# What is a contact in Tarkle?

A contact is a saved record of a person you send files to or add by hand, so you can find them later.

A contact is a saved record in your workspace for a person you send files to or add by hand. Each workspace keeps one contact per email address, so the same person never appears twice. Open the [Contacts](/dashboard/contacts) tab to see the contacts of the workspace you are in. On Pro and Agency, a contact can also get their own sign-in to the [client portal](/help/client-portal/the-client-portal-how-it-works).

## What a contact holds

A contact has a first name, an optional last name, an email address and a contact type, which is personal or business. The first name is required on the form. The email address is required too.

For a personal contact, Tarkle looks for a Gravatar photo for the email address when you enter it. For a business contact, Tarkle looks up a logo for the email's domain. The logo is saved on the organization, not on the contact, and only when the organization has no logo yet. Tarkle does not look up logos for free email providers.

## How contacts are created

### Add a contact by hand

1. Click **Contact**, the button with the plus icon in the header of the Contacts tab.
2. In the **New contact** form, enter **First name** and **Email**. **Last name** is optional.
3. Click **Create contact**.

Tarkle saves the contact straight away and does not email the person. If the email address is already a contact in the workspace, Tarkle shows "Contact already exists in this workspace" and creates no second contact. If you enter an organization name for that address, the existing contact joins that organization instead.

### Contacts created from a transfer

When you send a transfer by email to an address that is not a contact yet, Tarkle creates a contact for it. That contact has only the email address. To add a name, open the action menu on the contact's row on the Contacts tab and click **Edit**. When the address is already a contact, Tarkle links that contact to the transfer and creates no second one.

## Portal access

Portal access gives a contact their own sign-in to your workspace. It needs a Pro or Agency plan, and Agency includes everything in Pro. On Free, the **Enable portal access** item is locked and opens the upgrade dialog. Compare Pro and Agency on [Tarkle plans and pricing](/pricing).

To turn it on:

1. Open the contact's page from the Contacts tab.
2. Open the action menu at the right of the contact's header and click **Enable portal access**.

Tarkle emails the contact a sign-in link the first time you turn portal access on. The contact signs in with that link. To send it again, open the same menu and click **Resend invite**, which appears while portal access is on. To turn access off, click **Disable portal access** in the same menu. Turning access off is always allowed.

In the portal, a contact sees **Home**, **Files**, **Shared** and **Requests**. **Brands** and **Feedback** show only when a brand page or a feedback board is shared with them.

Files a contact uploads count toward their storage limit, which is 5 GB by default. To change it, open the action menu on the contact's row on the Contacts tab, click **Storage limit**, enter a **Limit** in GB or TB, and click **Save**. The **Storage limit** item appears only for contacts with portal access on. Read [how to set a storage limit for a contact](/help/team-and-clients/storage-limit-set-how-much-a-contact-can-upload-from-their-p).

## Manage contacts on the Contacts tab

- **Search** the list by name, email or organization in the box that reads Search contacts.
- The **Portal access** column shows **Active** or **Inactive** for each contact.
- **Edit** in the row menu opens a form for the first name, last name and photo.
- **Export**: tick one or more contacts, then click **Export** in the bar above the list. The CSV file lists the contacts on the Contacts tab, not only the ticked ones.
- **Delete** in the row menu asks you to confirm. **Delete selected** does the same for ticked contacts. The dialog warns that associated transfers are deleted too. A contact in an organization cannot be deleted until you remove it from the organization.

A team member who can edit contacts but cannot delete them still sees **Delete** in the row menu, and the deletion then fails with an error.

Open a contact to see its **Transfers**, **Requests**, **Files**, **Brands** and **Attendees** tabs.

## Organizations

A contact can belong to an organization, which groups the contacts of one company. Organizations are a Pro and Agency feature. See [client organizations](/features/client-organizations). A transfer sent to a new email address creates a contact without an organization.

To add a contact to an organization, tick **Business contact?** on the New contact form, enter an **Organization name** and click **Create contact**. If the workspace has no organization with that name, Tarkle creates it and makes the contact its owner. If it has one, the contact joins it. Names are matched without regard to capital letters. The **Organizations** tab next to Contacts lists them. On Free, the **Business contact?** checkbox is disabled.

## Related articles

- [How to invite your first client to the client portal](/help/getting-started/how-to-invite-first-client-client-portal)
- [What is included with Tarkle Free?](/help/billing-subscription/what-is-included-with-tarkle-free)

Source: https://tarkle.com/help/team-and-clients/what-is-a-contact-in-tarkle