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Comparison

KerkPoint or Google Sheets for your church schedule?

Google Sheets is free and everyone sees the same version. KerkPoint is an online scheduling platform for churches, from €9.99 per month, that also handles availability, reminders and swaps. Below you see honestly what one can do and the other cannot.

Start with 1 month free Try the demo
  1. 1 Fill the open place
  2. 2 The volunteer accepts
Try it yourself in the demo
Example of a sexton schedule: who is scheduled on which Sunday, who still has to respond and which place is still open.

What Google Sheets does well

Many churches move from an Excel file to Google Sheets, and that is an improvement. There is only one version, several people can work at the same time and the sheet opens on any computer. For a small schedule with a few regular people that is often enough. It is free and almost everyone knows it.

Where a spreadsheet stops

A spreadsheet is a table. It does not know who is on holiday, warns nobody and does not see that someone has two tasks on the same Sunday. All that work stays with the person making the schedule:

  • Availability is collected by e-mail or group chat and processed by hand.
  • Reminders you send yourself, or you hope everyone looks at the sheet in time.
  • Swaps happen through messages; afterwards someone has to update the sheet.
  • On a phone a wide sheet with many columns is hard to read.
  • Permissions: whoever can edit can also overwrite something by accident.

Side by side

 Google SheetsKerkPoint
CostFreeFrom €9.99 per month, first month free
One current versionYesYes
Passing on availabilityNo, kept up by handYes, volunteers tick it themselves
Automatic scheduling in turnNoYes
Warning about double tasksNoYes
Reminders by e-mailNoYes (from Plus)
Swapping with one clickNoYes
Readable on a phoneSo-soYes, also as an app on the home screen
Schedule in your own calendarNoYes (Premium)
Free-form columns and formulasYesNo, a fixed layout per service and task
Account neededGoogle account to editLog in with a link by e-mail

When switching pays off

If you notice you are chasing people every week, copying changes from the group chat into the sheet or searching for who is still free, the spreadsheet costs more time than it seems. That is the moment to switch. You bring your current schedule along with an import, so you do not start again.

Want to carry on with a spreadsheet for now? Download our free church schedule template. Also read why a church schedule in Excel gets stuck, what a schedule in a group chat means, or try KerkPoint in the demo.

Everyone knows when it is their turn

Volunteers get an e-mail or notification when they are scheduled and a reminder beforehand. Can they not make it? They ask for a swap and someone else takes over with one tap.

Try it in the demo
  1. 1 The reminder comes in
  2. 2 Accept
  3. 3 Take over a swap
Try it yourself in the demo
Example of the notifications on a phone: a reminder before your turn, and a swap request you can take over with one tap.

Frequently asked questions

In Google Sheets everyone sees the same version, which is a big advantage over Excel. But a spreadsheet does not know who is available, sends no reminders and arranges no swaps. That work stays with the person making the schedule. KerkPoint does it automatically.

Yes. From the Plus plan you download the sheet as CSV and import the volunteers and the schedule into KerkPoint. You see a preview first and then import with one click.

For a small schedule with a handful of regular people who look at the sheet themselves, a spreadsheet works fine. When the schedule grows, or you keep chasing people and making changes, scheduling software saves a lot of time.

Not with KerkPoint. Volunteers log in with a link by e-mail, without a password and without a Google account.

Google Sheets is free. KerkPoint costs from €9.99 per month for all your church's schedules together, and the first month is free. Against that stands the time you no longer spend chasing people and updating the sheet.

Ready to restore the peace?

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