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The bulk edit custom fields screen lets you update a single custom field across every person or household in your directory in one go. Rather than opening each record individually, you can review and set values for everyone on one screen — useful for adding a new custom field to existing records, or correcting values after a data import.
Before you start
You need at least one custom field set up before this screen is useful. If you haven’t created any yet, go to Church Admin → People → Custom fields first. See Custom fields.
Step 1 — Choose a custom field
Go to Church Admin → People → Bulk edit custom field entries. You are first asked to select which custom field you want to bulk edit from a dropdown list. Each field is shown with its name and whether it applies to individuals or households — for example Dietary Requirements (Individual) or Christmas Card Required (Household).
Select the field you want to edit and click Go.
Step 2 — Edit the values
The screen now lists every person or household alphabetically by last name, with the current value of the selected field shown next to each name. The input type depends on how the custom field was configured:
- Yes / No — radio buttons for Yes or No
- Text — a text input showing the current value
- Date — a date picker
- Checkboxes — all options shown with the currently selected ones ticked
- Radio buttons — all options shown with the current selection highlighted
- Select dropdown — a dropdown with the current selection shown
For household fields, the head of household name is shown as the label — for example Household of John Smith — since the value applies to the whole household rather than a named individual.
Work through the list making your changes, then click Save at the bottom. A confirmation message reports the field name and how many records were updated.
What happens to existing values
When you save, all existing values for the selected custom field are cleared and replaced with whatever is on screen at the time of saving. This means:
- If you leave a field blank for someone, any previous value they had is removed
- If you only intended to update a few records, the others will still be re-saved as they were — provided you haven’t cleared any of their values accidentally before saving
For this reason it’s worth scrolling through the full list before saving to make sure existing values look correct, particularly for fields where most records already have data.
One field at a time
The screen works on one custom field per session. If you need to bulk edit multiple custom fields, complete and save one, then return to the screen and select another.