Admin guide
Everything a church admin can do, in the order it appears in the admin app at /admin/.
Dashboard
The first screen shows counts of families, people, adults, children and admins, and four queues that may need you: pending approvals, adult transitions, invitations not yet accepted, and release requests from other churches. Recent audit entries and this month's birthdays and anniversaries sit underneath.
Families
A family carries the shared things: family name, address, home phone, anniversary, family photo and any family custom fields. Every person belongs to exactly one family.
- Add a family with at least a family name. Everything else is optional.
- Move a person to another family, or into a brand-new family, from the person's page. Moving clears head-of-household, so set it again if needed.
- Delete a family only once it has no active members.
- Status can be active or inactive. Inactive families do not appear in the member directory.
- Admin notes on a family are visible only to admins.
People
Each person has a first and last name, optional middle and preferred names, a role (adult or child), and optional birthday, mobile phone, email, allergies and photo. The directory shows the preferred name when there is one.
- Search and filter by name, role, status, family, tag, or login status.
- Head of household and admin must be adults. The last admin cannot be demoted, and you cannot demote or delete yourself.
- Status can be active, inactive, transferred out or deceased. Transferred out and deceased disable the login; setting a person back to active re-enables it.
- Deleting a person removes them from the directory and disables their login. It is a soft delete; write to support if you need it undone.
Invitations and login status
Every person shows one of five login statuses:
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| None | No email address, or the person is a child. | Add an email to an adult to invite them. |
| Invited | An invitation was sent but the link has not been used. | Resend from the person's page if it was lost. |
| Unverified | The person created the church but has not clicked the verification email. | Ask them to check their inbox, or resend. |
| Active | They can sign in. | Nothing. |
| Disabled | Login switched off, usually because the status is transferred out or deceased. | Set status back to active to re-enable. |
Invitations set the password on the member's own device. No admin ever sees or sets a password.
Approvals
When a member changes their first or last name, their family's name, or any part of an address, the change waits for an admin. If "require approval for all edits" is on, every member edit waits. Changes to privacy settings never wait.
Each approval shows who asked, what the value is now and what it would become. Approve applies it and notifies the member. Reject requires a short note, which the member sees.
Adult transitions
Every morning, any child whose 18th birthday has passed is placed in the adult-transition queue and admins are notified. Nothing happens until you act.
- Approve makes the person an adult. If they have an email address, an invitation is sent.
- Reject keeps them as a child for now; they will not be queued again automatically, so revisit the record when you are ready.
- Once they are an adult, you can move them into a family of their own if they have left home.
Privacy settings
Members can hide these fields from other members: birthday, mobile phone, email, allergies and photo. A head of household can hide the family's address, home phone, anniversary and family photo. Names can never be hidden. Admins always see everything.
In Settings you can turn field hiding off for the whole church, and choose whether members see children's birthdays. Admins can also set hidden fields on a member's behalf from the person's page.
Custom fields
Add fields to people or to families. Types are text, long text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox and multi-select. The type cannot be changed once created; delete and recreate if you need a different one. For each field choose:
- Member editable: members can fill in the field on their own record (or the head of household on the family).
- Admin only: the field is hidden from members entirely. Useful for pastoral notes or membership status.
Drag to reorder fields; the order is used everywhere they appear.
Tags
Tags are coloured labels for people: elder, choir, greeter, small group leader. Apply any number of tags from a person's page. Members can filter the directory by tag, and tags appear on profiles. Tag names must be unique within your church.
Exports
- Directory as CSV (every field, for a spreadsheet) or PDF (a printable booklet with photos).
- Birthdays and anniversaries as CSV or PDF, for one month or the whole year.
Admin exports contain everything, including hidden fields. Members' own exports contain only what they are allowed to see. For a complete backup including photo files, write to support from an admin address.
Branding
Upload a logo (PNG or JPEG up to 4 MB) and choose an accent colour. Both appear in the member app, on the home-screen icon, on the sign-in page and on PDF exports. Set the sender name and contact email used on emails HomeField sends for your church.
Billing
The billing page shows your trial or subscription status, lets you choose monthly or annual, and opens the Stripe portal to change cards, download invoices or cancel. Details are in the billing guide. Billing stays reachable even when the directory is paused.
Church transfers
An email address can sign in to one church directory on HomeField. When you add someone whose email already belongs to another church, you will see the name of the church that holds it and two choices:
- Request release. The person is added as inactive with login disabled, and the other church's head of household (and admins) are asked to release them. When they do, the person becomes active in your directory and an invitation is sent. Requests expire after 14 days if nobody acts.
- Save without email. The person is added with no login. Add the email later once things are settled.
Requests from other churches for your members appear in your inbox on the dashboard. Release or deny with a note. If the two churches cannot agree, either side can escalate to HomeField support, and we will decide, usually in favour of the wishes of the person concerned.
Audit log
Every change in your church is recorded: who made it (a member, an admin, the system, or HomeField staff acting in support), what changed, the values before and after, the time and the IP address. Filter by action or by a particular person or family. The log cannot be edited.