How the number of families and members in my old software will be reflected in Family Suite

Census Questions - Families

Family Suite is structured as a family-based system with each family having a Family Identification Number. Each family will then have at least one member. 

1. Enter the total number of families that exist in the current program 
   • In Family Suite, families are recorded as some combination of husband and wife, (or single parent or adult), and when pertinent, children living at the same address. Sometimes listed are additional family members (grandma, grandchildren, etc.)
   • If families in your current software do not fit the description above, before moving forward with your conversion, you may want to talk to a specialist to consider how you can optimize your data in ParishSOFT.
2. Enter the number of registered families - In Family Suite, all families will be included and accessible on the Family Directory page, but most of the Family Suite Census Reports will list families that are registered in combination with a family status of active. (see the next item).
3. The family status category (called Family Group in Family Suite) will designate families as Active, Inactive, Contributors Only, Sacraments Only, School Only, etc. Using these categories, you may filter the records for all families or for those who fit into one of these categories. 
   
   • In Family Suite, all families may be displayed on the Family Directory page in various filter combinations: Registered/Active, Registered/Inactive, Not Registered/Active, Not Registered/Contributors Only, Not Registered/Sacraments Only, etc.
     
4. Enter the number of active families - As stated in the prior point, Registered/Active families will be the default for most census reports. It's easier to work with data filtered for Registered/Active families on a daily basis. So, when sending your data, make sure to flag your Families correctly and then give us the proper counts of how many families in your data are Registered and how many families are active.
   • If you have special instructions for your Family Status categories, please enter them in the text box under 'In addition to Active, what other family status fields have you been using?
     • If you'd prefer to use one of the ones listed above over one you've been using, list it as follows: for Old Category please use New Category. For example, For Giver Only please use Contributor Only.

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Census Questions - Members

Family Suite is structured as a family-based system. Member records are added to each family. Every family record will have at least one member record and all member records will be associated with a family record.

1. Member Count: List the total count of individuals in the current program. 
2. Role in Family: Our software requires "Role in Family" (such as Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Head. Every family record must have a member with one of the following roles: Father, Mother, or Head (often used for a family with a single member).
   • If you have families with several members and none of them are designated as Father, Mother, or Head, we use the oldest member listed as the Head when birthdates are included; when there is no birthdates, we will simply choose a member and assign their role as 'Head' randomly.
3. Occupation, Religion, Birth Date, Date of Death, School Grade: These fields are all optional but if you track them and you mark them as tracked on the checklist, they will be populated in ParishSOFT Family Suite also.
   Gender: While tracking gender is optional, if you do not provide the gender, marriage records and family salutations will not convert correctly.
   Marital Records: Male and female genders are required to convert the groom (male) and the bride (female) on a marriage record. When Marital Status exists without Gender, the marriage record cannot be created in Family Suite.
4. Member Status: Besides the family record registration status and family group category, the member records have their own member status options: Active, ActOther, Deceased, and Inactive. These options are static and when yours are different from ours, our checklist requires you to list your own member status and then select the one from our options to replace it. If we do not provide an option that meets your needs, there are other ways to designate these categories as explained later.
   • Do you have a Member Status field? Note: if you don't have a member status field, all of your member statuses will be set to Active unless there is also a deceased date or designation in which case we will mark those members with member status deceased.
     
     The next questions deal with record counts. We use these counts to ensure our numbers match.
   • Active: How many members are categorized as Active? 
     • What criteria do you use to designate a member as active? The information you give us in this text box helps us determine the correct Member Status category when there are differences.
   • Inactive: How many members are categorized as Inactive? 
     • What criteria do you use to designate a member as inactive? The information you give us in this text box helps us determine the correct Member Status category when there are differences.
   • Deceased: How many members are categorized as Deceased? 
     • What criteria do you use to designate a member as Deceased? Is there a date field or a yes/no checkmark, or a member status field for Deceased? Another way?
   • Recategorize and/or use Member Workgroups: Are you using any other member status fields? As explained above, we only have four member status fields and these fields are static. We do need you to select a replacement for them from our list, but we do offer another way to track the information called Member Workgroups. These allow you to 
     • To recategorize your member statuses, follow these steps:
       1. Enter each of your Member Categories that do not appear on our list. If they are on our list, there is no need to take these steps.
       2. Select the category from our list you want to use in their stead.
       3. Indicate if you'd like your original category name to be used as a Member Workgroup.
     • For example, if one of your Member Status categories is Nursing Home, you may choose to use a Member Status of ActOther and a Member Workgroup of Nursing Home. This will allow you to capture your information and still fit it into our static category list. Another status you may have is College Student which may be categorized as Inactive in a Member Workgroup named College Students.

Updated March 27, 2024 14:03