Quick start: from buying to your first visitor

This checklist takes you from buying the kit to the moment a newcomer tells you they're coming on Sunday. Each step links to the chapter with the details. Most churches get through it in an afternoon.

1. Buy and get your files

1. Choose Starter, Pro or Agency and buy it. See Buying and your licence.
2. Keep the receipt email: it has your licence key.
3. Download the three files from your licences page: Gradespace Core, the Gradespace Church plugin and the Gradespace Church theme. (A plugin is an add-on for WordPress; a theme is its design.) Leave them as .zip files.

2. Install

1. Check your hosting and take a backup first: Before you install.
2. Install in this order: Gradespace Core, then Gradespace Church, then the Gradespace Church theme. Step-by-step help is in Installing.
3. Add your licence key under Settings → Gradespace licence and click Activate. This switches on updates and, with Pro or Agency, the Pro features.

3. Run the setup wizard

The wizard opens by itself after installing. It asks about your church, where you meet (up to four congregations), your service times and your YouTube channel, and adds starter pages and a menu. See The Church setup wizard.

4. Check your details

1. Open Church → Churches and check each church's address, email, pastor and Meeting times. See Churches and service times.
2. Open Church → Settings and check the Business, Contact and Email tabs. See Church settings, tab by tab.
3. Make sure each church's Email is an address someone reads: that's where its visit requests go.

5. Choose your look

Go to Site Settings → Design & colours, choose one of the six designs and a colour palette, then Preview on the site and Save. See Designs, pages and menus and Your look.

6. Bring in your sermons

Paste your YouTube channel in Church → Settings → Sermons, click Save changes, then Import now. See Sermons from YouTube.

7. Add your first event

Church → Events → Add an event: a title, the date and time in Date and details, a picture, then Publish. See Events.

8. Replace the sample words and photos

Open each page under Pages (Home, About us, Plan a visit, Our churches, Give, Contact…) and put in your own words and photos. See Pages and content.

9. Test Plan a visit

1. Open your website's Plan a visit page, signed out (or in a private browser window).
2. Fill in the form with your own name and email, choose a church and a Sunday, and click Let us know you're coming. The form is replaced by "Thank you — we can't wait to meet you!"
3. Check that the visitor's confirmation arrives in your inbox, and that the church's email gets the request.
4. Open Church → Visits: your request is at the top, with a red number on the menu.

If the emails don't arrive, see Privacy and emails and use Send a test email on the Email tab. Then delete your test record (open it and click Delete for good).

10. Invite your team

Add each person under Church → Staff access with the right role. See The staff sign-in page and staff access.

That's it: your church is online. From now on, start each week with Church → Today, as described in Running the website week by week.