How long does the start-up take?

The assistant has five short steps and you can change everything later in Settings. What takes time is preparing the list of people, and that depends on the state of your sheet. That is why the plan reserves the whole first week for people.

Can I undo an import?

Yes. Under “Recent imports” you can undo an import, which removes the people saved in that batch. The action asks for confirmation and cannot be reversed. Before saving, Brado shows a review with the errors row by row, so you can avoid needing it.

First 30 days with Brado: a week-by-week plan

Q: Do I need every member on the app to start?

No. The office, the treasury and the leadership work in Brado without waiting for members. The member app is installed from the browser, with no app stores, and you can invite people in phases, starting with the team and the leaders.

Your first 30 days with Brado: a week-by-week plan

By the Brado team · Published October 15, 2026 · Updated October 15, 2026 · 7 min read

Getting started

Team

30-second summary

On day one, the start-up assistant covers the essentials in five steps: church, brand, team, people and first event.
In week one, you import your list of people (Excel, CSV or an export from another tool) and review the errors before saving.
In weeks 2 and 3, you organise groups and events, invite members to install the app and start a reading plan.
In week 4, you switch on giving, fill in the tax details and check privacy.

In your first 30 days with Brado, you do four things in this order: set up the church with the start-up assistant (day 1), import your people (week 1), organise groups and events and invite members (weeks 2 and 3), and switch on giving (week 4). This guide gives you the order and what to check at each step. The plan assumes you have already had the demo and subscribed, and that guided set-up is under way.

The tax and payment parts of week 4 are for churches in Portugal.

Before you start

Get four things ready.

One person in charge of the roll-out, and a deputy.
The list of people, in a spreadsheet. If you have not cleaned it yet, the article how to organise church members without spreadsheets shows how.
The plan. Grow covers up to 250 members and Build up to 1,000, with 3 campuses. See the figures on Pricing. Rotas, Kids and Modelo 25 start at Grow.
The team. Whom you invite and in what role: administrator, pastor, leader or treasurer.

Day 1: the start-up assistant

On your first login, Brado takes you to an assistant with five steps. You can change everything later in Settings, and the team, the people, the event and the reading plan can wait.

The church. Name, address (optional), language, time zone and currency. The language is the one used for members’ emails and texts.
The brand. You pick the accent colour for the website and the app, from the list or as a hex code. Brado checks that the text stays readable and suggests the closest colour that works. The logo and icons are handled later, in Settings › Brand.
The team. Invitations by email, each with its own role. You can skip this step and invite later, in Settings › Team.
The people. You import a file, start with example people or leave it for later. The examples are fictitious families, marked with an “Example” tag, and they go in one click without touching the people you add.
The first event and the reading plan. You schedule the next service at your church’s usual time and, if you like, start the “Psalms in 30 days” or “Proverbs in 31 days” plan. When you finish, you land on Home.

Week 1: bring in your people

This is the week that takes the most time and pays off the most. The importer is under People › Import.

Choose the file. Brado reads CSV and Excel (.xlsx), up to 20,000 rows per import. It also recognises exports from Planning Center, ChurchTools, ChMeetings and Google Contacts.
Confirm the columns. Brado tells you how many columns it recognised and lets you fix the rest. You give the country of the phone numbers and the status for anyone without one (visitor or member).
Review before saving. You see how many rows are fine, how many have warnings and how many were rejected, and the reason for each, row by row. Duplicates are flagged, within the file and against the people the church already has. The file is read in your browser and only the people you confirm go to the server.
Save and keep the report. You can download the errors, fix them in the sheet and import only those rows.
Undo, if needed. A saved import can be undone within 24 hours, under “Recent imports”.

On Grow, the import can be assisted. If you used the example data on day 1, remove it before inviting members.

Close the week by reviewing roles in Settings › Team. The idea is that each role sees only what it needs: the treasurer the donations, the leader their group.

Week 2: families, groups and events

With the people in, give them structure.

Families. Link couples, children and grandparents, so you see each family at once.
Groups and tags. Create the small groups and ministries and link the people. Save the filters you use most, such as “members without a group”.
Events. Schedule the next two months of services and events. An event shows on the calendar and, if you publish it, on the website and in the member app.
Rotas (from Grow). Build the rota from the event. Each person sees where they serve and confirms in the app.

Week 3: invite members and get the Word moving

The member app is installed from the browser, without going through the app stores. From Grow, it carries your church’s name, colour and icon. Invite in phases:

The team and the leaders, to test it and ask questions.
The groups, with an address or a QR code shared in the messaging group.
Sunday’s service, with a minute of explanation and the QR on screen.

A practical warning: on iPhone and iPad, notifications only work after the app is installed on the home screen.

With the reading plan running, the Word becomes part of the rhythm. WAP, the percentage of members who opened the Word during the week, appears on the leadership view. The first days of reading already count. The prayer wall is available in the app, with the option of anonymous requests.

Week 4: giving, receipts and privacy

This is the treasury’s week.

Tax details. In Settings › Giving and tax you fill in the IBAN, the account holder, the NIF, the tax regime and the receipt series. Modelo 25 and the IRS consignment sit in this section (Portugal only).
Payments. You connect the church’s payments account and switch on the methods: card and SEPA direct debit for one-off and monthly gifts, and MB WAY for one-off gifts. Test each method with a small amount. The article online tithes and offerings in Portugal explains the differences.
Receipts and Modelo 25. Check with your certified accountant how you want to handle each case. The Modelo 25 guide and the guide on cash limits and donation receipts bring together the rules and the official sources.
Privacy. In Settings › Privacy you set the retention periods and, under Policies, write the terms and the privacy policy. The article GDPR in a church: what you really need to do has the seven essential actions, and the GDPR guide explains article 9.

By day 30, you should have

the people imported, with no example data;
the team invited, with the right roles;
the next two months of events on the calendar;
at least one reading plan running;
the leaders and part of the members with the app installed;
online gifts tested and the tax details filled in;
a privacy notice people can read.

If you have not got there yet, that is fine: the plan is an order, not a deadline.

Where to ask for help

If you get stuck, talk to us. To review a step, book a demo; to remember what each module does, see the platform.

This is general information about the product and does not replace tax or legal advice.