Guides · Reliability
Load-shedding does not get a vote on Sunday.
Power cuts are a planning fact in South Africa. Your generator handles the lights and the sound desk; this guide is about the other half, the systems that hold your people, your kids' safety and your offering, and how software should behave when the venue goes dark.
The failure points
What actually breaks when the power goes.
01
The venue connection
The router dies with the plug it is in. If check-in runs only on the venue's wifi, the kids' door stops at exactly the moment families arrive.
02
The label printer
Pickup security that depends on one printer and one cable is a single point of failure standing between a parent and their child.
03
The office computer
If the membership list, the giving spreadsheet or the attendance register lives on a PC at the building, a power cut at the building takes your records with it.
The design answer
What Church Flow does when the power goes.
01
Check-in runs on mobile data
When the venue's wifi goes down, a laptop or tablet on mobile data keeps check-in running. With no connection at all, check-in pauses until one returns, so every station keeps the same rooms and security codes.
02
Labels have a plan B
If the label printer is unreachable, kids' security labels can be emailed as a PDF instead, so pickup security does not depend on one cable.
03
Your records live off-site
Your church's records sit on servers, not on a computer in the church office, so a power cut at the building leaves them untouched.
The drill
Five things to sort out before the next dark Sunday.
- Check the outage schedule for your suburb when you plan the service, the same way you check the weather.
- Keep one charged laptop or tablet per door. When the wifi goes, it carries on over mobile data.
- Nominate a phone hotspot as the venue's backup connection and make sure the door team knows whose it is.
- If printed labels matter to your kids' ministry, test the emailed-PDF fallback on an ordinary Sunday first.
- Brief the team once: with no connection at all, check-in pauses until one returns, so the hotspot is the first thing to reach for.
Print this page and stick it in the sound desk drawer.
Common questions.
When the venue's wifi goes down, a laptop or tablet on mobile data keeps check-in running. With no connection at all, check-in pauses until one returns, so every station keeps the same rooms and security codes. The screen says so, and the door team knows where they stand.
If the label printer is unreachable, kids' security labels can be emailed as a PDF instead, so pickup security does not depend on one cable.
No. Your records sit on servers, not on a computer in the church office, so a power cut at the building leaves them untouched. Check-in runs in a browser on a laptop or tablet, over wifi or mobile data.
Built for South African Sundays.
Church Flow runs on any connection, mobile data included, and labels can go out as emailed PDFs when the printer is down.
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