PCO Migration Checklist

How to Migrate from Planning Center Online to Ministry Motion

Switching worship management platforms feels daunting — but it does not have to be chaotic. Most churches that leave Planning Center Online (PCO) do so because costs outpace value, because they need deeper singer-development tools, or because they want AI-assisted scheduling and vocal coaching under one roof. Whatever your reason, the move only goes smoothly when it is planned methodically.

This checklist covers every PCO module your worship ministry likely uses: People, Services, Giving, Groups, Check-Ins, and Calendar. Work through it from top to bottom in the order shown. Each section builds on the previous one — you cannot verify your song library import until your People records are already in the system, for example.

How to Use This Checklist

Work section by section. Do not rush past verification steps; they exist because import errors compound — a mismatched volunteer assignment is far easier to catch at the roster stage than three months after go-live.

Do not cancel your PCO subscription until every item in the "Go-Live and Verification" section is marked complete. Plan for a two-to-four week parallel-run window where both systems are active. This protects you if an edge case surfaces after the initial import.

Print or export this checklist and assign an owner to each section. For most churches, the church administrator owns People and Giving; the worship director owns Services, Songs, and Teams; a ministry coordinator owns Communication settings.

What You Will Need Before You Start

Gather the following before touching any export button:

• PCO administrator credentials with export permissions across all modules
• Your CCLI church license number and a list of all CCLI-licensed songs your church uses regularly
• Giving records in CSV or QuickBooks-compatible format (PCO Giving exports both)
• A Ministry Motion account with Church Admin access provisioned — contact your onboarding rep to confirm your subscription tier covers all the features you use in PCO
• A migration window of at least 14 days; 28 days is safer for larger congregations (200+ active members)
• A spreadsheet to track which exports you have completed, the file names, and the import status in Ministry Motion

Work through the checklist below, check each item off, and loop your worship director and finance staff in on the sections that touch their data. You are not doing this alone — Ministry Motion's onboarding team is available for a live data-review call if any import validation fails.

When every section is checked off and your go-live verification passes, then you can send the cancellation notice to Planning Center. Not before.