Working with contacts
Contacts is your company’s directory: every customer, adjuster, and other person you deal with, as one record you can find, edit, and link to projects. Every project for a person points at the same record. XBuild defends that one-record-per-person rule by catching likely duplicates on create and giving admins a merge tool. The project page is rolling out to every account. If Home still opens on the chat box, your account hasn’t switched over yet — contact support@x.build if you’d like it sooner.1. What a contact holds
2. Create a contact
- Open Contacts in the sidebar and click New contact (or Create ▾ → New contact on Home).
- Enter the details — a name is enough to start.
- Save.
3. How XBuild flags likely duplicates
On create, XBuild checks the email and phone number against the directory. Formatting doesn’t matter —(555) 123-4567 and +1 555-123-4567 are the same number, and email matching ignores case.
On a match, XBuild shows the existing contact and offers to use the existing contact. Anything new you typed — an extra phone, a missing company name — is folded into the existing record. There is no “create a duplicate anyway” path; if two records really are different people sharing a number, give one a distinguishing email or phone.
Edits get the same check: changing a contact’s email or phone to one that belongs to a different contact is flagged, and you’re pointed at the conflicting record so you can merge instead.
4. Merge duplicates
You must be an XBuild Administrator to merge or delete contacts.- Open the contact you want to keep.
- Choose the merge option and pick the duplicate to absorb.
- Review the summary — it shows exactly what the surviving contact will hold.
- Confirm.
5. Contacts on projects
Each project has a primary contact — the customer the job is for. Set it when creating the project; the project’s client details and proposals follow it. On the project page it’s the starred row in the Client details widget of the right rail. A project can carry additional contacts — the spouse who signs, the adjuster, the property manager:- While creating the project — once a contact is set, an Add contact chip appears. Each pick becomes an additional contact pill; the first contact stays primary.
- On the project page — open Client details and click Add contact. Leave Set as primary contact off to add them alongside the customer; turn it on only to replace the customer — proposals and the project header switch to that contact.
6. Troubleshooting common issues
- I created a contact and got someone else’s record back. The email or phone matched an existing contact, so XBuild reused it and merged in what you typed. If it’s a different person, edit their details so they don’t share an email or phone with the existing record.
- I can’t find a contact I know exists. Search matches names, company, email, and phone — try the phone in any format. If the contact was merged away, search for the surviving record.
- I don’t see the merge or delete options. Both are limited to XBuild Administrators — see Members and roles.
- I merged the wrong way around. The contact you open first survives; the one you pick is absorbed. Nothing is lost — every email, phone, and project landed on the survivor — so edit the survivor’s name and details to read the way you want.
- I added a contact to a project and it replaced the customer. Set as primary contact was on. Add the right customer back with the toggle on; the other contact stays linked as an additional contact.