Contacts
Keep clients, subbies, and suppliers in one place so you can link the right people to any job without re-entering details each time.
Who this is for: Builders, subcontractors, and estimators who want a single place to manage the people connected to their jobs — clients, contractors, suppliers, and employees.
What Contacts is for
Every job involves a cast of people — the client who commissioned the work, the subbies pricing or doing specific trades, the suppliers you're getting materials from. Contacts is where you store all of them. Once a contact is in Core Estimator, you can link them to projects, include them on proposals, assign tasks to them, and connect suppliers to price lists — without ever typing their details twice.
Contacts sits in its own section of the platform, separate from Projects. That means your contact list is shared across all your jobs — one record for Mick the concreter, no matter how many projects he works on.
Things worth knowing upfront
Contact Type (Client, Contractor, Supplier, Employee) controls which tab a contact appears on in the list. When you create a contact you pick one type, but you can assign multiple types after saving — so a contact who is both a client and a contractor can be both.
Two additional dropdowns appear depending on the type you select: Client Type (Person, Company, Trust, or Lead) shows when Client is selected; Contractor Type (Plumber, Electrician, Carpenter, etc.) shows when Contractor is selected. These only appear when editing an existing contact, not on the initial creation form.
Contacts aren't deleted from previous jobs if you remove them later — unlinking is separate from deleting.
The Company field links to a record in the Companies module. If the company isn't set up there yet, it won't appear in the dropdown.
Contacts also appears in the left menu under the Contacts top-header tab alongside Companies and External Users — those are separate modules.
How to get there
Contacts (top header) → Contacts (left menu list)
From the black header at the top of the screen, click Contacts.
In the left menu list, click Contacts.
What you'll see
You land on the Contacts table. Five tabs filter the list by type:
Tab | Who it shows |
All Contacts | Every contact regardless of type (default view) |
Clients | Contacts assigned the Client type |
Contractors | Contacts assigned the Contractor type |
Suppliers | Contacts assigned the Supplier type |
Employees | Contacts assigned the Employee type |
Note: A contact can have more than one type. Someone who is both a client and a contractor will appear on both the Clients and Contractors tabs.
The table shows these columns:
Column | What it shows |
Name | The contact's full name |
Mobile | Mobile number, if entered |
Landline | Landline number, if entered |
Email address | |
Company | The company the contact is linked to |
Contact Type | Type badge — Client, Contractor, Supplier, or Employee |
Date Created | When the contact was added |
A New Contact button sits at the top right. A search input lets you filter by name.
Step-by-step: creating a new contact
On the Contacts page, click New Contact in the top right. A panel opens on the right side of the screen.
Fill in the contact's details:
Field | What to enter | Notes |
First Name | e.g. Sarah | Required. |
Last Name | e.g. Brennan | Required. |
Used for proposals and communication. | ||
Mobile | e.g. 0412 345 678 | Optional. |
Landline | e.g. 03 9555 1234 | Optional. |
Contact Type | Client, Supplier, Employee, or Contractor | Pick the primary type here. You can add more types after saving. |
Address Line 1 | e.g. 12 Flinders Lane | Optional — useful for client postal addresses. |
Address Line 2 | e.g. Suite 4 | Optional. |
City | e.g. Melbourne | Optional. |
State | ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, or WA | Optional. |
Postcode | e.g. 3000 | Optional. |
Company | Select from the Companies list | The company must already exist in the Companies module to appear here. |
Position | e.g. Director | Optional — their role or job title. |
Notes | e.g. Prefers contact by email. GST registered. | Internal only. Not visible to the contact. |
Click Save. The contact is created and appears in the list.
Tip: You don't need to fill in everything at once. First name, last name, and contact type are enough to get a contact saved quickly. You can add the rest when you have it.
Step-by-step: adding more detail to a contact
After saving a contact, you can open their record to fill in more detail — including additional contact types, client or contractor sub-types, a photo, and a bio.
From the Contacts table, click the contact's row. Their record opens.
You'll see the full edit form organised into five sections:
Section | What's in it |
Details | Name, email, Contact Type (multi-select), Client Type (if Client), Contractor Type (if Contractor), and notes |
Bio | Profile photo upload and a bio field |
Phone | Mobile and landline |
Company Information | Position and linked company |
Address | Full address fields |
Note: Contact Type is multi-select once you're inside the contact record. This is where you add a second type — for example, making someone both a Client and a Contractor. The initial creation form only lets you pick one type.
Note: Two conditional dropdowns appear in the Details section depending on which types are selected. Client Type (Person, Company, Trust, or Lead) appears when Client is ticked. Contractor Type (trade options such as Plumber, Electrician, Carpenter) appears when Contractor is ticked.
Make your changes and click Save.
Worked example: adding a client and a subbie
A builder is starting a new kitchen and bathroom renovation for a client they haven't worked with before, and they're bringing in a concreting subbie for the slab. They need both in Core Estimator before they can link them to the project.
Adding the client
They click New Contact and fill in the panel:
First Name: Sarah
Last Name: Brennan
Email: sarah@brennanproperty.com.au
Mobile: 0412 345 678
Contact Type: Client
Company: Brennan Property Developments
They click Save. Then they open Sarah's record and, in the Details section, set Client Type to Company (since she represents a development company, not a personal build). They save again.
Adding the subbie
Back on the Contacts page, they click New Contact again:
First Name: Mick
Last Name: Torres
Mobile: 0421 987 654
Contact Type: Contractor
Company: Torres Concrete
They click Save, then open Mick's record and set Contractor Type to Concreter in the Details section. Saved.
Both contacts are now in Core Estimator and ready to be linked to the project.
Step-by-step: using contacts in the estimating workflow
Once contacts are in the system, they connect to the rest of the platform in a few ways.
Linking a contact to a project
Open the project from the Projects list.
Click the Project Contacts tab inside the project.
Add the relevant contacts — client, subbies, consultants — to the project.
Contacts linked here are associated with the job for tasks and proposals. When you're ready to send a proposal, the client contact is already there to address it to.
Linking a supplier contact to a price list
When you create a price list in the Price Lists module, the Contact field pulls from your Contacts list. A supplier contact needs to exist here before you can create a price list for them.
Step-by-step: deleting a contact
Warning: Deleting a contact is permanent. If the contact is linked to projects, tasks, or proposals, remove those links first or make sure you no longer need them.
On the Contacts table, find the contact row.
Click the trash icon on the right side of the row.
A confirmation window appears. Click Delete to confirm.
Tips
Add contacts before you need them. You can't link a contact to a project or a supplier to a price list until they exist in Core Estimator. A quick save with just a name and type is enough to get going — fill in the rest later.
Use the Notes field for things that don't fit elsewhere. GST registration status, preferred contact method, any special billing arrangements — anything you'd otherwise have to remember or dig out of an email.
Set Contractor Type for subbies. It makes filtering the Contractors tab much more useful once your list grows. Being able to pull up all your Electricians or Plasterers at once is worth the two seconds it takes to set.
Link the company, not just the contact. If a client is from a development company, linking their contact to the company record (in the Companies module) keeps things tidy when you have multiple contacts from the same organisation.
Troubleshooting
Symptom | Cause | Fix |
The company I want isn't in the Company dropdown | The company hasn't been added to the Companies module yet | Go to Contacts → Companies in the left menu list and create the company first, then come back to the contact |
I can't see Client Type or Contractor Type options | These dropdowns only appear when editing an existing contact, not on the initial creation form | Save the contact first, then open their record — the conditional dropdowns will appear in the Details section |
A contact isn't showing on the tab I expect | Their type may not be set correctly, or they have multiple types | Open the contact and check the Contact Type field in the Details section — they may appear on more than one tab |
I need a contact to be both a Client and a Contractor | The creation form only allows one type; multi-select is available after saving | Save with the primary type, then open the record and add the second type in the Details section |
I can't find a contact I know exists | You may be on a filtered tab that doesn't include their type | Switch to the All Contacts tab and use the search to find them by name |
Related articles
Companies — create company records that contacts can be linked to
Projects — link contacts to a job via the Project Contacts tab inside each project
Price Lists — supplier contacts are required before you can create a price list for that supplier
Still stuck?
Reach out through the chat bubble in the bottom right of Core Estimator and we'll give you a hand.