# Create and find a household

> PositiveForm guide · Households · HH-001
> Canonical page: https://positiveform.com/guides/households/create-find-household/
> This Markdown: https://positiveform.com/guides/households/create-find-household.md

**Summary:** Create a household and find it in the household directory. The new household opens in its People workspace and remains searchable.  
**Who can do this:** Organization owners, Managers, Staff  
**Required access:** `members.change`  
**Where in PositiveForm:** `/households`  
**Status:** Draft: not yet verified against a deployed PositiveForm build. Labels may differ.

> Draft: this guide describes the household profile redesign at docs/plans/2026-08-25-member-profile-redesign, three tabs (Overview, Billing, History) in place of the previous People, Billing, and Settings. It has not yet been replayed against the deployed demo.

## Who this is for

This guide is for **desk staff, managers, and owners**.

A household is the family. It is what billing attaches to, what siblings
share, and what a parent belongs to even when they do not train themselves.
Most people get one automatically when they are created as a member; you come
here when you need to make one directly, or to find an existing one.

You need the `members.change` permission.

## Before you begin

- Check the location picker at the top of the console. Households are listed
  for the selected location.
- Consider whether you actually need a new household. Adding somebody as a
  member creates one for them; creating a second household for the same
  family is the common mistake, and it splits their billing.

## Steps

### Find a household

1. Click **Households** in the left navigation. The count under the heading
   tells you how many exist at this location, for example **5 total**.
2. Type into **Search households** to narrow the list by name.
3. Use **All statuses** to include or exclude households that are no longer
   active.
4. Read the columns: **Name** with its location beneath, **Members**,
   **Adults**, **Status**, and **Last change**.
5. Click a household to open it. It opens on its **Overview** tab, beside
   **Billing** and **History**. **Settings** is under **More** on the header.
6. Move through long lists with **Previous** and **Next**; the counter
   between them shows where you are.

### Create a household

7. Click **Add household**.
8. Give it a name families and staff will recognise, usually the family name.
9. Save it.

## Expected outcome

A new household opens on its **Overview** tab, ready for you to add the
family; see [Add an existing person to a household](https://positiveform.com/guides/households/add-existing-person/).

It is immediately findable: it appears in this list at the selected location,
with its member and adult counts, and it can be searched for by name.

The household is what a billing profile attaches to, so it is the record you
return to when the family starts paying; see
[Create a household billing profile](https://positiveform.com/guides/billing/create-billing-profile/).

## Recovery

If a household you expect is missing, check the location picker first. The
list is scoped to one location, and a family that moved is at the other one.

Then clear the search box and set **All statuses**, in case a filter left
from earlier is hiding it.

If you find two households for the same family, do not delete either until
you have looked at both. One of them probably has the billing profile and the
history; see [Change or retire a household](https://positiveform.com/guides/households/change-retire-household/) before removing anything.

If creating fails, PositiveForm shows the reason and nothing is created.

If **Add household** is missing, your role does not carry `members.change`.

## Related guides

- [Add an existing person to a household](https://positiveform.com/guides/households/add-existing-person/) — put the family into the household you
  just made.
- [Create a household billing profile](https://positiveform.com/guides/billing/create-billing-profile/) — set up who pays for this
  household.

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Source: PositiveForm customer guides, https://positiveform.com/guides/. 
Every guide as one file for AI assistants: https://positiveform.com/llms-full.txt. 
Guide index: https://positiveform.com/llms.txt.