In Beacon there are various ways to find the records you need, whether you're working with a supporter database of 500 - or 5 million - records, using either searching or filtering.
Searching - Best for finding a single record
Filtering - Best for finding groups of records
Searching for records
If you're trying to find a particular record, you'll want to use Beacon's searches. You can search from a few places.
Top search bar (People only)
If you're looking for people, you can easily find them using our dedicated and easily accessible search bar.
You'll be able to:
Search for people from any page in Beacon
See and reuse recent search terms
See recently viewed People records
Our top search bar is designed to be super speedy, so has been optimised to only search by these key fields:
Name
Email address
Phone number
Record ID
We'll show any matching records, highlighting the parts that match your search so you can quickly spot the person you were after.
If there aren't matches based on the fields above, you can choose to either search via the main People list page (as it will search across more fields, such as 'Address'), or add the person as a new record.
Tip: Searching in the top search bar can be a quick way to find a person's Record ID if you're linking records together in a point to another record field.
Record lists
Searching from record list pages is the primary way to find records. List searches are available on all record types, and are very broad; they'll search through the vast majority of fields:
Name
Email
Location
Short text
Long text
Currency
Number
URL
Point to another record
It will even search those fields on linked records (e.g. email address for a payer when searching payments).
To search, click the search icon and enter the information you're looking for. You can also access search by using the S keyboard shortcut while on a list page.
There is some built in fuzziness to list searches, so results are shown sorted by relevance: The best matches will be shown at the top of your list.
Tip: Searching is super useful, but a blunt tool! For finding specific data in specific fields, or to find a list of records that match your criteria, use filters instead.
Point to another record fields
When linking records in a point to another record field you will need to find the record that you'd like to link. Searching here will show a short list of results for you to choose from, or you can create a new record if one doesn't exist already.
Tip: If you're trying to find people and there are multiple results with the same name, try searching in the top search bar first. You can find the correct record and then use their Record ID for the point to another record field instead.
Filtering records
Filtering in Beacon is super powerful, yet readily available.
Finding a subset of records in other systems you may have used often involves navigating to a different area of the platform to run a 'Query' or a 'Report' - often forcing you to view the results in a spreadsheet. In Beacon this is all available inline, and for everyone; it's simply called Filtering.
Filtering basics
All record types can be filtered, you can filter by any field, and you can combine multiple criteria together to form your filter.
To filter:
On any record page, click the filter icon to open the filter drawer
Click 'Add filter' and choose which field you want to set criteria for. Each field will have slightly different option available for how you can filter them. You can add multiple filters.
Click 'Apply' or click back to your list to confirm the filter. Your record list will now only show the matching records.
(optional) If you'd like to save these filters to regularly come back to, click 'Save view'. You'll be able to access this view from the view drop-down on the list page. Learn more about views here.
Once filtered, selecting 'all' records will only select those records that match your current filter. You can now take actions with this subset of records such as updating them, exporting to CSV, exporting to Mailchimp, deleting them, etc.
Note: Filters appear in many places in Beacon; dashboards, cards, rollup fields, export templates, etc. Filter options may vary slightly depending on where the filters are located.
Filtering with Beacon AI
Rather than manually selecting all your filter criteria, you can also simply tell the Beacon AI what you'd like and it will create the filters for you!
It is not only great for saving time, but can also help you to learn how more complex filtering works, like related record filters.
AND / OR filters
If you are using multiple criteria in your filter, you can choose whether your results should match all of them (AND), or any one of them (OR).
To switch between AND and OR operators, you can simply click the button between filters.
Filter groups
Sometimes you may need some criteria to be AND, and some to be OR. In these cases, you can create filter groups to collect criteria together.
To add a new filter group, click the '+ Add filter group' button.
Each filter group can have their own AND/OR operator for the criteria within that group. You can also choose AND/OR between the groups!
Meets criteria filters
When filtering, you can include not only information in the fields of the record type you're on, but also the fields of linked records.
For example, let's say you wanted to find all the donors who work for schools. You'd be on the People list, but the details of the company they work for are not stored there; they're stored on their linked Organisation.
You can use 'meets criteria' filters to access that information!
Your filter would be:
Type is Donor, AND
Organisation meets criteria: Type is School
You could use the same concept to find all the donations from your VIPs, all the subscriptions for 'Family' memberships, or tickets for events that ran last year.
Related record filters
Note: Related record filters and more complex and can be confusing initially! Don't worry, after a few attempts they'll make more sense. You can even use Beacon AI to ask for what you want so that you can learn how it builds these more complex filters.
Similar to meets criteria filters, if the information we would like to filter for is stored on records that link to this one, we can use 'Related record' filters.
For example, if we want to find all donors who have have made a donation this year we need to filter People based on the information on the Payments that are linked to them.
Using a 'Related record' filter allows us to access that information.
Our filter on the People list would be:
Related Payments
Number of related payments, filtered for payment date is this year, is greater than 0
Related record filters are very powerful, and have multiple options to change how you're filtering.
Related field - If the related record you're filtering by can point to the record type you're on in multiple ways (e.g. Payments can point to people as the Payer OR the Fundraiser) then you can specify which field the record should be linked via.
Metric - You can choose what type of criteria is used.
Number of related records
Sum of a number or currency field on the related records
Average of a number or currency field on the related records
Filters - You can further refine which related records are counted towards your metric. This allows you to find someone who has donated a sum >£1,000 in the last year rather than all time.
You could use the same concept to to find all the people who donated to your Summer Appeal, the organisations with more than 10 people linked to them, or the subscriptions that have generated over £500 of lifetime value.
Example filters
For some examples of popular or useful filters, see our dedicated guide page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really filter for anything?
Yes, for the most part! Beacon has extremely powerful infrastructure that allows complex filtering on both the record type you're viewing as well as criteria several steps away.
If you have a large account with millions of records and you find that some filters take a long time, it can be useful to think about how to optimise your filters to be more efficient.