Features Overview
What's new in 7.1
ChurchCRM 7.1 is a major UI and UX refresh. Highlights:
- Modern UI — the entire application shell has been migrated from AdminLTE / Bootstrap 4 to Tabler / Bootstrap 5, with a responsive sidebar, mobile-friendly floating menu, and optional dark mode.
- Maps without an API key — interactive maps and address geocoding now use OpenStreetMap + Nominatim out of the box. No Google Cloud account or API key required. See Maps & Geocoding.
- Guided first-run setup — a new onboarding wizard walks administrators through setting a strong password, entering church information, and completing a setup checklist.
- Automatic database migrations — upgrades run pending migrations automatically on the next page load. The legacy "database needs upgrade" page only appears on a genuine code-older-than-schema situation.
- Redesigned dashboards — new stats-based dashboards for Events, Groups, People, and Finance.
- Modern CSV import — drag-and-drop upload, auto-mapping of CSV columns to ChurchCRM fields, and per-row Classification and Family Role columns.
- Consolidated user settings — a single tabbed User Settings page now holds profile, password, 2FA, theme, localization, and API tokens.
- Calendar offcanvas editor, native browser printing, unified communication system, and many smaller admin UX cleanups.
- FrankenPHP Docker image and DDEV for local development.
Core Features
- Congregation Management
- Families - Store and manage household records, including shared contact information and pledge history.
- Persons - Maintain individual member profiles with contact details, roles, and church history.
- Self Registration - Allow members to register themselves through an online form, reducing data entry for staff.
- Online Verification - Let members review and confirm their own contact information to keep records accurate.
- Notes - Attach private or shared memos to person and family records for pastoral care and follow-up.
- Properties - Assign custom labels (such as "Homebound" or "Choir Member") to people, families, and groups.
- Finances
- Donations - Record cash, check, and electronic contributions and link them to family pledge accounts.
- Envelope - Track giving by numbered donation envelopes for families who prefer that method.
- Deposits - Batch incoming donations into deposit slips and generate printable bank deposit forms.
- Events - Create one-time or recurring church events, track attendance, and manage child check-in and check-out.
- Groups - Organize members into ministry teams, committees, Bible studies, or any other grouping your church uses.
- Sunday School - Manage Sunday School classes as specialized groups with a dedicated class dashboard, roster, and attendance tracking.
- Calendar - View all scheduled events on a shared church calendar, with an offcanvas event editor for quick scheduling.
- Fundraiser - Manage auctions, bake sales, and other fundraising events where members buy and sell items.
- Reports & Queries - Generate printable directories, mailing labels, birthday lists, financial statements, and custom database queries.
- Volunteers - Track which members are willing to serve in specific roles and find volunteers when needs arise.
- Data Import - Import member records from CSV files to migrate from another system or bulk-load a new membership list.
- Backup / Restore - Create and restore database backups to protect your church data.
- Localization - Display ChurchCRM in the language of your congregation, with support for multiple languages.
- User Management - Create user accounts, assign roles, and control which staff members can access each part of the system.