Managing and Adding Client Contacts in NextCrew CRM

Every client has people you deal with. The person who calls in orders. The one who approves timesheets. The one who pays the invoice.

That is the contact on file. Everything below is about the lists, the exports, and the times somebody cannot be found — come back to it when one of those happens.

Who this applies to

• Account managers — you own the client relationship. You know who the real contacts are.
• Client coordinators — you're the one who finds out a contact has changed. Usually the hard way.

Why this matters

A stale contact breaks the chain quietly. Orders, approvals and invoices all route to people on the client record. Nobody tells you the address is dead. You find out when a shift goes unfilled.

You lose the history when people leave. Notes on a contact carry what was agreed and when. Delete the person, lose the context.

Follow-up only works if someone owns it. Follow-Up Status is what drives your nurture list. A contact with no status never surfaces.

The workflow

There are two ways in. Which one you use depends on where you already are.

Steps

Step 1: Decide where you're starting from

If you're already looking at the client, use their record. The client field gets filled in for you and you can't attach the contact to the wrong company.

If you're not, go to CRM > Contacts.

Both routes create the same record. The client record route is harder to get wrong.

Step 2: Open the add form

From a client: open CRM > Clients, pick the client, and find the Contacts panel on the Overview tab. Click + ADD.

From the global list: go to CRM > Contacts and click + Add Contact.

Step 3: Fill in who they are

Three fields are required: First Name, Last Name and Email Address. Everything else you can come back to.

The rest of the form: Clients · Middle Name · Preferred Name · Pronouns · Status (defaults to Active) · Follow-Up Status · Department · Title · Phone · Extension · Alternate Phone · Website & Social Media · Birthday · Primary.

Title is worth filling in properly. It's how you tell three people at the same client apart in a list six months from now.

Step 3a: Decide whether this person is the Primary contact

There's a Primary checkbox at the bottom of the form. It isn't just a label.

The primary contact is the one that goes on the client's invoices and on their orders. So tick it for the person who should be receiving those. Usually that isn't the same person who calls the work in.

Leave it clear for everyone else. If every contact is primary, none of them are.

Step 4: Set their Follow-Up Status

This is the field that decides whether the contact shows up in your follow-up work later. Set it now or it stays empty forever.

Out of the box the options run: Pending Response · Scheduled Follow-up · Reattempting Contact · Negotiation in Progress · Requires Internal Approval · Sent Proposal · No Response After Multiple Attempts · Follow-up Complete.

They read like sales stages because that's what they are. If your team works differently, change them. The list is yours, not ours.

What governs this step

Full detail: Guide to Managing Follow Up Statuses.

If this isn't working → Contact doesn't appear in the list

Step 5: Add a note about who this person actually is

This is the step people skip. It's also the one that pays off.

Not "VP of Operations" — that's the Title field. Write what you'd want to know before your next call. Who they report to. What they care about. What went wrong last time.

Use the Notes section on the record. Notes are dated and stack up over time.

Two things make notes worth more than a scratchpad.

Categories

Notes get categorised, and categories are set per record type.

Categories do exist for client notes — Call Log, Client Feedback, Client Preferences, Billing/Payment Notes, Follow-Up Notes, Internal Discussion, Proposal/Quote, Meeting Notes, Action Items/Tasks — and for crew, job, offer, task, timesheet, invoice and violation notes. If you want them on contacts too, an admin has to add them.

Templates

At the top of the Add Note panel there's a template dropdown and a Save button. Pick a template to drop its wording straight in. Or write a note and click Save to keep it for next time. It's all in that one panel. Nothing to set up in Settings first.

You can also share a template. Share it and everyone can use it, which is how a whole team's call logs end up phrased the same way. Phrased the same way is what makes them findable later.

Free text is still fine for anything that doesn't fit a pattern. Templates are for the repetition.

What governs this step

Full detail: Code Table Guide for Note Categories and Unlocking Team Knowledge: Mastering Notes & Note Templates.

Step 6: Check the phone and email are verified

Phone and email each carry a verification badge on the contact record. Look at them before you rely on them.

An unverified address will still sit there looking fine. It just won't reach anyone.

If this isn't working → Details show as unverified

Step 7: Decide whether this person needs a login

Assuming it isn't automatic, not every contact should have one. A billing clerk who needs to download invoices, yes. Someone you email twice a year, no.

Ask yourself: will they do something in NextCrew themselves — request a job, approve a timesheet, look at an invoice? If not, leave it. You can always add access later.

Access is granted from the contact record itself, not from the client record. The decision sits with the person, which is where it belongs.

If your system creates accounts automatically, the account is already there and there's nothing to click.

If you do want to give them one and it wasn't created for you:

1. Open the contact record.
2. Find the User Account section on the right-hand side.
3. Click Create User Account.

That sends the contact a welcome email with a link to the portal and instructions for setting their password. Once they log in they can see their own jobs, and nobody else's.

Full detail: Allow your clients to access the self-service portal.

If this isn't working → Contact can't log in

Step 8: Save, then find them in the Contact List

Save the record, then open CRM > Contacts. If they're not there, that's usually a filter, not a failed save. See the first tree below.

While you're here, it's worth knowing what this screen is actually for. It isn't just a directory. It's how you keep a working list of the contacts that matter right now.

You can filter it by any of the information you've been filling in — client, status, follow-up status, department, title. Then save that filtered view and give it a name. Open the saved view tomorrow and it rebuilds itself against current data.

Two lists most account managers end up wanting:

• My active contacts — status active, filtered to the clients you own. Your working directory.
• Needs follow-up — filtered by Follow-Up Status. This is your call list, and it maintains itself.

Make this faster next time

Four setup jobs, none longer than ten minutes, that you only do once.

Save the contact lists you keep rebuilding

If you filter this screen the same way every Monday, stop rebuilding the filter.

1. Set the filters how you want them.
2. Click Save View and give it a descriptive name.
3. Pick it from the dropdown next to the page title next time.

Saves: two or three minutes every time you open the screen. More importantly, you stop forgetting one of the filters.

Your last view is remembered for you

There's no default to set. NextCrew stores whichever view you used last and opens the screen on it next time.

So pick your working list once and CRM > Contacts keeps giving you that instead of every contact in the system. It's per person, so yours and a colleague's can differ.

Saves: the two clicks you were making every single time, and the days you forgot to make them.

Share the view with whoever else needs it

Sharing is a separate step from saving. Once the view is saved, click Share, enter the person, and choose whether they get it view-only or editable.

Full detail: Your Data, Your Way: Making the most out of the list, view and filters.

Build your note templates once

Write down the notes you type most — called and left a message, sent rates, no answer, meeting booked — and save each as a template from the notes panel. Share the ones the whole team should be using.

Saves: the typing. But the real gain is consistency. Templated notes are searchable in a way that freehand ones aren't, because everyone phrases them the same.

Set your columns and leave them

The Contacts list has a column configuration control — the cog icon at the top right. Turn off what you never read. Turn on what you always scroll sideways for. Follow-Up Status is the usual one.

Saves: the horizontal scrolling, every single time.

Get the list out

Sooner or later someone asks for the contacts in a spreadsheet. A client wants to check who you have on file. Finance wants every billing contact. You want to work a call list offline.

There are two ways, and the one you want depends on how much control you need.

Export straight from the Contacts list

This is the quick one, and it's the one most people want.

1. Open CRM > Contacts.
2. Set it up the way you want it — filters, the columns you care about, the order they sit in, and a grouping if you want one.
3. Click Export.

What you see is what you get. The file matches the screen — your filters, your columns, in your order. Hide a column and it isn't in the file. Group by client and the file comes out grouped by client.

Run the Client Contact List report

There's also a standing report called Client Contact List. Open Reports and run it to export client contacts without setting a screen up first.

Use the report when you want the standard cut and you want it the same way every time. Use the list export when you want to decide exactly which columns come out.

Full detail on configuring a list before you export it: Effortless Data Exports: How to Export Lists to Excel.

→ If it's not working

Contact doesn't appear in the Contacts list

Also asked as: added a contact but can't find them · contact list is missing people · client contact not showing up

Check 1 — Is a filter hiding them?
The Contacts list applies a filter by default. Look at the Filter button. If it shows a number badge, filters are active.

• Badge is showing → clear the filters and search again. Fixed.
• No badge, still missing → Check 2.

Check 2 — Is their Status set to something you're not looking at?
Contacts carry a Status field. An inactive contact won't show in an active-only view.

• Status is inactive → that's the answer. Change it if the person is still current. Fixed.
• Status is active → Check 3.

Check 3 — Are you looking at the right client?
Open CRM > Clients, find the client, and check the Contacts panel on their Overview.

• They're on the client record but not the global list → Escalate. The record saved but isn't indexing. Send support the contact name, the client name, and the time you saved it.
• They're not on the client record either → the save didn't complete. Add them again and watch for an error.

Phone or email shows as unverified

Also asked as: gray tick next to the email · client says they never got the message · contact email not verified

Check 1 — Is the address actually right?
Open the contact and read it character by character. Typos in a client email are the single most common cause.

• It's wrong → correct it and save. Fixed.
• It's right → Check 2.

Check 2 — Has anything ever been sent to it?
Verification state and delivery are not the same thing. An address can be correct and unverified.

• Nothing sent yet → send one message and check the state again.
• Messages sent and failing → Escalate with the address and the dates you sent.

Contact can't log in

Also asked as: how do I give my client a login · client contact can't log in · client never got the welcome email

Adding a contact and creating a login are two different things — but on some systems the second happens automatically with the first. Start by finding out which you have.

Check 1 — Does a user account exist for them?
Open the contact record and look at the User Account section on the right.

• It still says Create User Account → that's the answer. No account was ever made. Create one. Fixed.
• An account exists → Check 2.

Check 2 — Did the welcome email reach them?
Check the email address on the record character by character, then ask them to look in spam.

• Address was wrong → correct it and resend from the user account settings. Fixed.
• It's in their spam → have them use the link from there, and check your sender domain is authenticated.
• Address is right and nothing arrived → have them use Forgot Password on the login page. If that also fails, escalate with the contact name, client name and email address.

How to know it's complete

• ✅ The contact appears in CRM > Contacts with the right client next to their name
• ✅ Title is filled in, not blank
• ✅ Follow-Up Status is set
• ✅ There's at least one note explaining who this person is
• ✅ You've looked at the phone and email verification badges
• ✅ Exactly one contact at this client is marked Primary

Best practices

One contact per person, not per role. When the AP clerk changes, you want the history of the person and a clean handover. Not a record called "Billing" that three people have used.

✍️ Write the note as if you're handing the account over tomorrow. Because one day you are.

Decide whether logins should be automatic. If your system creates them for every contact, everyone you add gets access — including the person you only email twice a year. Access is easy to add later and awkward to take back, so it's worth knowing which way yours is set.

Check the contact before a rate conversation, not during one. Thirty seconds of reading notes beats being told something you should have known.

Related articles

• How to Add a New Client in NextCrew — creating the client record a contact hangs off, before you add anyone to it
• Allow your clients to access the self-service portal — what a contact can actually do once they have a login, and how parent-level access works
• Guide to Managing Follow Up Statuses — changing the eight default statuses to match how your team sells
• Code Table Guide for Note Categories — adding note categories, including the contact categories that don't exist by default
• Unlocking Team Knowledge: Mastering Notes & Note Templates — building and sharing the note templates in Step 5
• Your Data, Your Way: Making the most out of the list, view and filters — grouping, column config, saved views and what a shared view lets the recipient do
• User Guide to Manage Configuration for CRM — every other CRM setting behind these screens
• Admin guides to managing company permissions — who on your team is allowed to add and edit contacts

FAQ

Q: Can one client have more than one contact?
A: Yes, as many as you need.

Q: What's the difference between adding from the client record and from the Contacts list?
A: Nothing, except that starting from the client record fills the client in for you. Starting from the global list means you pick it, which is one more chance to pick the wrong one.

Q: Someone left the client. Do I delete them?
A: Change their Status instead. Deleting loses the notes and the history of what was agreed with them.

Q: What's the difference between Title and Department?
A: Title is their job. Department is which part of the business they sit in. Both are free text.

Q: Does adding a contact give them access to NextCrew?
A: It depends on how your system is configured. On some setups a login is created automatically with every contact. On others you create it yourself from the User Account section on the contact record. Check that section on a contact to see which way yours works. See Step 7.

Q: How do I get a client's contacts out into a spreadsheet?
A: Two ways. Set up CRM > Contacts how you want it and click Export, or run the Client Contact List report. See Get the list out.

Q: Can I choose which columns come out in the export?
A: Yes. The export matches your screen exactly — your columns, your order, your filters, your grouping. This works on every list in NextCrew, not just Contacts.

Q: How many client logins can I create?
A: There's no limit.

Q: Can a client contact see other companies' jobs?
A: No. They see only what's associated with their own client account. The one exception is a contact created at a parent client, who can see every child client underneath.