Streamline Your Parish Administration with ChurchDesk Workflows

Workflows is your new digital command center, designed to end the "paper trail" chase. It takes the heavy lifting out of parish administration by automatically connecting your to-do lists, emails, forms, and calendar events to the specific project they belong to—whether it’s a wedding, baptism, concert, or youth trip.

Instead of relying on sticky notes or hunting through old email threads, you get a clear, organized view of what needs to be done next, with automatic reminders to keep your entire team in sync.

Included in this article:

1. Getting Started
2. Setting Up Your Workflow Inbox
3. Understanding Cases
4. How to start a case
5. Working as a Team
6. Managing Templates

1. Getting Started

Availability

Workflows is available for Medium, Large, and selected Enterprise plans.

Roles

• "Organisation Administrators" and "Administrators": Have full access to the Inbox setup, can view all incoming emails, and can view/edit all cases.
• Other Roles: Can view and edit cases, only when the case is specifically assigned to them.
• Custom Roles: You can always create new roles with individual permissions in your ChurchDesk Settings.

2. Setting Up Your Workflow Inbox

To experience full added value and time saving out of Workflows, an Organisation Administrator should connect your church's functional email address (e.g., office@yourchurch.org).

Step-by-Step Connection

1. Go to ChurchDesk Settings > Inbox.
2. Find your unique Forwarding Email Address.
3. Test the connection: Forward a case-related email to that specific address and see it appear in your Workflows.

4. Set up the automation for Inbox

Why do this? When you connect your church email directly to ChurchDesk Workflow, it keeps all your messages—especially case-related ones—organized in one spot and connected to tasklist, form answers, contact info, and more, so you and your team always have the full picture. Making email much more powerful!

How to do this?

To start the set up we have an dedicated article that explains the following topics:

• How to receive all incoming mail directly to Workflows: How to set up ChurchDesk Inbox - [Step 1]
• And how to send out emails directly from ChurchDesk Workflow. A more advanced configuration for the full power of functionalities [Step 2 - 4]

What happens when it is set up?

• By default, only new emails are sent into ChurchDesk Workflows, and a copy remains in your email provider's inbox. We recommend setting up this default and not changing it on the email client side.
• After that moment, answering all emails in Workflow and transforming them into cases will give you the full value to work.
• For old emails that should be connected to an ongoing case, forward the email manually to your workflow forwarding address. 

3. Understanding Cases

A Case is a versatile "mission control" where every detail of an event—from routine sacraments to complex annual projects—is gathered into one seamless workflow. It’s a collaborative hub designed to keep your team in sync, offering endless flexibility to fit however you choose to create and plan.

A case includes:

• Case name: By default, cases have the template name. We recommend renaming them (e.g., "Wedding: Jones & Scott") so they are easy to find using the search bar.
• Case Number: Every case is assigned a unique case number for easy internal reference. You find it in the top right corner above the Activity Board.
• Case Status (Definision here)
• Assosiated parish
• Assignee, who is responsible to keep the case moving forward
• Activity Board: A chronological view of all email threads and internal notes.
• Task List, including subtasks: Created from adjustable to-do lists from preset templates
• Reminders for main tasks
• Contacts: People connected to the case that can be defined by their role in the event (e.g., Bride/Groom, Godparents, Confirmand, ...).
• Calendar: Direct links to the relevant church events.
• Files: A secure place for case-related documents
• Form responses, if the case was created out of a form
• Emails and email answers, if the case was created out of an email or if an email thread is added later (auto-suggested)

4. How to start a case

• 1. in Workflows itself
• 2. from a form answer
• 3. though an incomming email

1. Creating a new case within the Workflows module

1. Click "Create a Case"
2. Select the appropriate Template (e.g., Wedding, Funeral, Concert). This will automatically load your preset to-do lists.

2. A Form answer can create a new case

You can automate case creation directly from your ChurchDesk form (e.g., for baptism sign-ups):

1. Go to Forms and click Edit.
2. Under 2. Form Settings, scroll to "Connect form to Workflows."
3. Choose a case template and a user to auto-assign the responsibility.

• Now all answer fields and the contact information will be added to a new case with every form answer.
• Files: Any documents uploaded in the answer form will automatically be added to the case's document storage.

3. Converting an incoming Emails to a Cases

When an email arrives, the system checks if the sender’s email matches a contact in an existing case.

• If a match is found, an auto-suggestion will appear. You must manually confirm to link the thread to that case.
• If no match is found, but you know there is already a case. Go into the case and add the email as a new contact. Refresh the page and the auto-suggestion will show up.
• You can add multiple email threads to a case. They will appear chronological in the activity.

• If no case exists, click "Convert to Case" to start a new case using a template.

• File Handling in Email: PDFs are automatically grabbed from emails, other file types can be uploaded manually.

Emails that stay Emails

• If an email doesn't need to be a case, and the email correspondence is completed then archive the email.
• If “answering emails” is set up, you can reply normally to that email.

• If you want to start an email thread with a contact, as of now, you need to create a case and send out an email through a case.

Status of a case:

• Active: The case is ongoing. Tasks are pending, or you are waiting for a reply. Example: A wedding currently being planned.
• Resolved: The goal has been reached. All tasks are finished and the event has likely passed. Example: A baptism that took place last Sunday.
• Archived: The process was stopped or the email didn't need to become a case. A general inquiry that was answered or a cancelled event.

5. Working as a Team

Assignments

• Assignments: Use the "Assignee" field to pass a case to a colleague.

Internal Notes

• Anything written in a Yellow Box is an internal note for your team or the system.

Setting reminders

• Hover with your mouse over a main task and click on the "Reminder"
• Set a date/time, confirm with OK, and choose a recipient (yourself or a colleague).
• The recipient will receive an email reminder at the scheduled time.

• After a reminder is overdue is is shown in red
• What happens when task it marked as done? Reminder will still be shown, but crossed of and only in gray and no Email gets sent anymore

6. Managing Templates

You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Use the preset the templates or customize your own.

• Click "Create a case" and on "Manage case templates" or go to ChurchDesk Settings > Workflows
• Add standard to-do lists and subtasks to your templates to ensure no step is ever forgotten.
• Deactivate templates that is not needed in your oganization are not using to keep the list shorter

Keywords: Workflows, Inbox, Case Management, Automation, Email Forwarding, Task List, Reminders, Templates, Form Integration, Parish Administration, Team Collaboration, ChurchDesk Settings, Internal Notes, Assignments.

Updated on: 23/02/2026