**How to create a contact in WrkLst, what the record holds, and how to find a contact again. This article describes WrkLst 10.**

## Why contacts are worth doing properly

WrkLst is built on the connection between works and people. A contact is not just an address book entry: it accumulates that person's history with you — the works they have shown interest in, the waiting lists they are on, their sales, the exhibitions they were part of, and their connections to other contacts. That is what makes it possible to approach a collector with something relevant rather than cold.

## Creating a contact

Open **Contacts** and choose **Add contact**. The form opens in the page; its sections, from the top:

<!-- shot:contacts-overview -->
![The contacts list and its toolbar: 1 Search contacts · 2 Filter · 3 Table view · 4 Basket · 5 Import contacts · 6 Add contact](https://support-admin.wrklst.art/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBiUT09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--14035cf0772b88a2bd86adb31b996abcf92687b1/en-contacts-overview.jpg)

*The contacts list and its toolbar: 1 Search contacts · 2 Filter · 3 Table view · 4 Basket · 5 Import contacts · 6 Add contact*

<!-- shot:contact-add-form -->
![The form for a new contact.](https://support-admin.wrklst.art/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBhUT09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--65fe16af490f7ac5ce3f88bb6b307e31df6c19d4/en-contact-add-form.jpg)

*The form for a new contact.*

* **Name & identity** — the **Type** (a person or a business), salutation, **First name** and **Last name**, or the **Business name**. A person can be linked to a company: click **Business name** and your businesses appear straight away, each with its logo. **Add a partner** adds a second person to the record, with a **Shown couple name** for letters; **Synonym names** are other names the contact can be found by, and **Custom greeting** overrides the salutation. While you type, WrkLst points out **Possible duplicates already in your contacts**.
* **Telephones**, **Emails**, **Addresses** and **Links & social media** — as many of each as you need, one marked **Primary**. **Find address…** looks an address up and fills in the parts; the record then shows it on a map.
* **Tags**, **Interest** (in artists or works, optionally **Confidential**) and **Waitlists**.
* **Notes & information** — notes and **Confidential notes**, birthdate, **Contact source** and art fair, **Mark address as verified**, **VAT ID # (EU)** and **Resale # (US)**, and **Confidential contact**, which hides the record's details from users without the permission to reveal them.
* **Contact images**, **Connections** to other contacts — **Married**, **Partner**, **Related**, **Employed**, **Represented** and more, professional or personal — and the two roles **Inventory artist** and **Documentarian / photographer**.

Save, and you are returned exactly where you came from: the list you were browsing, at your place in it, or the contact you were reading.

## Paste a signature block

The **Import tools** section at the top of the form takes a pasted e-mail signature or contact block. Choose **Fill found information** and WrkLst fills in the name, email, phone, address and web address it found. The pasted text itself is not saved.

## What a contact record shows

Contact details sit at the top of the record: email addresses with their newsletter status, phone numbers, addresses with a map, and links. Below sit **Interest & waitlists**, **Sales & resales**, **Exhibitions**, **Connections** and the linked records; **Works acquired from this contact** lists what you bought from a gallery, dealer or auction house, with **Show in Works** to select them or put them on a list. The **Messages** panel holds the mail you exchanged — see [Correspondence: the mail you exchanged with a contact](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1790900011-correspondence-the-mail-you-exchanged-with-a-contact). The **Change history** reads each edit back in your language and time, and **What changed** shows an edit's old and new values side by side to administrators, for changes made within the past year.

<!-- shot:contact-actions-menu -->
![The action menu of a contact: 1 Record an interest · 2 Edit waitlists](https://support-admin.wrklst.art/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBZkE9IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--1b555c60a454a328015e78c5af608095a44e7a92/en-contact-actions-menu.jpg)

*The action menu of a contact: 1 Record an interest · 2 Edit waitlists*

<!-- shot:contact-detail -->
![A contact record: 1 Edit · 2 Actions · 3 Interest & waitlists · 4 Messages · 5 Find mail in your mailbox](https://support-admin.wrklst.art/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBhZz09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--f66fdfcddcbfc4d9a522680efb100902b5781bb4/en-contact-detail.jpg)

*A contact record: 1 Edit · 2 Actions · 3 Interest & waitlists · 4 Messages · 5 Find mail in your mailbox*


When someone else is editing a contact, WrkLst shows **Being edited by someone else** instead of letting you both change it; if the contact changes while you have it open, you are told before you save.

## Finding a contact

Pick a contact from the list and the record slides in beside it. Sort the list by name, email, phone or city by clicking a column heading or choosing a **Sort order** in the filter. The **Filter** groups its choices as **Who** (role — **Collectors**, **Artists**, **Photographers**, the roles WrkLst marks with an icon — and type, **People** or **Businesses**), **How to reach them** (street, city, state, country), **What you know** (interest, sales and waitlist, notes, tags, newsletter status) and **Relationships** (**Collector of artist**, **On the waitlist for**, **Is on this list**). The basket works as it does for works, and sits next to Contacts in the main menu.

## Artists are a special case

Artist contacts are created slightly differently, because works are attached to them — see [Create a New Artist Contact](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1767342788-create-a-new-artist-contact). Contacts can also be imported from a phone and synced to its contacts app — see the related articles.

**Still using WrkLst Classic?** This topic in the Classic documentation: [Create a New Contact](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1790930007-classic-create-a-new-contact)

## Related articles

* [Create a New Artist Contact](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1767342788-create-a-new-artist-contact)
* [Import contacts from a file or your phone](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1790900009-import-contacts-from-a-file-or-your-phone)
* [Sync your WrkLst contacts to your phone and computer](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1790900010-sync-your-wrklst-contacts-to-your-phone-and-computer)
* [Lists](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1767343209-lists)
* [Messages](/hc/wrklst-docs/articles/1786371748-messages)
