Contacts and Customers

Frappe Helpdesk organizes customer information using two related records: Contacts and Customers. A Contact represents an individual person, while a Customer represents an organization or company.

Linking contacts to customers makes it easier to organize support requests, manage user permissions, and control who can view tickets within an organization.

What is a Contact?

A Contact represents an individual person who communicates with your support team.

Contacts can:

• Raise support tickets.
• Receive email notifications.
• Be linked to one or more customers.
• Be invited to access the Customer Portal.

Linking a Contact to a Customer is optional, allowing you to manage both individual and organization-based customers.

Create a Contact

To create a new Contact:

1. Open the Contact page from the sidebar.
2. Click Create New Contact.
3. Enter the required information.
4. Click Create.

Available fields include:

• Email Address (Required)
• First Name (Required)
• Last Name
• Phone Number
• Customer (Optional)
• Invite as User (Optional)

If Invite as User is enabled, Helpdesk sends an invitation email allowing the contact to create a password and access the Customer Portal.

What is a Customer?

A Customer represents an organization or company.

Customers are used to group multiple contacts under a single organization, making it easier to manage permissions and collaborate on support requests.

Create a Customer

To add a new Customer:

1. Open the Customer page.
2. Click Create.
3. Enter the customer details.
4. Optionally add a primary contact.
5. Save the record.

If you provide primary contact information during creation, Helpdesk automatically creates the Contact and sends an invitation to access the portal.

Manage Customer Contacts

The Contacts tab on the Customer page lets you manage everyone associated with an organization.

From this section, you can:

• Invite new contacts.
• Link existing contacts.
• Assign or change roles.
• Set a primary contact.
• Remove contacts from the customer.
• View pending invitations.

Invite Contacts

When inviting a contact, you can either add an existing Contact or create a new one using their email address.

Each invited user is assigned one of the following roles:

• HD Customer — Can create tickets and view the tickets they have personally raised.
• HD Customer Manager — Can view all tickets belonging to the organization and manage other customer managers.

If the email address already belongs to an existing Contact, Helpdesk links that Contact to the Customer instead of creating a duplicate.

Primary Contact

You can designate any contact as the Primary Contact.

The primary contact:

• Acts as the main point of contact.
• Is identified with a star icon.
• Always has Customer Manager permissions.

Change Contact Roles

Customer Managers can be promoted or reverted directly from the Contact card.

• Managers can view every ticket for the organization.
• Regular contacts can only view tickets they personally created.

A customer can have multiple Customer Managers.

Remove Contacts

Removing a contact only disconnects them from the selected Customer.

The Contact record itself remains available and can still be linked to other customers.

Important Notes

• Linking a Contact to a Customer is optional.
• A Contact can belong to multiple Customers.
• Customer Managers can view all tickets for their organization.
• Regular Contacts can only view tickets they created themselves.

Customer Portal Permissions (v1.28.0 and Later)

Starting with Frappe Helpdesk v1.28.0, customer portal permissions are managed explicitly through the Customer page.

By default:

• Contacts can view only the tickets they have created.
• Only Customer Managers can view every ticket belonging to their organization.

Helpdesk automatically manages the following portal roles:

• HD Customer
• HD Customer Manager

These roles determine what customer portal users are allowed to access.

Upgrading Existing Sites

If you’re upgrading from a version earlier than v1.28.0:

• Existing ticket creators automatically receive the HD Customer role.
• Existing Contact-to-Customer relationships are preserved.
• Contacts are added as regular members, not Customer Managers.

This means existing contacts will initially see only their own tickets until they are promoted to Customer Manager.

Restore Previous Ticket Visibility

If you want all existing contacts within an organization to continue viewing each other’s tickets, Helpdesk provides a one-time migration option.

Agent Managers and System Managers can use the Customer Portal Update banner to promote all existing contacts to Customer Managers.

Keep in mind:

• This is a one-time migration action.
• Future contacts are still added as regular members by default.
• New contacts must be promoted individually if broader access is required.

Additional Changes

• The Customer field appears in the Customer Portal only when a contact belongs to multiple customers.
• Domain-based automatic contact linking has been removed.
• New customer self-signups receive the HD Customer role by default.

Best Practices

• Create Customers before inviting Contacts.
• Assign Customer Manager access only to users who require organization-wide visibility.
• Keep contact information updated to ensure reliable communication.
• Review customer memberships periodically to maintain accurate permissions.
• Use multiple Customer Managers for organizations with shared support responsibilities.