Responsive Forms – 4 – Processing Open Records

Online Forms > Responsive Forms > Open Records tab

Video Outline

Add the Open Records app to your dashboard to alert you to open records when you log in to DonorSnap
Link a form submission to an existing record in your database to avoid creating a duplicate contact record
See what currently exists in DonorSnap for a contact
Load a record into your database

What is an Open Record?

When an online form is completed on your website (someone makes a donation or submits their volunteer hours, whatever your particular online form might be), their information downloads to DonorSnap but it does not automatically update their record in the database under Community > Contacts.

It downloads to the Dashboard, to a “sandbox”, waiting for you to “Process” it. Meaning, match that form submission to the correct record in the database.

You do not need to type in the information submitted on the form, you only need to link it to the correct contact, or tell DonorSnap to add the information as a new contact.

First, get alerted to your “Open Records” by adding the App to your Dashboard.

Click the Arrow to the left to see the list of Open Records.

Once open, start with trying to match by email address. Click the Auto link Contacts by Email button in the top left.

Clicking the “Auto Link Contacts by Email” button will automatically check your database to see if a contact with the same email address already exists. If a matching email address is found in the PersonaEmail, Email1, or Email2 fields, then the record will automatically be linked with that existing contact.

DonorSnap will first search the Email1 field and link the record to the first match found. If multiple contacts share an email address, the oldest contact record will be linked to it. If no match is found in the Email1 field, the Email2 field will be searched for an existing match.

Note the Color Key in the bottom left. If it links a record together, it will change the color from blue (add as a new contact) to grey (update existing contact).

Click the Edit (pencil icon on the left) to see a Comparison Page, showing what the contact entered on the online form and what information is already in DonorSnap.

If no existing contact is found:

If no existing contact is found with email, you can manually look up contacts by Name or Contact.

Click the Edit (pencil icon to the left). Click Change Contact to search for an existing Contact by Name or Email field.

OR when you search and get no results, that means the contact does not exist in your database. Cancel out of the edit screen and click the Load Contact button to add as a New contact.

Attaching a Form Submission to an Existing Contact

Click the Edit (pencil icon) next to the Open Record. And click the Change Contact button.

Search for the name. Highlight the name you want to attach the form to and click Assign Current Contact #.

Use the comparison page to look through the information submitted on the form, and the information currently in the database.

What is on the LEFT, the User Entry, will be the information submitted to the database.

And note that if what is on the left is different than what’s currently in the database, what THEY submitted on the form, will over-write the existing information.

Now, we hope that information will be the same. In a perfect world.

But look at this example. What if Dana has moved recently? She submitted an address different than what’s currently in the database?

What do you do? You have options….

1 – Leave as is. Assume that Dana submitted her New and updated information (whether that’s email/phone/address, etc. ) and that what’s in DonorSnap needs to be updated.

2 – Click the Replace All User Entry Values button at the bottom of the page to have what’s currently In DonorSnap, to overwrite what was submitted on the form (We’d recommend making a quick phone call to the Contact if it’s something different like phone number/address).

This can be extremely useful however, if you have fields embedded in your form for Attributes or Interests. Maybe this form labels Dana as a “Volunteer” under Attributes, but your existing Attributes has Dana listed as Board Member, Parent, Volunteer, and Events committee. You don’t want to lose all that information!

3 – Honestly, piece of paper. Write down the differing information and then fix it manually in their site. Such as they submit a different email than the one in your program. You’ll want to add the NEW email as “Email 2” later after you call them and verify that both are still correct.

Load Contacts

Whether the open record is BLUE (New Contact) or White (updating an existing contact), the final step is to click the Load check-box.

Then click the Blue Load button at the top.

Any records Not-selected for whatever your reason of not wanting them to load, there will also be a Green “Delete all records not selected” button available (not pictured here).

Next Steps:

Last Updated OnAugust 17, 2026