Care assignments
Care assignments: who is caring for whom, written down
In most churches everyone knows, roughly, who looks after whom. A care assignment writes that down: this person, household, group, or ministry is cared for by this teammate. Assignments can attach to a volunteer care partner, and just as well to an admin or the account owner, which is how elder-led churches put their elders' real responsibilities into the app. Once written down, the assignment quietly organizes the everyday surfaces: follow-ups route to the right person, the reports desk can filter to my flock, and a profile answers who is caring for this person. This guide explains what an assignment is, what it changes, and what it deliberately never changes.
What is a care assignment?
An assignment connects a teammate to the people in their care, four ways: directly to a person, or to a household, a group, or a ministry, which covers everyone in it. Owners and admins with care access create and change assignments.
Who can hold one is the part worth saying twice: care partners, admins, and the account owner alike. A church whose elders serve as admins assigns people to those elders the same way it would to a volunteer care partner. Each assignment carries its lane, primary, secondary, or temporary, so shared care stays untangled.
- An assignment attaches a person, household, group, or ministry to a teammate: a care partner, an admin, or the account owner.
- For care partners the assignment is the access boundary itself, enforced in the database.
- For admins and owners it marks responsibility without narrowing their view.
- Assignments drive four defaults: follow-up routing, suggested note audiences, assignment-first Home and Care views, and the reports desk My flock filter.
- Every profile answers who is caring for this person in a Cared for by panel, tagged with real roles.
- The assignment board shows coverage and gaps across the church, and placements happen right there.
- Assignments never widen note visibility and are never visible to members.
What does an assignment change for a care partner?
For a care partner, the assignment is the boundary itself: they see the people assigned to them and nobody else, enforced in the database. Their Care view, their follow-ups, and their reports desk are all already scoped to their flock.
That makes assignments the safe way to hand a volunteer real responsibility. Nothing about their access needs to be broad, because the assignment defines exactly how far their view reaches.
What does an assignment change for an admin or owner?
Responsibility, not access. An admin sees what their permissions allow either way; the assignment marks which people are theirs to look after. Four everyday surfaces pick it up. Follow-ups suggest the assigned teammate first when someone logs care about their person. The visibility picker's Specific people list tags them as Suggested for notes about their person, never pre-checked. Home and Care lead with your care assignments before the church-wide view. And the care reports desk offers a My flock filter beside Whole church.
A person's profile completes the loop with a Cared for by panel naming everyone assigned to that person, each tagged with their real role: account owner, admin, or care partner. No jargon, just who is actually carrying the care.
How do assignments meet Sunday attendance and coverage?
The care assignment board, under Care, shows coverage across the church: who is assigned, who carries how many people, and who is not covered by anyone yet, with the gaps surfaced rather than hidden. Placing someone with a teammate happens right there.
Group-based assignments also meet Sunday attendance naturally: a group's leader can take Sunday attendance for their group, and their assignment means the absences they notice belong to people already in their care.
What do assignments deliberately not do?
They never narrow an admin's view. An admin assigned to twelve people still sees whatever their permissions grant; my flock is a lens, not a wall. And they never widen visibility on their own: a private note stays private to its author regardless of who is assigned, because sharing is a per-note choice.
They also never notify the person being cared for. Members do not hold accounts and never see assignments, notes, or follow-ups. The assignment is your team's map of responsibility, not a message to the flock.
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