Optional Setup Guide

Don’t know where to begin? Here’s a suggestion of how to get your Fresh Vine set up. Dive as deep as you’d like. Every community is different in their needs. We think the more you use, the more beneficial it will be for you though.

This guide will recommend a place to start (and where to go in your Fresh Vine to do it). Use the rest of the Docs to better understand each section. This guide is not comprehensive - just a place to start.

Basic Customizing

We want to make sure Fresh Vine is tailored to your community as best as possible. The first thing we suggest to do is to "customize" some basic things - address, people types, group categories, giving funds & templates and your logo. For information on where to do this and why, see "Customizing Fresh Vine" under "Getting Started" here in the guide.

Once these basic things are set (should only take a few minutes), move on to the following steps for further instruction/customization.

Admin Setup

What is in the Admin section?

The Admin section of Fresh Vine is only accessible to Administrators of your community. The Admin section is where most of the customization of the software is set, to make Fresh Vine as a whole, more useful to you, and how your organization runs.

1. Set your Organization’s General Info (Admin - Settings - General Info). We’ve allowed a fair amount of customization here, for your preferences.
2. Set People Info (Admin - Settings - People). Add People Types you use, and Additional people fields your organization keeps track of (these will be on each person’s profile).
3. Add User Accounts: Add User Accounts for leaders or key volunteers in your organization (Admin - Users - View Users). Give each person access to the specific areas in Fresh Vine they need, to help make them most productive.

Member Profiles

Member Profiles are the core of the software. Let’s get familiar with that core, then you’ll know where to make additional changes in the settings.

1. View Roster (People - Roster - View List). You can Filter, Export, and View the roster as a list or map. Play around with this. If you filter the roster (and click Apply Filter), and view the map or export the list, it will show you or export the filtered list.
2. View a Profile. Navigate to your profile (via the roster list or the Person Search in the top navigation). Here you’ll see what a Profile is made of, and how/where to edit that information.

Groups

Groups can be used for small or large groups that meet, staff groups, volunteer groups - really any kind of group that meets together. Once a group is created, you can set up single or recurring events for that group, and keep attendance for the events.

1. Create a Group that meets in your organization (Groups - All Groups - Create Group).
2. Once that group is created, take a look around - you can add members to it, make a few of them group-leaders, create group events, send a group email and more.
3. If this group is a class that meets during a service, select class so you can set the Kiosk settings for that particular group.

Group Event

Group events are a great way to really make the most of "Groups" in Fresh Vine. Groups are great for keeping track of who is a member in that group, send messages to the group and keep notes. Group Events allow you to set when/where that group meets, and keep attendance (also required for use with the Event Kiosk). One reason for needing to create group events, (rather than just having one default event per group) is that you may have groups that meet for several reasons. Maybe on Mondays a group meets to tutor kids in the community, but they also meet the first Thursday of the month to plan events. Create an Event for your Monday happenings, and another for your Thursday meetings. Separate events, same group.

1. When on a group page, click the green + Event button, or select Add Event from the menu (Groups - Events - Add Event).
2. Title the Event, set a date.
3. If your event is a recurring event, select "Yes" to Related Events - Extend this Event. Here you can set the frequency.
4. If you want to use the Event Kiosk, click Enabled and set your settings.
5. Once your event is created and it's time for your event to start, the leaders of the group will get a notification to take attendance for that event (as long as they have a Leaders Account).

Services

If your organization has services (large meetings where the whole organization is welcome) on a regular basis, its a good idea to set up your services. With Services, you can keep attendance numbers, keep giving records associated with a service, set groups to meet during the service, and use the Event Kiosk to check people in and print name tags.

Services are set up using a Service Template. You can either select to create a New Service Template (a service meeting on a regular basis, more than once), or a New Single Service (one-time event).

1. Create your Service (People - Services - Service Settings).
2. Once you create your service, you can view it (and it’s recurring instances) on a list or calendar.

Giving

To make the best use of the Giving section in Fresh Vine, there are a few things you’ll want to set first.

1. Add Giving Funds (Admin - Settings - Giving). Add funds according to what your organization uses. Add as many as you’d like. You can then narrow them down in templates to show the ones you use on a regular basis.
2. Look over the rest of this Admin Giving page and change anything else to make it more tailored to how your organization runs.
3. Create Giving Templates (People - Giving - Manage Templates). We always allow you to see every fund you’ve put in Fresh Vine. We also allow you to narrow that list down to what you use on a regular basis. If you have several funds that are most common in your weekly giving, drag and drop those funds from the Available column to the Active column (make sure to save your template).
4. Now check out all your hard work! Go to People - Giving - Input Data. Here you’ll see that you can select your Fund Template. Enter a name in the name field and select from the drop-down that appears. You’ll then see the Funds you have in that template under their name. You can now enter the appropriate donations in the corresponding funds!

Email

To dive into the Fresh Vine Email Campaign section, you first need to make sure your (or anyone who will be sending emails from Fresh Vine) has verified their email address. Before you can send emails from a given address we need you to prove ownership. When you click a link in an email to that address we know you are control of that account. All user, group, and community emails must verified before they send emails, or receive most email notices.

1. Log in. On the Home Dashboard, you’ll see your info and links on the right side of the screen. Under your picture, you’ll see if you have email addresses to verify. If you do, click the button to send the verification email.

Now let’s create an email template (People - Email - Manage Templates). You’ll see here, there are Automated Messages, Pre-formatted Content and your Email Templates. For more info on all of these features, see the Messaging Module in the Docs (under Managing/Creating Email Templates).

This is where you will create any/all Email Templates. You can set one to default so all messages coming from your organization look similar (unless you specifically select a different template). You can also choose to make certain templates only available to certain groups in Fresh Vine. This way, you’re able to create custom templates for certain areas of your organization. For example, if your community has a strong youth program, you can create a template specifically for them to use, that might appeal to a younger crowd.