KDesk Contacts

Contacts are the people your team supports in KDesk. A contact record stores basic identity details, contact methods, address information, notification preferences, portal access, and notes. Contacts can be linked to tickets, receive ticket updates by email, be assigned forms, and sign in to the portal when your workspace allows it.

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 may not have permission to manage contacts. Bulk import is controlled separately and must also be enabled for your team.

Creating a Contact

To create a new contact, open Contacts and select Create contact. KDesk opens the contact editor with sections on the left. You can save a record with minimal information, then refine it later. If the contact may use the portal, make sure you add the email address they should use to sign in.

Searching, Sorting, and Bulk Selection

The Contacts directory supports search by name, company, email, and phone numbers. You can also filter by status, sort the main columns, page through results, and select rows for bulk actions.

Viewing, Editing, and Deleting Contacts

Each contact row has an actions menu. Choose View to open the record in read-only mode, Edit to update it, or Delete to permanently remove it. KDesk also supports bulk deletion from the Contacts table using selection checkboxes. If you need a backup before deleting, export contacts first.

Importing Contacts

If bulk import is enabled for your workspace, select Import contacts from the Contacts page. KDesk lets you download a CSV template, upload a CSV file, and review an import summary showing created and failed rows.

The current import template supports the core contact fields most teams need, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, company, job title, address fields, division, active status, and notes. Email and phone values can be imported as a single value or a list.

Contact Sections

Section	What it’s for	Examples of fields
Information	Core profile details and internal notes used by your team.	First name, last name, email, company, job title, division, notes
Contact Info	Communication methods stored as labeled values.	Emails, phones
Address	Location details for shipping, on-site visits, and record keeping.	Street address, city, state/province, postal/ZIP, country
Notifications	Per-contact preferences controlling which messages KDesk may send.	Email new tickets, email ticket updates, email new comments, email form assignments
Permissions	Whether the contact is active and what they can do in the portal.	Active contact, portal access, can post comments, can close tickets

Email and Phone Details

The main email address is separate from the labeled records stored under Emails. KDesk uses the main email address for portal lookup and sign-in. The labeled Emails and Phones fields are used to store additional communication records and are searchable from the Contacts directory.

Notifications

The 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, so a notification is sent only when both the workspace rule and the contact’s own preference allow it.

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.
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 to this contact.

Portal Permissions

Portal access is controlled at both the team level and the contact level. The contact-level fields below decide what an individual contact can do once the team has enabled the matching workspace capability.

Permission	What it does
Active contact	Marks the contact as active or inactive in your workspace directory workflows.
Portal access	Allows the contact to sign in to the contact portal when the team portal is enabled.
Can post comments	Allows the contact to post comments in the portal when the team also allows portal commenting.
Can close tickets	Allows the contact to close tickets in the portal when the team also allows contact ticket closing.

Portal and Team Settings

The workspace communication settings control whether the portal is available and what contacts can do there. Contact capabilities only work when both the team setting and the contact’s own permission allow the action.

Team setting	What it controls
Contacts can access the web portal	Enables the contact portal for the workspace.
Contacts can use single sign-on	Shows Microsoft and Google sign-in options on the contact portal.
Require synced contact match for SSO	Only allows contact SSO when the sign-in matches the synced record for that contact.
Contacts can post comments	Allows portal commenting for contacts who also have comment permission.
Allow comments on closed tickets	Allows comments to continue on closed tickets when commenting is otherwise permitted.
Contacts can close tickets	Allows portal ticket closing for contacts who also have close permission.
Allow bulk contact import	Shows the bulk CSV import workflow on the Contacts page for members with import permission.

Portal Links and Sign-In

KDesk supports two portal entry flows: a team portal link and a contact-specific portal link. The team link prompts for the contact’s email address, while a contact-specific link skips that lookup step because it is already tied to a record.

In the code-based flow, KDesk sends a one-time code to the contact’s email address. When contact SSO is enabled for the workspace, the portal can also show Microsoft and Google sign-in options. On supported browsers and devices, the contact portal can also be installed as its own app experience.

How Contacts Work with Tickets and Forms

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 related contacts, and contact information is used to determine who is participating in a ticket, who should receive notifications, and who may view or interact with tickets through the portal.

When your team uses contact request templates, those templates can prefill default values, lock specific fields, limit availability to specific contacts or email domains, and optionally let contacts choose assignees or add other contacts when submitting a request.

Forms can also be assigned directly to contacts. To receive a form assignment, the contact must be active and have portal access enabled.

Directory Sync

KDesk can populate and maintain contacts through directory connections for the same team. These connections pull data into KDesk; they do not push changes back to the source directory.

Sync mappings can populate the contact fields your team uses most often, including email, company, job title, division, address fields, notes, portal permissions, and notification preferences.

If your team requires a synced contact match for SSO, contact single sign-on is only allowed when the sign-in identity matches the synced directory record for that contact.

Exporting Contacts

The Contacts page includes Export contacts, which downloads a CSV of the current directory. If you have selected contacts, the export includes only those selected records; otherwise, it exports the full directory.

The export includes core profile fields, email and phone details, address data, division and job title, portal permissions, notification preferences, notes, and directory metadata.