Using Family Roles

Optimize family management in your church database with Breeze ChMS's Family Roles feature. Simplify reporting and communication by assigning roles to individuals within family units. Learn how to add and remove family members effortlessly, ensuring accurate organization and clear communication channels. Explore the diverse roles available, from Head of Household to Child, and understand their impact on exports and statements. Enhance user experience and streamline administrative tasks with Breeze's intuitive family role settings. Elevate your church's data management practices for improved efficiency and clarity.

Adding someone to a family

  1. Navigate to the desired family member's profile.
  2. Click the gray header over the family section.
  3. Choose "Add Family Member" and select the individual or family to connect.
  4. Add a new person using "Create Person" or link an existing one by selecting "Existing Person".
  5. Click the blue "Add to Family" button.
  6. Assign the family role and hit "Save" in the Family Section.

Removing someone from a family

  1. Go to the profile of the person to be removed.
  2. Access the family section via the gray header.
  3. Click the remove icon beside the person's name. (Note: This doesn’t delete their profile.)

Note: This will remove the individual from the family to allow for a "stand-alone" profile or be connected to a different family. When editing a Family Role, the change is saved automatically whether you press Save or not. The Save button is simply there for consistency and to update any other profile fields that you have updated into the Family Section.

Family Roles

Roles help in organizing outputs. They're not descriptive positions but tools for sorting purposes like giving statements and mailing labels. The roles include:

Role Description
Head of Household The first person to be listed on directories, mailing labels, and other exports.
Spouse The second person to be listed on directories, mailing labels, and other exports.
Adult

Two Uses:

1. The first person/people to be listed on exports. If two people are included in the export (i.e. Directory or Mailing Labels) with the "Adult" family role, it will list them alphabetically by the first name.

2. Adults who should still be considered part of the family (rather than their own family). Breeze's best practice is to have adults in their own family for tax purposes.
(If still in the family unit but an adult, parent(s) should be listed as "Head of Household" and/or "Spouse")

Child Minor children of the head of household/spouse/adults. (Note: children who are not minors should be made their own family so they receive their own contribution statements.)
Unassigned The Family Role has not been set.

How Family Role Set-Ups Impact Exports

These roles are intentionally limited to these options as they are not intended to be a detailed description of a person's position in the family (e.g. wife, son, adult child, uncle, mother-in-law, etc) but rather to help organize the output of:

  • Giving statements
  • People directories 
  • Mailing labels
  • Advanced search functions

The best practice is to ask family members if they want to receive their own end-of-the-year tax statements. If so, they should be moved to their own family (such as adult children or a live-in mother-in-law). If family members are to be included in the same statement, leaving them in the family is the best route. Breeze is then designed to store families as:

  • Couples
  • Parent(s) with their minor children

If you're interested in storing more details on family relationships, we recommend adding an additional profile field to store that information (see Change Profile Fields).

Use the table below to see different family setups and the expected export behavior of them: 

Family Set-Up What it Does

One Head of Household, and one Spouse or Adult

If both have the same last name, it will have first names followed by last

If different last names, HOH will appear first & last name followed by Spouse/Adult first & last name

Children listed alphabetically by first name

Two Head of Households, Two Spouses or Two Adults in one family

Output will appear alphabetically by first name

 

One Head of Household and Two Adults Output will appear HOH and then one Adult (alphabetically by first name) leaving the second Adult off
Unassigned

Individuals with the "Unassigned" role still appear in the directory. Their listing order is determined alphabetically by the first name.

Giving Statements: Although their name won't appear on the giving statements, their contributions are still recorded and included. If everyone in a family is unassigned and there are different last names, statements will use the last name of the individual who's first alphabetically by their first name. For instance, for Clark Kent & Lois Lane, the statement would read "The Kent Family" since Clark's name comes first alphabetically.

Mailing Labels: Export for mailing labels places "Unassigned" individuals in alphabetical order based on their first name.

Export to Excel: When exporting to Excel and grouping by family, those with the "Unassigned" role will be sorted alphabetically by their first name.

Multiple Last Names Scenario: If there's a mix of roles like "Adult" and "Unassigned", giving statements will prioritize the one with a role. For example, if Clark Kent is an "Adult" and Lois Lane is "Unassigned", only Clark Kent's name would be on the statement. However, if both are "Adults", the statement will feature both names, like "Clark Kent & Lois Lane".

Best Practice: To avoid confusion and ensure clarity in statements and other outputs, it's recommended to assign roles, especially the "Adult" role or a related one.