KDesk Contact Management

Contacts are the people your team supports in KDesk. A contact record stores identity and communication details (name, company, email, phone), preferences for notifications, and permissions for using the contact portal. Contacts can be linked to tickets, receive ticket updates by email, and (when enabled) sign in to the portal using a one-time code.

How to Access Contacts

In the KDesk App, open the left sidebar and select Contacts. If you can view contacts but cannot create or edit them, your account is missing contact management permission. Ask a team owner (or an admin) to enable the member permission Modify contacts.

Creating a Contact

To create a new contact, open Contacts and select Create contact. KDesk will open the contact editor with sections on the left. You can save immediately with minimal information (for example, a name and an email), then refine the record later as you learn more about the contact.

Modifying or Viewing a Contact

Each contact row has an actions menu. If you have contact edit permission, choose Edit to open the contact editor, or choose Delete to permanently remove that contact. If you do not have edit permission, you can still open a read-only view of the contact when a “View” action is available.

Deleting Contacts (Single and Bulk)

KDesk supports single-contact deletion from a contact’s actions menu, and bulk deletion using selection checkboxes in the table. Bulk deletion permanently removes the selected contacts from the workspace. If you need a backup before deleting, export contacts first.

Contact Sections (What Each Section Stores)

Section	What it’s for	Examples of fields
Information	Core directory profile details and internal notes your team uses for context.	First name, last name, company, job title, division, notes
Contact Info	Structured communication methods stored as labeled values.	Emails (work, personal), phones (mobile, work)
Address	Client-facing location details for shipping, on-site visits, and record keeping.	Address lines, city, state/province, postal/ZIP, country
Notifications	Preferences controlling which messages a contact should receive.	Email new tickets, email ticket updates, email new comments, email form assignments
Permissions	Controls whether the contact can use the portal and interact with tickets through it.	Active contact, portal access, can post comments
Directory / Sync	Metadata used when the contact is managed by directory sync and organizational mapping.	Directory sync ID (read-only), directory organization ID (read-only), reports-to fields

Emails and Phones (Labeled Records)

Emails and phones are stored as labeled key/value entries, which helps teams keep multiple addresses and numbers organized. For example, you might store work and personal email addresses separately. These labeled records are also searchable from the Contacts directory search bar.

Emails: work: jane.doe@acme.com personal: jane@gmail.com Phones: mobile: +1-555-123-4567 work: +1-555-987-6543

Notifications (What They Control)

Contact notification toggles are used by KDesk when deciding whether a contact should receive a given message type. These preferences work alongside your team’s Communication settings (Team Settings) so you can control communication globally and per-contact.

Notification setting	What it means
Email new tickets	Sends an email when a new ticket is created for (or associated with) this contact.
Email ticket updates	Sends an email when the ticket changes (status changes, updates, assignments, etc.).
Email new comments	Sends an email when a new comment is posted on the ticket.
Email form assignments	Sends an email when a form is assigned that involves this contact.

Portal Permissions (How Contact Portal Access Works)

Portal access is controlled at both the team level and the contact level. Your team must enable the portal in Team Settings, and the specific contact must be allowed to access the portal. If the portal is enabled and the contact is allowed, KDesk can generate a portal sign-in link for that contact.

Permission	What it does
Active contact	Marks the contact as active or inactive for your workspace directory workflows.
Portal access	Allows the contact to sign in to the web portal (when the team portal is enabled).
Can post comments	Allows the contact to post comments through the portal (when the team also allows portal commenting).

Portal Links and Sign-In Experience

KDesk supports two portal entry flows: a team portal link that prompts for an email address, and a contact-specific portal link that is already tied to a specific contact. In both flows, the contact signs in using a one-time 7-character code delivered by email.

The KDesk App provides convenient copy buttons for these links from the Contacts page. “Copy team portal URL” is intended for broad sharing (for example, on a customer-facing page). “Copy portal link” is intended for sharing with a specific contact record.

How Contacts Integrate with Tickets

Contacts are loaded alongside tickets in the KDesk App so agents can associate people with a ticket and reference their details while working the issue. Ticket views can show “Ticket contacts,” and contact information can be used to recognize who is participating in comments, who should receive notifications, and who should be allowed to view and interact with tickets through the portal.

When a contact is signed in as a portal user, KDesk treats them as a contact session. Contact sessions have separate rules from internal members, especially around portal access and commenting, and they use a code-based sign-in instead of internal account credentials.

Integrate with Directory Sync

KDesk can populate and maintain contacts using directory sync connections. When contacts are synced, KDesk stores directory metadata so the record can be matched and updated over time. Fields like Directory sync ID and Directory organization ID are treated as read-only identifiers that come from the directory system, while “reports-to” fields can be used to represent organizational relationships in KDesk.

Directory sync itself is configured under the Contact Sync integration, where you define a provider (Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra), credentials, and a mapping that controls which directory attributes fill which KDesk contact fields. There is a more in-depth guide here.

Exporting Contacts

The Contacts page includes Export contacts, which downloads a CSV containing contact profile fields, labeled emails/phones, portal permissions, notification preferences, and directory metadata. If you have selected contacts, the export will include only those; otherwise, it exports the full directory.