Use contact search on the Contacts page when you need to find contacts that match several criteria. Use a contact picker when you are filling in another field, such as choosing who an activity belongs to, and you only need to select one person by name. Some staff call the Contacts-page search “advanced search” to distinguish it from the universal search bar at the top of Rhythm, but the steps below are for the Contacts-page search.
Search for a Contact
Prerequisites
Your role must include permission to view contacts.
- Go to Contacts. If you have searched before, Rhythm shows your previous results; choose Refine Search Criteria to return to the search form.
- Fill in any combination of First Name:, Last Name:, Organization:, Organization Name:, Contact Roles:, Nickname:, Email Address:, City:, State:, Country:, Number:, Status, and ID:. Every field is optional. State: searches the contact’s own address, not the organization’s billing address state.
- Choose Search.
Result
Rhythm replaces the form with a table of matching contacts, including each contact’s name, organization, email, and location. Select a contact’s name to open their 360 page, or select the organization name to open the organization’s page.
Rhythm remembers your last search criteria in this browser. To run the same search again later, choose Save this Search. A saved search that excludes inactive contacts is a useful reusable active-only list. If your search matches more contacts than Rhythm can show at once, a notice above the results tells you the list is partial.
You can search without entering any criteria, but the results can take noticeably longer because Rhythm checks your entire contact database instead of narrowing by a field.
Tip
When you search by email address only, Rhythm checks only the contact’s primary email address. If the address is saved as a second or third email on the contact, search by name instead.
Tip
Number: searches the contact’s Number, which is the plain numeric identifier shown in Rhythm. ID: searches a different identifier that can include additional characters. Use Number when you need the numeric value for filtering, reporting, or comparing records, because searching or filtering by the wrong value is a common source of confusion. Full contact search by name also includes inactive contacts, so it is a reliable way to find someone a picker or universal search will not show.
If you need a contact’s ID for something like a bulk import, add Contact ID as an output field in a contacts query. You can also open the contact record directly and choose Contact Options › Copy ID to Clipboard.
Email addresses live on the contact or organization record, not in the membership auto-renewal billing-run failure export. If you need contact details for someone in a failed billing run, search for them here or in a CRM report instead of expecting the export to include their email address.
When you build or review complex eligibility criteria elsewhere in Rhythm, test them against a record you already know. Select a contact, or an organization and one of its contacts, then choose Check Eligibility to confirm the criteria behave the way you expect before you rely on them.
List Everyone at an Organization
- Open the organization's page.
- Go to the Organization Contacts tab.
Result
Every contact linked to the organization appears, including their title, email, phone, and roles. You can filter the list and choose whether to show or hide inactive contacts.
If you need an organization’s contacts plus the contacts for every organization below it in its family tree, that information is available as a separate listing. Ask your administrator or use a query if you need it as a report. When a very large organization’s contact list does not fit on screen, Rhythm may provide it as a downloadable file instead of a table.
Pick a Contact from a Field Elsewhere in Rhythm
Many forms across Rhythm, not only in CRM, use a small type-ahead box when you need to choose a person.
- Start typing part of the person's name in the field.
- Choose the matching contact from the suggestions, or from your recently viewed contacts.
Result
The contact is selected in that field.
Contact pickers use the same account-wide search index as global search. They offer only active contacts, so an inactive contact will not appear in a picker, in universal search, or in the Portal. Reactivate the contact’s record to make it searchable there again. If you created a contact moments ago, the picker may not show it immediately because the search index can take a short time to catch up with a brand-new record.
If a picker or universal search cannot find someone you know exists, use full contact search on the Contacts page. It still works when those other tools do not, and you can search there by name, Number, or ID. If you have the contact’s ID from somewhere else, such as an audit log, searching ID: on the Contacts page will open the record directly.
Some pickers let you choose either a contact or an organization in the same control, which is useful when the record could be either kind.
Add a Contact on the Spot from a Picker
When you are choosing a contact and the person is not in Rhythm yet, some pickers offer a quick-add option so you can stay on the page you are using.
- In the picker, choose the quick-add option, if it is offered.
- Fill in the name and any other details the form offers, such as organization, job title, roles, email, and phone.
- Save.
Result
Rhythm creates the new contact and selects it in the field you started from, without leaving the page you were on.
Warning
Quick add relies on the form for required details. Rhythm’s record rules do not require a name, an organization, or a properly formatted email address, although the form asks for a name. If your account has duplicate-email checking switched on, quick add refuses to create a contact whose email already belongs to someone else. A contact saved with no name at all can be very difficult, or impossible, to find again afterward, so it is worth filling in a name even though the form does not strictly require one.
If Something Goes Wrong
| What you see | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| An email-only search does not find a contact you know exists | The search checks only the contact’s primary email address. Search by name instead, or check which email is marked primary on the record. |
| A search finds nothing even though you know the contact exists | Check what you typed. Extra content, such as a pasted email address alongside a name, can prevent a match, so search with just the name instead. |
| Searching by Number: doesn't return the record you expect | As a workaround, run a contacts query with Query Type Contacts › Contacts and include Number as an output field to locate the record. |
| A contact you just quick-added, imported, or created is not offered in a picker yet | The picker searches an index that can lag behind a brand-new or freshly changed record for a short time. Wait a moment and try again. |
| Quick add refuses to save with a message that the email already belongs to another contact | Your account’s duplicate-email prevention setting applies here. Search for the existing contact instead of creating a new one. |
| An inactive or deceased contact does not appear in a picker | Pickers, universal search, and the Portal offer only active contacts. Use full contact search instead, which can include other statuses, or reactivate the record if it should be findable again. |