Care: who to reach out to and why

Care reads each person’s attendance and tells you who to reach out to and why, most pressing first. Each person shows up with their reasons, so you know what happened before you call them.

How it works

• Every time an attendance list closes, and every night, Inperia checks each person’s attendance against your church’s rules.
• Visitors are also checked every hour: a Visitor not contacted shows up within the hour in which your church’s time runs out or their meeting’s roll closes, whichever comes later, and that reason goes away as soon as someone records a follow-up with them.
• When someone meets a reason, their case opens and they show up in the inbox of whoever looks after them.
• The inbox sorts people from most to least pressing according to their reasons. There’s no score: they’re rules that can be explained.
• Only what was marked counts: unmarked is not an absence. Take attendance explains it.
• You never show up in your own inbox.

The reasons

Reason	When someone shows up	Plan
Absences in a row	They missed several meetings that count, one after another. By default, 3.	All
Days away	Days have gone by since they last came, and they’ve been marked absent since then. By default, 30.	All
Visitor not contacted	A contact came to a meeting and nobody recorded a follow-up. By default, within 72 hours.	From the Growth Plan
New and cooling off	A new person started missing. By default, 2 absences in a row in their first 8 weeks.	From the Growth Plan
Coming less than before	In the last month they came a lot less than before, or they’ve been away longer than usual.	From the Growth Plan
Missed their appointment	They didn’t come to a follow-up appointment. It counts for 30 days, by default.	From the Growth Plan
Leader who needs support	A leader with attendance lists not taken or reports pending in the last four weeks, or who hasn’t opened the app in a while.	From the Growth Plan
No follow-up	Nobody has followed up with them in a while. By default, 60 days, and it only moves someone up the list if they already show up for another reason.	From the Growth Plan

Absences in a row, Days away and Coming less than before only apply to members. For a contact, Care looks at whether a visitor goes without being contacted or a new person is cooling off. Each church adjusts these values: Configure Care explains how.

The inbox

In Care, at the top you see how many people need your attention and how many haven’t been followed up yet. Below that, the list. The first group of the filter, Whom to show, chooses who you see:

• The people I look after shows your direct disciples, the people in the cell groups you lead, the contacts in your care and the people assigned to you. If someone is assigned to another leader, they show up for that leader and not for you. The inbox opens on this one.
• Everyone in my reach shows everyone you can see. Clear filters also takes you to everyone in your reach.

If you don’t have your own record in the church, for example if you manage it from another church, you always see everyone in your reach and that group doesn’t appear.

The columns show their Reasons, whether they already have a Follow-up, their Last attendance, who they’re Looked after by, who they’re Assigned to and how long they’ve been there (In the inbox since). The rest of the filter narrows it down by Reason, Person (members or contacts), Looked after by, House (the cell group), Tag and City, and the search box finds people by name.

The inbox doesn’t show the people you snoozed or anyone who’s away for a while.

On a phone

The Cards view shows one card per person, with their reasons and their actions at hand. The view you choose is remembered in that browser.

What to do for each person

Each person’s menu offers:

• New follow-up: opens the follow-up with the person already chosen. Once you record it, the row says Followed up.
• Message on WhatsApp: opens a WhatsApp chat with a greeting ready, if you can see their phone number.
• Call: starts a call to their phone.
• View case, or View record if there’s no open case.

Snooze, set away and assign From the Growth Plan

On the Starter Plan, these actions appear with a lock. From the Growth Plan up:

Snooze

Snooze takes the person out of your inbox for 1, 2 or 4 weeks. Only out of yours: everyone else still sees them. If you made a mistake, select Undo.

Away until

Away until… is for someone you know won’t be coming for a while: a trip, an illness, a new job. You choose until which day, up to a year. Until that date they don’t show up in any inbox, and their case closes. Only the date is kept, never the reason. Remove the date puts them back in the inboxes.

Assign to another leader

Assign to another leader… puts the person in another leader’s inbox. Only leaders who already reach that person and use Care are listed. Later you can Change the assignment… or Remove the assignment.

Assigning is offered when the person has an open case. Missed their appointment, Leader who needs support and No follow-up don’t open a case: they depend on who’s looking.

Each person’s case

View case opens its panel: why it opened, since when, whether they’ve had a follow-up since then, their last attendance and their last follow-up, who looks after them and who they’re assigned to. Its status says where the case stands:

Status	What happened
Needs attention	The case is open.
Came back	They came to a meeting after the case opened.
No longer needed	They no longer meet any reason.
Away for a while	Someone set a date for them in Away until….
No longer here	They stopped being an active member or contact.
Record merged	Their record was merged with another one.

On the person’s record, the Attendance tab also shows the Care section, with their case, their assignment and their return date.

Notices and the dashboard card

• Someone you look after came back: when someone who was in Care comes back to a meeting. It goes to whoever followed up with them while the case was open or, if nobody did, to their leader or the person responsible for them. On every plan.
• Care this week From the Growth Plan: by default on Mondays at 8, how many people need your attention and how many haven’t been followed up yet. Only numbers, no names. Your church sets the day and time in Notices and deadlines.
• On the Dashboard, the Need your attention card shows how many people are waiting for you.

Both notices arrive in the bell, and you can silence them in your profile.

Who uses it

• Seeing the inbox requires the View each person’s attendance permission, which the Pastor and Leader roles have by default. Each person sees the people within their scope. Contacts show up if you can also see contacts.
• Snoozing, setting away and assigning require the Snooze, set away and assign people in Care permission, which Pastor and Leader also have, and your own access to your church: someone who comes in from another church sees the inbox but can’t act on it.
• New follow-up requires being able to record follow-ups.