Building a Flow

A Flow is a training path: a set of courses your volunteers take in order. You assign the Flow once, and each person works through it at their own pace. When they finish, EquipEngine can issue a certificate and let their ministry lead know.

Use a Flow for anything with more than one step, such as new volunteer onboarding, a serve-team certification, or a leadership track.

Create a Flow

Go to Flows in the sidebar and click New Flow.
Give it a name (for example, "New Volunteer Onboarding") and click Create Flow.
You'll land on the Flow's Outline tab, where you build it.

Canvas or List

The Outline has two views. Switch between them with the List / Canvas toggle at the top. EquipEngine remembers your choice.

Canvas shows your Flow as a map, from Start to Complete. Click any box to edit it in the panel on the right. This is the default on a computer.
List shows the same steps as a simple list. It's the default on a phone or tablet.

Both views edit the same Flow, so use whichever you prefer.

Flow Outline in Canvas view — Start → courses → branch → Complete, with a course selected and its settings open in the panel on the right.

Add courses

To add a course at the end: type its name in the Search courses… box at the top, pick it, and click Add course.
To add a course in a specific spot (Canvas): click the small + on the line between two steps, pick a course, and click Add course.

Courses come from your course library, so create the course first under Courses if it isn't there yet. Or add a ready-made Flow with Browse templates on the Flows page; see Starting from a Template.

In-person sign-offs

Some steps happen in person: a shadow shift, a walkthrough, an audition. Add these as sign-off steps. Volunteers can't complete a sign-off themselves; a leader marks it complete once they've done it.

To add one at the end: click Add sign-off at the top.
To add one in a specific spot (Canvas): click the + on the line between two steps, then Insert an in-person sign-off.

Click the sign-off to set its Name (for example, "Shadow a Sunday with a check-in lead"), the Instructions for the volunteer (what to do and who to contact to schedule it), whether it's Required, and when it's Due. A required sign-off locks the steps after it until it's done. Sign-offs go in the main sequence, not inside a track.

Volunteers see the instructions on their roadmap with Waiting for sign-off. To sign someone off, open the Flow's Progress tab and click Sign off in their row when it's their next step, or use Mark as complete… at any time. If it was their last required step, they finish the Flow and the completion emails go out.

Change the order

Drag a step by the dotted handle on its left edge.
Or click the step and use Move up / Move down in the panel.

By default, a course unlocks once the required courses before it are finished.

Edit a step

Click a course to open its settings:

Display name: what volunteers see in this Flow. Leave it blank to use the course's own title.
Required / Optional: only required courses count toward finishing the Flow.
Unlocks when learner finishes…: choose which earlier step has to be done first, or let it unlock right away.
Due: how many days after someone is assigned the Flow this course is due. Leave it blank for no due date.
Reminders: which days to email a reminder, from 7 days before up to the day it's due. Until you change them, a step reminds 7 days before and on the due date. Turn every chip off for no reminders on that step, overdue nudges included. Reminders need a due date.
Notify ministry lead: email a leader when someone finishes this step.

There's no Save button. Changes save automatically. To remove a step, click the trash icon at the top of its panel. The course itself stays in your library.

Start and Complete

The first and last boxes on the Canvas hold Flow-wide settings.

Start (Auto-enroll): add Planning Center teams, lists, or groups. Anyone in them is enrolled automatically, including people who join later.
Complete: what happens when someone finishes:
- Certificate: set the certificate's title and who it's signed by.
- Notify ministry lead: email a leader every time someone finishes the Flow.
- Renewal cycle: turn on Renew every … months for training that must be repeated, like a yearly safety refresher. That many months after someone finishes, they're asked to redo every required step, sign-offs included, and have 30 days to finish. Their earlier completion stays on record. Choose when to email them before it's due.

In List view, these same settings are below the steps.

Publish and assign

Click Preview to see the Flow the way a volunteer will.
Click Publish. Volunteers can only see published Flows.
Click Assign to send it to a person, a role, a Planning Center group, or a cohort.

Follow everyone's progress on the Progress tab.

Getting around the Canvas

Move around: drag an empty part of the canvas, or scroll.
Zoom: use the − and + buttons in the corner. On a trackpad, pinch. With a mouse, hold Ctrl (or ⌘ on a Mac) and scroll.
Reset the view: click the recenter button next to the zoom buttons.
Close the panel: click an empty part of the canvas, or press Esc.

Want different volunteers to take different courses? See Branches & Tracks.