Managing people
A Person record is the main identity record for an actual human being in your parish. It is the single authoritative record that connects a parishioner's sacramental history, financial records, household membership, and linked requester profiles.
Person records are not the same thing as requesters or login accounts. See Understanding parish records for how these records relate to each other.
The Directory
Navigate to Admin Dashboard → People → Directory. The Directory shows the parish family by family: each card is a household with its adults, its children with their ages, and small chips for anything that needs attention. People who are not in a household yet appear as their own cards at the end of the list.
- Search — type a name, email, or phone. A person matches even when only a family member's details match, so a household card appears when any of its members do.
- Filters — Needs review, No household, No primary contact, Empty households, and Archived.
- Add — create a person or a household from the toolbar.
- The count under the search box always reads "n of N", so you can tell how much of the parish you are looking at.
Clicking a person opens their panel on the right. The web address updates as you go, so you can refresh, share a link with a colleague, or use the browser's back button.
The person panel
The panel has a family rail on the left and the person's record on the right. The rail shows the household name and town, its adults with a crown on the head of household and a heart on the spouse, its children with their ages, an Add member button for administrators, and an On this page list that jumps to each section of the record.
The record itself reads top to bottom, so nothing is hidden behind a tab. Sections with nothing on file are left out, and one line near the bottom says what is missing (for example Nothing on file for sacraments, Mass intentions, or ministry):
| Part of the page | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Header | Everyday and official name, badges only when something is unusual (deceased, archived, merged, needs review), the email and phone as links, and the Edit button. |
| Needs attention | Shown only when there is something to act on: a possible duplicate awaiting identity review, open invoices with the balance due, or the next scheduled Mass intention. |
| Details | Date of birth and age, gender, language, and maiden name when known. Anything missing is listed once with an Add details link. |
| Sacraments | A row of rite chips for Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, and Marriage, shown once at least one is on file. A baptism recorded as done or a completed wedding in Sacramentum fills the rite in with its date, and clicking it opens that record; the others stay quiet. Below it are the baptisms, weddings, funerals, quinceañeras, and family profiles the person appears in, labelled with their role in each. |
| Mass intentions | Mass intentions, pending requests, Gregorian series, and memorial offerings requested by this person. |
| Payments | Invoices and receipts. Only administrators see this section. |
| Ministry | Altar server achievements and guardian links, when ministry scheduling is enabled. |
| Notes | Canonical notes for staff; when there are none, administrators see an Add a note link instead of an empty card. |
| History | Collapsed by default. Every identity change on the record — creation, edits, household links and moves, merges — with who made it and when. |
Each record group shows its three most recent rows with a View all link. Rows have an Open button that jumps to the matching admin screen or opens the invoice or receipt in place. The linked login account and requester profiles live in the ⋮ menu in the header.
Status and source badges
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Current parish member |
| Deceased | Deceased parishioner (record preserved) |
| Archived | Inactive record |
| Merged | This record was merged into another Person |
| Source | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Requester | Created automatically when a requester's identity was resolved |
| Family Profile | Created from a household or family registration |
| Sacrament Case | Created during a sacramental workflow (baptism, wedding, etc.) |
| Form Submission | Created from a parish form |
| Admin Created | Created manually by an administrator |
| Merged | Result of merging other Person records |
Editing a person
Open the person, then choose Edit person from the panel's actions menu. You can update:
- Name — first, middle, last, maiden, and optional preferred first name. Use the preferred field for the name the person normally uses, such as Nate instead of Nathanael.
- Contact — email and phone.
- Demographics — date of birth and gender.
- Household — choose a household and a role (Head, Spouse, Child, Other), or clear it. Moving a person between households from here carries their intentions, invoices, and receipts to the new household and records the move in their History.
- System fields — source and status.
- Canonical notes — any identity-related notes for staff reference.
If someone else edited the record while your dialog was open, Sacramentum refuses the save and asks you to reload, so nobody's changes are silently overwritten.
Creating a person
Choose Add → Person in the Directory toolbar, or Add member → Create a new person from inside a household to create the person straight into that family. The new record is created with status "Active" and source "Admin Created."
Most Person records are created automatically through identity resolution — when a requester submits a request, the system links or creates a Person record behind the scenes. Manual creation is mainly for situations like adding family members who haven't interacted with the parish digitally.
The preferred first name is used in the Directory and its duplicate and merge tools. Sacramental records, financial documents, requester records, login accounts, and other operational screens continue to use their existing recorded names.
Merging duplicate people
Duplicate Person records happen when the same individual was entered more than once — through separate imports, different sacramental workflows, or manual data entry. Start from Data Cleanup → Duplicate candidates, which lists likely pairs and clusters, or from a person's panel with Merge with another person… and pick the other record.
Merging two people
- Are these the same person? shows the two records side by side with the differing fields highlighted, plus how many intentions, sacrament records, and payments each one has and whether it has a login.
- Answer Yes, same person, No, different people (the pair is flagged so it stops appearing), or Not sure.
- Choose which record stays. Sacramentum recommends the record with the login account, otherwise the one with more records, otherwise the newer one. Changing your choice refreshes the preview for that direction.
- Keep which details? appears only when the records disagree on a field. Pick the value that stays on the surviving record.
- Review what will move, then click Merge records.
If either record changes while you are reviewing, the merge is refused and the preview reloads so you can look again.
Merging three or more people
- Open the cluster from Data Cleanup → Duplicate candidates and click Review merge.
- Choose the kept Person once — all others merge into it.
- Resolve conflicts once — pick the best value from all contributing records for each conflicting field. The system highlights recommended values.
- Confirm — type MERGE and apply.
What happens during a person merge
- The surviving Person becomes the canonical identity record.
- All linked requesters, Mass intentions, invoices, receipts, and other records are re-pointed to the surviving Person.
- Household memberships are updated.
- The merged Person records are marked with status "Merged" and hidden from active lists.
- An audit trail is created recording every change, and it appears on the surviving person's History tab.
Person merges cannot be automatically undone. The system keeps a full audit trail, but reversing a merge requires administrator intervention. Always verify you are merging the right records before confirming.
Archiving or deleting a person
Choose Archive or delete… from the panel's actions menu. Sacramentum checks what the record is linked to and recommends archiving when intentions, payments, or sacrament cases refer to it; purging is offered only for records nothing else depends on.
What's next
- Households — family groupings, membership, and the head of household
- Data cleanup — duplicate candidates and other records worth a second look
- Understanding parish records — how people, requesters, and login accounts relate
Related articles
- Managing users — create and manage login accounts
- Managing requesters & payers — requester profiles and merge workflows