Good data management includes removing no longer relevant individual records.

When an individual is deemed no longer required to be maintained by an organization, you should remove that person from the system to decrease the billable records. The best practice is to maintain a local archive of these records in case of any potential future needs.

To make your job easier, once a record is identified as unnecessary, add them to a group designated by you for archival and removal. You can follow these steps as often as is appropriate for your organization. Doing it in a group rather than an individual basis allows you to mark people on the fly but handle the archival and removal at the interval you see fit to save you time overall. For example, handling this task Weekly or Monthly keeps you from having to do this each time someone is removed.

When it comes time to archive and remove these records follow these steps for exporting and deleting.

Find and manage duplicate records effectively

Find Duplicates

Backup Options

Export Individuals

1. From the list of Groups, check the box next to the left of the name for your designated archive group.
2. Click on the Tri-dot icon at the top right of the Groups area. 
3. Choose Export Individuals to CSV.
4. Select the appropriate 'Take Action On' preference in the drop-down and use the radio button to select a Basic or Full export.
5. Press Export to download your data file.
6. Store the file according to your organizational system.

Export Giving

1. Open Reports → Giving → Details tab.
2. Use the buttons to add your filters. Under the Group button, choose the archive group to restrict results to those you are about to remove.
3. Press Apply to filter the results.
4. Click on the download icon to save the report.
5. Select Save as CSV.
6. Store the file according to your organizational system.

Below are Help Videos that walk through the process step-by-step on how to mass remove members based on Attendance and/or Giving data

Mass Delete Based on Attendance

Mass Delete Based on Giving

Removal Options

Through Groups

1. Open the Group by clicking the group name link to see the individuals in the Archive group.
2. Use the checkboxes to select all or only some members to remove.
3. Click on the Tri-dot icon at the top right of the Groups area. 
4. Scroll to the bottom of the dropdown and select Delete Individuals From System. 
5. Review the popup warning noting the record(s) will be fully removed from the database.
6. Click the  DELETE button at the top to finish the record(s) removal.

By Individual

1. Find or navigate to the member record needing to be removed.
2. Click the EDIT tab on their profile.
3. Select the  DELETE button in the lower right corner to remove the record.
4. Review the pop-up window to confirm the deletion.
5. Select  DELETE INDIVIDUAL to fully remove the member record.

All contributions will be transferred to Reports → Giving → By Anonymous to preserve overall giving reporting, but the individuals will be removed entirely. Once a record is removed and should it be needed again, the backup methods above will be important to add the record back into the database.

Updated September 10, 2024 19:13