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 leaders, 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 a church leader, 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 church leaders, 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 leaders, a pastor's or church leader's starts as Only me. Only me is one tap away for everyone.
• Share with your pastors (account owners), church leaders, 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 is seen only by the account owner and church leaders with care access, never by care partners, and an import can be undone.

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 your church leaders who hold care access. Each is its own checkbox, so sharing with the pastors does not quietly include anyone else, and under each one you see who it reaches, by name. 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. Once you save, the note keeps that line: it names everyone who can read the note, the people chosen one by one included, and everyone who can read it sees the same names.

What does each role see by default?

The account owner and church leaders 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 church leaders with care access, 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 care log entries (a note included), 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 a member sees it. A member never does.

What about confidential notes imported from Notebird?

Notebird's export includes restricted and confidential notes when an Org Owner, Admin, or Care Admin runs it, and the file does not mark which notes those are. So the Notebird importer keeps the whole imported history to the account owner and church leaders with care access, and shows you that before anything is written.

Care partners never see notes brought over from Notebird: a care partner only ever reads the care notes they write themselves. The setting covers the whole file and cannot be changed note by note afterward, but you can undo the import and bring the file in again.

Can I change a note's visibility later?

Not yet. Whoever writes a note chooses who can see it when they save it, and today it stays that way. Sharing a saved note with more people is being built: its author will be able to open it to the pastors or add a named person, but never take anyone back off. Only the author ever changes who can see a note, not an owner and not FlockConnect.