Managing Your People Directory

Your People Directory is the central hub for everyone connected to your church -- members, regular attendees, visitors, and more. From here you can search, filter, view, add, edit, and archive person records to keep your church database organized and up to date.

Viewing Your People Directory

1. From the left sidebar, click People.
2. You will see a list of all active people in your database, sorted alphabetically by first name.
3. Two tabs sit just under the page title: People and Families, each showing a live count. Stay on People for the directory, or switch to Families to view people grouped by household.
4. Use the Views dropdown (top-left of the toolbar) to jump to a pre-built view with its count, including All People, Members, Visitors, Regular Attendees, Birthdays Today, Birthdays This Month, Inactive, and Archived. Selecting one instantly filters the list.

Tip: A count badge in the toolbar shows how many people are currently in view. When a filter or search is active, it also shows the filtered total "of" the full count.

Switching View Modes

On the People tab, TimelyChurch offers two ways to view individual people:

• List View -- A compact list showing name, contact details, and membership status. Best for scanning through many records quickly.
• Grid View -- A card-based layout showing photos and key details at a glance.

To switch between them, use the List / Grid toggle in the toolbar.

To see household relationships instead, switch to the Families tab at the top of the page.

Searching for People

1. Click the Search people... bar on the right side of the toolbar.
2. Type a name, email address, phone number, city, membership status, or any other detail.
3. Press Enter to run the search.

Smart Search Keywords

TimelyChurch understands natural-language keywords so you can search the way you think:

You can even combine keywords with names, for example: women Sarah will find females age 18+ named Sarah.

Tip: Smart search also looks through custom field values. If you created a custom field like "Allergies," searching for "peanut" will find anyone with that recorded.

Filtering People

For more precise results, use the Filters dropdown in the toolbar:

1. Click the Filters button (next to the search bar).
2. Choose from the available filter options:
   • Membership Status -- Visitor, Regular Attendee, Member, Inactive, or Former
   • Gender -- Male or Female
   • Marital Status -- Single, Married, Divorced, Widowed, or Separated
   • Active Status -- Active Only or Inactive Only
   • Birthday -- Birthday Today or Birthday This Month
   • Archived -- Active Only, Include Archived, or Archived Only
3. Click Apply Filters to update the list.

Tip: When filters are active, the Filters button is highlighted and a count badge shows the narrowed results. Click Clear (in the dropdown or next to the count) to reset back to the default view.

Sorting the List

1. Click the Sort dropdown in the toolbar.
2. Choose how to order the list: Name (A-Z), Name (Z-A), Newest First, or Oldest First.
3. The current sort is marked with a checkmark.

Saved Views

Coming soon. A "Saved Views" feature -- where you can save a combination of filters and search terms under a name (e.g., "Active Members" or "Youth Birthdays") for one-click access -- has been prototyped but is not yet wired into the production People page.

In the meantime, you can reproduce the same workflow by:

• Bookmarking the URL after applying filters (the People page preserves filter state in the query string), or
• Using the Membership Status, Gender, and Birthday filters together to build the same view in a few clicks.

When Saved Views ships, you will be able to name a view, pin it, and share it with other staff. Watch the release notes for the announcement.

Adding People

All ways to add people live under the Add Person dropdown (the blue split button with the chevron, top-right of the page). For full details, see the Adding People article.

• Add Person -- A form for entering full details for one person
• Quick Add Multiple -- Add several people fast with just a name and optional email
• Import from File -- Upload a spreadsheet to add many people in bulk
• Create Family -- Start a new household record

Editing a Person

1. Click on a person's name to open their profile.
2. Click the Edit Profile button (top-right of the profile).
3. Update the information you need to change -- name, contact details, address, membership status, photo, custom fields, and more.
4. Click Save to apply your changes, or Cancel to discard them.

For a full breakdown of every field on the profile, see the Person Profile article.

Deactivating a Person

If someone is no longer attending but you want to keep their record:

1. Open the person's profile.
2. Click the Actions menu (the ⋮ button, top-right of the profile).
3. Select Deactivate.
4. The person will be marked as inactive and hidden from the default People view.

To find inactive people later, choose Inactive from the Views dropdown, or set the Active Status filter to "Inactive Only."

Tip: Deactivating is different from archiving. A deactivated person still exists in your database and can be reactivated at any time (the same menu item then reads Activate). Their data is preserved.

Note: The Actions menu also lets you Invite to Team, Send Email, Copy Profile Update Link, Merge Profiles, and Disable/Enable Comments for that person.

Archiving (Soft Delete) a Person

If you need to remove someone from your active directory entirely:

1. Open the person's profile.
2. Click the Actions menu.
3. Select Archive.
4. The person will be soft-deleted -- they no longer appear in any views by default, but their data is preserved.

To find archived people:

1. Go to the People page.
2. Open the Views dropdown and choose Archived (or open Filters and set Archived to "Archived Only").
3. You will see all archived records.

Restoring an Archived Person

1. Find the archived person using the Archived view or filter.
2. Click on their name.
3. Open the Actions menu and click Restore to bring them back to your active directory.

Permanently Deleting a Person

1. Open the person's profile.
2. Open the Actions menu and click Delete Permanently.
3. Confirm the action in the dialog. This cannot be undone.

Tip: Permanent deletion removes all data associated with that person. Only use this when you are certain the record is no longer needed.

Bulk Actions

You can act on several people at once from the List view:

1. On the People list, select the checkboxes next to the people you want to manage (or use the header checkbox to select all).
2. A bulk action bar appears at the top of the list showing how many are selected.
3. Choose an action:
   • Archive -- Soft-delete the selected people at once
   • Delete -- Permanently remove the selected people
   • Clear -- Deselect everyone

Related Articles

• Person Profile Overview
• Adding People to Your Directory
• Family Management
• Custom Fields
• Importing and Exporting Data
• Tags and Segments
• Portal Self-Service