---
key: add-a-contact-to-an-account
title: Add a contact to an account
audience: staff
section: accounts
routes: ["/accounts", "/accounts/:accountUid", "/contacts", "/contacts/new"]
permissions: ["crm.contacts.create"]
features: ["crm.contacts"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Add a person to a lead or customer from the account, with their phone and email, role, and whether they are the main person to call.
keywords: [person, people, add person, spouse, property manager, office manager, phone number, email address, second phone, cell number]
related: [create-an-account, see-and-edit-a-contact, work-on-a-customer-account]
---

In the sidebar, open **Accounts**, then **All Accounts**. The page address is `/accounts`. A contact is a person attached to an account: the homeowner's spouse, the office manager, the person who signs. One account can have many contacts, and one person can be linked to several accounts.

## Before you start

Your admin has to give your role the **Create contacts** permission. Without it, **Add contact** does not appear in the menu.

## Steps

1. Open the account from **All Accounts**. Open the **Actions** menu (⋯) and select **Add contact**, or press the **Add contact** button beside the **Contacts** count in the side panel. The **New contact** drawer opens on the account, already linked to it; you do not leave the account.
2. Type the **First name** and **Last name**. A name is all Nova needs; everything else can wait.
3. Under **Phone and email**, type their phone number and email address. Pick a type for each, such as mobile or work, if your team uses types.
4. To add a second number or address, select **Add phone** or **Add email**. With two or more, select the star beside the one you call or write to first; that one becomes the main number or email.
5. Under **On this account**, choose the **Role** this person plays, for example who to call about scheduling or billing. Switch on **Primary contact for this account** if they are the first person to call.
6. Select **Create contact**. The drawer closes, and the account's **Contacts** section opens with the new person in it.

Fields most people skip are folded under a heading; select the heading to open it. Nova remembers which ones you keep open on this computer.

- **Invoices, updates and notes**: switch on **Receive invoices** or **Receive work order updates** for this person, and add a **Note about this contact**, such as the best time to call.
- **More details**: **Preferred name**, **Middle name**, title, suffix, the **Display name** Nova suggests from the name, occupation, pronouns, gender and marital status.
- **Additional details**: fields your team added for contacts. This section opens on its own when one of its fields is required.

If something stops the contact from saving, Nova opens the section that holds the problem and puts your cursor in the field to fix.

## What you see

The **Contacts** section on the account lists the person with their role, phone and email. Select the name any time to open their details: name and **Phone and email** come first, then **Linked accounts**, with **More details**, **Additional details** and **Customer portal** folded below.

## If something looks different

- **Possible duplicate contact** appears. Nova found someone with the same name, email, or phone. Select **Keep editing** to change what you typed, or **Create contact anyway** if they really are two people.
- The person already exists, say they manage two properties. Open them from **Contacts** in the sidebar and add the second account under **Linked accounts** instead of creating them twice.
- You want this person to be the main contact. On the account, press **Change primary contact** and choose **Add a new contact**. The drawer opens as **New primary contact** with **Primary contact for this account** already on.
- You started from the **Contacts** page (`/contacts`). Select **New contact** there; the steps are the same, except the form opens as a full page and you search for the **Account** yourself. **Create contact** and **Cancel** are below the form, on both a phone and a computer.
- You started from a text conversation. The number you were texting shows as **Phone from this conversation** and is saved as their main phone.