Creating and Using Smart Lists

You can use a Smart List to quickly see a list of names that meet a set of criteria. For example, you might create a Smart List that will show you everyone who is an active member of your church. As new names are added to your database that meets the Smart List's criteria, those names will automatically appear when viewing the Smart List.

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Creating/editing Smart Lists

Setting up Smart Lists are easy. To do this, you will follow these steps:

Open the People Screen and navigate to the "Smart Lists" tab.
Click on the add a "New Smart List" button and type in a name for your new list in the "Smart List Name" field.
Next, click the "Add Criteria" button to begin adding the criteria for your list. You'll find there are dozens of criteria and options that you can choose from when creating your Smart List...even the User-Defined fields that you have created become criteria options for your Smart Lists.

When creating a Smart List, you must designate whether to include names that "Match ALL of the following" criteria or names that "Match ANY of the following" criteria. If you've added two or more criteria to your Smart List, this determines whether a name must match all of the criteria to be included in your list, or if the name will be included if it only matches one of the criteria.

In this example, a Smart List was created to include all active members. This list can be used to contact these people to invite them to the next big ministry event.

As you can see below, you can also create a Smart List containing one or more other Smart Lists.

Create a New Smart List.
When adding new criterion, select "Smart List" from the list of options.
Then select "Equals" and the name of the existing Smart List you want to include. This feature allows you to conduct more advanced lists of criteria.

Create Smart Lists Using Tags

Need a good way to create smart lists for your teams? Group them together using tags as you create your smart lists!

Learn more ›

For example, you may need to send an email to the people who participate in the High School and Middle School. To do this select each of these independent Smart List names as criteria, and ChurchTrac will create a list of all the names in both lists without duplication.

You can also edit Smart Lists. However, the existing criteria cannot be edited. You must first delete the criteria you want to change by clicking the blue ( ) next to it. You can then create new criteria as normal.

Using Smart Lists

When you view a Smart List, ChurchTrac will display all the names that currently meet the criteria you have specified for that list. Smart Lists can be displayed on the People Screen, as well as be used for reports, labels, and messaging.

Setting a default Smart List for the People Screen

Each user can specify the default Smart List that will be displayed each time the People Screen is opened. This would allow the Youth Minister, for example, to view the Smart List containing only the youth names each time the People Screen is opened. This is accomplished by:

Settings People Screen Preferences Default People Screen Smart List Default Smart Lists

The other lists, such as "Everyone" can still be accessed by selecting it from the Smart List selection box above the people list. But when you click away from the People Screen and later come back to it, the default Smart List will again be displayed.

You can also limit the permissions on a user account so that it can only view the names from Smarts Lists that you specify. To set a user's Smart List permissions go to: Settings User Accounts Smart List Permissions