How to manage organizations

Organizations are the outside agencies, providers, and offices your agency works with, stored as a directory on the **Settings** page. You assign an organization to a client record, which lets you filter clients by organization and use the organization merge tags in your messages.

### Overview

- **What it is:** The **Organizations** tab under **Settings** holds one record per outside entity, each with a name, reference, type, address, and contact details.
- **Why it matters:** Assigning an organization to a client groups that client for searching and bulk actions, and it fills the organization merge tags such as `[AssignedOrganizationName]` in your message templates.
- **Who uses it:** Staff whose account can open **Admin** > **Settings**, plus anyone who edits client records and needs to attach an organization.
- **Expected outcomes:** A single directory of external organizations, clients grouped by the organizations that serve them, and organization contact details available to your messaging.

### Prerequisites

- An account that can open **Admin** > **Settings**
- The organization's name, which is the only field required to create the record
- Your primary system's ID for the organization, which replaces the **Reference** value generated from the name
- Client records already in eCourtDate if you plan to assign organizations to them

### How-To Steps

#### Step 1: Open the Organizations tab

1. Click **Admin** in the top navigation.
2. Click **Settings**.
3. Click the **Organizations** tab.

#### Step 2: Create an organization

1. Enter the organization's name in the **Name** field of the **Create Organization** card.
2. Click **Create**.

Creating the record opens it straight away, so you can move on to the fields below. To reopen an organization later, click **Edit** next to it in the **Organizations** list.

#### Step 3: Complete the organization record

1. Enter your primary system's ID for the organization in **Reference**, replacing the value eCourtDate generated from the name.
2. Select one of your agency's portals in the **Portal** dropdown, or leave **Choose Portal** selected.
3. Select a value in the **Type** dropdown: **Supervision**, **Guardian**, **Law Enforcement**, **Employer**, **School**, **Court**, **Medical**, or **Other**.
4. Enter the street address in **Address** and **Address 2**.
5. Enter the **City**, **State**, **Zip**, and **County**.
6. Enter the **Phone**, **Email**, **Website**, and **Virtual Link**.
7. Enter any notes about the organization in **Description**.
8. Click **Save**.

Several labels on this form show a merge tag next to them, such as `[AssignedOrganizationAddress]` next to **Address**. Click a merge tag to copy it to your clipboard so you can paste it into a message template.

#### Step 4: Assign an organization to a client

1. Click **Clients** in the top navigation.
2. Click **Edit** next to the client you want to update.
3. Scroll to the **Choose Organizations** card.
4. Select the organization in the **Assign Organization** dropdown.
5. Click **Assign**.

#### Step 5: Review the clients assigned to an organization

1. Open the organization record.
2. Read the clients card on the right, headed with the number of clients loaded and the total assigned.
3. Click that heading to open the **Clients** list filtered to this organization.

#### Step 6: Unassign an organization

1. Open the client record.
2. Click the trash button next to the organization in the **Choose Organizations** card.

To clear every client assignment for one organization at once, open the organization record and click **Reset** in its clients card.

#### Step 7: Archive or trash an organization

1. Open the organization record.
2. Click **Tools**.
3. Click **Archive** or **Trash**.
4. Select the **Archived** or **Trashed** checkbox in the **Search Organizations** card to find the record again.

### What to Expect

Clicking **Create** saves the organization and opens its record, with the name you entered and **Reference** filled in from that name (lowercased, spaces turned into hyphens). Complete the remaining fields there and click **Save**, which confirms with an "Organization updated" alert. Assigning saves right away: the organization joins the list in the **Choose Organizations** card on the client, and the client appears on the organization's clients card the next time you open that record. Clicking **Reset** removes every client assignment for that organization and confirms with a "Clients reset" alert.

### Best Practices

- Keep **Reference** identical to the organization's ID in your primary system so client uploads match to the right record.
- Search by **Name**, **Reference**, or **Address** in the **Search Organizations** card before creating a record, so you do not end up with two entries for the same organization.
- Fill in the contact fields you plan to reference with merge tags, such as **Phone** and **Website**, before you send messages that use them.
- Archive organizations you no longer work with rather than trashing them, then use the **Archived** checkbox to find them later.
- Click **CSV** above the results list to download the current directory before a cleanup, so you keep a copy of what was there.

### Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: Where do I find Organizations?**

A: Go to **Admin** > **Settings** > **Organizations**. Organizations is a tab on the **Settings** page, not a top-level menu item.

**Q: Which organization types can I choose?**

A: The **Type** dropdown offers **Supervision**, **Guardian**, **Law Enforcement**, **Employer**, **School**, **Court**, **Medical**, and **Other**. The list is fixed, so you cannot add your own types.

**Q: Can I assign a client from the organization record?**

A: No. Assignment happens on the client record, in the **Choose Organizations** card. The organization record only lists the clients already assigned and offers a **Reset** button that clears them all.

**Q: Can one client have more than one organization?**

A: Yes. Assign them one at a time from the **Assign Organization** dropdown. Organizations already assigned to that client appear disabled in the dropdown, so you cannot add the same one twice.

**Q: How do I see every client assigned to an organization?**

A: Open the organization and click the clients heading on its card, or click **Clients** in the top navigation and click the organization's badge in the search filters.

### Troubleshooting

**Issue:** An organization is missing from the **Assign Organization** dropdown on a client.

**Symptoms:** The organization exists under **Admin** > **Settings** > **Organizations**, but you cannot select it on the client record.

**Solution:** The dropdown loads the first 100 organizations, so check whether your directory is larger than that. Also confirm the organization is not already assigned to this client, since assigned organizations appear disabled, and restore it from **Tools** if you archived or trashed it.

**Issue:** The clients card on an organization shows fewer clients than you expect.

**Symptoms:** The heading reads something like "10 of 240 Clients" and the list stops at ten entries.

**Solution:** The card loads only the ten most recently assigned clients. Click the heading to open the **Clients** list filtered to that organization and review the full set there.

**Issue:** You cannot reach the **Organizations** tab.

**Symptoms:** The **Admin** menu is missing from the top navigation, or the **Settings** page does not show an **Organizations** tab.

**Solution:** Navigation items can be hidden per account, which removes the whole **Admin** menu when **Settings** is hidden and removes single tabs when they are hidden. Ask your agency administrator to unhide **Settings** and **Organizations** for your account.

### Related Articles

- [How to Manage Clients](/how-to-manage-clients)
- [How to Assign Organizations via Uploads](/how-to-assign-organizations-via-uploads)
- [How to Use Merge Tags](/how-to-use-merge-tags)
- [How to Update Clients via Bulk Actions](/how-to-update-clients-via-bulk-actions)