I grew up watching my mother — a pastor's wife and de facto church secretary — keep a photocopied master list in the top drawer of her desk. "If something happens to the computer," she said once, "at least we still have the people."
I think about that every time I click Export Members.
The export mirrors the import template
This is the detail most people miss. The exported Excel file is laid out in the exact same format as the import template. That means your backup is not just readable — it is restorable. If catastrophe struck tomorrow, you could import the file back into a fresh tenant and be up and running in an hour.
How we use it practically
Quarterly snapshots. On the last Friday of every quarter, our admin clicks export and files it in a dated folder on the church's shared drive.
Bulk edits. When we needed to move 190 members from an old campus label to a new one, we exported, did a find-and-replace in Excel, and re-imported. Four minutes total.
Board reports. The export gives us an audit-friendly view whenever leadership asks for raw numbers.
A word about what is in the file
The export is a full tenant export. Encrypted fields are decrypted for authorised users on export — but the file itself is an unencrypted Excel. Store it somewhere secure. Do not forward it casually. Treat it the way your church treasurer treats a bank statement.
Every permission-holding admin can run it. Every quarter. The cost is near zero. The peace of mind is significant.
