Tags and Segments
This article covers how to organize, label, and segment people in your TimelyChurch directory -- and clarifies a question we hear a lot: does TimelyChurch support person-level tags?
Are There Tags on a Person?
Person-level tags are not currently supported. You will see a "Tags" feature elsewhere in TimelyChurch (notably on Groups -- small groups, classes, and teams can be tagged for filtering), but the person record itself does not have a tag field.
If you have used a system like Planning Center, Breeze, or Realm where you could attach freeform tags directly to individuals, the closest equivalent in TimelyChurch is one of the three approaches below.
Three Ways to Segment People Without Tags
1. Custom Fields (Most Flexible)
Custom fields are the right answer 90% of the time. Create a field once -- with the type, validation, and visibility you need -- and every person record gains a place to store that information. Custom fields automatically become filter options on the People page, so you can answer questions like "show me everyone in the Worship ministry" or "show me everyone with the Mercy spiritual gift."
Recommended custom-field types for tagging-style use cases:
| Tag-Style Use Case | Recommended Field Type | Example Options |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry interests | Multi-Select | Worship, Children, Hospitality, Tech, Outreach |
| Spiritual gifts | Multi-Select | Teaching, Mercy, Leadership, Hospitality, Prophecy |
| Volunteer status | Dropdown | Active, On Pause, Onboarding, Not Available |
| Background check | Yes/No (with separate Date field) | -- |
| Ministry roles | Multi-Select | Greeter, Usher, Sound, Worship, Kids Helper |
| Life stage | Dropdown | Young Adult, Married No Kids, Family with Kids, Empty Nest, Senior |
Once a custom field exists, it shows up automatically in the Filters panel on the People page. Picking a value narrows the directory to just those people. See Custom Fields for full setup details.
2. Membership Status
If your "tag" is really a stage in someone's church relationship, use Membership Status instead of a custom field. The nine built-in statuses (Member, Regular Attender, Visitor, Participant, In Progress, No Longer Member, Inactive, Former, Campaign Donor) cover most lifecycle stages.
Membership Status appears as a top-level quick-filter badge above the People list and as a primary filter, so segments built on it are very easy to access. See Person Profile Overview for what each status means.
3. Saved Views (Coming Soon)
A future Saved Views feature will let you save a combination of filters -- "Active Members + Worship Volunteers + Background Check Completed," for example -- under a name and pin it for one-click access. Until that ships, you can reproduce the same workflow by:
- Bookmarking the People page URL after applying filters (filter state lives in the query string), or
- Sharing the filtered URL with other staff so they land on the same view.
Group Tags vs. Person Tags
Just to avoid confusion: TimelyChurch does support tags on groups (small groups, classes, and teams). Group tags are used to organize the Group directory and are unrelated to person-level segmentation. If you came here looking for that feature, see the Groups section of the knowledge base.
Workflow Examples
"Find everyone in our Hospitality ministry"
- Create a Multi-Select custom field called Ministry Interests with options like Worship, Hospitality, Tech, etc.
- As you talk with people about serving, fill in the field.
- From the People page, open Filters and select Ministry Interests = Hospitality.
- Bookmark the URL.
"Find everyone whose background check is expiring this year"
- Create a Date custom field called Background Check Expires.
- Fill in the date when the check is completed.
- Filter People by the date range.
"Find everyone who showed up to the campaign but is not yet a member"
- Set their Membership Status to Campaign Donor when you add them.
- Filter the People page by Membership Status = Campaign Donor.
- Use this list to plan a follow-up cycle.