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Start from a template

Most churches build the same handful of sheets every year. A template is that sheet, already laid out, so you start from “rename a few slots” instead of from nothing. Every template is just a draft: anything it sets up is an ordinary setting you can change.

The short answer: On the New sheet screen, choose 📑 Start from a template, pick one of the six, give it a title (and a date if it needs one), and press Create from template. You get a complete draft sheet in the editor: slots, sections, questions, and the right form-field settings already in place. Nothing is published until you say so. On every plan, including Free.

Create a sheet from a template

  1. Open the New sheet screen.

    From your dashboard, start a new sheet. In the “What are you organizing?” chooser, pick 📑 Start from a template.

  2. Choose a template.

    Each card says what it's for. The title box fills in with the template's title; change it to fit (“Fall Potluck,” “Good Friday Vigil”). Add an event date if the sheet has one. The How this template is set up link under the cards brings you back to the matching section of this article.

  3. Create it and review the draft.

    You land in the sheet editor with everything filled in. Read the description, rename slots, adjust capacities, and change any wording that doesn't sound like your church.

  4. Publish and share.

    Publish when it's ready and share it like any sheet: a link, a QR code, or an embed on your website (see Publish, share & embed).

The templates

🥘 Potluck or fellowship meal

What you get: 11 slots in 5 sections — Main dishes, Sides & salads, Desserts, Drinks & supplies, and Setup & cleanup — with a few slots per course and room for several people on each. The note field is turned public and relabeled “What are you bringing?”, so each person's dish shows on the sign-up page next to their name. That's how the table balances itself: the eighth person sees seven chilis already listed.

Change it: rename or add slots and sections on the Slots tab (see Organize with sections). To keep dishes private, set the note back to Shown (only you see notes) in the Sign-up form fields card. Want a signature dish per slot instead (“Deacon Ray's brisket”)? Make the slot title the dish and set its capacity to 1.

Add the meal's date so the calendar invite works, and so the pre-event reminder (Basic and Pro) has a day to count down to. A date-less potluck still signs people up, but nobody gets reminded.

🙏 24-hour prayer vigil

What you get: 24 slots in 4 sections — Overnight (midnight to 6 AM), Morning, Afternoon, and Evening — one slot per hour, titled by its hour (“2:00 AM – 3:00 AM”), with two spots each so nobody prays alone and a no-show doesn't leave the hour empty. Each slot carries its start and end time, so the reminder email and the calendar invite name the exact hour.

Change it: set the capacity to 1 for a strict one-person chain, or raise it for a prayer room that holds more. Delete the Overnight section for a dawn-to-dusk vigil. For half-hour slots, edit the hours you want split and add a second slot to each.

Pick the vigil's event date when you create it. The hours are times of day; without a date they still read fine on the page, but the calendar invites and the hour-by-hour reminders (Basic and Pro) have nothing to attach to. A vigil that runs across midnight into a second day is two sheets, or dated slots (see Create a sign-up form).

🎄 Angel tree / adopt-a-family

What you get: 8 slots, each one a tag — “Girl, age 4 — winter coat (size 5T),” “Family of 4 — grocery gift card” — taken by exactly one person. The public page shows spots-left counts but not who took which tag, “How many?” is hidden (a tag is a tag), and the drop-off instructions live in the Only for confirmed sign-ups card, so they go to the people who actually took a tag — on the thanks page and in their confirmation and reminder emails — and never sit on a shareable link.

Change it: replace the example tags with your real list on the Slots tab — one slot per child or family, capacity 1. Put the gift deadline in as the event date so each giver gets a calendar invite and, on Basic and Pro, a reminder two days before. Rewrite the drop-off instructions on the Questions tab. For a long list, group tags into sections by family or by age.

Keep children's names out of slot titles. Age, gender, and the gift are enough for a giver to choose, and the sheet is a public link.

🙋 Ministry interest form

What you get: a plain form — no spots to fill — with three questions: a required checkbox list of ministries (“Which ministries would you like to hear more about?”), an optional yes/no (“Have you served in one of these before?”), and an optional “Anything you'd like us to know?” box. Who responded is hidden on the public page, and every response lands on the form's dashboard page, on your People page, and in the CSV export.

Change it: edit the ministry list in the Your questions card — type your real teams, in the order you'd like them read. Add a follow-up question that appears only when one box is checked (“Nursery & children” → “Have you completed a background check?”) with the show-when condition (see Custom questions & conditional logic). Leave it published year-round and embed it on your “Get involved” page.

🎟️ Event RSVP with headcount

What you get: one RSVP question (“Will you be there?”) that takes a yes or no and, on a yes, “How many coming?” — so one reply covers a whole family — plus an optional “Any dietary needs or allergies in your party?” box. The note field is off. Someone who answers again with the same email updates their earlier answer instead of adding a second one, so your headcount stays honest when plans change.

Change it: reword the question in the slot's title. Need real spots too — a sign-up for the setup crew beside the RSVP? Add them on the Slots tab; a sheet can hold both. Set the event date so everyone who said yes gets a calendar invite, and a reminder on Basic and Pro.

Common questions

Which plans include templates?
All of them, including Free. A sheet made from a template counts toward your plan's active-sheet limit once you publish it, like any other sheet.
Can I change what the template set up?
Everything. A template only fills in a draft: the slots, sections, questions, and form-field settings are ordinary settings on the sheet editor's Slots, Questions, and Settings tabs. Rename slots, change capacities, delete a section, add a question — nothing is locked.
Is anything published when I create from a template?
No. The sheet is created as a draft and you land in its editor. Nobody can see it until you press Publish.
Do I have to pick an event date?
Only when the date matters. The prayer vigil wants one, because its slots carry times of day and the reminder emails and calendar invites need a date to attach them to. A potluck or RSVP needs one for the same reason. An interest form or angel tree can go without — for the angel tree, the date is the gift deadline, so it's worth setting.
Can I save my own sheet as a template?
Not yet. The closest thing today is Duplicate on any sheet, which copies its slots, sections, questions, and settings as a new draft. Templates are the sheets churches rebuild most often; if yours isn't here, tell us.
Where did these templates come from?
From the sheets churches rebuild from scratch most often. The memorial list came from a church's request; the other five are the sign-ups every church runs at some point — a potluck, a prayer vigil, an angel tree, an interest form, and a headcount.

Rebuilding a sheet the templates don't cover? Contact support and tell us what it is — the next template comes from requests like yours.

Next up: Organize with sections →