About twenty minutes, once.
Everything after that is a change rather than a rebuild. There is no import, no onboarding call, and nothing to migrate off a spreadsheet by hand.
Name Your Rooms
The church, the chapel, the hall, the rectory meeting room. Ordio needs to know what a space is before it can tell you it is taken. A space can be marked as shared, for the ones that genuinely hold two things at once.
Write The Schedule Once
Sunday at 8, 10 and noon. Confessions on Saturday at 3. Adoration on First Fridays. Each is one rule, and each keeps its wall-clock time across a daylight saving change, because that is what a parish means by ten o'clock.
Say What Each Mass Needs
A celebrant, two lectors, four extraordinary ministers, six servers. The numbers come with the rule and can be changed on any single occurrence, because Christmas midnight is not the Tuesday it inherited its numbers from.
Add Your People
Everyone you schedule, and what each is trained for. Most of them will never sign in, and never need to: they receive a schedule and answer in the porch. Only the ones who sign in are seats.
Fill The Roster
Ordio suggests who to ask, ordered by how long it has been rather than by who says yes. It knows who is away and it will not put one person in two places. The pastor overrides it constantly, and it always says why it suggested what it did.
Publish It
A link and an embed for the parish website, and a calendar subscription for every person that keeps itself current. Nobody emails a PDF on a Friday again.
The Part Nobody Has To Do
Nobody types what day it is. The season, the rank, the colour and the name of every day come from the General Roman Calendar, so the calendar is right about Advent, about a solemnity landing on a Saturday, and about where Easter falls in any year you scroll to. It is computed rather than stored, which is why it is still right next year and the year after.
- Violet through Advent and Lent, and rose on the two Sundays that take it.
- Red for Palm Sunday, Pentecost, and the martyrs.
- Green through Ordinary Time, with the ferias left unnamed so the days that mean something stand out.
Ordio is a scheduling tool and not an authority on liturgical law. Where your diocese or a proper calendar says otherwise, that governs.
Some Questions You Might Have
How much does Ordio cost?
Two dollars per person per month, or one dollar per person per month paid yearly. A seat is somebody who signs in, so the office and the clergy are what you pay for. Volunteers who only receive a schedule are free, and your roster can be as long as your parish is.
Do we pay for our volunteers?
No. Only people with a login count. A lector who receives a schedule and answers in the porch costs nothing, and always will.
Does Ordio know the liturgical calendar?
Yes. The season, rank, colour and name of every day come from the General Roman Calendar and are computed rather than typed, so the calendar is right about Advent, about a solemnity landing on a Saturday, and about where Easter falls in any year you scroll to.
Can it handle ministry scheduling?
Yes. Ordio knows what each Mass needs, who is trained for it, who is away, and who has not answered. It suggests who to ask by how long it has been rather than by who says yes, so the same four people do not end up on every Sunday.
Will it stop us double-booking a room?
Yes. A space booked twice and a person scheduled in two places at once are both refused at the point of saving rather than reported afterwards, and travel time between your buildings is taken into account.
Can we put the schedule on our parish website?
Yes. There is a link to share and an embed to paste, and a calendar subscription that keeps every phone current. Only what you mark public appears, and no personal contact details ever do.
We already use Google Calendar. Why change?
Google Calendar does not know what Sunday it is, cannot tell you a Mass is short two lectors, and will happily let two groups book the hall at once. Ordio answers all three, and it still publishes to your website and to every phone the way a shared calendar does.
How long does setup take?
About twenty minutes, and no call. You name your rooms, write your weekly schedule once, say what each Mass needs, and add your people. There is nothing to import.