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Surviving the end of the church-plant free year

Planning Center and Clearstream both give church plants a free first year. Put the end date on the calendar the day you sign up. At month thirteen this plant landed on low paid tiers: about $70–100/month all-in, plus giving fees. Add a second admin on every account before the invoice arrives.

By Caleb Brooks · Published · Editorial standards · Conflict of interest

Field guide page: steps and costs from hands-on church-tech work, written under a pen name. Church names stay private. See how we write and verify.

What are the exact steps?

  1. Calendar the free-year end date the day you sign up

    Planning Center (the church's people, scheduling, check-in, and giving system) and Clearstream (a church texting tool) both give church plants a free first year. Put the end date on the shared calendar on signup day, not when the first invoice arrives. Invite the treasurer and the coordinator to that calendar event. This plant did not, and the treasurer opened the invoice first and texted the planter three question marks.

  2. List every product still on the free plant discount

    Write one line per product: Planning Center People, Services, Check-Ins, Groups, Giving, and Clearstream. Note which ones you actually use every week. Unused products are candidates to turn off before they become paid line items. Keep the list in the same Drive folder as the rental contract so anyone covering for the planter can find it.

  3. Pick the month-thirteen tiers before month thirteen

    A month before the free year ends, decide which paid tiers you will actually keep. This plant landed on the low paid tiers of Services, Check-Ins, Groups, and Giving: about $70–100/month all-in, plus giving fees of 2.15% + 30¢ on cards and 30¢ flat on ACH. Clearstream moved to the cheapest plan at $29/mo. Put the chosen tiers in writing for the treasurer before the billing date.

  4. Add a second admin on every account this month

    The planter is still the sole admin on two accounts and knows it. A second admin on everything is on this month's fix list. Give the coordinator (or a trusted sending-church admin) login rights that survive a vacation or a hospital stay. A free year you cannot hand off is a discount with a bus factor.

  5. Write the background-check renewal schedule now

    The first round of screened volunteers all expires in the same month next year. Put renewal reminders on the calendar three months out, one month out, and the week of. A written renewal schedule made at signup beats discovering the cliff when the kids rooms cannot open because every badge lapses together.

  6. Tell the sending church what month thirteen costs

    If the sending church still helps with the budget, send them the paid-tier estimate a month early. This plant's year-one software bill was about $9/month plus a hotspot. Month thirteen is a different conversation. Surprises between partner churches strain trust faster than a planned line item.

Which tools does this church use?

  • Planning Center Church database (ChMS)

    People, Services, Check-Ins, Groups, and Giving. Free to church plants for the first year.

    $0 year one; low paid tiers after

  • Clearstream Texting

    Also free to plants for the first year; cheapest plan is $29/mo after.

    $0 year one; $29/mo after

  • Shared calendar (Google) Other

    Holds the free-year end date, tier decision meeting, and background-check renewal month.

    $0

Common questions

Is Planning Center free for church plants?

Yes. The whole first year is free for church plants, and Clearstream offers the same. This plant's year-one software bill was about $9/month; after the free year ended at month thirteen, the stack runs roughly $70–100/month on low paid tiers.

What surprises church plants when the free year ends?

The invoice. This plant forgot to calendar the end date, and the treasurer opened the first bill before the planter saw it. The fix: calendar the end date on signup day, and pick your month-thirteen tiers a month early.

What else should you schedule while you calendar the free year?

Background-check renewals. This plant's first screened cohort all expires in the same month next year. Write the renewal schedule at signup, not when kids rooms cannot open.

Before you start

You need admin access to Planning Center and Clearstream, a shared calendar the treasurer can see, and one afternoon in the week you sign up (not the week the bill arrives). If you already missed the free-year start, do the same work now: find the end date in the account emails, put it on the calendar, and block a tier-decision meeting thirty days before. Bring the coordinator. The person who pays the invoice should not learn the number alone.

Why they built it

The plant discounts are genuinely generous. Planning Center gives plants the entire first year free, and Clearstream matches it. A free year is a deferred decision, not a waived one. This plant’s year-one software bill was basically $9 a month plus a hotspot. Month thirteen was the reckoning: low paid tiers across four Planning Center products and Clearstream’s cheapest plan, about $70–100 a month all-in.

They survived it fine. The invoice just reached the treasurer first (three question marks by text) because nobody calendared the end date. Every step in this workflow is that lesson applied forward. The plant still meets in a school cafeteria with everything in a trailer, so software surprises land on the same thin admin capacity as load-in. Predictable costs matter more than clever tools.

What they’d do differently

Exactly what is written here: calendar the end date at signup, choose the paid tiers a month before you need them, add a second admin to every account, and write the background-check renewal schedule before the first cohort expires. Theirs all lapse in the same month next year. They would also have told the sending church the paid estimate before month twelve, so partnership funding and local giving could adjust without a scramble.

Monday checklist

  1. Open the shared calendar: is the free-year end date still visible and shared with the treasurer?
  2. Confirm a second admin exists on Planning Center and Clearstream (test a password reset once).
  3. Thirty days out: hold the tier-decision meeting and write the chosen products and prices.
  4. Week of billing: treasurer confirms the invoice matches the written tiers.
  5. Quarterly: review unused Planning Center products and turn off what you do not use.
  6. Three months before background-check cliff: start renewals so kids rooms stay staffed.

Common mistakes

  • Waiting for the vendor email to “remind you.” Treat signup day as the reminder.
  • Keeping every free product “just in case” and paying for all of them at month thirteen.
  • Leaving the planter as the only admin on giving and texting accounts.
  • Forgetting Clearstream is on its own free-year clock, not only Planning Center.
  • Skipping the sending-church budget conversation until after the invoice.

Field note after three question marks

The treasurer’s text arrived on a Tuesday: “???” with a screenshot of the first paid invoice. The planter knew the free year would end. He had never put a date on a calendar anyone else could see. They paid the bill, then spent the next hour building the shared calendar events they wish they had created on signup day. The money was fine. The trust hiccup was unnecessary.

Field note after the background-check cliff preview

While cleaning up accounts at month thirteen, they noticed every kids volunteer badge from launch expired in the same future month. They put three reminders on the calendar immediately. Silent cliffs keep teaching.