Contacts
Keep one encrypted record per person across your cases: add contacts, give them a role on each case, find them by exact name, and merge duplicates.
On this page
What a contact is
A contact is your record of a person connected to your work: a client, subject, witness, attorney, adjuster or anyone else. Contacts live in one contact book, separate from any single case, so the same person can be linked to every case they’re involved in.
Adding a contact
From Contacts, choose New Contact. You can also add one from a case’s Contacts tab.
- Name (required)
- Role (required): Client, Subject, Witness, Attorney, Adjuster or Other
- Email, Phone, Company and Notes (optional)
Everything except the role is encrypted in your browser. The role isn’t encrypted, so you can filter and group by it.
Linking contacts to cases
On a case’s Contacts tab, use Assign to add someone from your contact book, or New Contact to create them there. A person’s role can differ from case to case, a witness on one and a client on another; use Change role on the case.
Open a contact to see their details and the cases they’re on (the 50 most recent), and use Add to case.
Finding a contact
Search your contacts by exact name, email or phone. Capitals and extra spaces don’t matter, but part of a name finds nothing. Phone numbers are matched on their digits, so it helps to store numbers the same way each time. You can also filter by role.
Because contact details are encrypted, search works from a scrambled fingerprint of what you type, so PIToolkit’s servers never see the name you searched for.
Possible duplicates
If a new or edited contact has exactly the same name, email or phone as one you already have, both records are saved and you see “This contact matches another one you already have”. Choose Review to open Possible duplicates, then:
- Merge: choose which details to keep. Every case the duplicate is on moves across. This can’t be undone.
- Not duplicates: keep both.
Removing a contact
Choose Remove contact. They no longer appear in your contacts and can’t be added to cases. Cases they were already on keep that history, and show them as “No longer in your contact book”.
Clients who join your portal
When a client accepts a portal invitation, PIToolkit asks you to review them into your contacts, either as a new contact or linked to an existing one.