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How the Sort Name Field Works: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1166055
PatronManager's Sort Name field is useful for organizing a report of Accounts in alphabetical order by last name. Best of all, PatronManager can usually fill in this field automatically! However, sometimes the Sort Name field doesn't know what to do with certain Account names who don't fit the typical first and last name convention.
In this article, you'll learn:
- How the Sort Name displays on different kinds of Accounts
- What to do if the Sort Name field is blank
How does the Sort Name field display different kinds of Account names?
Depending on whether the Account represents a person or an organization of some sort, the Sort Name field behaves a little differently - Let's look at a couple examples below.
Person Accounts, i.e. Individual and Household
In an ideal world, the Sort Name field displays a person Account (like the Household and Individual), as Last name, First name. In the example below, the Sort Name field displays Bunny Ryle as Ryle, Bunny.
Organization Accounts - i.e. Business and Foundation
The Sort Name field displays Business and Foundation Accounts as the name of the Account. In the example below, the Sort Name field displays Rose Apothecary as Rose Apothecary.
Sometimes, the Sort Name field doesn't know what to do with the Account name
If an Account name has more than one first and last name, like "Emily van der Harten" or "Lou and Pat Vaughn Household", the Sort Name field won't know what to do and won't generate a sort name at all.
In these situations, update the Manual Sort Name field! The Sort Name field will copy text you've entered in the Manual Sort Name field.
How to find and update Accounts with a blank Sort Name field
Since the system doesn't know what to do when an Account name has more than one first and last name, it's important to keep on top of updating those Accounts so you can make updates using the Manual Sort Name field, or a data update if you have a bunch.
Let's find all the Accounts with a blank Sort Name and update them.
1. Head over to the Reports tab
2. Click "New Report"
3. Select the Accounts report type and click "Continue"
4. Toggle to the Filters panel and adjust the existing filters:
- Show me: All Accounts
- Created Date: All Time
5. Add a filter for the Sort Name
- Add Filter: Search and select "Sort Name"
- Operator: equals
- Value: leave this blank
- Click "Apply"
6. Click "Save"
7. Fill in the details:
- Report Name: Name it something like "Accounts with no Sort Name"
- Report Unique Name: Auto-populates based on the report name
- Report Description: "All accounts whose Sort Name field is blank"
- Folder: Put it in an appropriate folder
- Click "Save"
Depending on how many Accounts need an updated Sort Name field, you can either manually update each Account, or do a mass data update.
Pro-tip: if you have more than 50 accounts on your list, a mass data update is probably faster. If you have 50 or fewer to fix, manual is probably faster.
1. Click "Run"
2. Open the first Account name in a new tab
3. Scroll down to the Manual Sort Name field and click on the pencil icon to edit it
Don't see the Manual Sort Name field on the Account page? Learn how to add it to Account page layouts here.
4. Enter your sort name and click "Save"
5. The Sort Name is now auto-filled based on the Manual Sort Name
6. Go back to the report and repeat until you're done
Feel free to refresh your report for updated results.
1. Add the Manual Sort Name and Account ID fields as columns to your report
2. Click "Save & Run"
3. Click the arrow next to "Edit" and select "Export"
4. Choose "Details Only" and click "Export"
5. Update the Manual Sort Name field in Excel, and run a data update
If you're not familiar with how to run a data update in PatronManager, check out our DIY Data series to learn how!
8. Once you've cleaned up the Sort Name on all the Accounts in your report, subscribe to your report to stay on top of Accounts with a blank Sort Name field
If you're not sure how to subscribe to a report, check out our Help tab article about how to subscribe to and schedule a report.
