Great scheduling tool

We allow our church members to sign themselves up for volunteer positions. We don't assign them. Other systems expect you to assign your volunteers, so they didn't work for us. With MSP, we send an email early in the week with the full schedule of open positions and people pick the job they want. On Friday we print the schedule, usually with a few unfilled positions. We post a paper schedule so that on Sunday, people can see what is not filled and volunteer on the spot. They can sign up on the paper schedule for coming weeks. On Monday we add those paper signups online, then send another email, starting the whole process again. It has worked very well for us.

Pros

It allows us to schedule volunteer positions for Sunday worship. Our members began using it without too steep of a learning curve. It is very reliable. In over 4 years, I cannot think of a time that it was unavailable. It is stable and hasn't made changes that force us to change our procedures. It is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of schedules and positions. Volunteers can request substitutes automatically, without a staff member needed.

Cons

Administrators must have the software loaded locally - it is not fully web based. It does its functions well, but doesn't integrate with our church database. Our database system also has a scheduler, but MSP filled our need better until recently when the database system redid their scheduling. We will be moving from MSP to the database, only because of the advantages of one system. But, we have benefited greatly by having MSP, so we still recommend it.

Best scheduling program for our parish

This program allows ministers to be responsible for entering their own information and eliminates the problems that a middle man can cause; misreading information, failing to add information etc. They are also responsible for requesting a sub and then helping their fellow ministers by filling in for them. It is working extremely well.

Pros

The integration process was easy, almost instant. Ministers reacted very positively to the interactivity of the program, appreciating the ease of requesting and sub and filling a position. The program tracks the times that ministers have been scheduled in the past and schedules appropriately going forward.

Cons

I can't thing of anything I don't like about the software.

Ministry Scheduler Pro makes scheduling incredibly easy

The support team is incredibly responsive and they work very hard to resolve any issues

Pros

Mobile App and self maintenance by users

Cons

Complete scheduling from the Mobile App would be great

Doesn't compare to other scheduling software

Ministry Scheduler Pro didn't meet the needs of my ministry team. The features allow for scheduling and it's certainly better than using paper or a personal spreadsheet because it allows users to receive and respond to requests, but other softwares have allowed my organization to put more (and prettier) features right in an app on their phones for ease of access, and we won't ever go back.

Pros

It's affordable and simple for ministries with only a few volunteers.

Cons

It's far too simplistic and doesn't give volunteers/users the integrated experience to find all the resources needed in one place.

Technical Support is Awesome!

Really has been excellent! I enjoy learning new technology and having such a great staff behind this program makes it all the better! The initial roll out training was very understandable; many of us had no prior experience with this type of software.

Pros

As with any technical operations, the best value is the behind the scenes support. MSP has the most up to date, personable, courteous and professional support team. Extremely responses both on a live call or via eMail. In my "cons" comment below I would tack on to say anytime I've had a thought about how I would like to use MSP and if that function is available, a call or eMail to support gets me the information. Basically with MSP there is a way to do just about anything!

Cons

There are a lot of little things you can do with this software but until you have a need for it you're not aware.