Recording Log Entries and Reminders

In order to help your affiliate track communications with your family partners and contacts and provide a means of setting reminders for deadlines and future activities, Keystone allows you to record many different types of log entries and reminders. Reminders are log entries with a defined action date or deadline.

You can record log entries and reminders as part of your work on the Contacts, Family Partners, Covenant Partners, Donors, Volunteers and Properties screens. This is done using the Logs tab on those screens.

The following describes the log entry fields and their significance:

Entry Date - is the date the entry is made or the date the logged event occurred. By default, Keystone sets this to the current date when you start a new log record, though you can overwrite it to another date. If a log entry is automatically created by Keystone as part of a posting process, for example, this date is set to whatever date that process occurred. If you try to enter a future date here, Keystone will give you a warning.

If you make several entries on the same date, they will be listed in the order they were entered.
Reminder Date - is the date on which someone needs to take a particular action on an item. This date is only used for reminders. Keystone can automatically display reminders when they are due or past due until the item is closed. See the Reminder Management section for more information.
Clsd - is a check box where a check indicates that the reminder has been taken care of and closed. Closing a reminder item prevents it from appearing when reminders are displayed, though Keystone retains past reminders and makes them available in reports just like other log entries.
Initials - indicates the person recording the log entry, or it may be used to set the reminder for someone else to take action. The initials used are from the Security tab of Affiliate Setup.
Entry - is used for notes detailing the log entry or reminder. You may type directly into the field or double-click the field to open a larger editing window.

While you can type as much information as needed in this box, remember that only the first few words will be visible in some contexts. Try to identify the key information in the first few words of the note to make it easier to find relevant notes later. The entire note is displayed in most reports that include log entries.

The larger editing window will normally close when you press Enter. If you want to include a carriage return in your text, hold down the Ctrl (Control) key and press Enter. A carriage return is then added to your text and the editing window will remain open.

Many functions in Keystone post entries into the logs. These include delinquency letters, escrow adjustment letters, donor acknowledgements, pledge notifications, pledge reminders, and form-based letters.

If you use delinquency management as part of mortgage tracking, log entries are recorded automatically for homeowners when you send payment due letters. See How to Manage Delinquent Mortgages for more information.
Escrow adjustment letters sent to homeowners are posted automatically to the homeowner’s log.
If you use donation acknowledgements, log entries are posted to the donor’s log to indicate the date and the type of acknowledgement sent.
Club Pledge notifications are posted to the donor’s log.
Club Pledge reminders are posted to the donor’s log.
Periodic Pledge notifications are posted to the donor’s log.
Form-based letters sent to Homeowners, Contacts, Donors, Covenant Partners, Volunteers, or Property Sellers can be posted to their logs.

Reminders and MTD News

The Reminders and MTD News Screen

To open the Reminders and MTD News screen, open the Tools tab in the Keystone ribbon and click Reminder Management to display the Reminders and MTD News Management screen. Then click the Show button on the Reminders and MTD News Management screen.

The Reminders and MTD News screen also appears when you start Keystone if you have set up this option and reminders are due.

To view or modify reminders for a particular contact type

Select the type of reminder you want to view from the Reminder Source Log pane at the upper-left of the Reminders and MTD News screen.
If no reminders are available for a subject type, that type is disabled.

All reminders for the type you select are displayed in the lower portion of the screen. The Logs tab shows scheduled reminders that are at or past their reminder date. The Anniversaries tab shows anniversaries that will occur within the next 30 days. If there are no entries due on one of the tabs, that tab will not appear on the Reminders and MTD News screen.

The Subject field displays the name of the contact, family partner, or property with which the reminder is associated. For more information about the remainder of these fields, see the fields list near the beginning of this topic.

The Subject field is outlined in blue, indicating this field is a navigational field. Double-clicking it takes you to the original log entry on the original screen. From that screen, clicking the Return button returns you to the Reminders screen.
If you want to close a reminder, you can do so by checking the Clsd (Closed) check box.
If you want to reschedule the reminder date to a future date, you can do so by editing the Reminder Date field.

You can only change the Clsd and Reminder Date fields on the Reminders and MTD News Screen. If you want to edit any of the other fields, you can only do so on the Logs tab of the screen related to the subject’s type. For example, if you selected Contact in the Reminder Source Log pane, everyone in the Subject field in the reminders list are Contacts. In order to edit the reminder entry for that subject, you must go to their record on the Contacts screen and open the Logs tab.

If you close an item or change a reminder date to a future date that item may no longer appear in the Reminders and MTD News screen. However, you can still view the item on the Logs tab of the screen related to the subject’s type. For example, if you selected Donor in the Reminder Source Log pane, everyone in the Subject field in the reminders list is a Donor. In order to view any closed reminder entries for that subject, you must go to their record on the Donor screen and open the Logs tab.

If you changed the reminder date to a future date, the item appears again as a reminder when the new reminder date is due.

To view the MoreThanData News

The MTD News tab on the Reminders and MTD News screen shows news related to MoreThanData software, services, and other useful topics. Simply click the News tab to view the news topics. For more information, see the MTD News Service section.

Critical MTD News items will appear in red. These are important announcements, so please read them carefully.