Contacts
The office address book. Who wants what right now, and how do I reach them.
An enquiry comes in and gets answered. The person behind it stays. That is why contacts are not a subpage of the inbox: an owner was never an enquiry.
The screen answers one question, and the column order follows from it: who wants what right now, and how do I reach them. So after the name comes the role, then the last activity, then the assigned agent, and only after that the town, the company and the ways to reach them.
The layout
From the top: the single primary action, the views, the filter band, the grid, and the bulk bar once you select rows.
| View | Who is in it |
|---|---|
| All | Every contact |
| Owners | Anyone linked to a property |
| Enquirers | Anyone who has enquired |
| Without property | Anyone not attached to a property |
| Companies | Property managers, notaries, banks, surveyors, trades |
A view is a place and lives in the address. A filter is a setting, and the search is a keystroke: state, not address.
The columns are Name, Role, Last, Agent, Town, Company and Reachable. Which ones you see is remembered.
Below 640 pixels there are rows instead of a table: circle, name, role, time. Seven columns do not fit in 390 pixels, and a table you have to push sideways to see who it is, is the wrong tool there.
The file
A click on the name opens a drawer at the side rather than the whole page: an address book is read across, and the list stays usable beside it. The name is still a real link, so it opens in a new tab with Ctrl and click.
In the file: the roles and ways to reach them, Next up, the history, and the properties panel with the groups Reachable, Person, Address, Assignment, From the enquiry and the consents (GDPR, marketing email, marketing calls, newsletter).
What you can do here
New contact sits at the top and on the N key. On a duplicate the dialog asks and offers Create anyway.
Hovering a row brings up Write email, Call and Copy. The ways to reach someone sit quietly in ink rather than as a column full of links.
Select rows and the bulk bar appears at the bottom with Add to list, Set agent and Delete.
In the file there is also Edit, Merge, New task, Record (a note, "What was discussed?") and Link property.
What the agent does here
It searches the address book, saves contacts and companies, records notes, creates tasks and looks up what it has remembered. Where it created something, the source reads By the agent.
What waits for your yes: deleting a contact. The agent always asks first and shows what it would hit; deletion only happens after your explicit yes.
If two people match a description, it says so and asks which one you mean. It does not guess.
The chat chip is not on this screen: it has its own primary action at the top and its own bulk bar at the bottom, and the chip would be a second control on the same edge. Ctrl or Cmd and J still opens the chat, with this screen as its context.
Worth knowing
A contact needs a way to be reached: email or phone, one of the two has to remain, or nobody can reach them.
Deleting does not take everything with it. Notes and tasks about them remain; the row disappears from your lists.
Merging is final. Notes, tasks, lists and properties move over, the other entry disappears, and that cannot be undone.
People and companies share one address: whoever is looking for the notary looks in the address book, not in a second menu.
Switching views closes the drawer. A drawer belongs to its list.
The role is not set but derived: an owner is someone linked to a property, an enquirer is someone who has enquired.