Trellis

Trellis on your phone

How Trellis works on a phone, from Today and the bottom bar to Menu and your own menu, and how to put it on your home screen.

Trellis works in your phone's web browser. There's no app to download from an app store. On a phone it's laid out for what you do standing up: taking roll, calling someone back, answering a serving ask. Everything you can open on a computer, you can reach on a phone too.

An iPad gets the computer's layout, and an Android tablet the phone's. A narrow browser window on a computer gets the phone's.

Today

On a phone, Trellis opens on Today: what's next for you, not the office's report. It greets you by name, then shows:

  • Your group's next step, if you lead a group: when it next meets and, once the roll is due, one button: Take roll tonight, or Take roll for a date still open. Days before, a line says when you'll take roll instead. Press the group's name, or Open beside it, to open the group.
  • Can you serve?, when you've been asked to serve and haven't answered. Press Answer.
  • People to keep in mind, under A call this week, Praying for and Check on this month: people from your groups who've missed meetings, newcomers and prayer follow-ups, and for staff, a few from across the church. Where there's a phone number, a button beside the name calls or texts them.
  • Getting set up, for staff and admins, until the church's first steps are done.

When there's nothing, it says Nothing needs you today.

Members who don't lead a group or a serving area open on their week instead.

The bar along the bottom

The bar holds your few tabs, then Menu. Which tabs you get depends on what you do:

  • Staff and admins: Today, Groups, People, and Serving if you have the Serving role or direct an area.
  • Group leaders: Today, then Group for your group (or Groups if you lead more than one), and Serving if you direct an area or volunteer.
  • Members: Week, and Serving if you volunteer.

The bar shows on the main pages. When you open a person, a meeting or a form, it steps aside so the page has the whole screen; the back arrow at the top takes you out.

Press Menu on the bar to see everything else. It lists every part of the church you can open, each in its colour, with its pages underneath. Lighthouse AI isn't in it: it has its own button at the top of the screen. Tap a page to go there, or press Close.

The top of the screen

The top bar tells you where you are, in the colour of the part you're in.

  • On a main page, it shows the Trellis mark and the page's name.
  • Deeper in, a back arrow, the page's name and the part it belongs to.
  • Under it, a row of tabs for that part's pages, with the one you're on underlined. Swipe it sideways if there are more.

If you can search the church, there's a search button at the top right. If you're on staff, the lighthouse button at the top of the screen opens this week's read. A yellow dot on it means a new read is in that you haven't opened on this phone.

Your own menu

Your initial or photo sits at the top right. Press it for your own menu:

  • Your email and your role.
  • Your profile, Your giving and Your serving, when those parts are on.
  • Switch church, if you belong to more than one.
  • Share an idea, Report a problem, Help center, Get help, and Terms, privacy & security.
  • Sign out.

When Silas is on for your church, staff see Silas is on here.

Put Trellis on your home screen

Trellis can sit on your home screen like an app, and opens without the browser's bars. Your browser does this, so the steps depend on your phone:

  • iPhone, in Safari: open Trellis, press the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
  • Android, in Chrome: open Trellis, press the menu, then Add to Home screen or Install app.

The icon opens Trellis and takes you to your church, or asks which one if you belong to more than one.

What leaders do on a phone

Most of a group leader's week fits on a phone:

  1. Open Today. Your group's card shows when it meets and the next step.
  2. Press Take roll tonight after the meeting, tap who came, and save.
  3. Call or text anyone under A call this week from the same page.
  4. Can't meet? Press Cancel this meeting under the group's card, then Cancel the meeting. The date stays on the schedule, marked cancelled, and you can Restore it.
  5. Answer any serving ask from Can you serve?

See Take roll after a meeting and Group leaders.

What's easier on a computer

Setting up the church, importing people, building a service plan and writing longer emails all work best with a bigger screen. The Getting set up checklist shows on Today for staff and admins until it's done, and on Home on a computer. See Set up your church.

Next in Start here: Turn parts on and off

Still stuck? Ask Silas

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