When Bayou & Co. onboarded their 47th med-spa client last spring, their operations lead Priya needed a quick way to get the new guest into their system before the first appointment. She opened the Contacts page, filled in a name and email, tagged the contact as "New client", and was done in under 90 seconds.
Here's how to do the same.
Before you start
The CRM module must be enabled for your workspace. Most industries have it switched on during setup; if CRM isn't in the left sidebar, go to Settings → Modules, find CRM in the list, and flip its switch on. Only admins and owners can enable modules.
You need the crm.contacts.manage permission to create contacts, which owner, admin, advisor, and contributor hold by default. Viewer can browse the contacts list but cannot add new records.
If you are the workspace owner and nobody has chosen a CRM mode yet, a "Who do you sell to?" card appears at the top of the CRM pages. Pick Businesses, Individual customers, or Both before adding contacts — it changes which fields and tabs you see. (The same setting lives at Settings → Modules → CRM → Settings.)
Step 1: Open the Contacts page
Click CRM in the sidebar. The CRM root redirects to Contacts at /crm/contacts, normally the first CRM page in the sidebar. On a fresh workspace the list will be empty — that's expected.
Step 2: Open the New contact dialog
Click New contact in the top-right corner. A dialog opens with two required fields and several optional ones.
Step 3: Fill in the required fields
Enter the contact's First name and Last name. These are the only required fields — you can save a record with just a name and add other details later.
Step 4: Fill in optional details
Add as many or as few of the following fields as you have on hand:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Must be a valid email format | |
| Phone | Free-form string |
| Title | Job title. In B2C mode this field is relabeled "Preferred name" |
| Company | Dropdown of existing companies — only visible in B2B and Both modes |
| Source | Dropdown of contact sources you've configured in CRM settings |
| Tags | Multi-select from workspace tags — only shown when at least one tag exists |
| Notes | Free-form text |
All optional fields can be left blank and filled in later from the contact's detail page.
Step 5: Create the contact
Click Create contact. The dialog closes and the new record appears in the contacts list. Click the row to open the contact's detail page, where you can add activity entries, link deals, and attach files.
What to do next
Once your contact is in the system, you'll want to organize it with tags and track where it came from — see How to organize contacts with tags and sources.
If you need to update any field you left blank, open the contact's detail page and click Edit. Remember that the edit form is not auto-save — click Save to commit changes or Cancel to discard them.