Contacts in Refrens

The Contacts feature helps you store and manage the people you work with inside client, vendor, prospect, or lead organisations.

A company usually has more than one person involved in communication. One person may handle finance, another may manage procurement, and another may be your day-to-day point of contact.

Contacts helps you keep all these people organised in one place instead of storing only the company name.

A contact is a person.

A client, vendor, or lead is an organisation.

One contact can be linked to multiple organisations, and one organisation can have multiple contacts linked to it.

What you can do with Contacts

With Contacts, you can:

• create a separate record for each person
• link a contact to one or more clients or vendors
• mark one contact as the Primary contact for a client
• view all linked clients from the contact itself
• add contacts while creating or editing clients and leads
• use linked contacts in bill documents such as invoices, quotations, proforma invoices, and credit notes

Where to find Contacts

Go to Contacts menu from the left sidebar:

The Contacts dashboard has three tabs:

• Active Contacts shows the contacts you currently use in day-to-day work.
• Inactive Contacts shows contacts that have been archived and are not active anymore.
• Deleted Contacts shows removed records separately, so the main dashboard stays clean.

How Contacts work

Contacts are stored separately from organisations. This means the same person does not need to be created again for every client or vendor.

For example, if one consultant works with two different companies you deal with, you can store that person once as a contact and link them to both organisations.

Each link between a contact and an organisation is saved as a separate relationship. This allows you to store relation-specific information such as role, department, and primary status:

Create a contact

To add a new contact:

1. Go to Contacts menu from the left sidebar
2. Click Create New
3. Fill in the contact details & save

A contact record can include the details such as Name, Email, Phone, Tax Info (Aadhar, PAN, etc.), Social Profile Links, and Address:

View a contact

From the Contacts dashboard, open any contact using the View action:

The contact opens in a side drawer with two tabs:

Contact Details

This section shows the person’s saved information such as name, email, phone number, country, and other details added in the contact form.

Linked Clients

This section shows the organisations linked to that contact.

The linked clients table can include:

• client name
• logo
• role
• department
• client email
• client phone
• state
• country
• GSTN and PAN for India-based clients
• VAT number for non-India clients where applicable

This helps you understand where the contact is connected and what role they hold for each organisation.

Edit, archive, or delete a contact

From the Contacts dashboard, open the row actions for a contact under 'More' options:

Available actions include:

• View
• Edit
• Mark as Inactive
• Delete

Use Mark as Inactive when the contact is no longer active but the record should still remain in the system.

Use Delete when the contact should move out of the active working list.

Link a contact to a client from the client form

Contacts can be linked directly while creating or editing a client.

Open the client form and go to the Linked Contacts section.

To link an existing contact

1. Open the client form
2. In Linked Contacts, click + Link Contact
3. Search for the contact
4. Select the contact from the results
5. Choose the relation type
6. Click Link

After the contact is linked, it appears in the linked contacts table on the client form.

Create a new contact while linking it to a client

If the contact does not already exist:

1. Click + Link Contact
2. Use the Create New Contact option inside the link flow
3. Fill in the contact details
4. Save the contact

After saving, the contact is selected automatically in the previous linking flow so you can continue without starting again.

Mark a contact as Primary for a client

Each client can have one Primary contact.

The primary contact acts as the main point of contact for that client and is used in workflows where a default contact is needed.

To mark a contact as Primary

1. Open the linked contacts table on the client form
2. Click the row action menu for the contact
3. Select Mark as Primary

If another contact was already marked as primary, that designation is removed and assigned to the newly selected contact.

Only one contact can be primary for a client at a time.

Automatic primary assignment

When the first contact is linked to a client, it is marked as Primary automatically.

Unlink a contact from a client

If a contact is no longer associated with a client, remove the relationship without deleting the contact record.

To unlink a contact

1. Open the linked contacts table on the client form
2. Click the row action menu
3. Select Unlink
4. Confirm the action

This removes the contact from that client only.

The contact itself remains available in the Contacts dashboard and can still be linked to other organisations.

If the removed contact was the primary contact, the primary designation is cleared. Another contact is not assigned automatically.

Link a client from the Contacts dashboard

A contact can also be linked to a client from the contact side.

This is useful when you already have the person saved and want to connect them to an organisation later.

To link a client from a contact

1. Open the contact from the Contacts dashboard
2. Go to the linked clients section, or use the dashboard action for linking
3. Search for the existing client
4. Select the client
5. Fill the relation details
6. Save the relation

Relation details can include

• role
• department
• contact relation
• custom relation fields, where available

This creates a contact relation between the selected person and the selected client.

Remove a client from a contact

A linked client can also be removed from the contact side.

To remove the relation

1. Open the linked client row
2. Choose Unlink Client
3. Review the confirmation message
4. Click Confirm

This removes only the relationship.

It does not delete:

• the contact
• the client
• any past document snapshot already saved on invoices or other bill documents

Use contacts in invoices and other bill documents

Contacts can also be used in bill documents such as:

• Invoice
• Quotation
• Proforma Invoice
• Credit Note
• Purchase flows where applicable

In these forms, the contact appears inside the Billed To section when the selected client has linked contacts.

How contact selection works in bill documents

When a client is selected on the document:

• if the client has a Primary contact, that contact is auto-selected
• if the client has linked contacts but no primary contact, you can choose one manually
• if the client has no linked contacts, the contact section does not appear as a selected contact block

If no contact is linked to the client, the form can show a prompt to link one.

Change the selected contact on a document

Inside the document form, open the contact selection drawer to choose a different linked contact.

The drawer shows all contacts linked to the selected client.

From there, select the correct contact and confirm the selection.

Choose which contact details appear on the document

After selecting a contact, choose which fields should appear on the document.

These options can include:

• Name
• Email
• Phone
• Designation
• Department

Name remains selected and cannot be removed. Other fields can be shown or hidden depending on what should appear on the PDF.

This is useful when the document should include only the required contact details.

Remove a contact from a document

A contact is not mandatory on the document.

To remove it:

1. open the contact row on the document
2. click the remove option

This clears the contact from the document and removes those contact fields from the billed-to section.

How contact details are stored in documents

When a contact is used in a document, the document stores a snapshot of that contact’s selected details at the time of save.

This is important because the PDF should continue to show the same addressee even if:

• the contact is edited later
• the contact is unlinked from the client later
• the contact is archived later

The document keeps its saved contact snapshot unless the contact is selected again and re-confirmed from the document form.

Use contacts in leads

Contacts can also be used while creating and editing leads.

In the lead form, the contact section supports searching and selecting an existing contact or creating a new one.

When a contact is selected:

• the lead form pre-fills the contact details
• these values can still be edited in the form
• changes made in the lead form do not update the master contact automatically

This allows the lead to capture context-specific contact information without changing the original contact record.

Contact and customer requirement in leads

In the lead form:

• either Contact or Customer is required
• both are not mandatory together
• subject, pipeline, and stage remain required

This makes the lead flexible enough for cases where you know only the person, only the organisation, or both.

Create or link a contact from lead data

When editing a lead, the system can offer options such as:

• Create contact from this data
• Link to existing contact

This helps convert lead-level information into a reusable contact record when needed.

Best practices for using Contacts

Search before creating a new contact. This helps avoid duplicate records.

Use the Primary tag carefully. It should represent the main person your team usually communicates with for that client.

Store relation-specific details through the client-contact link rather than trying to fit everything into the contact record itself.

Use Inactive status when a contact is no longer active but may still be needed for history or reference.

Use document contact fields only when the addressee matters on the quotation, invoice, or other bill document.

Frequently asked questions

Can one contact be linked to multiple clients?

Yes. A contact is stored separately from organisations and can be linked to more than one client or vendor.

Can one client have multiple contacts?

Yes. A client can have several linked contacts, with one marked as primary.

What happens when a contact is unlinked from a client?

Only the relationship is removed. The contact record remains in Contacts.

What happens if the primary contact is removed?

The primary designation is cleared. Another contact is not assigned automatically.

Can I create a contact while linking it to a client?

Yes. The link flow supports creating a new contact without leaving the client form.

Can I remove a contact from an invoice?

Yes. The document can be saved without a contact if it is not needed.

Will editing a contact change older invoices automatically?

No. Documents keep a saved contact snapshot unless the contact is selected again from the document form.

Updated on: 17/04/2026