Q1: How do you handle "orphan" Contacts (that is, Contacts without any family or parental information in the system)?
It is best practice for every active Contact to be in a Household. For example, if a child comes to an Event and you have no information on their family, you would still create a Household with one member in the Minor Child position. We do not recommend putting all "orphan" Contacts into one Household, as this greatly impacts system performance (especially in Check-In).

Q2: Why won’t my transfer ("Xfer") of selected Household records to the Contacts page work?
On the Households page, the Xfer option captures the individuals in the Care Person field - not the Contacts in each selected Household. As such, if no selected Households have a Care Person indicated, no records transfer to the Contacts page. 

Q3: We have a Household where the Head of House has the last name Smith. Later on we added a spouse to the Household with the last name Jones. When we search for the Household, we can only find them under the name Smith. What's going on here?
Each person can have a different last name on their Contact record; however, the Household only has one name. Since the person with the Smith last name was used to initially input this Household record, the Household was given the name Smith. You can edit the Household Name via the Add/Edit Family Tool.

Q4: We have a Contact in a Household who has a new address. How do I change that Contact's address without changing the rest of the Household?
Move the Contact with the new address to a new Household; see Splitting Households.

Q5: How do we handle a situation where elderly parents live with their adult children?
We recommend giving the adult children the Household Position of Head of Household, and the elderly parent the Household Position of Other Adult (and a Statement Type of Individual). Alternatively, you could have the elderly parent in their own Household as a Head of Household, but use the same address as the adult children. 

Q6: How do we handle a foster child that needs to be removed from a Household?
You could use the Inactivate Tool on their record. Alternatively, you could split the Household so that the foster child is setup in their own Household.

Q7: How do we know what Addresses are no longer in use?
Begin on the "Addresses" page in the "Lookup Values" folder. Change your view to "Addresses not in use." This view will show any Addresses not in use by the Households, Groups, or Locations pages. If you have customizations within your system that use Addresses on other pages, this view will not take that into account. Contact your SPoCs for help in either creating a new view or updating this one. 

Q8: How do we handle Households where one spouse is living in their home, and another in a residential facility?
Split the Household into two Households, where each is at their own actual address. Ensure that they have a married Marital Status and connect the Spouse at the residential facility to their Spouse through the "Other Household's" sub-page.

Q9: Is there a way to add a secondary address to a Household?
Yes. If a household has multiple addresses (i.e. college students or families with a winter and summer home) a second address can be added as “Other Household.” See Working with Households for more information.

Q10: How can I use the Household Source field to track newcomers from events?
Household Source is a field on the Household record that indicates how the household heard about your church. The list of Household Sources can be edited by a SPoC to include specific events or outreach initiatives. This information can then be used to filter views and reports to track how many households were added due to events and their continued involvement in your church.