Entities

Adding Entities
Modifying Entities
Deleting Entities
Merge Entities
Search Entities
Printing Entities List
Printing Entities Labels
Exporting Entities
Importing Entities


Adding Entities
1. Click on the Home Page icon Home Page 2. Click the Entities icon Entity.
3. Under the Details tab, in the “Type” field, select one from the four options available: 4. Click on the “Address” tab; enter the complete mailing address.
5. Click on the “Contact/ Employer/ Occupation” tab and fill in the employer and occupation(for an individual). Phone, fax and e-mail information are for your internal records only.
6. Click Save. Once saved, the entity appears in the top window and the Details tab clears allowing you to enter another entity.
6. The Clear Form button resets the content of the tabs so you may enter a new entity. It does not delete any data you have entered.

Modifying Entities
1. Click on the Home Page icon Home Page 2. Click the Entities icon Entity.
3. Select/highlight the entity that needs correction.
4. Perform changes in the “Details”, “Address”, and/or “Contact/Employer/Occupation” tabs as needed.
5. Click Save.

Deleting Entities
1. Click on the Home Page icon Home Page 2. Click the Entities Icon Entity.
3. Select/highlight entity to be deleted.
4. Click Delete and you will receive a confirmation question, click Delete to confirm the action.
5. The name is removed from the top window.

Merging Entities
At any time, users can merge two duplicate Entities entered in the IDIS program.
Merging entities is permanent and cannot be undone.
1. Click on the Home Page icon Home Page 2. Click the Entities icon Entity.
3. Click Actions in the top menu; click Entities; click Merge.
4. The “Entity Merge” window appears.
5. Select the name you want to eliminate by typing the name in the “Delete this entity” field.
6. In the “Use this entity instead” field type the name you want to use for that entity.
7. Click Merge.
8. On the “Merge Entities Box” click Yes to permanently merge the entities.
9. Click Close to return to the main screen. The names are now merged and the selected entity is listed in all transactions where it was used.

Searching Entities
Quick Entity Search
Advanced Entity Search

Quick Entity Search
To quickly find an entity to select, modify or delete, follow these steps:
1. Click on the Home Page icon Home Page
2. Click the Entities icon Entity.
3. Enable the search by clicking Enable Filter.
4. Using the blank fields on the top of the Entities window, type in your search criteria: quick search
5. Click Filter located to the right of the search box to perform the search. The results will be located below the search box. 6. Click Clear located at the right of the search box to clear your search and restore all Entities.

Advanced Entity Search
1. Click on the Home Page icon Home Page
2. Click the Entities icon Entity.
3. On the top menu, click Search, then Search Entities. (You can also click the Search icon Search located in the top left of the screen.)
4. Enter specific search criteria using the Details, Contact/Employer/Occupation or Contribution tabs, click Search on the bottom of the page. You may title the search results by using the Title of Search Result field. (Note – to display the entire entity list; perform a search leaving all the fields blank).
5. Your search Results will be displayed. On the top menu click Search to access the print and export list options.

Printing Entities List

1. Perform an Entities Search.
2. On the top menu of the “Search Entities Results” page click Search, click Print and choose Print Entity List. The list will be formatted into an Adobe .pdf document on a separate window..
3. On the .pdf viewer click the Print icon Print.

Printing Entities Labels

1. Perform an Entities Search.
2. On the top menu of the “Search Entities Results” page, click Search, click Print and select from labels

Avery 5162 - letter size, Height 1.33" Width 4", 14 labels per page
Avery 5960 - letter size, Height 1" Width 2.63", 30 labels per page
3. The labels will appear in an Adobe .pdf document on a separate window. 4. On the .pdf viewer click the Print icon Print.

Exporting Entities
1. Perform an Entities Search. (Note – to export the entire entity list, perform a search leaving all the fields blank).
2. In the top menu, click Search, click Export.
3. The “Export Entities” page appears. In the “Format Selection” box choose from the Comma-delimited text (.txt) or Extensible markup language, click Export.
           Comma – delimited (txt) – Organizes data in a list as a Text Document in .txt format. A comma-delimited text file surrounds each item of data with quotes and ends each record with a carriage-return/ line feed. These files may be opened using Notepad or Wordpad and may also be imported into Word, Excel and Access.
           Extensible markup language – Organizes date in a list in .xml format. XML is a readable format that consists of an XML document. XML files may be opened in a browser (Internet Explorer) and may be imported into Word, Excel, and Access.

4. After clicking Export a “File Download” window will appear. You may open or save the file to your computer to use in other programs.

Importing Entities

Users can transfer lists of entities (names and addresses) into IDIS v 3.0

Importing Entities - Text Format

1. Click the Entities icon Entity.
2. In the top menu click Actions; click Entities; click Import From File.
3. On the “Entity Import From File” page, click Browse.
4. Select/highlight the file to import; click Open; click Next.
5. In the Import Entities window select the following format options:

           Choose the character that separates your fields: Comma, Tab, or Semicolon.
           First row contains field names: Click the checkbox to the left if your first row is a list of all the field names. If it is not, do not check the box.
          Text Delimiter: Use the drop down box if fields are surrounded by “, ', or {none}.

6. Click Next.
7. Click Finish and Close

Entities to be imported using Text Delimited (*.txt) must be in a specific format as follows:
Ent (Entity).

Category
LastOnlyName - In the case of a person, the person's last name. In the case of a business or committee, the entire name.

FirstName - An individual's first name.

Prefix - The name prefix or title for an individual. (Mr., Mrs., Miss., Ms., etc.)

Address1 - The street address of the entity.

Address2 - If needed, a second address line. (Example: Suite 123, Apt. 4B, Box 123, etc.)

City - The city of the entity.

State - The two-letter postal abbreviation for the state of the entity.

Zip - The five or nine digit Zip Code of the entity. (Nine digit zip codes should contain a hyphen. Example: 60001-9999)

County - The County the entity resides in.

Phone - The phone number of the entity. (Numbers may contain either slashes or dashes. Example: 217/782-4141, 217-782-4141)

Fax - The fax number of the entity. (Numbers may contain either slashes or dashes. Example: 312/815-6475, 312-814-6475)

EmailAddress - The email address of the entity.

Employer - In the case of an individual (IND), the employer of the person.

Occupation - In the case of an individual (IND), the occupation of the person.

NOTE: Enclose each value with a Text Delimiter (“, ', or {none}) and separate each value with a character that separates your fields (Comma, Tab, Semicolon). All fields must be included. Include a Text Delimiter and a character that separates the fields - even if no data exists for a field. Additionally, the last record in the file must be followed by a carriage return.
The importing committee's name cannot contain any of these characters / : * ? or it will not import correctly.


Examples:

Using quotes as a text delimiter and a comma as the field separator.

Organization entity with First Name(not applicable), Prefix(not applicable), Employer(not applicable) , and Occupation(not applicable) missing (not applicable):

"Ent","ORG","State Board of Elections","","","69 W. Washington","Suite LL08","Chicago","IL","60602","Cook","312-814-6440","312-814-6448", "[email protected]","",""

Using apostrophe as a text delimiter and a semicolon as the field separator:

Individual entity, missing Address 2, and Fax:

'Ent';'IND';'Smith';'George';'Mr.';'1234 S. Walnut';'';'Springfield';'IL';'60001';'Sangamon';'217-555-1212';'';[email protected]';'ABC Meet Packing'; 'Manager'


Importing Entities - Extensible Markup Language Format

Users can transfer a list of entities that was previously exported as an extensible markup language format.

1. Click the Entities icon Entity.
2. In the top menu click Actions; click Entities; click Import From File.
3. On the “Entity Import From File” page, click Browse.
4. Select/highlight the XML file to import; click Open; click Next. 

5. Click Next.
6. A message will appear stating that the import is complete. You may click the box next to the Show Import Log to receive information regarding which entities imported successfully. Click Close and Close.
7. You will be directed back to the Entity list page.