Configure Contact Types (Version 2+)

Contacts: Configure Contact Types

1. This tutorial will cover how to configure contact types within the system.
2. Contact Types are categories of contacts that have an important commonality that you wish to track within the system and may have additional information derived from that commonality. Another way of thinking of contact types is as a way to define a contact's relationship to your organization (they are a board member of your organization, a volunteer of your organization, a donor to your organization, etc.). Contrast this to Contact Tags which an be used to indicate interests and affiliations.
3. There are three types of Contact Types: System Assigned (assigned by the user when the user takes a certain action in the system), System Defaults Manually Assigned (come with he system and have custom features associated with them but must be selected/added to a record manually by the user), and User Defined (contact types created by the user).

   System Default Contact Types Automatically Applied by System

   • Donor (added when you record a donation for a contact)
   • Member (added when you record a membership for a contact)
   • Ex-Member (added when a member's membership expires/is no longer active)
   • Volunteer (added by CRM Connect sync)
   • Grantor (added when you record a grant from a contact)
   • Vendor (added when a contact is listed as a vendor/sub-recipient on a grant record)
   • Household

   System Default Contact Types Manually Applied by Users

   • Committee Member
   • Ex-Committee Member
   • Board Member
   • Ex-Board Member
   • Mentor
   • Ex-Mentor (this is applied by the system automatically when a mentor's active match is closed)
   • Mentee
   • Ex-Mentee (this is applied by the system automatically when a mentee's active match is closed)
   • Mentee Parent or Guardian (applied automatically by the system when a parent is added to a mentee record)
   • Ex-Mentee Parent or Guardian (applied automatically when a mentee is changed to an ex-mentee)
   • Program Recipient
   • Client
4. To configure user defined Contact Types, start by clicking on Contacts on the main menu to open the contacts sub-menu and then click Contact Types under the Configurations heading.

   

5. In the resulting screen, you will see a list of any currently configured Contact Types, as well as the icon for each contact type.

   

6. To create a new contact type, click on the Add Contact Type button in the lower right of the screen.

   

7. In the screen that appears you will be asked to specify the name of the Contact Type in the Contact Type Name field.

   

8. Next, use the browse option next to Contact Type Icon to upload a unique icon for the contact type that you are creating, to help visually identify it later.

   

9. The Applicable To check boxes will allow you to specify if this contact type applies to Individual contacts, organizational contacts or both.

   

10. The Default Contact Type option will let you automatically apply this contact type to all new contacts added to your records.

    

11. The Make Active checkbox will let you indicate if the contact type is currently active for use or not.

    

12. Lastly, the Toggle Contact Type will let you indicate the pair/linked contact type. You will be allowed to toggle one contact type or another, indicating the original contact type is no longer applicable. Example: Member is a toggle pair with Ex-Member.

    

13. When you have finished configuring the contact type, click on the Save button in the lower right of the screen.

    

14. To edit an existing, custom contact type click on the Edit button to the right of the appropriate contact type.

    

15. To deactivate a contact type click on the green check mark icon to the right of the Contact Type Name column, then click OK in the pop up that will appear.

    

    

16. This will turn the icon grey, indicating that the contact type is no longer active, but not deleted.

    

17. To reactivate a deactivated contact type, click on the grey icon, thus turning it green.

    

18. Please note that you cannot edit or deactivate a system defined contact type.
19. To Delete a contact type, you must first deactivate it. Then the Delete option will appear in the drop down to the right.  You must also first remove it from all contact records/the contact type can't be tied to any records (you can use advanced search to find all contacts with the contact type and then use the take action menu to remove the contact type from the records in bulk/all at at once). You also cannot delete any system default contact types, even if you deactivate them.