Knowledge Base

Background Checks in PowerChurch Plus


PowerChurch Plus allows you to track background checks for adults in specific activities and employees in Payroll. This functionality was specifically written to work with Protect My Ministry (www.powerchurch.com/protectmyministry), but if you are using a different provider, you can still record the date of a background check.

Background Check Setup

On the Background Check Setup screen, found under File > Preferences > Background Checks, enter the following information:

  • Background checks need to be reverified every X years. This setting is used when generating reports and reminders about upcoming background checks that need to be performed.

  • Protect My Ministry Settings. These settings are specific to Protect My Ministry and will allow your PowerChurch Plus program to connect to your Protect My Ministry account.



    • Organization ID. This ID is assigned by Protect My Ministry.
    • Organization Password. The password that you use to log in to Protect My Ministry.
    • Register User tab. Enter your e-mail address and click the Register User button. This will link this PowerChurch Plus user as an authorized user of the organization's Protect My Ministry account.

Allowing User Access

There are separate user permissions that can be set in PowerChurch to allow "Background Checks" access in Membership and Payroll. To assign these user permissions, do the following:

  1. Log in to PowerChurch as the System Admin user.
  2. Go to File > Preferences > Passwords & Permissions.
  3. Click on the User Profiles button.
  4. Select the user that you want to change.
  5. Click on the Membership tab. Check or uncheck the "Background Check" option in Personal Profiles.

  6. Click on the Accounting tab. Check or uncheck the "Background Checks" option in Payroll.

  7. Repeat this process for each user account that you wish to update.

Setting Up Activities & Skills

If you will be performing background checks for people in your Membership database, you will need to enable an option in Activities & Skills. For example, if you have a "Nursery" activity and nursery workers are members of that activity, you can specify that adults that work in the nursery are required to complete background checks.

  1. Go to Membership > Activities & Skills > Maintain Activities & Skills. Please note: In Versions 11.55 and prior, this form is found under Membership > Activities & Skills > Setup > Maintain Activity & Skill Descriptions.
  2. If you have already set up the list of activities, use the Locate button to select the activity in question. Otherwise, click the Add button to add a new activity.
  3. On the General tab, there is a setting that reads "Adults in this activity require a background check". Check that option to enable background checks.

Background Check Controls in Membership

On the Maintain Personal Profiles screen found under Membership > Personal Profiles, use the Locate button to bring up a person who is in an activity that requires background checks. If your current PowerChurch user account has access to Background Checks in Membership, you will see controls at the bottom of the screen showing the date of the last background check and the PowerChurch user account that added it. There are also buttons to Add, Delete, or View a background check.

Background Check Controls in Payroll

On the Maintain List of Employees screen found under Accounting > Payroll, click on the Payroll Information tab. If the current PowerChurch user account has access to Background Checks in Payroll, you will see the Background Check controls at the bottom of the screen. These are the same controls described in Membership.

Requesting a Background Check

Click the "Add background check" button to request a new background check. The date and user account will be filled in automatically. If you are using Protect My Ministry and have set up your account information (covered in the Background Check Setup section above) your web browser will open, taking you to a form on the Protect My Ministry web site, requesting more information about the person. 

The PowerChurch part of the process is then complete. We have published an article from Protect My Ministry with detailed instructions on how to proceed from that point:

www.powerchurch.com/support/443/1/using-protect-my-ministry-for-background-checks

Reports That Include Background Checks

There are two reports in Personal Profiles > Reports - Personal Profiles that include Background Check information.

  • Adults Needing Background Checks. This report shows a list of people who need to have a background check completed, based on the number of years specified in the Background Checks Setup screen and the date of their last background check.
  • Adults With Background Checks. This displays a list of people that had a completed background check within the selected date range.

Reminders in PowerChurch Today

The PowerChurch Today gives you a dashboard overview of selected information in PowerChurch Plus. One of the things that can be displayed in PowerChurch Today is a list of people who will need to have background checks completed in the next 30 days.

To enable this option:

  1. Go to File > Preferences > User Setup Options.
  2. Click on the Today tab.
  3. In the list of Available Sections, check the box next to "Background Checks Needed".


Created: 07/07/2015
Last updated: 08/10/2021