Groups are one of the core building blocks of infoodle. They let you organise your contacts into teams, committees, small groups, rosters, ministry teams, or any other collection that makes sense for your organisation — and then take actions on those groups: email members, track attendance, assign tasks, build rosters, and run reports.
This article gives you an overview of how groups work and links you to the detail pages for each area.
What is a group?
A group is a named collection of contacts. Each person in a group has a membership level (Administrator, Full Member, View Only, or Past Member) that controls what they can see and do within that group. Groups can be nested into parent groups and subgroups to reflect your organisation's structure.
Every group you create can optionally be assigned a Group Type — this is the key to unlocking extra fields, Team Skills, Functions, and other features. Groups without a Group Type still work but won't show those extras.
See Adding a Group for step-by-step instructions on creating your first group.
Group Types — the key to organising your groups
Group Types are categories that sit above groups. Every group in infoodle is displayed under its Group Type heading on the groups list. More importantly, the Group Type controls:
- Which fields (Function, Team Skills, custom membership fields) appear when you view or edit a member of that group
- Whether Rosters, Volunteer Hours, and Attendance tabs are visible on the group page
- Which individual Team Skills are available to assign
Important: If a group has no Group Type assigned, Team Skills, Functions, and group-membership custom fields will not appear — even if they are set up elsewhere. Always assign a Group Type when you need these features.
See Group Types for an overview of how Group Types work.
See Creating Group TypesESWX for step-by-step setup.
Membership levels (Group Permissions)
Every person in a group has one of four membership levels:
| Level | What it means |
|---|---|
| Administrator | Full control — can add members, contact the group, manage attendance and rosters, and change the group name. |
| Full Member | Active member — appears in the group count, can be emailed as part of the group, and can view other members' details. |
| View Only | The group does not appear in the person's "My Groups" list. They have no active access. |
| Past Member | No longer active. Does not appear in the group count or receive group emails, but retains all historical data (attendance records, custom field values). Use this instead of removing someone when you want to keep their history. |
Tip: Rather than removing someone who has left a group, set them as a Past Member. This preserves their attendance history and group custom field data. Removing them deletes it.
See Group Permissions for full details and how to edit a person's level.
See Removing a Person from a Group for when removal is the right choice.
Parent groups and subgroups
Groups can be nested. A parent group contains one or more subgroups underneath it. Membership in a parent group is inherited — an Administrator of a parent group has that same access level in all its subgroups, unless they have a higher permission in a specific subgroup.
Note — group sync: When you move subgroups around or restructure your group hierarchy, the parent/child membership counts can sometimes fall out of sync. If you notice discrepancies, go to Administration > Group Sync and click Review Changes. This shows any contacts that need to be added or removed from parent groups to match the current structure. You can download the proposed changes for review before applying them.
See Sync Groups for how to use Group Sync.
What you can do with a group
Once a group has members, you can:
Contact members
Send an email to all members (or a subset) directly from the group page. Members with the Full Member or Administrator level will receive the email. See Email Methods.
Track attendance
Switch to the Attendance tab on any group page to record who attended each session. You can add the date, note volunteer hours, and tick individual members off. Leaders can also record attendance on a phone or tablet via the mobile-friendly App Tools → Attendance screen. See Group Attendance.
Build rosters
Create a schedule of who is serving when using the Roster feature. This is enabled per Group Type. See the Rosters section of the help docs.
Assign tasks
Track work items associated with the group using the Tasks feature. See Group Tasks.
Record Team Skills and Functions
If your Group Type has Team Skills or Functions enabled, you can record these against each member's participation in the group — for example, which instruments a worship team member plays, or which role a volunteer fills. See Group Types.
Run reports
Use the Reports area to filter contacts by group membership, export lists, or add people from a report result back into a group. See Groups and Advanced Search.
Group Settings
Each group has a set of optional settings you can configure:
- Admin Only — only current Administrators can add new members. Use this for sensitive or governance groups.
- Tasks — enables task tracking for the group.
- Content — enables the group to be used as a permission layer for Notes and Library documents. Only groups with Content enabled can be selected when setting who can view a note.
See Group Settings for more detail.
Group custom fields
You can create custom fields that attach to a person's membership of a group, not to the person themselves. This lets you record things like "what role does this person play in this specific group?" independently of any other group they belong to.
Custom group-membership fields are controlled by the Group Type — they only appear on groups that belong to a type where the field is enabled.
See Group Types and Group Fields for how to set these up.
Hibernating and expiring groups
Groups that are temporarily inactive can be hibernated — they disappear from normal views but are retained in full and can be restored. Groups that are permanently finished can be expired. Both options are available when creating or editing a group.
Quick reference — all group articles
| Topic | Article |
|---|---|
| Create a new group | Adding a Group |
| Organise groups into categories | Group Types |
| Set up a new Group Type | Creating Group Types |
| Membership levels explained | Group Permissions |
| Remove or deactivate a member | Removing a Person from a Group |
| Fix parent/child membership counts | Sync Groups |
| Record weekly attendance | Group Attendance |
| Tasks for a group | Group Tasks |
| Notes and document permissions | Group Content |
| Admin Only and other settings | Group Settings |
| Search and report on group members | Groups and Advanced Search |
A few things worth knowing
- Removing vs. Past Member: Removing a person from a group permanently deletes their attendance history and group custom field data. Setting them to Past Member keeps everything — it just marks them as inactive. When in doubt, use Past Member.
- Group Type is the key: Most "why can't I see Team Skills / Function / this custom field?" questions come back to the group not having a Group Type, or the Group Type not having that attribute enabled. Always check the Group Type first.
- ** Ordering groups:** Groups are listed alphabetically within each Group Type. If you want to control the order, prefix your group names with numbers (e.g. "01 - Welcome Team", "02 - Pastoral Care").
- Importing people into groups: When importing contacts via the importer, you can map a column to add people to a group. If the group doesn't exist it will be created. For subgroups, separate the levels with %%% (e.g. Volunteers%%%Sound Team).