Understanding Visitors vs Members: What's Different

Why Visitors are a separate record

A Visitor isn't a "lesser" Member, they're a genuinely separate record type, living in their own table with their own registration form, distinct from members. This matters practically: a Visitor can't currently be added to a Group or linked to a Giving record, the underlying data structure only connects Groups and Giving to real Members.

What a Visitor's record does support

• A profile with Attendance history (visits over time)
• A Messages tab (any SMS/broadcast/automation sent to them, same pattern as a Member's Messages tab)
• Public self-registration with a "who invited you" field that can link back to a real Member

What isn't wired up yet

Visitors have a Follow-Ups concept in the data model, but it isn't actively used today, there's nothing populated there yet to review.

When a visitor is ready to become a full Member, the fastest path today is registering them properly through Manual Registration (or having them self-register through your Member link), there's no one-click "convert" button carrying their visitor history forward automatically.

Best practice

Treat your Visitors list as a holding area for people you're actively building a relationship with, once someone is clearly becoming part of your church, register them properly as a Member so they gain full access to Groups, Giving, and everything else that depends on a real member record.