Contacts overview

The Contacts section is where your team keeps customer records. A customer record connects a person or company to their cars, billing history, documents, portal access, tags, notes, and communication history.

​

What you will accomplish

After reading this overview and the linked how-to guides, your team will be able to:

• Add or import customers and keep contact details accurate.
• Find customers quickly using search, filters, and table, card, or board views.
• Organize leads and active customers with CRM stages, types, sources, and tags.
• Link the right cars and documents before billing or portal invites.
• Invite customers to the portal and help them sign in with confidence.

Use Contacts whenever you need to answer questions like:

• Who owns this car?
• What is the best email or phone number for this customer?
• Has this customer been invited to the portal?
• What will this customer see after they sign in?
• Which customers are leads, active customers, or former customers?
• Which documents, invoices, and cars belong to this customer?

Click Contacts in the sidebar, then All Contacts (or a customer-type page) to see your full customer list.

​

How the Contacts area is organized

The Contacts item in the left sidebar opens a whole area of the app—not just one page. Think of it as your customer directory with shortcuts for different kinds of relationships. Vendors live under Contacts in the sidebar. Use this page for outside providers you pay—not for customers who pay you. Click the arrow beside Contacts to expand the list. Each link opens customers filtered by customer type.

​

What you can do from Contacts

• Add a customer — create one customer record at a time. See Add a customer.
• Import customers — bring in a spreadsheet when you are moving from another system. See Import customers, cars, events, and photos.
• Find and filter customers — search by name, email, phone, company, status, stage, type, or source. See Find and filter contacts.
• Work with customer type lists — open Storage, Detailing, Marketplace, and other focused lists from the Contacts sidebar. See Work with customer type lists.
• View and edit customer details — update name, email, phone, address, company, birthday, and CRM information. See Edit customer details.
• Customize the contact page — hide unused blocks (such as Market Interests) and reorder the rest so your team sees cars, activity, and billing first. See Customize the contact page.
• Add customer notes — leave team-only or customer-visible notes so the next teammate knows preferences and follow-up. See Add and manage customer notes.
• Track market interests — record vehicles a customer wants to buy with year, make, model, and budget. See Track customer market interests.
• Review activity and history — see emails, texts, invoices, and event changes on the customer timeline. See Review customer activity and history.
• Manage billing on the record — add the customer to payment processing and review payment methods. See Manage billing on a customer record.
• Work with vendor contacts — add outside detailers, transporters, and contractors under Contacts > Vendors. See Work with vendor contacts.
• Manage additional contacts — add a spouse, assistant, bookkeeper, or vehicle manager with their own communication preferences. See Manage additional contacts.
• Link cars and documents — connect vehicles, contracts, files, billing, and history to the correct person. See Link cars and documents to a customer.
• Invite a customer to the portal — send a sign-in link so the customer can view the information your team has prepared. See Invite a customer to the portal.
• Guide a customer through the portal — help customers sign in, find cars, review events, and understand billing. See Guide a customer through the portal.
• Understand portal access levels — learn the difference between Full and Ticket-only access. See Understand portal access levels.
• Export the customer report — sort and download customer data for reviews and follow-up lists. See Export and use the customer report.
• Handle duplicates — migrate, restore, or delete mistaken records safely. See Handle duplicate or merged customer records.

​

Customer journey from record to portal

Most customer portal problems start before the customer signs in. Use this simple flow to give customers a smooth first experience: The portal gives customers a self-service view of the information your team has prepared for them.

​

Finding customers quickly

The All Contacts page (and each customer-type page) supports search, filters, and three view modes so you can find the right customer on the first try. Open Filters & settings near the search bar to change views, show or hide table columns, and narrow the list. Card view helps your team browse customers visually—useful when you recognize people by photo or name at a glance. Board view groups customers by pipeline stage. Drag a card to another column when their stage changes. For step-by-step help with search and filters, read Find and filter contacts.

​

The customer detail page

Click any customer to open their detail page. This single page is the source of truth for everything about the customer. Your team can hide or reorder these blocks in Settings > CRM — see Customize the contact page.

• Personal & Contact — name, company, email, phone, address, birthday, profile photo, and location assignment.
• CRM Information — pipeline stage, customer source (with detail), customer groups (types), and freeform tags.
• Customer’s Cars — all vehicles linked to this customer, with quick actions to assign more.
• Contacts — additional people associated with the customer account (spouse, assistant, bookkeeper, etc.) with individual communication preferences and portal access. In settings this block is named Additional Contacts.
• Customer Notes — short messages your team adds on purpose. See Add and manage customer notes.
• Market Interests — vehicles the customer wants to buy (when your facility sells or sources cars). See Track customer market interests. Hide this block if you never source cars.
• Documents & Contracts — contracts, agreements, and uploaded files tied to the customer.
• Activity Feed — a timeline of communications, events, and changes. See Review customer activity and history.
• Billing Setup — payment methods, payment history, and fee configuration (when payments are enabled). See Manage billing on a customer record.

Customer Notes and Market Interests live on the same customer page—scroll past CRM Information to find them. Market Interests records what a customer wants to buy—not cars you are selling. Use it when a collector asks you to keep an eye out for a specific model. The top of the customer detail page shows personal information and quick-edit fields.

​

How-to guides

​

Recommended first-time setup order

If your facility is new to Car Storage Software, use this order: