Family Management

Quick Summary: Family Management lets you link individual person records into household units. Each family has a shared Family ID and members are assigned roles such as Primary, Spouse, or Child. You can send communications at the family level, view combined attendance, and generate consolidated giving statements per household.

Overview

Relius organizes people into family units using a shared Family ID. When two or more person records share the same Family ID, they appear together as a household. Each person within the family is assigned a Family Role -- Primary, Spouse, Child, or Other -- which determines how they are listed in the family view and who receives family-level communications by default.

Family records are visible from the People Directory (using the "Families Only" toggle), from individual person profiles under the Overview tab's Family section, and in giving reports where contributions from all family members can be combined into a single household statement. The address stored on the Primary member is treated as the family mailing address unless overridden on other members.

Key Features

Shared Family ID -- every person in a household shares the same Family ID. This ID is set in the Advanced Fields section of the person edit modal.
Family Roles -- each person is assigned a role within the family: Primary (head of household), Spouse, Child, or Other. The Primary member's contact information is used as the default for family-level mailings.
Family View in Directory -- toggle "Families Only" in the People Directory to collapse individual cards into one card per household. The card displays the family name and a count of members.
Combined Giving Statements -- when generating giving receipts or year-end statements, you can choose to consolidate contributions from all members of a family into a single document addressed to the household.
Family Communications -- send an email or SMS to an entire household at once. By default, family messages are delivered to the Primary and Spouse members. Child members are excluded unless explicitly included.
Children Filtering -- the "With Children" toggle in the directory filters for families that include at least one member with the Child role. This is useful for children's ministry planning.

Getting Started

Open a person profile -- navigate to the People Directory and click on any person who belongs to a household you want to create or update.
Edit the profile -- click the Edit button in the profile header. Expand "Show Advanced Fields" to reveal the Family ID and Family Role fields.
Set the Family ID -- enter a Family ID. If this is a new family, Relius will create the household automatically. If you enter an existing Family ID, this person will be added to that household.
Assign the Family Role -- select the appropriate role from the dropdown: Primary, Spouse, Child, or Other. Each family should have exactly one Primary member.
Repeat for other family members -- edit the remaining household members and assign them the same Family ID with their respective roles.
Verify in the directory -- return to the People Directory and enable the "Families Only" toggle. The new household should appear as a single card.

Best Practices

Designate one Primary per family -- the Primary role determines whose address is used for mailings and whose name appears first on family statements. Having exactly one Primary prevents ambiguity.
Keep addresses consistent -- if all family members live at the same address, update the address on the Primary member. Other members will inherit it for family communications unless they have their own address set.
Use the Child role for minors -- marking young members as Child ensures they are excluded from family-level emails by default and appear correctly when using the "With Children" filter.
Review family links during data imports -- when importing people from a CSV or another system, verify that Family IDs are assigned correctly. A mismatched ID will place a person in the wrong household.
Generate combined statements annually -- at year-end, use the family giving statement option so households receive one consolidated document rather than separate statements for each member.

Common Questions

How do I move someone to a different family?

Open the person's profile, click Edit, expand Advanced Fields, and change their Family ID to the ID of the new household. Save changes. They will immediately appear under the new family and be removed from the old one.

Can a person belong to more than one family?

No. Each person record has a single Family ID field. If someone needs to appear in multiple households (for example, a college student connected to both a campus group and their parents' household), you would choose the primary household and use groups or tags to represent the secondary connection.

What happens if no one in a family is set as Primary?

The system will still group the members together, but family-level communications and statements will not have a default recipient. It is recommended to always assign one Primary member per household.

How are family giving statements different from individual statements?

Individual statements list contributions from a single person. Family statements combine all contributions from every member who shares the same Family ID into one document. The statement is addressed to the Primary member (and Spouse if present) and includes a breakdown by contributor within the household.