Help • Contacts & companies

Adding your first contacts and companies

How to add the first real customers to your workspace, link them to companies, and keep records clean as you grow.

⏱ 6–8 minutes to read 👥 For: Owners and admins responsible for keeping customer records organized.

1. Overview

Before you can send quotes or schedule work, you’ll want your core customer list in place. CrossMerg makes this simple: every person or company becomes a “contact,” and every contact has a clean history of quotes, jobs, notes, and files.

This guide walks you through:

  • Creating your first contacts
  • Adding companies and linking people to them
  • Understanding the relationship between contacts, companies, quotes, and jobs
  • Best practices so your workspace stays clean as you grow

2. Step-by-step

Step 1 — Add your first contact

On any screen, click the + Add Contact button. You’ll see a small, simple form with the basics:

  • First name & last name
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Optional: address or notes

Step 2 — Decide if this contact belongs to a company

If you work with homeowners, they usually won’t have a company. But if you work with property managers, contractors, HOAs, or B2B clients, you’ll want to create a company record and link people to it.

To create a company:

  1. Go to Contacts
  2. Click Add Company
  3. Enter the organization name and details

Step 3 — Link people to companies (optional)

When adding a contact who works for a company:

  • Select the company from the Company dropdown
  • Save the contact

Linking them means:

  • Quotes and jobs tied to that person will also appear under the company
  • Notes and files can be viewed in one shared place
  • You keep a clear record of who the decision-maker is

Step 4 — View a complete contact record

After saving, click into the contact you created. You’ll see tabs for:

  • Details – contact info and company link
  • Quotes – all pricing you’ve sent them
  • Jobs – active and past work
  • Files – images, documents, job photos
  • Notes – internal comments or reminders

Step 5 — Best practices for adding contacts

To keep your system clean:

  • Use one record per person. Search before creating a duplicate.
  • Add companies only when relevant. Homeowners should stay as individuals.
  • Use notes for anything important. Notes help teammates understand context.
  • Attach files early. Job photos and PDFs stay organized when attached from the start.

3. Tips & common questions

“Should I import a big spreadsheet before doing anything else?”

Not yet. Add 3–5 real customers manually first so you learn how contacts work. Once that feels natural, importing a spreadsheet becomes straightforward.

“If a company has multiple contacts, who gets the quote?”

You pick the specific person when creating the quote; the company still sees the full history.

“Can I add custom fields?”

Yes. If your workspace uses special details (e.g., gate code, property type), you can enable custom fields so they show on the contact form.

“What if a contact changes companies?”

You can update the company link at any time. Past quotes/jobs stay tied to the original company unless you choose to migrate them.

4. What to read next

Once you’ve added a few contacts and companies, these next guides build naturally on top:

Why teams choose CrossMerg

  • Fewer status calls because clients can see what’s happening.
  • Faster approvals because the next step is obvious.
  • Cleaner payments because invoices have context and history.
  • A more professional client experience without enterprise complexity.

A note from Peter, founder of CrossMerg

If you tell me what your clients struggle with today (approvals, payments, scheduling, status updates), I’ll recommend the smallest portal step that makes a real difference — without rewriting your whole stack.

Peter Enzinger

Founder, CrossMerg

How we build portal experiences

Client-first language

We translate internal workflow into simple client-facing steps that reduce friction.

Lightweight rollout

Start with one feature (quotes or invoices) before rolling out deeper portal options.

Works with your reality

We respect your team size, tools, and capacity — no forced big-bang migrations.

Start small and expand later. No long-term contracts or surprise fees. Built and supported by a small, US-based team.