# Contacts, organisations and the timeline

> Keep the people and businesses you work with in Contacts, link people to their organisation, and log every call, meeting and visit on their timeline.

*This article is being updated.*

**Contacts** holds the people and businesses you deal with - customers, suppliers and partners. It has two tabs: **Contacts** for people and **Organisations** for businesses. Every business has Contacts.

## Add a contact or organisation

1. Go to **Contacts** and select **New contact**. On the **Organisations** tab the button is **New organisation**.
2. Under **Record**, choose **Contact** or **Organisation**.
3. Pick the **Type** - **Customer**, **Supplier**, **Partner** or **Other**. A record can be more than one, such as both a customer and a supplier.
4. Fill in the name, email and phone, then select **Create contact**.

If the email address is already on another contact, Prevarro tells you rather than creating a duplicate.

## Find people

Search the list, sort it, or use the filters for type, tags and smart lists. To keep a set of records you come back to, tick them and choose **Save as list**. Your saved lists appear above the table.

The bar that opens when you tick records also has **Archive** and **Delete**, with **Restore** in place of **Archive** when every ticked record is archived. Each row's menu has **Archive** (or **Restore** on an archived record) and **Delete** too.

## Link people to their organisation

Open a contact and select **Link to organisation**. Search for the organisation, or create a new one on the spot with **Create and link**.

An organisation's record lists its people under **Contacts**. Select **Add contact** there to create a new person already linked to it.

## The record

Select a name to open its record. The left side holds the details:

- the name, email, phone and address
- sites - the places you do work at, on a customer organisation or a customer with no organisation
- customer, supplier and partner details, depending on the type
- custom fields and communication preferences

Click a field to edit it.

## The timeline

The right side of a record has the tabs **Activity** and **Notes**, and **Tasks** if your role can see tasks.

**Activity** is the record's timeline. It shows:

- emails and text messages with the person
- touch points you log - calls, meetings and site visits
- system events - changes made to the record, and form responses

An organisation's timeline also includes its people's.

If your role lets you change the record, a person's timeline has a box at the bottom for writing to them. Write the message and select **Send email**. Once your business has switched SMS sending on, the box also offers **SMS** beside **Email**, and a text goes with **Send SMS**. If a message doesn't go, see **Why didn't my message send?**

To log a touch point:

1. On the **Activity** tab, select **Log interaction**.
2. Under **Interaction**, choose **Call**, **Meeting** or **Site visit**.
3. Add a **Flag** if it matters later: **Positive feedback**, **Improvement feedback** or **Complaint**.
4. Add a **Subject** and the **Date**, and the **Time**, **Summary** and **Outcome** if you like.
5. Select **Save interaction**.

Use the filters above the timeline to **Show** **All**, **Messages**, **Touch points** or **Activity**, and to narrow it by date range or **Flag**. On an organisation you can also pick one of its **People**. You can search the timeline too. To change or remove a logged touch point, use **Edit** or **Delete** from its menu.

## Notes

**Notes** holds freeform context - an observation, a preference, a reminder. Type it in the box at the top of the tab and select **Save**. Click a note to change it. Notes can be searched and filtered by date. For calls, meetings and visits, use **Log interaction** instead so they show on the timeline.

## Tasks

The **Tasks** tab lists the tasks linked to the record. An organisation's tab also lists its people's tasks. Search it, or pick **All**, **Open** or **Completed**. If your role lets you add tasks, select **Add task** to create one already linked to the record.