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Calendar Settings

Calendar Settings allow administrators to control how quickly new events become publicly visible on your website after they are synced from Planning Center Calendar.

note

Calendar Settings are only accessible to administrators with the appropriate permissions. This page is found under the Settings navigation group in the Staff Portal, not under the Calendar group.

Publication Delay​

The Publication Delay setting controls how long GatherCMS waits after importing a new event from Planning Center before making it publicly visible on your website.

Available options:

  • No Delay, Publish Immediately (default) — events appear on your website as soon as the sync completes.
  • 5 Minute Delay
  • 15 Minute Delay
  • 30 Minute Delay
  • 45 Minute Delay
  • 1 Hour Delay

The delay is calculated at the moment an event is first imported. If an event has already been published, changing the delay setting does not affect it — the new delay applies only to events imported after the change is saved.

When to Use a Publication Delay​

Use a publication delay if your team wants a review window before new events go live. This is useful when:

  • Events are added to Planning Center before all details are finalized.
  • Multiple staff members create events and a communications lead wants to review them first.
  • Your church runs a content approval process before publishing to the website.

A 15 or 30 minute delay is a common balance — enough time for a quick review without significantly delaying your event listings. We recommend not setting the event as public in Planning Center until you are ready for it to appear on your website.

How the Delay Works in Practice​

  • When an event is synced from Planning Center, GatherCMS records the import time plus the configured delay as the event's publication timestamp.
  • The event is withheld from your public website until that timestamp is reached.
  • After the delay window passes, the event appears on your website automatically — no manual action is required.

For example, with a 15-minute delay: an event synced at 2:00 PM becomes publicly visible at 2:15 PM.

Frequently Asked Questions​

I changed the publication delay from "No Delay" to 30 minutes. Will events that are already live on my website be hidden?

No. The delay applies only to events imported after you save the new setting. Events already published remain visible.

An event appeared on our website immediately even though we have a delay configured. Why?

The delay is only applied at the time of first import. If the event was previously synced and published, the delay will not be re-applied on subsequent syncs. Check whether the event existed in GatherCMS before you configured the delay.

Who can access Calendar Settings?

Only administrators with Calendar Settings update permissions can view and change this page. Contact your GatherCMS administrator if you need access.

Does the publication delay affect events that already exist but have not yet been published?

The delay is calculated at initial import. Events imported before the delay was configured will use the delay setting that was active at the time they were first synced.