trouble with integration between Ministry Safe and Planning Center

[Karcher-Office]

Affected Product
Which product does this bug affect?

PEOPLE

Describe the bug

I find it extremely frustrating and time consuming to have to create a profile in  Ministry safe every time I need to add a new user in the database, when running a background check or assigning a Training for someone. After the integration, the two programs were supposed to work seamlessly together! Once I put someone in Planning Center, their profile should show up in Ministry Safe from what I understood when the integration took place. There is a link to click on in Planning center but I can't get past the places where I put in their name and what I want to send them. After that I get an error message. See attached screenshot.

To Reproduce

Expected behavior

I expect to be able to use the link in Planning Center to initiate a background check in Ministry Safe. It works intermittently.

Screenshots

I will try to add a screenshot.

Additional Context:

• Endpoint: [e.g. API endpoint I'm using]
• Language: [e.g. Programming language I'm using]
• Authentication: [e.g. OAuth 2, Personal Access Token, Browser Session (Cookie)]

Additional context

Why does the integration work sometimes and other times/profiles I get the error message shown in the screenshot?

I have..

• [ x

[Tried to do this] Reviewed the documentation found at https://developer.planning.center/docs

• [ xx] Searched for previous issues reporting this bug
• [ NO] Removed all private information from this issue (credentials, tokens, emails, phone numbers, etc.) I cannot do this on a screenshot
• Reviewed my issue for completeness

[github-actions]

Potentially Related Issues

I found some existing issues that may be related to this one. Please check if any of them address your question before waiting for a response:

🟣 #1304 — PCO ID Changes without warning (Closed)

Summary: User experienced Planning Center person IDs changing unexpectedly when integrating with external systems including Ministry Safe. This relates to the new issue as both involve Ministry Safe integration challenges and maintaining consistent person records between Planning Center and external systems.

Key discussion points:

• Person IDs in Planning Center can change when duplicate profiles are merged together (happens 1-2 times per month in this case)
• Merges occur when someone fills out a form with a different email address, creating a duplicate profile that staff later merge
• The 'losing' profile ID becomes invalid after a merge, breaking integrations that rely on storing and referencing those IDs
• Person merger webhooks can be set up to automatically notify systems when merges occur
• Enabling 'Require submitters to be logged in to Church Center' on forms can prevent duplicate profile creation

Resolution: The issue was identified as profile merges causing ID changes. Solutions provided: (1) Use the Person merger webhook at https://api.planningcenteronline.com/webhooks to get notified of merges, (2) Enable the 'Require submitters to be logged in to Church Center' setting on forms to prevent duplicate profiles from being created in the first place, (3) Check the Activity tab in People product to verify if merges are occurring.

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This comment was generated automatically. If none of these match your issue, no action is needed — a team member will review your issue soon.

[Karcher-Office]

The problem I have in getting the links in Planning Center to work for obtaining a background check in Ministry Safe do not seem to be related to anything to do with merging profiles. See attached screenshot: the link simply does not work to click on the drop down menu in Planning center and then request a background check. Sometimes I can get it to work to ask for a Training Link to be sent to the congregant. I have spend hours trying to figure this out. and have asked for help via the "contact Us" option. I have never gotten a permanent fix that is understandable. It should be a simply CLICK rather than having to set up another profile for that same person in Ministry Safe.

[shanebonham]

Hi @Karcher-Office,

I'm sorry you're having these issues but it looks like our support team has been working with you, so I'm going to close this issue. If you still need help, please don't hesitate to reach back out to them. MinistrySafe's support team may also be able to answer some of your questions.

[Karcher-Office]

Doesn't your support team deal directly with issues between Planning Center and Ministry Safe? It feels like a ping pong game between these issues I keep running into. I contact MS and they say let PC answer the questions, I contact PC and they direct me to MS. It is frustrating to continue to have problems with the integration/partnership of the two programs. It is a wonderful idea but it doesn't seem to work well. Is it something that will get better in the near future? or do we need to look at other options? *Joy Lewis, Office Administrator* Karcher Church 208-467-7479 ***@***.*** www.karcher.church

…

On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 4:35 PM Shane Bonham ***@***.***> wrote: *shanebonham* left a comment (planningcenter/developers#1451) <#1451 (comment)> Hi @Karcher-Office <https://github.com/Karcher-Office>, I'm sorry you're having these issues but it looks like our support team has been working with you, so I'm going to close this issue. If you still need help, please don't hesitate to reach back out to them. MinistrySafe's support team may also be able to answer some of your questions. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1451?email_source=notifications&email_token=CAPSBNHMKHPJ4CERWLTQRVD4SG34XA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJRGQYTKMJZHEZ2M4TFMFZW63VHNVSW45DJN5XKKZLWMVXHJLDGN5XXIZLSL5RWY2LDNM#issuecomment-4114151993>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/CAPSBNCWJZCLFXRS2HXS3FL4SG34XAVCNFSM6AAAAACW4U6JO2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DCMJUGE2TCOJZGM> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[shanebonham]

Hi @Karcher-Office,

That definitely sounds frustrating and isn't the experience we want you to have. This particular channel is designed to support the needs of software developers who build on top of our platform, so it was probably unhelpful to point you in this direction. One of our support specialists will be reaching out to you in the original support ticket though, and she should be able to answer any questions and give you the help you need. Sorry again!