Adding accounts and contacts
How to add an account and its contacts, the fields on each, the figures on the accounts list, and what blocks a delete.
An account is a company you do work for. A contact is a person at that company.
Projects belong to an account, and every offer and invoice is tied to one. Leads need both an account and a contact before you can save them.
Add an account
Go to Accounts.
Click Add Account.
Enter the Company Name.
Fill in any of the optional fields.
Click Create Account.
The account appears on the accounts list. You can change any field later from Edit in the account’s … menu.
Account fields
Field | Required | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
Company Name | Yes | The company’s name. It has to be unique in your workspace. |
Company Address | No | The company’s postal address |
Person of Contact | No | The account’s primary contact |
Industry | No | Free text, used by the Industry filter on the accounts list |
VAT ID | No | The company’s VAT ID |
Company Logo | No | A JPG or PNG image of at least 200×200 px and up to 5 MB |
Internal Note | No | Notes for your team |
If the name is already taken, you see “An account with this name already exists in your workspace.”
To add the person of contact while you create the account, type their name in Person of Contact and choose Create new contact. Fill in the Add Contact panel that opens and click Add Contact. Billow saves the contact together with the account when you click Create Account.
Add a contact
Go to Contacts.
Click Add Contact.
Enter the Full Name.
Choose the Associated Account, or type a new company name and create the account from there.
Fill in any of the optional fields.
Click Create Contact.
A contact belongs to exactly one account, and an account can have as many contacts as you need.
Contact fields
Field | Required | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
Full Name | Yes | The person’s name |
Associated Account | Yes | The company the person works at |
Is Primary Contact of this Account | No | Makes this person the account’s primary contact |
Role | No | Their role or title |
No | Their email address | |
Phone | No | Their phone number |
LinkedIn Profile | No | A link to their LinkedIn profile |
Location/Country | No | Where they are based |
Photo | No | A JPG or PNG image of at least 200×200 px and up to 5 MB |
Internal Note | No | Notes for your team |
Primary contacts
Each account has at most one primary contact. If the account already has one and you save a contact with Is Primary Contact of this Account ticked, Billow asks you to confirm in the Change Primary Contact dialog. The new contact replaces the old one as primary.
A contact is used in two places: as the main contact on a project, and as the billing contact on an invoice.
The contacts list
Two tabs sit above the list.
Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
All | Contacts you haven’t archived, at accounts you haven’t marked as churned |
Archived | Contacts you archived, and every contact of an account you marked as churned |
The list can be filtered by account, status, role, type and the date the contact was added, and sorted by Name, Account, Role or Added on. See Filtering and sorting lists.
Archive a contact
Open the contact, or find it on the contacts list.
Open the … menu.
Choose Archive.
If the contact is the account’s primary contact, the Archive Primary Contact dialog asks you to confirm. Archiving removes their primary status.
To bring a contact back, choose Unarchive from the same menu. A contact of a churned account returns to All when the account is restored.
The accounts list
Each row shows the money that account has made you.
Column | What it means |
|---|---|
LTV | Total revenue from this account, all time |
APV | Average revenue per project |
Pipeline Value | Value of their open leads |
RS | Their share of your total earnings, with churned accounts excluded |
Healthy and Risky accounts come first, with overdue invoices ahead within that group, then Inactive. Clicking a column header sorts by that column instead. The Filter menu narrows the list by status, industry, LTV or the date the account was added. See Filtering and sorting lists.
Deleting accounts and contacts
Only owners and admins can delete accounts and contacts. Delete sits in the … menu on the list and at the bottom of the account or contact page.
Billow blocks the delete while the record is still in use:
Can’t be deleted when | |
|---|---|
Account | It has any project or lead, or any invoice |
Contact | A project, lead or invoice uses it |
If the delete is blocked, or you aren’t an owner or admin, Delete doesn’t appear in the … menu on the list. The Delete button at the bottom of the account or contact page is greyed out, and hovering over it shows the reason. For a contact in use, it reads “Cannot delete a contact that is referenced by projects or invoices.”
Billow has no trash for accounts and contacts. Deleting one removes it from your workspace with no undo in the app. To keep the records of an account that has gone quiet, mark it as churned instead.
