You open the export for a software move and find the same family twice, an old address, several people who moved away, and a member you have not seen for months. It is tempting to call all of it “old data” and start removing rows.
But those rows represent different situations. The duplicate may need merging. The address needs confirming. The absent member may be receiving care at home. A person who moved away may still need a donation statement.
A trustworthy migration begins by separating those decisions, so tidying the directory does not erase information the church still needs.
Agree on definitions and owners
Ask church leadership to define the membership categories used in your tradition. Separately identify who maintains contact details, household relationships, and communication preferences.
A person can be absent while remaining an active member. Someone who has moved away may still need historical records. A guest's contact request does not automatically make them a member or give permission for every mailing.
Record uncertain cases for review rather than making assumptions from attendance alone.
Preserve a protected original
Export the source records and store an unchanged copy where authorized migration staff can find it. Work on a separate copy. Keep the old identifiers where possible so you can trace a migrated record back to its source.
Before excluding or deleting historical material, agree on the church's retention requirements with the responsible records and finance leaders. For U.S. organizations, the IRS explains the need for records supporting income and expenses in its recordkeeping guidance. Do not treat a directory cleanup as permission to discard financial history.
Review one layer at a time
- Identity — Duplicate names, preferred names, and old identifiers.
- Households — Actual relationships and addresses; do not group by surname alone.
- Contact — Current email and phone, with communication preferences retained.
- Status — Agreed membership categories and unresolved cases.
- Sensitive information — Whether it needs migrating and who may see it.
- Giving — Historical totals, donor matching, and the statement plan.
For example, two adults may use one household email. Combining them because that address matches would lose a person, not remove a duplicate. Conversely, the same person may have an old and a current email in two records.
Keep a log of merges and exclusions, including why you made them. Ask another authorized person to review uncertain cases. When the answer is unclear, place the record on a review list instead of forcing a decision just to finish the import.
Test a varied sample
Include a single adult, a household with children, people sharing an address, a person with an unusual name format, and a record with missing contact details. Check the destination's field mapping and matching behavior.
TimelyChurch supports people imports and household handling for supported source formats. Review the actual import result; the tool cannot decide your church's membership policy or infer every family relationship correctly from incomplete data.
Confirm what the import did with an existing person before repeating the same file. A successful row count is not enough: open the records and check relationships and permissions.
Plan the giving cutover separately
Agree which system holds each period of donation history, how the transition year's statements will be prepared, and who answers donor questions. Test the result with the treasurer before turning off access to the old records.
TimelyChurch has giving and statement tools, but importing a people list does not by itself migrate and reconcile all financial history.
Set a controlled cutover
Choose when routine edits move to the new system. Record any changes made during the transition, train the people who maintain the directory, and retain the agreed reference access or exports.
After the move, review a sample with ministry leaders and finance. A trustworthy directory comes from clear definitions and checked records, not from moving every old row as quickly as possible.
When you are ready to evaluate the move, create a TimelyChurch account and test a small, varied sample using appropriate non-sensitive data. Check the current plans, open the imported households, and review the result with the people who maintain your records. A careful sample is a better beginning than a directory that only looks clean because the difficult rows disappeared.