Once you've built a filter that you'll want to use again, "monthly donors," "clients due for follow-up," save it as a segment. A segment is just a filter with a name, so you (and your team) can reuse it in one click instead of rebuilding it every time. Start with "How do I find...?" with Filters if you haven't built a filter yet.
1. Build your filter on any list.
2. Choose Save as segment.
3. Give it a clear name that says what it contains (for example "Monthly Donors" or "Clients Needs Follow-up").
4. Choose whether it's private or shared (below), then save.
Every list also comes with a built-in "All ..." segment (like "All Donors") that shows everything; you can't delete that one.
Segments also support filtering by chart, client form, and assessment templates on Clients, Visits, and Cases, including counting entries or totaling a numeric field across them. See Filtering by Related Records for details. The count shown for a segment and the rows you see when you open it always match, including for these template-based conditions.
A segment is saved against the specific list it was built on, not shared across similar lists. For example, Serve's Staff and Volunteers pages are separate lists: a segment saved while viewing Staff only shows up under Staff, and a segment saved while viewing Volunteers only shows up under Volunteers, even though both track people who serve your organization.
• Private: only you can see it. Good for personal work-in-progress views.
• Shared: everyone in your organization can use it. Good for team views that should stay consistent. Only the person who created a shared segment can rename or delete it; others can use it but not change it.
You can also set a segment as your default view for a list, so it's what you see when you open that list.
Your team may build up many segments over time. You can show or hide segments in your own sidebar to keep it tidy; hiding a segment only affects your view, it doesn't delete it for anyone else.
While you're viewing a named segment you created (not the built-in "All ..." view), any changes you make to the grid are saved to that segment automatically as you work:
• Showing, hiding, or reordering columns
• Sorting
• Column-level filters
These changes save a couple of seconds after you stop making them, so there's no separate "save layout" step, and the layout is still there the next time you or a teammate opens that segment. If a save can't reach the server (for example, you lose your connection), CoolFocus retries automatically and also tries again if you navigate away before it succeeds.
This auto-save only applies to segments you've saved with a name. The built-in "All ..." segment and other system-provided views always show CoolFocus's default columns and don't remember per-user changes.
To change which columns show, for example adding Primary Email when it isn't in the list yet, see Adding and Customizing Columns in a List.
On the Clients list, a saved segment's actions menu includes Batch Add Note. Use it to write the same note onto every client in that segment in one step, instead of opening each client and adding the note by hand. This is aimed at cases like logging "sent email about journey INC" across everyone in a "Requests from last quarter" segment.
To add a batch note:
1. Open a Clients segment and choose Batch Add Note from the segment's actions menu.
2. Write the note text. It applies to every client currently matched by the segment's filter and search.
3. Type the confirmation phrase CoolFocus shows (for example "add note to 42 clients") to confirm you want to write to that many records.
4. Confirm. CoolFocus creates one note per client, dated today.
A few things to know:
• Batch Add Note supports up to 1,000 records per run. If a segment has more than 1,000 clients, narrow the filter (for example by date range or status) before batch-adding a note, and run it again for the rest.
• Each client gets its own separate note, just like a note you'd add by hand, so it shows up normally in that client's activity history and in the Notes grid.
• Batch Add Note is currently available for the Clients list only.
Support or an admin can send you a link that opens a list already filtered and laid out for you, without anyone having saved a segment yet. When you open one of these links, CoolFocus loads it as a temporary segment draft on top of the "All ..." view.
You'll see a banner at the top of the list:
Temporary segment draft. Save it before [expiration date] to keep it.
The draft sets the filter and column layout for you the first time the list loads. After that, it behaves like any other view: you can adjust the filter or columns and they won't be pulled back from the draft again.
To keep the draft:
1. Click Save As... in the banner.
2. Name the segment.
3. Save it. Temporary drafts always save as a private segment, so the privacy checkbox is locked on and can't be changed in this dialog.
If you don't save it, the draft is only available for seven days from when it was created. After that:
• Opening the link again shows "This temporary segment has expired," with a note to ask support for a new link.
• If the link doesn't resolve for another reason (for example, it belongs to a different user or organization, or you no longer have access to that list), you'll see "This temporary segment is unavailable" instead.
A segment's filter can include a condition on a chart, client form, or assessment template. If that template is later deleted, or a field it relied on is removed, CoolFocus skips just that condition instead of failing to load the list. A banner above the grid lists which conditions were skipped and why (for example, the template no longer exists, or a field on it no longer exists), and the rest of the segment's filter still applies normally. Edit the segment to remove or replace the skipped condition once you've reviewed the banner.
Some lists let you act on every record in a segment at once instead of one at a time, from the segment's action menu:
• Batch Update changes a field's value across every matching record.
• Batch Delete removes every matching record.
• Batch Add Note (Clients segments only) adds the same note to every client in the segment. See Notes for how it works, including the 1,000-record limit and the confirmation step.
Which batch actions are available depends on the list and your user group's permissions.
• Reusing a view: one click to see the same group again.
• Bulk communication: send an email or text to everyone in a segment. See the Marketing / campaign articles.
• Bulk actions: run Batch Update, Batch Delete, or Batch Add Note across everyone in a segment.
• Reports: many reports let you point at a segment to control which records they include.
The Inbox has its own simple filters (open/closed, sort, assignment) and does not use these saved data segments. Segments apply to record lists like Donors, Clients, and Contributions, not to conversations. If you're looking to organize the Inbox, see Managing Conversations in Inbox instead.
When you save a segment, CoolFocus now checks that its underlying entity type (the record type the segment filters, such as Donors or Clients) is a valid, currently registered type before saving. If it isn't, you'll see a clear error message naming the entity type instead of a generic save failure.
This can happen if:
• You have an old browser tab open from before a custom form or module was removed or renamed.
• A segment was created against a module your organization no longer has enabled.
To fix it, refresh the page and rebuild or re-save the segment against a currently available list. If the error persists, contact support with the entity type name shown in the message.
• Adding and Customizing Columns in a List
• Filtering by Related Records
• Advanced: Writing Queries with CQL
• Notes
