Adding Contacts to Your Database

If you want to work with a particular contact record but discover they do not appear to be in your database, you can add the new contact from most of the major screens in Keystone. You can also add contacts by using the Contacts screen. Both methods are described below.

The following steps help greatly reduce the chance of entering duplicate contact records in your database.

If you want to enter several contacts in just one category, for example, donors from a batch of donation checks where some of those donors are not in the database, adding these contacts from the related screen (e.g., Donors) will likely be easier. See “To add a contact from most Keystone screens” below for these instructions.

If you want to enter a batch of contacts in multiple categories (e.g., some volunteers, some donors, and some committee members), you may find it easier to use the Contacts screen. Instructions for doing this are under “To add a contact from the Contacts screen” below.

To add a contact from most Keystone screens

Look in the Name drop-down list for the screen you're on, and try to locate the contact in the database before proceeding.
For Person contacts, begin by clicking the arrow on the right side of the drop-down list to expand it, then type the person’s last name, followed by a comma, a space, and their first name. (Example: Stewart, Jimmy) For Organization contacts, also start by clicking the arrow on the right side of the drop-down list to expand it, then type the Organization name. If you find the contact, you can stop here; the contact is already in your database. If you do not find the contact, continue with step 2.
Press the Enter key.
This opens the Contact Not In List dialog box, which lets you know that either the contact isn't in the category you're currently working with (e.g., you're on the Donors screen and the contact is categorized as something other than a Donor, which means that contact is in Keystone but won't appear in the Donors screen's Name list) or they aren't in the Keystone database at all. At this point, we don't know which it is, but we'll determine that in the next steps.
Click Yes to proceed, or click No to cancel.
If you choose to proceed, the Is the Contact already in the database? window appears. At this time, Keystone attempts to find the name you entered above elsewhere in the database.

If Keystone thinks it found a match, it will display it in this window. If it does match the contact you're looking for, click the Use Selected Contact button, which opens the Contacts: Organization and Contact window, and proceed to step 4. If it doesn't match and you don't see the contact's name elsewhere in the Person(s) or Organization drop-down lists in this window, click the Create New Contact button.

If both fields in this window are blank, Keystone was not able to find a match anywhere in your database. If you are confident that the contact isn't in your database, click the Create New Contact button.

Clicking the Create New Contact button opens the Contacts: Organization and Contact window. The contact name you originally searched for in step 1 is automatically filled in here. The category that relates to the screen you started on (e.g., Donors) is also filled in automatically.
You can now edit the contact's name, add a second person (Person 2) if applicable, edit the category you are adding them to, or go ahead and add them to multiple categories.
Click the Close button when you are done.
The contact is added to your database, and you return to the screen you started from. If you added a new contact from the Volunteers screen, for example, you now return to that screen. The contact you just added appears in the Name field.

To add a contact from the Contact screen

Open the Contacts tab in the Keystone ribbon and click Contacts to open the Contacts screen.
If you are not sure whether the contact is already in the database, begin typing their last name in the Person(s) drop-down list (for Person contacts) or the Organization name (for Organization contacts).
For Person contacts, begin by clicking the arrow on the right side of the drop-down list to expand it, then type the person’s last name, followed by a comma, a space, and their first name. (Example: Stewart, Jimmy) For Organization contacts, also start by clicking the arrow on the right side of the drop-down list to expand it, then type the Organization name. If you find the contact in the list, stop here. If you do not, continue with the next step.
Press the Enter key
This opens the Contacts: Organization and Contact window. The contact name you searched for in step 2 is automatically filled in here. The category General & Administration/Undefined (a generic, default category assigned to new records) is also added automatically, but you can overwrite this with another category.
You can edit the contact's name, add a second person (Person 2) if applicable, or add them to multiple categories using the Contacts: Organization and Contact window.
Click the Close button when you are done.
The contact is added to your database, and you return to the Contacts screen. The contact you just entered is now available from the Person(s) or Organization drop-down list, as applicable.

Clicking the @ symbol (lower-right) allows you to set the position of the Contacts: Organization and Contact window within the main Keystone window. After you do this, Keystone will remember this position and display this window in that same position each time you open it. You can set a new position for it by clicking the @ symbol again. This can be used, for example, to position this window relative to the Contacts screen so that you can see the contents of both at the same time. For more information, see the Custom Screen Positioning section.