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All About Contacts and Accounts: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/829684
PatronManager uses Contacts and Accounts to create constituent records and relate them to each other. In this article, you'll learn what Contacts and Accounts are, how they relate to each other, and how Account and Contact pages are structured.
Specifically, we'll answer the following questions:
- What is a Contact?
- What is an Account?
- What data should I track on the Account record vs the Contact record?
- What, if any, information syncs between the Contact and Account?
- Should I add ticket orders and donations via the Account record or the Contact record?
- What shows up on the Contact and Account related lists?
- Can I change how my fields and related lists are organized on the Account/Contact?
What is a Contact?
A Contact is an individual person. Contacts buy tickets, make donations, and receive emails from your organization.
Let's say you have two Contacts, Lou Vaughn and Pat Vaughn, who live together. Each individual's information, like name, phone number, email address, email status and Benefit level, is collected on their Contact record.
What is an Account?
Think of an Account as a building, like a house or a business - it contains people who either live or work in it, i.e. individual Contacts. Those Contacts and the things they're doing comprise most of the information we see reflected on the Account.
Since Lou and Pat live together, both their Contacts are nested in this Household Account. The Account contains information they both share, like their physical address. Their individual ticket purchases and donation contributions stay separate on each respective Contact, but the Account provides a summary of their combined history.
What data should I track on the Account Record vs. the Contact record?
| What's tracked on the Contact/Account | Why it's on the Account/Contact |
| Account | |
| Billing Address | Contacts within an Account likely share the same physical address |
| Donation Roll-up fields |
The Donation roll-up fields show a combined summary of donations made by Contacts within the Account |
| Do Not Mail | Indicates if someone at the household (Account) doesn't want to receive physical mail |
| Donations related to the Account | You'll see all Donations made by the Contacts within the Account in the Donations Related list - we'll cover this more in-depth in the following section |
| Ticket Orders related to the Account | You'll see all Ticket Orders purchased by the Contacts within the Account in the Ticket Orders Related list - we'll cover this more in-depth in the following section |
| Contact | |
| Email Address | Individuals most often have their own unique email address |
| Email Status | Indicates whether the Contact wants to receive your emails. This field is essential to exclude Contacts who don't want to receive your emails. |
| Birth Date | Everyone has their own birthday, so this field stays on the Contact! |
| Donations related to the Contact | You'll see the donations made by the Contact in Donations Related list - we'll cover this more in-depth in the following section |
| Ticket Orders related to the Contact | You'll see the Ticket Orders purchased by the Contact in the Ticket Orders Related list - we'll cover this more in-depth in the following section |
Does any information sync between Contacts and Accounts?
In any Account that has only one Contact in it, the following information will sync between the Contact and Account records:
- All Mailing and Billing Address fields
- All Other and Shipping Address fields
- Phone
- Informal Salutation
- Formal Salutation
- Informal Address Name
- Formal Address Name
- Donor Recognition
- Do Not Call
- Do Not Mail
- Has Opted Out Of Email
None of these fields will sync between the Contact and Account if there is more than one Contact in the Account.
But if an Account previously had multiple Contacts in it and now only has one, the Account will update to sync with the one Contact remaining.
So, should I add ticket orders and donations from the Account record or the Contact record?
You should create donations and ticket orders from the Contact. The Contact is the person interacting with your organization, so it's important to start from the Contact in either scenario.
Don't worry - when you add ticket orders and donations via the Contact record, they'll also show up on the Account record.
For more context, let's find out how ticket orders and donations appear on the Account and Contact record related lists.
What shows up on the Contact and Account related lists?
Contact related lists
Let's take a look at Pat and Lou's Contact related lists side-by-side.
When Pat purchases tickets or makes a donation, we'll see those records referenced on Pat's Contact related lists. Likewise, when Lou makes a donation or buys tickets, we'll see the those records referenced on Lou's Contact related lists.
We won't see Lou's activity on Pat's Contact, and vice versa. We will, however, see their combined history on their Household Account related lists.
Account related lists
Both Lou and Pat's donations appear on the Donations related list on the Account. Since we created those donations from their Contacts, we can quickly determine which Contact in the household made each donation.
Likewise, the Ticket Orders related list shows Lou and Pat's combined ticket purchasing history and which Contact bought the tickets.
Can I change how fields and related lists are organized on the Account and/or Contact?
Absolutely. To learn how to edit page layouts in PatronManager, check out Page Layouts: Change the Way Your Accounts, Contacts, and Donations Look for more in-depth information.