Adding contacts to the Address Book

Adding new contacts is probably among the most basic functionality you'll use in the Address Book module so we've made the process easy and intuitive. As well as importing contact data using the Import contacts option, you can add contacts individually, as explained in this article. Outside the scope of this article, but covered in the related articles, ChurchSuite includes a customisable newcomer connect form that can be used to collect details and areas of interest for new individuals and families - there are two versions of the form - one that can be embedded in your website and the other designed to be accessible through a device running at your Information Point using ChurchSuite Connect.

Introduction to the Address Book

The Contacts section of the Address Book is divided into three View sections representing the status of contacts who have given their consent for you to hold their information - active, pending and archived.

The Children module has its own address book section and is laid out in the same manner as the Address Book for contacts. That module is intended to be used for all children and young people whose parents/carers have given their consent for you to maintain details of their children. The Children module also includes additional functionality for managing age-based gatherings and groups for children and young people.

Active

The Address Book may well contain different types of contacts, not just those who are attending, serving or participating. The Active section is all those whom your church or organisation is 'touching and tracking', from the crowd to the core at all levels of engagement or commitment, and whom you consider to be actively part of your ministry and mission. They're all the people you might communicate with or wish to maintain historical or statistical data for. You can use Tags to distinguish the different levels of engagement of Active children and young people.

Archived

When people move on from your church or organisation, you may decide to delete them from the module. This would certainly be the best data protection practice if you no longer have a lawful basis for continuing to process personal information. However, subject to your data protection policy, you may prefer to archive children for a season, giving you the option to reinstate them again in the future or to delete them after a further period of inactivity. The archived section is helpful if you are required to maintain certain details about former members where you have a lawful basis. See the related support articles for further information on What happens when you archive or delete people.

Pending

When families submit their details through one of ChurchSuite's web-embedded features, new contacts are first added to the Pending section of the module. In this context, pending doesn't refer to a contact's level of engagement. New people submitting their details through a ChurchSuite form on your website are subject to review, and if a legitimate submission, they can be set as Active, or they can be deleted. Once set active, contacts cannot be set as pending again. Until set active, pending status contacts are unable to participate in any wider ChurchSuite functionality. For example, only Active contacts can be processed through Flows, be assigned to Tags, be included in communications or show in most report results. The Pending section is therefore not the place for non-members! Those who you consider non-members should be tagged accordingly in the Active section of the Address Book.

How to add a new contact

Working within the Contacts section of the Address Book, click Add Contact.

On the Add Contact pop-up, complete the various fields of contact information. A contact's first name is typically their known-as name. Optional Middle Name, Formal Name and Former Name fields can be enabled in the module settings - see later in this article. Click Save when you have finished entering all the Contact's information.

The newly added contact profile is displayed, showing all the Details just added. You can return to a contact's profile at any time in the future to Edit and make further changes.

Returning to the Contacts section, from here you can add or import further contacts, search for contacts, and view, edit, archive or delete existing contacts.

You are also able to select which contact fields will surface by default when you view this contact index. You can change this at any time and is unique to your user.

Standard, optional and custom fields

In addition to the standard fields for Contacts, there are several optional fields that can be enabled in the module settings, accessed via the cogwheel icon in the top-right corner of the module.

Click Edit to make changes to the optional Fields. Disabling an optional field will hide the field from the module - including any reporting and Smart Tag conditions for that field. Existing field data for contacts persists but is hidden from view/use.

For any Contact information that doesn't sit with the module's standard or optional fields, you can add  custom fields. There's a choice of field types to best suit the information you wish to collect. We've produced a separate support article for further information on Adding custom fields for people.

How many contacts can I have in the Address Book?

Your monthly ChurchSuite subscription is calculated based on the number of contacts in your Address Book module Active section (across all sites) and the number of modules you subscribe to. There's no limit to the number of contacts you can add or import to the Address Book.

Contacts in the 'Pending' or 'Archived' sections and children, do not count towards your subscription calculation. Further information about ChurchSuite pricing can be found here. As your Address Book grows, your monthly subscription will automatically update on your next billing cycle when you move into the next pricing tier - we'll even send your billing contact a notification when you're approaching the upper limit of your current pricing tier.