What Is Householding and How Do I Create a Householded List?

In ISP, you can link spouses and create a household. This means there are two individuals with their own records in your database but live at the same address. The reasons for keeping them separate can vary but one reason to link them as spouses is for mailing purposes. This will allow you to avoid sending two pieces of mail to the same address.

The first thing to ensure is you have spouses linked in your database. If this has been done already or after this step has been taken, the next thing to do is create a Custom Export for households.

1. Navigate to the Advanced Search page under the Add/Search tab. 
2. At the bottom of the resulting screen, click the blue Custom Exports button.
3. Click the Add Custom Export Format button at the bottom of the screen.
4. In the window that appears, first give the custom export a name. 
5. Next, select your desired checkbox options. At the very least you’ll want For Advanced Search checked.
6. In the Area dropdown, choose Households.
7. In the Available column will be two options, Household Name and Household Nickname. Click either or both to add them to the Selected column.
8. If you’d like other data to pull to the export, choose other options from the Area dropdown and continue to move what you want from Available to Selected.
9. Once you’re ready, click Add Custom Export Format.

Household Name: This will either be the name of the single individual in the household OR the housedhold name of the two individuals linked as Spouses (e.g. Bob and Mary Jones).
Household Nickname: This will be the first name of either the single individual in the household OR the first names of the two individuals linked as Spouses (e.g. Bob and Mary).

After you add the custom export format, on the main Custom Exports screen you’ll see the Custom Export format you just created in the Name column. If you want to make any edits, click the name to reopen the window and make changes.

At the bottom of the screen, click the blue Advanced Search button to be returned back to the Advanced Search screen. From here, build out your query and run your search. When you’re ready to export the data using the household custom export you just built, click the Exports & Actions button and a menu will appear. Towards the top will be Excel: Custom Export and if you click that, to the right the custom export you built will appear. Click that to begin exporting the data of the search you just ran to the household custom export.

When creating the Custom Export, you had the checkbox options of also using the custom export format for Thank Yous and the Transactions Report. The next time you generate those reports you’ll see the option for the household custom export format as an export option.