Controlling the editable fields in My ChurchSuite
Introduction
You can customise the fields of personal information that members can edit within My ChurchSuite. Considerable administration time can be saved if members can self-manage their details and those of their children. Of course, some personal details are maintained for internal use only and you may not wish members to be able to update those fields - for example, a custom field for 'membership status'. This article explains how to customise the fields people can see in My ChurchSuite and the fields they can edit.
Managing editable member fields
The editable fields for contacts and children are managed in the respective module's settings. Let's look at each in turn...
Contacts
Head into the Address Book module's settings via the cogwheels icon in the top-right corner of the module and select the My ChurchSuite Options tab. In the editable Fields section click Edit to make changes to the fields that adult members can edit in My ChurchSuite. Bear in mind that under the data protection law data subjects may have a right to access and a right to rectification. Best compliance with these rights is achieved by allowing members to manage more of their personal information rather than less, even though that may result in people choosing to remove information that they no longer wish you to process.
Children
Head into the Children module's settings via the cogwheels icon in the top-right corner of the module and select the My ChurchSuite Options tab.
In the editable Fields section, click Edit to make changes to the fields that primary parents/carers and children can edit in My ChurchSuite. Bear in mind that under the data protection law data subjects may have a right to access and a right to rectification. Best compliance with these rights is achieved by allowing members to manage more of their personal information rather than less, even though that may result in people choosing to remove information that they no longer wish you to process.
Contacts & Children
In addition to standard and optional fields, you may also have custom fields. Some custom fields may be internal-use only and not intended for members to edit but some fields may be personal information that members are permitted to edit. Working respectively in the Address Book or Children module's settings, switch to the Module Options tab. This example is from the Address Book.
Scroll down to the Custom Fields section. Here you can Edit each custom field's Settings for visibility and editability within My ChurchSuite.
In the example below, from the Address Book, the 'Subscribe to weekly e-news' custom field has been set not to Show in the Search for Others results in My ChurchSuite but contacts can Edit their responses in My ChurchSuite and on their My Consent form. The field is set as Required meaning that each member must select one of the two options if no value has yet been selected.
Allowing contacts to link to their Spouse/Partner
One of the editable Fields described above allows adult contacts to link to their Spouse/Partner within My ChurchSuite. Let's see how this functionality works...
Safeguarding linked children
Adult contacts can only see the My Children details of their own linked children. However, a contact will see the linked children of their spouse/partner if the couple is linked (and if the My Children section is enabled for My ChurchSuite). For this reason, as a precautionary measure, a newly-selected spouse/partner will always be asked to approve the linking before the two contacts are linked in My ChurchSuite, at which point the spouse/partner's linked children will become visible to their spouse/partner.
It's helpful that members can manage their own spouse/partner linking - perhaps when people get engaged or married. It's especially helpful when their marital status changes - perhaps if they separate or divorce - that spouse/partner/child linking is correctly handled. With the 'in-built' confirmation safeguarding you can be assured that those with My ChurchSuite access cannot exploit the functionality to link to a spouse/partner to access another person's child details.
Linked spouse/partner couple giving
Adult contacts can only see their own My Giving details. However, where a contact doesn't have their own giver profile, but the spouse has a "Couple" giver profile, the giver's spouse will be able to see the joint/couple My Giving details of the spouse they are linked to.
For example. Paul doesn't have a giver profile but Fiona does. If Paul links to Fiona as his spouse/partner and Fiona approves the link, Paul will not see Fiona's My Giving details. However, if Fiona is a 'couple giver', Paul would become Fiona's couple giver spouse, meaning that he will see the couple's donations in My Giving.
This is helpful in the context of a genuine couple link but to safeguard against unscrupulous or 'curiosity' spouse linking (with possible access to My Giving details), the 'in-built' confirmation and approval workflows described below will protect 'couple giver' details.
When the Spouse/Partner linking option is enabled, all Address Book contacts with My ChurchSuite access (subject to their marital status) can search/select their spouse/partner by name in My ChurchSuite, which links the two contacts (subject to approval).
In searching for their spouse/partner ChurchSuite will auto-suggest names from the Address Book as they type. Suggested names are only those whose privacy settings have Name is visible.
Saving the changes - and before any linked children or giving details are shared - the member will see this message:
The selected spouse/partner is sent an email asking them to confirm the change...
When the selected spouse/partner next accesses My ChurchSuite they'll also see a spouse/partner confirmation, if not already actioned using the confirmation email:
Only when this confirmation is made will the members be fully linked. All changes to personal information made by members, including their spouse/partner linking, are recorded in the Changes log on each person's profile page in ChurchSuite.