Advance Groups / Classes

Church Windows has a utility that will change people's Membership in their Groups / Classes to the next higher Group or Class. This routine will allow you to advance the total Membership of a group or selected members in the group. This will not Advance School Grades on The Individual Record.To run the Advance Groups / Classes routine, you may not have The People File open. If your computers are networked, everyone must be closed out of Membership.

  • From The Initial Portal of Church Windows choose Membership
  • Then in the Button Bar at the top of the screen either:
    1. Select Special Functions, and choose Advance Groups.

      2. OR

    2. Select Groups / Skills, and choose Advance Groups.
  • A message box will open encouraging you to make a backup of the data before advancing the Groups / Classes. Do so.
  • After Making a Backup of the data, re-enter Church Windows.
  • Come back to Advance Groups / Classes and click OK.
  • The Advance Groups / Classes dialog screen will open:



  • From Groups / Classes
    • On the left, will be a list of all the codes and descriptions for the Groups / Classes that were marked with a checkmark in "Show on 'Advance Groups / Classes' screen" on the Add Groups / Classes screen.
    • Put checkmarks next to each Group / Class that you want to advance.
  • To Group / Class
    • On the right, you will identify the next Group / Class to which each Group / Class will advance.
    • Click in the box for the Group / Class and from the list that appears below, click the Code or Description (name) of the Group / Class to which that Group / Class will advance.  
      For example, a 1st grade Sunday School class would logically advance to a 2nd grade Sunday School class.
  • Remove history
    • If you would like to have the old Group / Class removed from the member's screen upon advancement, click to place a checkmark in the box.  
    • If you would like to leave the Group / Class on the member's record to keep a history of that person's involvement in Groups / Classes, leave the Remove history box blank.
  • Adv. By - Further to the right on the Advance Groups / Classes screen, if you have Users setup in Church Windows, this column will tell you who last advanced each Group / Class.
  • Adv. Date - This column displays the date when each class was last advanced.
  • Continue with the setup of advancement from and to. You do not have to advance them all at the same time, although you may.
  • If this is how your classes will always advance from year-to-year, click Save to save the advancement setup.
  • Then click Advance Selected to continue.
  • Another screen will open for each group you selected:

  • You may select to advance all or only some of the Group / Class members and enter Start and End Dates for all of them.
  • You may also choose whether or not to advance the Roles, Comments, and Teachers along with the Group or Class members.
  • Continue advancing each class as it shows on the screen.
  • If you decide to cancel the advancing process, click Cancel on the screen of each of the classes that you wish to cancel advancing. The classes already advanced will remain advanced.