a lost or replaced phone. They set it up again at their next sign-in.
• Access — see their access; Remove an access, or Add or change access: choose the entity and Submit & view, Submit, view & sign off or View only, then Apply. Sign off gives sign-off authority: at a Parish it makes them a Parish Pastor for sign-off, at a Province a Provincial Pastor, at a Region a Regional Pastor, at the Continent the Continental Overseer. Use it when a pastor changes, or to add a second person with sign-off authority.
• Recent activity — their sign-ins and actions.

Invite a user (top of the Users page) works like Invite users, with no restriction on level.

Handing over the super administrator role

Tick Super administrator for the new person first, then untick it for the previous one. The portal will not let the last super administrator be removed. To change your own sign-in email use My account › Sign-in email.

Exchange rates

Admin › Exchange rates shows a grid for one calendar year (January–December; use ‹ › to change year): one row per month, one column per currency. Enter how many units of local currency equal 1 AUD (e.g. 81.98 for VUV) and click Save rates.

• Enter each month's rates before the month's reports are reviewed. If a month is empty, reports use the nearest earlier month and say so.
• Clear a box to remove that month's rate.
• Under Currencies you can add a currency or rename one (code and name).

Maintenance — the church structure

Admin › Maintenance shows the whole structure as a tree: Continent › Region › Province › Zone › Area › Parish, with each parish's abbreviation, currency and pastor email.

Creating something new

1. Under Create, choose What to create: Region, Province, Zone, Area or Parish.
2. Choose where it Belongs to (e.g. a new Parish belongs to an Area).
3. Enter the Name. For a parish also the Abbreviation, Local currency, Address, Tithe remittance % (10% unless agreed otherwise) and the pastor's mobile. For a Province you can set the currency it remits in.
4. Under Pastor in charge (authority) enter the pastor's name and email. Leave Give this pastor access here and email an activation link ticked to give them access straight away. The pastor of a new Parish, Province or Region also receives sign-off authority there.
5. Click Create.

Changing something

Click any item in the tree to:

• rename it;
• move it (Belongs to) — everything beneath moves with it, and past reports follow the parish;
• change the pastor and their email, optionally ticking the box to give them access;
• for a Province, set Province remits to the Continent in (default currency for receipts);
• for a Region, set the Sign-off route — tick it if the Region's reports go straight from the Parish Pastor to the Continental Overseer (as for the Youth Province);
• for a parish, change the currency, tithe %, address and other details;
• untick Active to retire it — inactive parishes are hidden from entry and reports, but their history is kept.

The People with access here list shows who has access granted at that level, and who holds sign-off authority.

The Parish Register file

The structure was first loaded from the Continent 13 Parish Register 2026. If a revised register is deployed, new parishes and pastors are added and details updated automatically; reports and administrators are kept. Details in the register overwrite the same details edited here, so keep the register up to date — or make one-off changes here.

Remittance %

Admin › Remittance % holds the percentages from the templates' Instructions sheets:

• Parish remits to Province — default tithe % for new parishes (each parish has its own), Offerings, Mission, Thanksgiving and 1st Fruit.
• Province remits to Continent — Offerings, share of remitted tithes, Mission, Thanksgiving and 1st Fruit.
• Province → Pastors: 1st Fruit and Continent → Region: Thanksgiving (the 30% Due to the Region).

Change these only when the Continent changes its rules — every report uses them.

Activity log & backup

• The activity log records sign-ins, sign-offs, amendment requests, reports returned for amendment, invitations, receipts and admin changes, with the time (UTC) and who did it. Each report also keeps its own sign-off History.
• Download backup saves a complete copy of the portal's database. Do this monthly and keep the file in the church's OneDrive or Google Drive. The hosting service also keeps a daily snapshot for 7 days.

Email outbox

Emails the portal could not deliver are kept in Admin › Email outbox. While email is in test mode (before the church's domain is set up with the email service), only the administrator's own emails are delivered; everyone else's — activation links, invitations, sign-off notices — appear here. Open a message, copy the link and send it to the person yourself. If the message had an attachment (such as the monthly statistics Excel file), a download link for it is shown with the message.

Monthly statistics email

Every month the portal emails the Statistics only report for the whole Continent — per Province and per Parish, without financial figures — as an Excel attachment, with a short summary in the email (parishes reported, sign-off levels, average attendance and the main statistics) and a link to open the report in the portal.

Open Admin › Monthly statistics email to change:

• Send automatically — on or off.
• Send to — one or more email addresses, separated by commas (default admin@rccgcontinent13.org).
• Day of the month and hour (Australia/Sydney time) — default the 10th at 7 am, giving parishes time to sign off. The email is for the previous month (the email on 10 November is for October).
• Include draft reports — off by default, so only reports signed off by the Parish Pastor or above are counted.

The page shows the last month sent and when the next email is due. Send now sends any month you choose straight away (for example to re-send after late sign-offs). Each month is sent automatically only once, even if the portal restarts. Each sending is recorded in the activity log.

While email is in test mode, mail to addresses other than the administrator's own lands in the Email outbox with its attachment.

Sign-off: your role in the background

The administrator is not part of the sign-off chain — the Continental Overseer gives the final sign-off. In the background, when the need arises, you can sign off on behalf of any level (for example the Continental Overseer) and unlock any report by returning it for amendment. You cannot change signed-off figures directly — return the report to the level that should correct it, so every change goes back through the chain. Every action is recorded in the report's history. See Sign-off and amendments.

A parish with no Parish Pastor email goes straight to its Provincial Pastor for the first sign-off. Add the pastor's email on the parish's page under Maintenance (ticking Give this pastor access) to restore the Parish Pastor step.

On a Region's page under Maintenance, Sign-off route sets whether its reports go straight from the Parish Pastor to the Continental Overseer (ticked for the Youth Province).

Monthly checklist for administrators

1. Enter the month's exchange rates.
2. Check Submissions and follow up parishes that have not reported or are waiting for a sign-off.
3. Make sure every parish pastor (and Area, Zone, Provincial and Regional pastor) has an email recorded — a parish without one goes straight to its Provincial Pastor.
4. Give access to new pastors and disable people who have left.
5. Check the monthly statistics email arrived (or send it from Admin › Monthly statistics email).
6. Download a backup.