GCM Docs

Appearance

Create an event ​

Use this flow for any single occurrence on the calendar: a youth retreat, a guest preacher visit, a baby dedication, a planning meeting. For repeating services like Sunday morning, use Meetings instead — events are for what's happening on a specific day, meetings are for what we do every week.

TIP

If the date is birthday, you don't have to create anything — GCM pulls birthdays directly from members.date_of_birth and renders them with a cake icon automatically.

Open the new-event dialog ​

From Calendar, click the Add event button in the top right. If you don't see the button, you don't have the events.create permission — ask an admin.

You can also click the Add event link inside an empty day on the calendar — that pre-fills the date for you.

New event dialog

Fill in the event ​

Title ​

Required. Show up in the calendar grid and the upcoming list, so keep it short and descriptive — "Youth retreat" beats "Annual Spring Retreat 2026 for Ages 13–18."

Date ​

Required. Defaults to whatever day was selected in the calendar when you opened the dialog.

For recurring events, this is the first occurrence. See Recurring patterns & RRULE for the rest.

Branch (org unit) ​

Optional. Leave as All branches for org-wide events that should appear on every user's calendar regardless of their assigned branch.

Pick a specific branch when the event only matters to one location — a Centro Cristiano Norte outreach won't clutter the calendar for Centro Cristiano Sur members.

The dropdown only shows branches you're assigned to. Org-wide admins see every branch.

Start time and end time ​

Both optional. If you fill in just the start time, the event appears as "starts at 7:00 PM." If you fill in both, it appears as a duration.

Times are stored as HH:MM 24-hour format in your org's timezone (set in Settings → General).

Location ​

Free text — Sanctuary, Pastor's office, Zoom, 123 Main Street. Shows up in the day detail panel and gets pushed into reminder messages so attendees know where to go.

Description ​

Optional rich text. Use for context the title can't carry — Bring a packed lunch and a Bible. RSVP to the youth WhatsApp by Friday.

Colour ​

Pick from eight presets. The colour shows as a vertical bar on the event card and as a small dot on the calendar grid — pick a consistent system for your org. Common patterns:

  • Blue for general announcements.
  • Red for emergency / urgent.
  • Green for outreach / evangelism.
  • Purple for leadership-only.

WARNING

Colour is purely cosmetic — it doesn't restrict who sees the event. Use the Branch field for access control, not colour.

Recurring ​

If this is a one-off event, leave the Frequency dropdown on None and skip the recurrence section.

If it repeats, jump to Recurring patterns & RRULE — that article covers the full RRULE picker (daily, weekly with day picker, monthly with day-of-month vs nth-weekday, end conditions).

Save ​

Click Create event. The dialog closes and the new event appears immediately on the calendar, in the day detail panel, and (if it's upcoming) in the Upcoming tab.

For recurring events, every occurrence within the current month renders on the grid right away — there's no background job. The RRULE expansion happens client-side in the browser.

Calendar after event added

Editing or deleting ​

Click any event card to open the edit dialog with all fields pre-populated. Changes save in-place.

The trash-can icon on each event card opens a confirmation prompt. Events are soft-deleted (the deleted_at column gets set) so they can be recovered from the recycle bin within 30 days.

WARNING

Deleting a recurring event deletes all occurrences. To skip just one date, use an exception instead.

Where the event shows up ​

Once created, an event appears in five places:

  • The calendar grid — coloured dot on the relevant date.
  • The day detail panel — full card with edit / delete actions.
  • The Upcoming tab — chronological list of next 20 events from today.
  • Reminders — if any reminder offsets are configured, the event gets queued for email / SMS / WhatsApp nudges.
  • The home dashboard — the "Next 7 days" widget surfaces it for every user whose branch matches.

For attendance-tracked events (Sunday Service, weekly Bible study), don't create a calendar event at all — those flow through the Meetings system, which appears on the calendar automatically and drives the check-in station.