People
Adding Members
Learn how to add members manually using the multi-step member form, or import your directory from Planning Center.
Your people directory is the foundation of your church management platform. You can add members one at a time using the built-in multi-step form, or import your entire directory from Planning Center.
Adding a Member Manually
Manual entry is best when you need to add one or two people quickly, such as a new visitor who filled out a connection card. Clicking Add Member opens a multi-step wizard that walks you through all the information you can capture for a member.
1
Go to the People section
From your admin dashboard, navigate to People in the sidebar and select Members. You will see your member directory with a list of everyone in your church database.
2
Click Add Member
Click the Add Member button at the top right of the page. The multi-step member form will open as a modal.
3
Personal Info
The first step captures the core information about the person.
- Membership Status (required) — select Visitor, Member, or Inactive. New members default to Visitor.
- First Name and Last Name are required. Middle Name is optional.
- Email address and phone number
- Profile avatar and directory photo (separate images)
- Date of birth
- Marital status (Single, Married, Divorced, or Widowed)
- Anniversary date (shown when marital status is set to Married)
4
Address
Enter the member's mailing address. You can search for an address to auto-fill the fields, or enter the street address, city, state, and zip code manually. This step is optional.
5
Communication
Set the member's notification preferences. You can enable any combination of Email, Text Message (SMS), and Phone Call notifications, and choose one as their preferred method. These preferences are used when sending communications from the platform.
6
Church Info
Capture church-specific details about the person.
- How They Found Us — Friend/Family Referral, Online Search, Social Media, Drove By, Community Event, Mailer/Flyer, or Other
- Baptism Date — record the date this person was baptized
- Emergency Contact — name and phone number for the person to contact in an emergency
7
Teams and Roles
Assign the member to one or more teams and grant them any organizational roles. Teams group people for scheduling and communication. Roles control what permissions the person has in the admin dashboard.
8
Background Check
If this member requires a background check, toggle the Background Check Required switch. Once required, you can mark it as completed, add internal staff notes, and upload supporting documents (PDF, DOC, DOCX, or images up to 10 MB each).
9
Review and Submit
The final step shows a summary of everything you entered. Review the details and click Add Member to save the person to your directory. They will appear in your member list immediately.
Tip
You can navigate between steps freely and skip any optional step. The only required fields are First Name, Last Name, and Membership Status. If your church has configured custom field tabs, those will appear as additional steps between Background Check and the Review step.
Note
Members added manually do not have login access to the platform by default. A member only has a login account once they have set up a password through an invitation or the sign-up flow. If you just need to track someone in your database without giving them an account, manual entry is all you need.
Member Profile Fields
Each member profile includes the following built-in fields. These are standard across all organizations and are not custom fields:
- First name, middle name, and last name
- Email address and phone number
- Membership status (Visitor, Member, or Inactive)
- Date of birth and marital status
- Anniversary date
- Mailing address (street, city, state, zip)
- Communication preferences (email, SMS, phone)
- How they found the church
- Baptism date
- Emergency contact name and phone
- Background check status and documents
- Profile avatar and directory photo
- Team memberships and organizational roles
You can also create custom field tabs from the Custom Fields section under People. Custom fields appear as additional steps in the member form after the Background Check step.
Importing from Planning Center
If your church uses Planning Center, you can sync your entire member directory rather than entering people by hand. This is the fastest way to get started if you already have your people data in Planning Center.
1
Connect Planning Center
Go to Settings, then Integrations, and click Connect next to Planning Center. You will be redirected to Planning Center to authorize the connection. You need admin access to your Planning Center organization.
2
Run a sync
Once connected, click Sync Now on the Integrations page. The platform syncs in both directions: it pulls members, families, and children from Planning Center into your directory, and it also pushes any new or updated records from your local system back to Planning Center.
3
Review imported members
After the sync completes, a summary shows how many records were created or updated in each direction. Review your People directory to confirm everything looks correct. Imported members appear with their Planning Center data pre-filled.
Warning
If the same record was edited in both your local system and Planning Center since the last sync, the platform detects a conflict and will not overwrite either version automatically. A Conflicts button will appear on the Integrations page showing the number of pending conflicts. Go to Settings, then Integrations, and click the Conflicts button to review each conflict side-by-side and choose which version to keep.
Note
Imported members from Planning Center do not automatically have login accounts. They are added as directory entries only, the same as members added manually.