Add or edit client contacts

Who does this: a console admin (Admin or Platform Admin) adds, changes and removes contacts. A Payroll Lead adds contacts too (since 29 Oct 2026) but cannot change or remove them. Payroll Executives see the contacts read-only. When: Onboarding a new client, when a client tells you their submitter or approver has changed, or when a contact has left the company Result: The client's contact list says who sends us documents and who approves, for each module. Future emails go to the right people.

Every payroll client needs at least one contact who sends the payroll inputs and at least one who approves the monthly payroll. The same person can hold both, which is common for small clients.

Only console admins change or remove contacts (24 Oct 2026, from the link-flow write-up): the contacts decide who is asked for documents, who approves, and where approval links and sign-in codes go. Adding a contact is open to Payroll Leads as well (29 Oct 2026), because the Lead is usually the one onboarding a client. Every change is on record with who made it.

Before you start

• [ ] To add a contact: you are signed in as an Admin, Platform Admin or Payroll Lead. To change or remove one: an Admin or Platform Admin. A Payroll Lead sees You can add contacts. Only a console admin can change or remove them.; anyone else sees Only a console admin or a Payroll Lead can add contacts, and only a console admin can change or remove them.
• [ ] You know the contact's name and at least one way to reach them: an email, a WhatsApp number or a Telegram username.
• [ ] You know which roles they hold for each of the company's modules (for payroll: Sends the payroll inputs, Approves the monthly payroll).

WARNING

One person is one contact per company. A second active contact with the same email or the same phone is refused, and the message names the contact who already has it. If someone's email changes, edit the existing contact; a new one would lose their history.

Steps

To add a contact

1. Open Companies in the sidebar and click into the company.
2. Open the People tab. The Contacts card is under The client's people.
3. Click Add contact.
4. Fill the dialog:
   • Name, and optionally a Job title (printed as their declaration).
   • Reach them by (at least one): emails, WhatsApp numbers, Telegram usernames. The first email is the one we send to. A Telegram id is learned from their first message and cannot be typed.
   • A WhatsApp number is a country (flag and dialling code, Singapore first) plus the number as dialled in that country. Pasting a full number such as +91 98765 43210 picks the country by itself. The number is checked against that country's rules and saved as the full international number (+6591234567), shown under the box as Saved as +65 9123 4567 (since 29 Oct 2026).
   • The roles they hold, module by module.
5. Click Add contact.

To edit a contact

1. Click Edit on the row, change what you need and click Save.
2. Changing an email asks Why is the email changing? (required). The old address is told about the change.
3. Changing an approver's email does not take effect at once. The row shows New email waiting for a second admin; another console admin clicks Confirm (or Cancel). The current email stays in use until then. A console with only one admin confirms it as a separate step, and the record says one person did both. The same hold applies when one save both sets a new email and gives the approve right.
4. Saving the current email again cancels one that is waiting.

To deactivate a contact (the safe default)

1. Click Deactivate on the row, then Yes, deactivate.

Deactivation is reversible: Reactivate brings them back with their rights and history. While deactivated they get nothing from us and cannot act for the company.

To delete a contact

1. Click Delete, then Yes, delete.

They are removed from the company for good; their record is kept for past work. An approver's email cannot simply be removed: take the approve right away first.

Chats linked from the Inbox

When a message arrives from a sender the platform does not know, staff can say who it is with This is… in the Inbox. That links the chat (a WhatsApp number, a Telegram id, an email address) to a contact: from then on its messages are that person's, and messages for them may go there.

• A contact who cannot approve: any Inbox operator can link the chat. The contact is told on their registered email that a chat was added.
• A contact who can approve: only a console admin, with a reason, and nothing is linked yet. The People tab shows the chat waiting for a second admin to link it; another admin clicks Confirm (or Cancel). An approver with no email gets the approval link on their chat, which is why this is held like an approver's email change.
• Unlink: chats linked from the Inbox are listed under the contact as Linked from the Inbox. A console admin clicks Unlink and gives a reason; the sender reads as unknown again.
• Every link and unlink counts as a contact change: whoever made one in the last 30 days cannot approve that company's month without the client.

How to know it worked

• The row appears (or updates) in the Contacts card.
• The company's audit trail shows client.contact.created, client.contact.updated (with each field's old and new value and your reason), client.contact.email_change_requested / _confirmed, or for chats contact.sender_linked_by_staff, contact.sender_link_requested / _confirmed / _cancelled and contact.sender_unlinked.

What the client sees

Adding or editing a contact does not send anything by itself, with two exceptions: a changed email alerts the old address, and a linked chat is announced on the contact's registered email. Otherwise the contact only hears from us on the next action that targets them:

• A new submitter gets the month's request when the next month opens — each payroll sender gets their own copy, by email on their own thread for the month (their own chat only if they have no email address) — and the day-3/5/7 reminders if nothing has arrived yet. A month already open does not resend the request to someone added later.
• A new approver gets the approval request when staff next send one.
• A contact with an email address is always emailed, never moved to chat: if no payroll mailbox is set up in Settings › Integrations, nothing is sent to them and the month carries a staff task saying so.

Common situations

If you see…	It means…	What to do
Only a console admin or a Payroll Lead can add contacts…	You are not an Admin, Platform Admin or Payroll Lead (or, to change or remove, not an admin)	Ask a console admin (or a Payroll Lead, to add one)
A refusal naming another contact who already has the email or phone	One person is one contact per company	Edit or reactivate that contact instead of adding a second
Another console admin must confirm the email change you asked for.	You asked for the approver's new email; while another admin exists, you cannot confirm it too	Ask another console admin to open the People tab and click Confirm
In the Inbox, an approver is greyed out in This is… with approver, admins only	Linking a chat to an approver is a console admin's request	Ask a console admin to link it, with the reason the chat is theirs
You added a submitter mid-month and they did not get the month's request	A month already open does not resend its request to someone added later	Send them what they need from the month's page

Related runbooks

• Create a new payroll client — the prerequisite step
• Start a payroll cycle — what happens to contacts when a cycle initiates
• Verify an email was sent — confirm a new contact actually received their first email
• Notifications catalog — every email a contact may receive
• RBAC matrix — which staff roles can manage contacts
• The employee record — the company's employees, on the Employees tab