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Member vs visitor: what's the difference in Gracely?

Explains the Visitor flag, how it differs from archiving, and how to switch a person between member and visitor status.

This article explains the difference between a member and a visitor in Gracely, and how to switch someone between the two.

The short version

Everyone you add to Gracely lives in the same People list. A visitor is simply a person with the Visitor flag turned on. It's a label that helps you tell first-timers and guests apart from your committed members. It doesn't put them in a separate database or limit what you can record about them.

What a visitor can still do

Marking someone as a visitor does not restrict their record. A visitor can still:

  • Be added to a family

  • Have giving and attendance recorded

  • Be added to groups

  • Receive emails and SMS

  • Have a full profile, contact details, and custom fields

They show up everywhere a regular person does, just with a Visitor tag so you can spot them quickly.

How to mark someone as a visitor

When creating a person

Turn on the Visitor toggle in the create form.

On an existing profile

  1. Open the person's profile.

  2. In the actions list, click Mark as visitor (or Remove visitor status to switch them back).

In bulk

  1. On the People list, select the people you want.

  2. Click Mark as Visitors or Remove Visitor Status in the toolbar.

Finding your visitors

On the People list, use the status filter at the top to switch between Active, Archived, and Visitors. Choosing Visitors shows everyone currently flagged as a visitor.

Visitor vs archived: not the same thing

These two are easy to mix up, but they do different jobs:

  • Visitor is a label on an active person. They stay in your active list and counts, just marked as a guest.

  • Archived moves a person out of your active list (for example, someone who has left the church) while keeping their history. Archived people are excluded from most views and sends unless you specifically include them.

💡 Tip: Use Visitor for newcomers you hope to welcome in, and Archive for people who are no longer active but whose records you want to keep.

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