Care visibility: who can see a note, decided note by note

What does a new note start as?

That depends on your role. If you are a care partner, a new note starts shared with your pastors (the account owners) and church staff with care access (the admins), so what you log reaches the people who can help; the other care partners for that person are never included, because a care partner reads a card, not the record. If you are an account owner or an admin, a new note starts as Only me, and saving it that way means exactly that: you are the only person who can open it. Either way the visibility control shows the starting choice before you save, and Only me is one tap away for everyone.

For pastors and admins, starting as Only me protects the awkward middle of pastoral work, the half-formed observation you are not ready to share, the detail told to you in confidence. The shared start for care partners keeps a promise the church made when it handed a leader real responsibility: what she writes down lands where the people who can help will see it. A leader who wants a note kept to herself taps Only me before saving.

• A new note's starting audience follows the author's role: a care partner's starts with the pastors and church staff with care access, a pastor's or admin's starts as Only me. Only me is one tap away for everyone.
• Share with your pastors (account owners), church staff with care access (admins), specific named people, or any combination. A care partner is never an option: a care partner reads a card, not the record.
• A live summary states in words who will see the note before you save it.
• Visibility is enforced in the database: a person outside the audience never receives the record.
• Members never hold accounts and never see care notes.
• Imported Notebird history requires a whole-file visibility choice up front. Owners and admins only is the safe answer, and an import can be undone.
• Changing visibility later is a sensitive action and asks for multi-factor authentication.

Who can a note be shared with?

Choosing to share opens a short checklist, not a mystery. You can share with your pastors (the account owners) and with church staff who hold care access (the admins). Each is its own checkbox, so sharing with the pastors does not quietly include anyone else. A care partner is never on the list: a care partner reads a card about each person in their care, not the person's record, so no note reaches one except the notes they wrote themselves.

There is also a Specific people list, which names the individual teammates eligible to see records about that person, with a Suggested tag on the ones already assigned to their care. Nothing in that list is ever pre-checked. As you choose, a live summary line spells out in words exactly who will be able to see the note, so what you read is what the database will enforce.

What does each role see by default?

The account owner and admins with care access see the notes shared with their role, plus their own; because a care partner's note starts shared with the account owners and the care admins, a leader's visit shows up on the person's record from the pastor's seat without a second step. A care partner sees a card for each person assigned to them: name, photo, email, phone and birthday, plus only what they themselves logged, meaning their own interactions, reports and follow-ups. Nobody else's note reaches a care partner, whatever audience its author chose. That boundary lives in the database, so a care partner browsing the app does not receive other records at all.

One thing sharing never changes: the member. Church members do not hold FlockConnect accounts and never see care notes. Visibility choices decide which of your staff can see a record, not whether it leaves the building. It does not.

What about confidential notes imported from Notebird?

Notebird's export includes restricted and confidential notes when an owner or admin runs it, and the file does not mark which notes those are. So the Notebird importer refuses to write your history until you answer one question: who should be able to see these notes?

Two answers are offered. Owners and admins only is the safe choice and mirrors how restricted notes worked in Notebird; care partners will not see any of the imported history. Everyone with care access is for a file you are sure holds nothing sensitive. The choice covers the whole file and cannot be changed note by note afterward, but you can undo the import and bring the file in again with the other answer.

Can I change a note's visibility later?

Yes. Changing who can see an existing record is treated as a sensitive action, which means it asks for multi-factor authentication, the same bar FlockConnect sets for exporting data or managing users.

And because visibility is written in plain words rather than icons, the person changing it sees the same sentence the author saw: exactly who can see this note, and who cannot. If a note's audience surprises you, the author or an owner can narrow it on the spot.