Record a Death
We automate much of the process of updating a profile for someone who has passed away. Where we can't update something for you, we'll ask for your input.
A sad chore by its nature, marking a death can sometimes involve so many tasks that you might be afraid of leaving something out. Mark as Deceased gives you a list of required changes to a profile. Some updates will be made automatically, and for others, you'll be asked for input.
Marking someone deceased can't be undone. To undo the process, you must manually delete the record then create a new one and add all its information back using the details recorded in the change log.
Once you've completed the Mark Deceased process, here are some profile characteristics you'll notice:
- Status
- Once you mark a congregant deceased, his or her profile status will be displayed as "Deceased" rather than "Active" or "Inactive". While deceased profiles cannot be marked active or inactive, they can be deleted.
- Duplicates
- If a record could be a duplicate, you must resolve the issue before continuing the process of marking deceased. You should complete the merge process first since you may not be able to mark someone deceased if they have a duplicate record.
- Global searches
- When using the global search (the search box at the top of all pages), profiles of deceased individuals still display. However, when searching on the Profiles page, be sure to select "All" or "Deceased" if you want to include records for deceased individuals.
Mark Deceased
Mark a profile as deceased to walk through the process of transitioning these records.
Marking admins and resolving duplicates
If you have only one person with administrator responsibilities, they cannot be marked deceased. You'll need to give another person administrator rights first.
If a record could be a duplicate, you must resolve the issue before continuing the process of marking deceased. You should complete the merge process first since you may not be able to mark someone deceased if they have a duplicate record.
- Next to the individual's name, click
and select Mark as Deceased.
Mark Deceased Field Descriptions
Details on some of the fields you'll encounter when marking a profile deceased.
- Death Information
- Date of death will appear both on the individual's profile and under their photo in the family section of family members' profiles. You can use the Date of death unknown check box without a date, or with a partial date.
- Giving Numbers
- If this individual was the sole owner of a giving number, the number will remain on his or her record until an administrator removes it. If a giving number is shared, the spouse will keep the giving number and all shared gifts.
- Recurring Gifts
- The individual's recurrences will automatically deactivate.
- Email Message
- While you can edit the email sent using the Edit button, doing so will only save your changes for this one instance of marking someone deceased. The next time you use this page, it will default to the "Mark as Deceased" email contained on the System Emails page. To make permanent changes, update the contents there.