Adding and Editing Contacts (Including Quick Add)

In brief: Adding a Person requires a unique email, adding a Company requires only a name, and the same lookup creates contacts without leaving a Job.

Applies to: Anyone whose role includes creating contacts.

See also: Companies, People, and Individuals: Contact Records explains the two record types behind these forms, and Importing Contacts from CSV or Excel: Step by Step is the faster route when you have a whole list.

Adding a Person starts with email, because email is what identifies them. Adding a Company needs a name and nothing else. And wherever else in Net Net you need to name a contact, whether that is a Job or a Quick Task, you get the same lookup: search as you type, and create a missing Company on the spot without leaving the screen you are on.

Both live under Contacts, from the buttons at the top right.

Adding a Person

Click the add person button in the Contacts header.

The form opens with Email at the top, and that placement is deliberate. Email is the identity anchor for a Person in Net Net, so it is the first thing you enter and the one field that has to be there.

Person details

Email, required, and unique in your workspace
First name
Last name
Company, searchable, optional
Title

Contact info

Phone number
Address, city, country, zip

Social profiles

LinkedIn, website, and the rest, one per line, added only where you actually have them

Everything below the email is optional. A Person with an email and a first name is a valid record, and you can fill in the rest whenever you learn it.

Leave the Company field blank and the Person is saved as an Individual. That is a normal outcome, not an incomplete one. See Companies, People, and Individuals: Contact Records.

Email rules

Two things will stop a save:

An invalid address. It has to look like an email.
A duplicate. If someone in your workspace already has that address, Net Net will not create a second record for it.

The duplicate rule is doing quiet, important work. It is the reason your Contacts list is a directory and not four half-versions of the same person. It is also what makes bulk loads safe, as Importing Contacts from CSV or Excel: Step by Step explains.

Adding a Company

Click the add company button in the Contacts header.

Only Company name is required. The rest is there when you want it:

Company details, industry, website, description
Contact info, email, phone, address
Social profiles

Companies are unique by name. If a company with that name already exists, Net Net will say so rather than letting you build a duplicate.

Quick Add from anywhere

This is the part worth knowing, because it saves the most time.

Net Net uses one contact lookup everywhere a Company or Person is needed. Job creation and Client Quick Tasks both use the same control, in the same order, with the same behavior. Company first, then Person.

How it behaves

Search first. Start typing and matching contacts appear. You are not scrolling a dropdown of four hundred companies.

Create inline. If nothing matches what you typed, the picker offers an Add "whatever you typed" option. Choose it and the Company is created immediately with that name and selected in the field. You do not change screens, lose your place, or abandon the Job you were halfway through setting up.

Company and Person stay in sync. Pick a Person who belongs to a Company and the Company fills in for you. Change the Company to a different one and a Person who does not belong there clears out rather than sitting there being wrong.

The fastest way to set up a new client is to start the Job, type the company name into the lookup, and create it from there. You can fill in the industry, address, and socials on the Company record later, once the work is running. For how the Job itself is structured around that client, see Projects vs Retainers: Choosing the Right Job Type.

What the lookup can return

Three valid shapes, and no others:

Company and Person, where the person belongs to that company
Company only, when you know the client but not who you are dealing with yet
Person only, for a standalone contact with no company

On a Client Quick Task specifically, the Company is required and the Person is optional. See Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters.

A Company created inline carries only its name. Nothing is wrong with that, but it does mean your Contacts list will slowly fill with name-only companies if nobody ever goes back. Worth a five minute pass every so often to fill in the details on the ones that turned into real clients.

Sales is coming to Net Net in Q3 2026 and is not in the app yet. When it ships, creating an Opportunity is planned to use this same contact lookup, so nothing you learn here will need relearning. See Sales Opportunities, Not a CRM: A Q3 2026 Preview.

Editing a contact

Open the Company or Person from your Contacts list to see its profile, then use the edit control on the profile. How that list is organized, and how to find a contact in it, is covered in Navigating Contacts: Grouped View, Search, and Select Mode.

Editing uses the same form as adding, prefilled with what is already there. For a Person, email remains required, and changing it still has to respect uniqueness. For a Company, the name remains required.

Profiles are also where the fuller view lives: a Company profile shows its details, contact info, social profiles, and the People at that company; a Person profile shows their details, contact info, and social profiles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does adding a Person start with email?

Because email is what identifies a Person in Net Net. It has to be present and unique in your workspace, so the form puts it first. Everything else on the form, including the name, is optional and can be filled in later.

Can I add a Person without a company?

Yes. Leave the Company field blank and they are saved as an Individual. They appear in the Individuals group at the bottom of your Contacts list, and you can attach a Company to them at any point afterwards.

What is the minimum needed to create a Company?

Just the name. Industry, website, description, contact info, address, and social profiles are all optional. Company names have to be unique, so Net Net will tell you if one already exists.

Can I create a contact without leaving the Job I am setting up?

Yes. Type the company name into the contact lookup and choose the Add option that appears. The Company is created and selected on the spot. The same lookup works identically in Jobs and Quick Tasks.

Why did the Person field clear when I changed the Company?

Because that Person does not belong to the Company you just picked. The lookup keeps the two fields consistent rather than letting you save a person filed under the wrong organization. Pick a Person from the new Company, or leave it blank.

What happens if I enter an email that already exists?

The save is blocked and Net Net tells you a person with that email already exists. Find and edit the existing record instead. This is what stops the same human turning into several contacts with slightly different details.

How do I edit a contact I already created?

Open the contact from your Contacts list and use the edit control on their profile. The form is the same one you used to create them, prefilled. Email stays required on a Person and the name stays required on a Company.

If the difference between a Company, a Person, and an Individual is not yet obvious, Companies, People, and Individuals: Contact Records is the article to read before this one. When you have more than a handful of contacts to add, Importing Contacts from CSV or Excel: Step by Step beats typing them one at a time, and Navigating Contacts: Grouped View, Search, and Select Mode is how you find them again afterwards. When a contact should come back out, Deactivating vs Deleting Contacts (and Why Delete Is Final) explains why keeping the record is usually the better call.

Updated on: 08/04/2026

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