Before You Begin:
- You need permission to access Reports.
- Decide what your question is really about. If you are asking about people and organizations — addresses, roles, categories, directory listings — this is the right report. If you are asking about memberships — renewal dates, dues, status — see the Membership Report. The comparison further down spells out the difference.
- The exact fields available to you depend on your database. Custom fields, roles, chapters, and directories your association has set up will appear in this list; ones you have not set up will not.
Step-by-Step Instructions
In the left-hand rail, click Reports, then All Reports. The page opens as All Reports. Use the search box or the filter icon to narrow the list to the Contacts category.
Using the Quick Filter to select the Contacts category.
Select the Contacts Report.
- Select your search filtering criteria. All of these are optional — leave one blank to include everything:
- Contact Type — individuals, organizations, or both. Leave blank for all records.
- Contact Status — member, non-member, dropped member, and so on.
- Membership Type — members holding a specific type.
- Membership Category — report on several types as a group rather than picking each one.
- Assigned To — staff members assigned to certain contacts.
- List/Committee — contacts belonging to a particular list or committee.
- Chapter — contacts in a specific chapter. Requires the Chapters module.
- Tags — contacts carrying a specific tag.
- Last Communication Date — when an email was last sent to the contact. This does not include bulk emails.
- Directory — contacts with a listing in one or more directories.
- State Province — contacts with a specific state or province in their address.
- CRM Type — whether to include records that are in the CRM.
- Primary Contact — primary contacts only. Your results must include individual contacts for this to do anything.
- Active Contacts — active contacts only.
Add Criteria / Filters if you need them. Click the plus icon to add a row — in this example, contacts with a balance of $500 or more.
Adding Additional Criteria to the Contacts Report.
Under Display Options, set Fields to Display. The report starts with just Contact Name, Default Email, and Default Phone. Click the drop-down arrow to open the full field list, then use the search box at the top to find a field by name and tick its checkbox to add it.
Adding Contact Balance to our Fields to Display.
Set Summarize By if you want the results grouped. Summarize options are listed alphabetically, but recently used selections stick to the top of the list. Use Add Summarize By to group by more than one field.
Adding Contact Balance to the Summarize By option.
- Leave Display Mode on Detail to see every row, or switch it if you only want the summary.
Click the Run Report button.
Our report results of contacts with $500 or more of unpaid invoices, grouped by the Contact Balance amount.
What Fields Are Available
The Contacts Report carries the widest field list in GrowthZone — a standard database offers roughly 600 fields across 48 groups. You do not need to scroll it. Open Fields to Display and type into the search box at the top; the list filters as you type, and the count beside All Items tells you how many fields matched.
| What you want | Field groups to look in |
|---|---|
| Who the contact is | Contact; Contact – Primary Contact; Contact – BRP Contact; Primary Contact's Primary Contact; Primary Contact Custom Fields |
| Addresses | Contact Primary Address; Contact Physical Address; Contact Mailing Address; Contact Billing Address |
| How to reach them | Contact Phones; Contact Email Address Type; Contact Websites |
| How they are classified | Contact Categories; Contact Groups; List/Committee; Directory Information |
| Membership | Membership — only Memberships and Level. Primary Membership Type sits at the top of the list on its own. |
| Roles | One group per role your association uses — Account Manager, Ambassador, Mentor, Sales Rep, Branches, and so on |
| Related records | Parent / Child Contacts; Parent Contacts; Child Contacts; Counts |
| Your own custom fields | Individual Custom Fields; Organization Custom Fields; Child and Parent Custom Fields |
| Login detail | User Account |
Eight fields sit on their own at the top of the list with no group heading: Chapters, Assigned to, Categories, Last Communicated With, NAICS, Primary Chapter, Primary Membership Type, and SIC. Associations using professional or industry-specific modules will also see their own groups here.
Four kinds of address
Use this report when you need a specific address. Each group holds the same six fields — Address 1, Address 2, City, State/Province, Postal, and Country — for a different address on the contact record:
- Contact Primary Address — the Default fields, the contact's main address
- Contact Physical Address — the Physical fields, where they actually are
- Contact Mailing Address — the Mailing fields, where post should go
- Contact Billing Address — the Bill fields, where invoices should go
Fields That Behave Differently Than You Expect
A few fields look similar but return different results. When using the business category options:
- All Business Categories displays a comma-separated list of all business-type categories associated with the contact record.
- Business Categories displays a separate line for each category attached to the business record.
When using the membership options:
- Memberships displays a comma-separated list of all active memberships.
- Primary Membership displays the primary membership name, level, and chapter.
- Primary Membership Type displays the primary membership name.
Contacts Report or Membership Report?
Both reports can show contact information, which is why it is easy to pick the wrong one. The difference is what each row of the report is.
| Contacts Report | Membership Report | |
|---|---|---|
| One row is | a contact | a membership |
| Addresses | Primary, Physical, Mailing, and Billing address groups | Primary address only, plus the purchase/invoice billing address |
| Membership detail | Minimal — Memberships, Level, and Primary Membership Type | Extensive — dates, status, type, level, balance, billing, fee items, invoices |
| Roles | Available, one group per role type | Not available |
| Directory listings | Available | Not available |
| Use it when | You are asking a people question — mailing lists, addresses, roles, categories | You are asking a membership question — renewals, dues, status changes |
Common Report Functions
See the following: Export Reports, Email Reports, Add Report Contacts to a List/Committee, Mailing Labels, Save a Report as a New Report, Save a Report as a Favorite Report, and Report Filtering Options.
Common Pitfalls
- When accessing this report for membership details, only three membership fields are available. Anything about renewal dates, dues, or status belongs in the Membership Report.
- Grabbing the wrong address: There are four address groups, and they are not interchangeable. A contact can have a physical address that differs from where their mail and invoices are sent. Check which one you actually need before adding fields.
- Filtering by Primary Contact without individuals in the results: That filter does nothing unless your Contact Type includes individual contacts.
- Trusting Last Communication Date for bulk sends: It does not include bulk emails, so a contact who received your last newsletter can still look untouched.
- Assuming everyone sees the same fields: Custom fields, roles, directories, and categories are specific to your database, so your field count will not match a colleague's at another association.