Support » FAQ
Questions
- I'm trying to add a person to a group but the name is not appearing. Why?
- The system is giving me an error that the name already exists and that the first name + middle name + last name must be unique. Why am I getting this error?
- How do I handle deceased individuals?
- What do I do with families that have transferred away?
- I have an adult child that wants to be their own household. How do you move them?
- What do I do with a divorced couple?
- Two members in the church got married. How do I merge their information?
- Do you have a new household form I can give people to fill out?
Answers
1. I'm trying to add a person to a group but the name is not appearing. Why?
The majority of the time when this question is asked it is because the Household has been added to the system but no member record was created for the household. Another possible reason would be you are viewing only Active members when this member is a different Status.
2. The system is giving me an error that the name already exists and that the first name + middle name + last name must be unique. Why am I getting this error?
The system does not allow duplicate names. You may have two people with the exact same name. If this is the case you will need to distinguish them somehow. The reason we don't allow duplicate names is to help keep databases clean. Many of our competitors allow this and in some databases we will see the same person added 4 or 5 times in the database. To locate the duplicate name go to People -> Members -> Mem-List and change the status to Everyone and search for the name. If they are two different people than you may want to add a middle initial or put something in the middle name box just to differentiate the two people.
3. How do I handle deceased individuals?
This is a two-part answer depending on your situation:
1) If the person is the only member in the household: First, check to see if any contributions are attached to the deceased member or their household. If there is then you will want to go to Contributions -> Management -> Cont-Statements and print a statement out for that household. This statement should be mailed to the person handling the estate for this individual. This is important as all the money minus the taxes will be dispersed immediately. Print a second statement as a backup copy and keep it in a folder. Since this is the last person in the household you can delete the entire household and archive the members inside. Go to People -> Households -> Hse-List and locate the deceased household. Click on the Last Name of the deceased household and press the delete button. Follow the steps.
2) If the household has other members that are in the household that are not deceased: Go to People -> Members -> Mem-List and locate the deceased member. Click on their last name to bring up the member form for the deceased member. Click the button "Delete Member". Click OK to the message "Do you wish to send the Member information to the Archives". Enter a reason of Deceased. When you are done the Household will still exist but that specific member will no longer appear in the household. They are now in the archives.
4. What do I do with families that have transferred away?
Print two copies of a contribution statement for them. Send one to them immediately and keep the second copy for yourself as a backup in a folder. Once this is done you can archive the entire household. Go to People -> Households -> Hse-List and select the family. Press the Delete button and archive them.
5. I have a child that wants to be their own household. How do you move them?
In this situation you currently have one household and several members usually being the Father, Mother, and child. What you want is two households and the child to only appear in their own household. You need to create the child's household first. Go to People -> Households -> Hse-List and click Add New Household at the bottom. Enter the child's information and click save. Don't add them in as a member. Now you want to transfer the Member to the new household you just created.
6. What do I do with a divorced couple?
First, create a new household for one of the divorcing members. Then transfer the member to the new households. Go to the original household and change all the information over to the remaining member. Be sure to change their relationships to either Divorced or Single Male/Female. If the couple has contributed money you will typically need to divide the money between the two households. You can use the Transfer Contributions section to accomplish this task.
7. Two members in the church get married. How do I merge their information?
This is a much more complex question than many church employees realize. If either the Husband or the Wife are giving donations then you will need transfer the donations to keep things in order. The question you need to ask yourself is "How many contribution Statements do I need to print at Year End?". If both the Husband and the Wife were giving prior to the marriage then you will need to print 3 separate contribution statements. One for each of them before they were married and one for their joint givings.
Example Scenario: John Anderson and Mary Smith are married on July 1st. Both of them gave contributions prior to being married. When you review the envelope information for John Anderson and Mary Smith you see that the envelopes are assigned to the Household records for the two. Below are the steps you will need to do.
- Determine which household you wish to keep. For our example we will keep the John Anderson household and move the member record for Mary Smith to the John Anderson Household.
- Transfer the Member record Mary Smith to the John Anderson Household. (Refer to Transferring a Member).
- Change the relationship of Mary Smith to Wife.
- Change the last name field of Mary Smith to Anderson
- Add the name Smith to the Maiden name field for Mary.
- Click Save Member.
- View her Special Events and add her Marriage date and click Save. (Refer to Add a Special Event Date)
- Go to People -> Households -> Hse-List and select the John Anderson household.
- Change the First Name field from "John" to "John & Mary".
- Change the Mail To field from "John Anderson" to "John & Mary Anderson". (Refer to Add a Household for different naming conventions)
- Click Save.
- Click Add - View Members.
- Select John at the top left window.
- Change the relationship field of John to Husband.
- Click Save Member.
- View John's Special Events and add his Marriage date and click Save. (Refer to Add a Special Event Date)
- ====NOTE==== You've almost completed the membership aspect of this process. Now you need to modify the contribution side. Once the contribution side is finished we can finish the membership side by deleting the empty Mary Smith household.
- In this example both Mary and John have given money and the donations are attached to the Mary Smith Household and the John Anderson Household. (Hint: The John Anderson Household now appears as John & Mary Anderson)
- The dollars from the Mary Smith Household will move to Mary Anderson the Member.
- The dollars from the Household of John & Mary Anderson will move to John Anderson the Member.
- All future contributions made by the couple will go to the John & Mary Anderson Household.
- To acomplish the above 3 steps do the following
- Go to Contributions -> Envelopes -> Env-Maintenance -> Add/Edit Member #'s and enter a zero next to Mary Anderson and John Anderson. You must do this in order to transfer the contributions or you won't see their names.
- Go to Contributions -> Management -> Cont-Transfer and execute two transfers.
- Transfer contributions from Mary Smith Household to the Mary Anderson Member
- Transfer contributions from John & Mary Anderson Household to the John Anderson Member.
- Go to Contributions -> Management -> Cont-Maintenance -> Check your funds to ensure no outstanding pledges are assigned to the Mary Smith Household.
- Go back to Contributions -> Envelopes -> Env-Maintenance -> Add/Edit Household #'s and delete the envelope number for the Mary Smith Household. If her number goes to zero instead of erasing completely then there is probably a pledge or contribution still out there that needs to be cleaned up.
- ====NOTE==== You should now be done with the Contributions section.
- Go back to People -> Households -> Hse-List and open the Mary Smith Household.
- Press the "Delete" button. You do not need to archive since the household is empty.
8. Do you have a new household form I can give to people to fill out?
Yes, Go to People -> Households -> Hse-Reports and select the report "New Household Form". Enter the number of members joining on the right and click "Show Report".
