Contacts & CRM
The Contacts section is your business address book — upgraded. Every customer, lead, and subcontractor lives here, along with their full history of estimates, projects, invoices, and communications. Instead of hunting through emails or spreadsheets, you can pull up anyone in seconds and see exactly where things stand.
Pull up any contact from your phone while on a job site. Tap their phone number to call directly, view their project history, or add a note — all without switching apps.
The Contact List
When you open Contacts from the left navigation, you see a table of every contact in your account.
Searching for a Contact
The search bar at the top of the list searches across names, company names, phone numbers, and email addresses simultaneously. Start typing any part of the information you remember — the list updates as you type.
Examples:
- Type
"John"to find all contacts named John. - Type
"roofing"to find any contact with "roofing" in their company name. - Type a partial phone number to locate a contact when you only remember part of it.
Filtering the List
Use the Filter button to narrow the list by:
- Contact type — Customer, Lead, Subcontractor, or Supplier.
- Status — Active, Inactive, or Archived.
- Tags — Any custom tags you have applied.
- Created date — Show contacts added within a date range.
- Last activity — Find contacts you haven't been in touch with recently.
Filters stack — you can combine multiple filters at once. Active filters appear as chips below the search bar so you always know what is being applied.
Sorting the List
Click any column header to sort by that column. Click again to reverse the order. You can sort by:
- Name (alphabetical)
- Company
- Last activity date
- Date created
- Total estimate value
Sort by Last activity to quickly find customers you haven't followed up with in a while. A quick call or message to a past customer is one of the fastest ways to land the next job.
Creating a New Contact
Click New Contact in the top-right corner of the contact list to open the contact creation wizard. The wizard walks you through three short steps.
Step 1 — Basic Information
Enter the contact's name and contact type:
- First name / Last name — Required for individual contacts.
- Company name — Optional for individuals; required for businesses.
- Contact type — Choose from Customer, Lead, Subcontractor, or Supplier.
You can also add a custom tag here if you want to group this contact with similar contacts (for example, a tag like "Commercial" or "Repeat Customer").
Step 2 — Contact Details
Add the ways you can reach this person:
- Phone numbers — Add multiple numbers and label each one (Mobile, Office, Home).
- Email addresses — Add multiple emails and label each one (Personal, Work).
- Physical address — Street, city, state, and ZIP. This populates automatically on estimates and invoices.
Step 3 — Notes and Source
- Lead source — Where did this contact come from? (Referral, Website, Yard Sign, Door Knock, etc.) Tracking sources helps you understand what marketing is working.
- Initial notes — Add anything useful about this contact right at the start: how you met them, what they're looking for, or important preferences.
Click Create Contact to save. The contact opens directly so you can start working with it immediately.
You can always come back and fill in missing information. You do not need everything complete before saving.
The wizard above always creates a brand-new contact — it doesn't check for existing matches. If you ask Scout to create a contact instead, it checks for existing matches by email or phone (updates the existing contact automatically) or by name/address (asks you before creating a separate one). Either way, an incomplete address (missing city, state, or ZIP) is fine — you can save a contact and fill in the rest later.
The Contact Detail View
Clicking any contact's name opens their full detail view. This is the single source of truth for everything related to that person or business.
Contact Information Panel
The left panel shows all stored contact information: name, company, phone numbers, email addresses, physical address, tags, lead source, and any notes. Click View all details to open the details modal, then use its Edit mode to update any of this information.
Activity Summary
Across the top of the detail view, summary cards show:
- Open estimates — Estimates that have been sent but not yet accepted or declined.
- Active projects — Projects currently in progress.
- Outstanding invoices — Invoices that have not been paid.
- Total billed — Lifetime revenue from this contact.
Tabs
The tabbed area on the right side of the detail view organizes all related records.
Estimates Tab
Lists every estimate ever created for this contact. Each row shows the estimate number, title, total amount, status (Draft, Sent, Accepted, Declined), and date. Click any estimate to open it.
Use the New Estimate button on this tab to start a new estimate pre-linked to this contact — you will not have to re-enter any contact information.
Projects Tab
Lists all projects associated with this contact. See Projects for details on how projects work. Click New Project to create one directly from this contact record.
Invoices Tab
Lists all invoices for this contact. See Invoicing for details. Click New Invoice to create one directly.
Proposals Tab
Lists all proposals sent to this contact. See Proposals for how proposals work.
Agreements Tab
Lists all service agreements for this contact. See Service Agreements for details.
Files Tab
Attach any files relevant to this contact: signed contracts, permits, photos, or documents. Drag and drop files here, or click Upload. Files are stored securely and accessible from any device.
Communication History
The Activity feed on the right side of the contact detail view shows a chronological log of every interaction recorded for this contact:
- Emails sent — Estimates, invoices, and proposals emailed from ContractorScope AI appear here automatically.
- Notes — Manual notes you or your team add.
- Status changes — When an estimate is accepted, a project is closed, or an invoice is paid.
- Calls logged — Phone calls you log manually.
Adding a Note
Click Add Note to write a note against this contact. Notes are timestamped and attributed to whoever wrote them. Use notes to record:
- What was discussed on a call.
- Customer preferences or complaints.
- Follow-up reminders.
- Site visit findings.
Logging a Call
Click Log Call to record a phone call. Enter the date, duration, and a brief summary of what was discussed. This keeps a complete record of every conversation without relying on memory or separate notes apps.
Get in the habit of logging calls immediately after hanging up. Even a two-sentence summary can save you a lot of confusion weeks later when you are trying to remember what the customer said about materials or budget.
Linking Estimates and Projects
When you create an estimate or project from the contact detail view, it is linked automatically. You can also link existing records:
- Open the Estimates or Projects tab.
- Click Link Existing.
- Search for the estimate or project by number or title.
- Click Link to attach it.
Linked records appear in the tab and in the activity feed.
Archiving a Contact
Archiving removes a contact from your active list without deleting any of their history. This is useful for past customers you do not expect to hear from again, or leads that went cold.
To archive a contact:
- Open the contact detail view.
- Click the More menu (three dots) in the top-right corner.
- Select Archive Contact.
- Confirm in the dialog.
Archived contacts do not appear in the default contact list. To see them, apply the Archived filter. You can unarchive a contact at any time.
Archiving a contact does not affect any linked estimates, projects, or invoices. Those records remain intact and searchable.
Unarchiving isn't only manual: if a new web-form submission or a lead from a connected CRM/marketing integration comes in and matches an archived contact by phone or email, that contact is automatically reactivated and the new inquiry is logged on its activity feed — except when the phone number is on your do-not-call list, or when it matches more than one contact, in which case the new inquiry is flagged for manual review instead. Otherwise, a past customer or cold lead who reaches back out becomes an active lead again without anyone having to notice and manually unarchive them first.
Bulk Actions
From the contact list, check the boxes next to multiple contacts to access bulk actions:
- Export — Download selected contacts as a CSV file.
- Apply tag — Add a tag to all selected contacts at once.
- Archive — Archive all selected contacts.
Bulk actions appear in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen when one or more contacts are selected.
Importing Contacts
If you have an existing customer list in a spreadsheet or another CRM, you can import it:
- From the contact list, click Import.
- Download the CSV template to see the required column format.
- Fill in the template with your data.
- Upload the completed CSV.
- Review the import preview — the system highlights any rows with missing required fields.
- Click Confirm Import.
The import process matches on email address to avoid creating duplicate contacts. If an email address already exists, the importer updates the existing record instead of creating a new one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have two contacts with the same name? Yes. Contacts are identified by their unique ID, not their name, so duplicate names are allowed. Use company name, phone number, or email to distinguish between them.
Can I assign contacts to specific team members? Yes. Open the contact detail view, click the Assigned To field in the contact panel, and select a team member. That person will see this contact highlighted in their personal view.
Is there a limit to how many contacts I can have? No hard limit — ContractorScope AI scales to as many contacts as your business needs.
Next Steps
Now that your contacts are set up, here's where to go next: