Manage Yearly Class or Group Advancement

Each year, children and students must be promoted (mass-moved) from their current group or class into their new class. 

Similarly, if your ministry offers a series of sequential discipleship groups or classes, you'll likely want to mass move individuals once they graduate.

This article provides instructions on how to best mass move individuals from one grade to another or from one group to another, whether you're using Groups or Configurable Fields to track placement. 

Important: Start with Your Oldest Group

When conducting mass promotion, it's crucial to start with your oldest (or topmost) group and work backward.

Failing to do so will mix group members, which will then need to be manually separated. Yuck!

• Example: If you begin by moving first-grade students (the lowest group) into second-grade, both your first- and second-grade students will be mixed together. You'll then need to manually separate them to perform further mass moves. 😭

Pro-Tip: Before you begin the promotion process, it can sometimes be helpful to create an empty group to move your highest grade or group into.

Mass Promotion Using Groups 

Pro-Tip: Most organizations use Groups to track Sunday school, age groups, discipleship classes, or similar.

Why? Because Groups make mass communication, attendance, and check-in simple. (This is especially true for age groups under 18, as mass communication includes an easy option to select "parents").

Watch the Screen Capture showing Mass Group Promotion, or follow the written instructions below

Instructions:

1. Navigate to Groups. From the provided list, open the oldest group of students you want to promote or move.
2. At the top left of the screen, check off the Select All Checkbox (below).
   
   
    
3. On the right, select the More Options Tri-dot menu , then select Move to Group.
4. In the Move to Group dropdown that appears, select the group you want to move these individuals into.
   • (Note: If you haven’t created a group yet, select A New Group from the dropdown to create one.)
5. Once your group is selected, click Move.

At this point, the original group should be empty, ready to receive new individuals. Repeat this process for each class until you reach the youngest age group.

Example Steps to Follow:

1. Start by moving the 12th-grade group into the College and Career group.
2. Next, move the 11th-grade group into the 12th-grade group.
3. Move the 10th-grade group into the 11th-grade group.
4. Wash, rinse, repeat! 😉

Pro-Tip: Use standard group naming conventions or a prefix to keep similar groups together in a large list. For example, for Sunday School Classes, you could use “SS-1st Grade - Boys“, “SS-2nd Grade - Girls“, etc. More on group naming best practices.

Mass Promotion Using Configurable Fields 

You can also use a Configurable Field to track an individual's age group or class. Then, we will use our Mass Edit tool, powered by the Advanced Search or the Import tool, to accomplish class promotion. 

Instructions:

1. On the Individuals page, click Advanced to open Advanced Search.
2. Locate your configurable field and search for the oldest age group you want to promote.
   • (Ex. If you have a configurable field for “Class Grade,” begin by searching for 12th-Grade.)
3. Once the search returns your results, click the More Options Tri-dot menu , and in the dropdown menu that appears, select Mass Edit.
4. Take action on These Individuals and select your configurable field in the Field dropdown menu.
5. Use the Value field to choose the next highest grade for promotion, and then select Mass Edit Individuals.  

At this point, no one in your database should have a value equal to the highest Class Grade you’re promoting. You’ll then begin to follow this process for each Class Grade until you reach the lowest age group option you've set up.

 

Example Steps to Follow:

1. Start by selecting everyone with a 12th Grade Configurable Field value, and perform a Mass Edit to change their 'class' to the College and Career Configurable Field value.
2. Next, Mass Edit individuals with an 11th-grade Configurable Field value and change their 'class' value to the 12th-grade Configurable Field value.
3. Mass Edit individuals with a 10th-grade Configurable Field value and change their 'class' value to the 11th-grade Configurable Field value.
4. Wash, rinse, repeat! 😉

Mass Promotion Using Data Export/Import

Alternatively, you can export all of your individual data from Settings Export. Once you have the .csv file, you can edit it in Excel to the configurable field column holding your age/class data.

Once the edits are finished, use our import tool to update that information in your database quickly. Learn more about the Import Tool.

Important! Ensure your data export includes the USER ID. After updating the configurable field values, re-import individuals and match them with the USER ID to ensure 100% accuracy.

How Mass Promotion Affects Check-In

If you're using Check-In for any Groups you've recently promoted, it's vital to ensure that the previous Groups don't display as pre-selected options. 

To do so, you'll want to temporarily disable Smart Check-In, which auto-suggests groups based on attendance history and other criteria. 

Thankfully, we've created an option to automate this process for you! See How to Reset Smart Check-In History. 

Updated August 28, 2025 14:20