eSPACE and MinistryPlatform Integration: Event Creation Process – eSPACE Support Center

Adding an Event within the Event Scheduler and Syncing Occurrences to MinistryPlatform

Different eSPACE Subscription Tiers include Different Features Including Integrations with MinistryPlatform
- Click here to see which features are included with each tier!

Viewing Your Subscription Details
- Each eSPACE admin with access to Billing can view what subscription tier your organization currently has and everything that is included in their account under Settings > Other > Billing > Manage.

From the Dashboard:

Click "Add Event" or "Quick Event Create", located on the top of your dashboard and the Event Details screen will open.
Read this Knowledge Base article to learn more about "Quick Event Create": Quick Event Create - Article

OR expand the Events section of the menu, located on the left sidebar and click Add Event

From the Item Scheduler Calendar View:

Navigate to Calendar > Items Schedulers and choose one of the views: Daily Spaces, Daily Resources, Daily Services, Weekly Spaces, Weekly Resources, or Weekly Services.
To learn more about this option, read this Knowledge Base article: Item Scheduler: Viewing Availability & Adding Events

Event Name and Description

Enter Event Name (required field)
Event Description (optional & an internal description only)

Choose All Day Event if you have an event that is lasting all day (12 AM - 11:59 PM).

Start and End Times/Dates

Add "Event Start Date/Time" and "Event End Date/Time" (see attached below). The dates should be the same date, unless you are adding a continuous event from one date to another and want to block out all items for this time frame.
- Example: Student Lock-out, Conference, Vacation Bible School, etc.
Conflict detection will "reserve" the spaces and resources from the Start Date/Time to the End Time/Date".
If you ALSO Use Setup and End Teardown Dates then make sure they are also the same as the event start and end date, unless you mean to create a space(s) and/or resource(s) reservation that lasts over a 24 hour period.

The Event Start time will automatically default to your "Open Time", located within Settings > Advanced > General.
If you started the event creation process from the Space Scheduler, the date and time will already be pre-populated.
If you started this process from a Calendar View, the event start time will already be pre-populated.

Setup Time/Date and End Teardown Time/Date

Enter "Begin Setup Date/Time" and "End Teardown Date/Time" (based on Admin setting selections within Settings > Advanced > General > Event Creation.)
Conflict detection will "reserve" the spaces and resources from the beginning of the "Event Set Up Time/Date" to the "End Teardown Time/Date".
If no setup and end tear-down times/dates are selected then conflict detection will "reserve" the spaces and resources from the beginning of the "Start Time/Date" to the "End Time/Date".

If Admins Make Setup and End Teardown Required

If an Admin has made the Setup and/or Teardown Dates/Times required, the user will be required to add these. If a buffer has been added for either one, then these dates/times will automatically pre-populate (see settings below).

Integrations

If you have COOLSPACE, your HVAC will be engaged and disengaged based on this order: First it looks for any Admin Overrides, then "Begin Setup Date/Time" and "End Teardown Date/Time". Otherwise, it will look at "Event Start Date/Time" and "Event End Date/Time".
- If you also have ramp times entered for each HVAC unit in FACILITeSPACE, then ramp time till be added in addition to the formula above.
If you have SECURESPACE your doors will be engaged and disengaged based on this order: First, it looks for any Admin Overrides. If there are no overrides, then eSPACE will send a command for the door(s) to unlock at "Event Start Time" + the Global or individual buffer that you set in FACILITeSPACE.

Making an Event Recurring (Optional):

After entering the Start/End Dates as the same dates (along with the setup/end tear-down dates), choose a Recurrence Rules option!

When choosing your Event Recurrence Rules, your choices are pre-populated with the day of the week of the date selected.

If choosing "Weekly on ________", your next choice will pre-populate with a date that is one month from the date selected.

Whether your choice is Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Annually, you can click Customize to continue to make unique changes to the Recurrence Rules.

When customizing your recurrence you can choose how often it reoccurs, include other days of the week...and either choose a specific end date or set to to reoccur for the maximum amount of occurrences, which is 100.

Offsite or Virtual

Here, you have the option to add an event that is Offsite or Virtual!

If you choose to have an Offsite event, then you'll be prompted to add the Offsite Location.

If you choose to make the event a Virtual event, you'll be prompted to add the Virtual Meeting Link; however, it is not required.

Keep in mind that you must enter the link with the correct format (must start with "http://" or "https://") or the following warning will appear:

Once you Submit your event, it will appear on the Dashboard with a new tag that says VIRTUAL EVENT.

Location(s)

Choose one or more location(s) for the event:

Public or Private Event

Select Public if this event is to be displayed on the Web Calendar to the general public after the event is fully approved. The default setting is Private (unless changed under your profile settings).
- This setting is especially important when you are using the Public Calendar feature: Public Calendar Feature | Embed Your eSPACE Calendar on your Website

"Public Calendar Image" - Add an image (see attached below) that will show for event registrations on your public calendar! You will see an expanded thumbnail view of the image as shown below. Notice also that you have the option to "Remove Image". The recommended image size is less than 232 KB. Anything larger than that will show sideways.
Note: Only events that have been marked public and are in an approved status will show on the public calendar.

Extra Required Fields Included for Ministry Platform Integration

Make your Event Type, Congregation and Program Selections

Event Categories

Next, select one or multiple Categories (option to make required in Setup > Advanced > General > Event Creation)

If an event is saved under multiple categories, you will now see the colors supported on all calendars and schedulers:

Add Number of People

(Option to make required in Setup>Advanced>General>Optional Settings)

Enter the Number of People expected for the event.
- You can easily add increments of 1, 10, and 100's to your number of people by selecting one or more of the "+" blue buttons.

Auto Approve Option (Admins Only)

When using the "Quick Event Create" option to add an event, admins have the option to disable auto-approve so the event can be processed through normal event approval workflow of Sub-Administrators. However, this only applies if you have "Can Auto Approve Events" under the admin's user permissions turned on.

Event Owner and Editors

By default, if you created the event, your name will show as the Event Owner. Note: If an Admin has opted to allow users to change the event owner (Settings), then you will be able to make a change here when appropriate.

Option to add event editor(s) that can make changes to your event and see the event listed on their dashboard grid.

Optional Settings

This setting allows event owners to add some additional information to their event such as contacts, event attachments and event reminders!

Event Attachments

These can be added to your event by choosing by selecting files from your computer or a document from your Document Library.

Event Reminders

Reminder to Extend an Event: If your event is a recurring event over a period of time, you will have the option to receive an email reminder a month before your event ends (see first attachment below) so that you can extend the event OR copy the event and select new dates.

This option can be set individually for each event as needed.
The event must be fully approved in order for the email reminders to be sent out on the appropriate day.

This is what the email reminder looks like!

Reminder about an upcoming event: Reminders can be used if you want an email reminder to go to event owners, Admins, and/or Sub-Admins or contacts days or weeks before the event starts! You have full control of scheduling your event reminders! You can:

Select WHO you"d like to remind
Choose the number of days before the event that you would like the reminder sent, and
You can add reminder notes!

For internal users only, these reminders can also be found on the left sidebar of your dashboard by clicking Reminders. You can easily see how many unread reminders that you have to the right of "Reminders" as shown below.

Unless your event is offsite or virtual (which you can program on the main Details tab), continue to the Items tab to select available spaces and/or resources and/or services.

Add Contacts?

Contacts are required when integrating with Ministry Platform. If you want to add one or more contacts to an event, simply add them to the Contact tab of the event. You can either choose to select a contact from the list of option or add a new one.

When adding a new one, decide if you want to add it to the list of options for future events before clicking Save.

- - Please note that once a contact is added, only an Admin can edit or delete the contact within Setting > Advanced> Contacts.

Adding Items (Spaces, Resources, Services)

Unless you mark your event as being offsite or virtual on the main Details tab, then an event should always have at least one space and/or resource and or/service selected.
As you review and select your "ITEMS" (Spaces/Resources/Services), you will quickly be able to identify if the item is available for your event and all occurrences. You will see either a green check mark for items not in conflict or a red caution triangle with "See Conflicts" next to it (see attached below).

Conflict Detection: There is real-time conflict detection throughout the event scheduling process. To see the conflicts with your selection/date, you can click on the "See Conflicts".

To Add Spaces, toggle ON next to any space. This can be done at the “parent” or the “child” level of the hierarchical tree. Quick View of your selections is to the right

If you started this process from a Calendar View, the space will already be pre-populated.

Click Next to proceed to Resources and enter the same way as Spaces
Follow the same steps to select Services

Setup Tab

Adding Notes, assigning Resources to Spaces and Internal Forms

The Setup screen allows you to see if there are any required forms attached that need to be completed. There will be an exclamation mark next to it to, indicating it is incomplete. Once it is completed, there will be a green check mark and a print icon, allowing you to print the completed form. Within setup, you also can add/edit configurations, view documents, associate any item to a space, and add notes, which are reportable.

Click the green edit button to edit any item, including configurations, notes, and associations of Resources and Services to particular Spaces, then SAVE.

If the Space/Resource/Service selected requires a form to be completed, a red warning (red exclamation point) will be indicated.
- Read this Knowledge Base article to learn how to make internal forms that can be attached to spaces, resources and services: Forms: Create, Customize and Require Forms to be Completed

Simply click on the form to complete. Once all of the required form questions have been completed, click SAVE.

Once the form has been saved, you'll see a green check-mark next to the form, indicating it has been completed. The attached form can also be printed at any time.

Occurrence tab

Click Next (Occurrences tab). This will display all of the recurring present and future schedules/dates/occurrences.
Read this knowledge base article to learn the difference between an Occurrence and a Schedule on an event: When to Add Occurrence vs. New Schedule?

To see the spaces, resources and services for each occurrence, click to expand one, several or all occurrences.

If there are conflicts, you will see a conflicts warning at the top of the Occurrence tab. Depending on your account settings and user level and permissions, you can either click "See All Conflicts" OR "See all Items" and any item that is in conflict with another event will be highlighted in red and say "Conflicted".

If you have "See All Conflicts" selected, then the occurrences will only show you the ones that have items that are in conflict, rather than all items chosen.

Conflicts with Closures

In order to see which event occurrence conflicts with a closure, check the Items > Space or Resource or Service tabs. Click on the word "Closure" next to the spaces, resources and/or services chosen on your event to see which event occurrences conflict with upcoming closures. (Closure conflicts do NOT appear on the Occurrences tab.)

Conflicts with Item Restrictions and Item Availability Schedules

When you see a red circle with a line through it next to a item, click it to see if that item has been restricted to be used in certain spaces or has had an availability schedules assigned to it by an admin. (Conflicts for these will NOT appear on the Occurrences tab.)

Correcting Conflicts

Click See All Conflicts, if there are any.
If there are, then locate the items on the occurrences that are in conflict and delete them from those occurrences. If, however, an item, such as a space, is in conflict on all or most occurrences, then try switching it out for a different item.
Go back to the Items > Space, Resource or Service tabs to select a different one that is not in conflict with other events that have already been submitted for approval or approved.
Then navigate back to the Occurrences tab to adjust any occurrences such as canceling ones that fall on a holiday.
Once the event is completed to your satisfaction, you can either move on to the other additional tabs or click "Submit Event for Approval".

Editing Occurrences

If you need to make changes to any of the occurrences, then expand the one or multiple occurrences that you need to edit and select the option needed.

Canceling an Occurrence Vs. Deleting

If you cancel occurrences then it will be crossed out and labeled "Canceled" on the internal. If allowed it will also appear like that on the Public Calendar.
If you delete occurrences, then the occurrences are removed from the internal and external calendar. However, there will NOT be a message in it's place that says it's been deleted. Deleting occurrences, as well as events, is permanent and can not be undone by our development team.

Adding Occurrences

If another occurrence is desired, click the Add Occurrence button. Event information will be cloned, but date, time, etc., can be changed. A good use for this is if you want to add a one-off occurrence or need to add one more occurrence. If you are ready to submit your event for approval, simply click on Submit Event.

Schedules Tab

Click Next (Schedules tab) where you will see your current schedule(s) and can also add any additional schedules. Adding schedules versus occurrences gives you the option to change the name for your new schedule, keep or change the items associated with the original schedule, and choose different dates, recurrence rules, etc.

Example: A good use for adding schedules is when you have a wedding as main event and you want to add a new schedule for the rehearsal, and perhaps another for the reception. This keeps all schedules under the umbrella of the main event, which is the wedding. On the calendar, the schedules are shown according to the date, with the main event name and schedule name. On the Occurrences tab, the present and future schedules (not past) are visible, with occurrences from all schedules in date order.

Read this knowledge base article to learn the difference between an Occurrence and a Schedule on an event: When to Add Occurrence vs. New Schedule?

Make sure you have the right schedule selected in the right-hand drop-down menu BEFORE editing any of the tabs. Whatever schedule is selected is the one you will be editing when you make changes on the Details tab, Items tab, Setup tab...

Submit Your Event For Approval to Reserve Your Items

If you are ready to submit your event for approval, simply click the "Submit Event For Approval" next to the event title.

You can also click Submit Event on the Occurrecnes tab OR continue to the Show Event Summary button. This will display a summary sheet of the event where you can email it, download it, or print it. You can also submit the event here.

Conversations Tab

Here you can begin a conversation regarding the event with any users associated to the event or others outside of the event.
Read this Knowledge Base article to learn more: Conversations within an Event

History Tab

Here, you can view the history of the event (edits, approvals, etc.), from creation to current status.
This tab is especially helpful when you are trying to troubleshoot when certain items were added or removed or see when sub-admins have approved them items and much more!

Events in Draft Mode

When you add items to an event, you can save an event as a draft to come back to later on and complete. To access drafts from the Dashboard, simply go to the "My Drafts" grid. These will be all events you have created or edited, that were not submitted for approval.

Spaces and resources are NOT "reserved" while an event is in draft mode. The event must at least be pending approval or approved in order to reserve the space and/or resources.

Syncing Events To Ministry Platform

Once you've added an event within the Event Scheduler, you can sync your event occurrences to MinistryPlatform one at a time. Go to the Availability tab and select the Sync to MP button for the desired event occurrence as shown below.

You will then be able to see View in MP where you can view the event occurrence with ease!

Here is the occurrence within MinistryPlatform!

Canceling an Occurrence within the eSPACE Event Scheduler

To cancel an occurrence, go to the Availability tab, and select Cancel Occurrence, located above the desired occurrence.

A new window will open where you can give a cancelation reason and select Yes to cancel.

You will then be able to view the canceled occurrence and will have the option to Sync to MP.

When you select Sync to MP, a new window will open where you can confirm the sync to MinistryPlatform.

Next, you will have the option to cancel the occurrence in MinistryPlatform by selecting Cancel in MP.

A new window will open to confirm that you want to cancel the event in MinistryPlatform.

Then you will have the option to View in MP.

When selected, you can view the canceled event in MinistryPlatform!

If you delete an event or event occurrence in the Event Scheduler, you will need to do the same in MinistryPlatform.

To view ALL synced MinistryPlatform events within the Event Scheduler, go to the left navigational sidebar and select Events MP Events.

Here you can search for events, export to Excel or PDF and filter by column header. You can also click on the Event ID or Event name to view the event. You can also select Re-sync to MP.

Different eSPACE Subscription Tiers include Different Features Including Integrations with MinistryPlatform
- Click here to see which features are included with each tier!

Viewing Your Subscription Details
- Each eSPACE admin with access to Billing can view what subscription tier your organization currently has and everything that is included in their account under Settings > Other > Billing > Manage.

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