Adding People to Your Directory

TimelyChurch gives you three ways to add people to your directory: Quick Add for speed, the full Add Person form for detail, and CSV Import for adding many people at once. All three live under the Add Person ▾ dropdown at the top right of the People page -- just pick the option that fits your situation.

Method 1: Quick Add (Multiple People at Once)

Quick Add is ideal when you need to enter several people fast -- for example, after a Sunday service when you have a stack of visitor cards.

1. Go to People from the left sidebar.
2. Click the Add Person ▾ button, then choose Quick Add Multiple.
3. A dialog titled Quick Add Multiple People opens with several blank rows.
4. For each person, fill in:
   • Full Name (required) -- Type the person's first and last name (e.g., "John Smith"). TimelyChurch will automatically split this into first and last name fields.
   • Email (optional)
   • Gender (optional)
   • Status (optional) -- Choose Visitor, Regular, or Member. Defaults to "Visitor."
5. Click Add Another Person to add more rows, as many as you need.
6. Click Add People.

TimelyChurch will automatically check for duplicates as it adds each person. If a person with the same name or email already exists, that entry will be skipped and you will see a notification telling you how many duplicates were found.

Tip: Quick Add is great for first-time visitors. Enter their name and email from a connection card, and they are immediately in your system and ready for a follow-up.

Method 2: Add Person (Full Details)

Use the Add Person form when you want to enter information for a single individual.

1. Go to People from the left sidebar.
2. Click the Add Person ▾ button, then choose Add Person.
3. A dialog opens. Fill in the available fields:
   • First Name (required)
   • Last Name (required)
   • Email (optional)
   • Phone (optional)
   • Gender (optional) -- Male or Female. (TimelyChurch currently supports these two values only. Imports from systems that use additional gender labels will need to be mapped or left blank.)
   • Status (optional) -- Visitor, Regular Attendee, Member, or Inactive. Defaults to "Visitor." (More membership statuses are available later from the person's profile.)
   • Add to Family (optional) -- Choose an existing family to add this person to.
4. Decide whether to keep going:
   • Leave Open profile after saving to add more details checked (the default) to jump straight to the new person's full profile, where you can add an address, birthdate, custom fields, a photo, and more.
   • Uncheck it to save and stay on the People directory.
5. Click Save Person.

If a person with the same or similar information already exists, TimelyChurch will warn you before creating a duplicate and suggest you check the directory first.

Tip: If you select a family when adding a person, they will automatically be linked as a member of that family. You can change their family role later from their profile.

Adding a Profile Photo

After saving a person, you can upload a profile photo from the Edit screen on their profile.

• Accepted formats -- Standard image files (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP).
• Maximum file size -- 5 MB. Files larger than this will be rejected by the server.
• Photos can be removed at any time using the Remove Photo option on the same screen.

If members upload their own photos through the member portal, the same 5 MB cap applies.

Method 3: CSV Import (Bulk)

CSV import is the fastest way to bring in a large number of people, especially when migrating from another church management system. TimelyChurch can automatically detect exports from popular platforms.

To open the importer, go to People, click the Add Person ▾ button, and choose Import from File. The Import People dialog opens.

Step 1: Download the Template (Optional)

Inside the Import People dialog, click Download template to get a pre-formatted CSV file.

The template includes these columns:

Tip: You do not have to use the TimelyChurch template. If you are exporting from another system, you can upload that file directly. TimelyChurch will try to match the columns automatically.

Step 2: Prepare Your Data

• Open the template (or your exported file) in a spreadsheet application like Excel or Google Sheets.
• Fill in your data. At minimum, every row needs a first name and last name.
• For the gender column, enter male or female (these are the only two values currently supported).
• For the membership status column, enter a status such as visitor, member, or regular_attendee (use the lowercase value that matches the status you want; people you leave blank default to Visitor).
• For the birthdate column, use the format YYYY-MM-DD (for example, 1990-05-15).
• Save the file as a CSV (Comma Separated Values).

Step 3: Upload Your File

1. In the Import People dialog (People → Add Person ▾ → Import from File), click Click to upload or drag and drop your CSV file onto the upload area. The maximum file size is 10 MB.
2. Leave the Skip duplicates option checked (recommended). When enabled, anyone whose name or email already exists in your directory will be skipped instead of creating a duplicate.
3. Click Import People.

Step 4: Review Results

After the import completes, TimelyChurch shows a confirmation message summarizing what happened -- for example, how many people were imported, how many families were created (if your file included household data), how many duplicates were skipped, and how many rows were skipped due to errors.

If your file came from a recognized church management system, the same message also tells you which format it detected (for example, "Detected Planning Center format").

Auto-Detection of Other Church Software Exports

When you upload a file, TimelyChurch automatically recognizes CSV exports from these platforms and maps their columns accordingly:

• Planning Center
• Breeze ChMS
• ChurchTrac
• Elvanto
• Tithely
• Realm (ACS)
• Pushpay / Church Community Builder (CCB)

When TimelyChurch detects one of these formats, it will map the columns automatically. You do not need to reformat anything -- just export from your old system and import directly into TimelyChurch. Any other CSV works too; TimelyChurch will do its best to match the columns it recognizes.

If your file includes household or family data, TimelyChurch will also create family records and link people to their families automatically.

Tip: When migrating from another system, export your full people list as a CSV and import it directly. TimelyChurch handles the column mapping so you do not have to manually reformat anything.

What Happens After Adding People

• New people default to "Active" and "Show in Directory." You can change these settings on their profile.
• Duplicate checking happens automatically. If TimelyChurch finds a potential match, it will alert you rather than silently creating duplicates.

Related Articles

• Managing Your People Directory
• Person Profile Overview
• Family Management
• Duplicate Detection and Merge
• Importing and Exporting Data