Orphaned Contacts
Orphaned contacts are Contact Records that do not have an associated User Account with the Contact Record. These are Contact Records that administrators added or that were created during a contact upload.
List of Orphaned Contacts
To see a list of all orphaned contacts, go to your Parent or Contact List that is under the People tab. Filter and select the option for Orphaned Contacts. From this list, you can do a mass update. Select the records to be updated and click "update checked...".
Sending Communications to Orphaned Contacts
You can create a Communication List to send newsletter communications to your orphaned contacts. Create a new Communication List. Choose the option for "Contact Record Orphan" = Orphaned. Be sure to consider if you also need to have a condition for Contact Status.
Managing Contact Uploads and Orphaned Contacts
If you have added new Contact Records to your database and need families to confirm that their information is correct, there are several ways to manage the process.
#1 - Add New Contact Records as Outdated or Inactive Contacts
Outdated Contacts will appear in the Directory (provided they have given permission and they were uploaded this way). Inactive Contacts will not. When the user logs in and reviews their information, their Contact Status is automatically updated from Outdated or Inactive to Active status. Admins are able to see which families or contacts still need to review their information and you can send updates just to your Outdated or Inactive contacts.
Don't forget that Contact Records will only stay in the Outdated status for a specific number of days which is set by the Contact Inactive Interval (Admin > Account Settings > Dates & Times). For example, if you have the Contact Inactive Interval set for 45 days, a Contact Record that is Outdated will only stay in the Outdated status for 45 days after its Contact Data Expires date. At the end of the 45 days, if it is still Outdated, the system will automatically update the Contact Status to Inactive.
#2 - All Contact Records Are in Active Status
If you have been given permission from the family or contact to have their information in your database and in published in your directory, then you may want to leave your contact record status as Active so that their information continues to be included in your directory. You can then use the list of parents or contacts and the Communication Lists for Orphaned Contacts to encourage families to register.
Duplicates - If a contact logs in with a different email address than you have associated with a Contact Record in your system, a new record will be created for them. You can see potential duplicate records by going to People > Reports > Duplicate Contacts.
Related Articles
Update - Orphaned Contacts
In addition to the Communications List filter for Orphaned Contacts, you can also now filter by Orphaned Contacts on the People > Parent List. Knowledge Base Article: Orphaned ContactsEmail Verification
Email verification is important because it assures the user has entered their email address correctly and it is a security precaution to assure that the person creating the account is really associated with the email being used. Turning On/Off Email ...Contact Reports
Active Student Data Report The Active Student Data report produces an Excel spreadsheet that lists all of the students in your contacts, and includes all custom fields and Parent data. Go to People > Reports > Contact Reports > Active Student Data ...Duplicate Contacts
How Did We Get a Duplicate Contact Record? When a user logs in, if there is a contact record in your database that has the same email address associated with it, the user will be connected to that contact record. (This does not work if you turn off ...Uploading Contacts
One of the ways that you can add contacts to your database is to do a contact upload. This is an additional service that our Customer Support Team is happy to do. (We do have the option for account administrators to do their own contact upload. If ...