Managing Category Changes Over Time in Church Metrics
Churches often update their ministry structures as they grow — for example, adjusting children’s ministry grade ranges. This may mean your existing categories in Church Metrics no longer match your current reporting needs.
This article explains how to:
Transition to new categories while preserving historical data.
Hide old categories.
Build reports that span both old and new category structures.
Step 1: Hiding Old Categories
If you no longer want to see outdated categories in your Input view:
Go to the Input tab
Locate the category you want to hide.
Click the eye icon next to it to hide it.
Hiding a category does not delete its data. Each user in your account will need to hide categories individually.
Step 2: Creating New Categories
When your reporting structure changes:
Create new categories for the updated groups (e.g., “Grades 1–2,” “Grades 3–4,” “Grades 5–6”).
Keep the old categories intact so reports can still access historical data.
Step 3: Reporting Across Old and New Categories
When running a report that spans both old and new category structures:
Include both sets of categories in the report.
For date ranges before your category change, the new categories will be blank.
For date ranges after your category change, the old categories will be blank.
Example:
2021–2023: “Grades 1–3” and “Grades 4–6” used.
2024 onward: “Grades 1–2,” “Grades 3–4,” “Grades 5–6” used.
To get accurate totals from 2021–present, your report must include all six categories.
Best Practices
Document category changes: Keep a record of when you update your categories. This will help ensure your reports are accurate when pulling multi-year data.
Use parent categories: Group related subcategories under a parent (e.g., “Kids Attendance”) so totals can be generated regardless of subcategory changes.
Communicate to your team: Make sure everyone knows which categories to use going forward.