> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kehillahq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Households that join mid-year

> Which dues years a household appears on, and why one might be missing from your list.

A household that joined in March should not appear on the list for a dues year that ended in August two years ago. It was not a member then, and showing it as owing money would be wrong.

KehillaHQ handles this automatically, using the household's **joined date**.

## The rule

A household appears on a dues year's list if it had **joined by the end of that year**.

Put the other way round: a household is left off any dues year that finished before it joined.

## Worked examples

Take Congregation Beth Shalom, whose dues year runs September to August.

**The Rosen household joined in March 2026.** March 2026 falls inside the September 2025 to August 2026 year, which is the 2026 dues year.

* **2026 dues year** (Sep 2025 to Aug 2026): they appear. They joined during it.
* **2027 dues year** and every year after: they appear.
* **2025 dues year** (Sep 2024 to Aug 2025): they do not appear. That year had finished before they joined.

<Note>
  Joining part-way through a year does **not** remove the household from that year. They joined during it, so they are on it. What the system prevents is a household appearing on years that were already over.
</Note>

## Charging a partial year

The system decides whether a household is **on the list**. It does not decide what they owe.

If your congregation pro-rates dues for a family joining in March, set their commitment for that year to the pro-rated amount. There is no automatic proration, and this is deliberate: congregations handle it differently and the arithmetic is usually a conversation, not a formula.

See [Commitments](/finances/commitments).

## When a household is missing from a year

If a household you expected is not on a dues year's list, check its joined date first. That is nearly always the reason.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the household">
    From the Members page.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check the joined date">
    Compare it against the end of the dues year you were looking at.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Correct it if it is wrong">
    Edit the household. The dues list updates to match.
  </Step>
</Steps>

A common cause is an import that brought households across without a joined date column, followed by someone filling in today's date for everyone. That makes every household look brand new and drops them all off earlier years at once.

## Households with no joined date

If a household has **no joined date at all**, it appears on **every** dues year.

This is the deliberately safe default. A missing joined date means the system does not know, and showing a household you might need to bill is a recoverable mistake. Hiding one you needed to bill is how a year's income quietly goes missing.

<Tip>
  If you imported historical records and did not have joined dates, you will see older households on every year. Fill in the dates as you learn them. Getting your longest-standing families right first has the biggest effect, since they are the ones spanning the most years.
</Tip>

## Households that leave

There is no leaving date. A household that departs stays on current and future dues years' lists.

To stop tracking them, mark their members inactive. The household becomes inactive and you can filter it out of your working view, while its history stays intact. See [Member status](/members/member-status).