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Find your way around the People directory

The People page is where everyone connected to your church lives, visitors, subscribers, and members alike. This tour walks you through what each part of the page does so you always know where to look.

Before you begin

  • You need the People tab in your sidebar to open this page. If you don't see it, ask an admin to grant you access.

Step-by-step

  1. Open People from the sidebar. In the left sidebar, click the People item (the one with the people icon). The page opens with the heading People and the subtitle Manage your church community.

  2. Get to know the tab strip. Just below the heading you'll find six tabs: All, Tags, Groups, Teams, Households, and Audiences. The All tab is your full member list and is where the page opens by default. The other tabs group your people in different ways.

  3. Read a person's row. On the All tab, each person appears as a row showing their Email, Phone, a Membership badge (Subscriber or Member), and Subscription chips that show whether they're set to receive email and text. Click any row to open that person's full profile.

  4. Check the count. Above the list, a small count tells you how many people you're looking at, like "245 people." The list shows the first 50 people; click Load more at the bottom to bring in the next 50. Just above that button, a line like "Showing 50 of 245" tells you how many are on screen so far. Once you narrow the list with search or a filter, the count adds "after filter" so you know you're seeing a subset.

  5. Add people from the top-right. Click the Add people button in the top-right corner. A short menu drops down with two choices: Upload CSV to bring in many people at once from a spreadsheet file (CSV), or Add one person to type in a single contact.

  6. Open Membership settings (admins). If you're an admin, a small gear icon sits to the left of Add people. Click it to open the Membership page, which explains the three states every person can be in, Subscriber, Member, and Unsubscribed.

Good to know

  • The yellow duplicate banner. When Churchday spots two records that look like the same person, a yellow banner appears near the top reading "N possible duplicates to review." Click the Review link to compare them side by side and merge if they match. Two records that share a phone but not a name are never listed: households share one line, so that is two people, not a duplicate. Two records that share only a name are never listed either: people share names, so a name alone is not a signal. A pair marked Medium with "Different names" now only appears for a shared email, which can still be two people sharing one inbox, so Not a duplicate is often the right answer there. The check-in kiosk still asks a first-time guest "Is this you?" when someone with that name is already on file.
  • Returning people are recognized at every door. When someone registers, fills in a form, joins, or checks in, Churchday looks for them by email first, then by phone together with the same first and last name. A match under a new email adds that email to their record instead of creating a second person, and the address already on file gets a short note saying so. A CSV import matches the same way and also keeps a second address on the person (no note is sent for an import, since you did it). A phone alone is never enough: a household sharing one number stays separate people, and children are never matched this way.
  • Children merge too. A kid added at kids check-in who already had a record in the household (an earlier check-in under a different birthday, the family panel, an import) shows up in the banner like anyone else, and each card says Child record so you know which is which. Merging moves the kid's check-ins, profile, and parents to the record you keep, and fills in a teacher note or staff note the kept record was missing. A child is never merged with someone who signs in to Churchday: that is a parent and a child, so mark that pair Not a duplicate.
  • Merging keeps both email addresses. When you merge, Keep the other email as an alternate address is checked by default. Church email still goes to the person's main email, but a check-in, registration, or form submitted under the other address lands on the same record instead of creating a new person. Untick it if the other address was a typo.
  • Obvious duplicates merge on their own. Every night Churchday merges a pair by itself when the two records share a phone or email and the same name, nothing else disagrees, and the main email is not a judgment call (one of them has a Churchday account and the other has no different email on file, or only one has an email). Those show up under Recent merges marked "automatic" with the same 30-day Undo. Anything less clear-cut waits for you in the banner.
  • The sign-in email is the main email. If one of the two records has a Churchday account, the address that person signs in with becomes the main email automatically, and the review shows it under Email instead of asking you to pick. When neither record has an account, Churchday suggests the record whose address the person said yes to church email with, or failing that the most recently active one, and you can keep the other instead. If that person later creates a Churchday login under a different address, Churchday emails the address already on file an "Is this you?" link (at sign-up, or the next night); opening it connects the two, makes the sign-in address the main email, and keeps the old one as an alternate. Until then the pair waits in the review list. If the person says they no longer have that inbox, admins get an email asking them to sort it out. When both records have their own account, the pair can't be merged: ask the person to use one account, or mark the pair Not a duplicate if they are two people.
  • Alternate emails on a person. Open a person, go to their Settings tab, and use Alternate emails to see the other addresses they are known by, add one, or remove one.
  • Members show up on their own. People are added to your directory automatically when someone registers for an event, so the All tab fills in over time even if you never import anyone.
  • Your view is remembered. If you search or filter, load more people, and then open someone's profile, coming back to People keeps the same view, the people you had loaded, and your place in the list until you close the browser tab.

What's next?

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