Summary: Syncing Elvanto with Safe Ministry Check (SMC) creates SMC profiles from your Elvanto people and pushes training and screening results back into Elvanto. Setup has four steps: connect with your API key, link fields, choose group or department syncing, and decide what happens when people leave.
Key terms
Minority fields: name, mobile and email. Elvanto is the master for these. Changes made in SMC don't transfer to Elvanto.
Priority fields: status, training completed/required date, and WWCC number, status and expiry. SMC is the master for these and pushes them to Elvanto. Changes made in Elvanto won't change SMC.
How syncing works
SMC pulls a person's minority fields from Elvanto and creates a linked SMC profile.
SMC pushes the person's priority fields to their Elvanto profile, using custom fields you set up.
Step 1: Connect Elvanto
In Elvanto, go to Settings > Developers > Integrations > Add Integration.
Select Safe Ministry Check. Close the pop-up that says "Click here to integrate with Safe Ministry Check".
Back in Elvanto, go to Settings > API and click Show to see your API key, then copy it.
In your SMC dashboard, go to Settings > ChMS Syncing and click Setup Elvanto Syncing.
In Step 1, click Update your Elvanto API key, paste your key and click Save changes.
Step 2: Link SMC fields to Elvanto fields
Linking fields shows each person's training and screening in Elvanto, which helps people without SMC access see who is cleared.
In Elvanto, create custom fields for training, WWCC/Blue Card status and other records: People > Categories > select a category > Add Custom Field.
In Step 2 of your SMC Elvanto Syncing settings, match each SMC priority field to an Elvanto custom field. The names don't need to match.
Important: Set these fields to View only in Elvanto. SMC is the source of truth and will overwrite any changes made in Elvanto.
Step 3: Choose group or department syncing
Sync by group
In Elvanto, create a group for each training level, named something like "Safe Ministry Check – Volunteer Leader", and add the people who need that level.
In Step 3 of your SMC settings, choose Auto sync people in specific Elvanto groups.
Click Link Elvanto groups and match each group to a training level. SMC profiles will be created from those groups.
Note: Assign each person's training level through their Elvanto group. If you change someone's level in SMC, it will revert to the level set by their Elvanto group.
Sync by department
In Step 3, choose Auto sync people according to their Elvanto department/position.
Click View Elvanto dept… and set the training level for each department and sub-department.
When someone is moved into, out of or between departments, their training level updates, or they're added to or archived in SMC.
Which should I choose?
Groups suit smaller churches that don't use departments, or have only a few people per department. They're simple to set up, but take more admin to keep current as people's roles change.
Departments suit larger, team-based churches. Setup takes longer, but training levels update automatically when someone's role changes (e.g. from Kids Leader to Kids Team Leader).
Tip: A person's training level should reflect their highest level of responsibility across all the ministries they're part of.
Step 4: Decide what happens when people leave
Choose what to do when someone is no longer in a synced group or department:
Leave them in SMC: they stay in your account and keep receiving training reminders until you remove them manually.
Archive them automatically: they're archived in SMC and won't be asked to complete training or screening.
Use See Matches to view how Elvanto and SMC profiles are matched and spot any differences in their details.