---
title: "Client contacts, sites, and contact tags"
description: "Keep each client's contacts and site addresses, mark a primary contact or a VIP with contact tags, and warn technicians on that person's tickets."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/msp/contacts-and-sites/"
product: "depot"
type: "how-to"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "MSP plan. A client's contacts are its Users, shown on the Contacts tab with phone, title, and contact tags. Sites carry an address. Tags are defined in Desk defaults (ticket:manage) and assigned per contact (identity:manage). Primary contact is a built-in single-holder tag that moves when reassigned. Alert on tickets shows a banner for tagged requesters and participants. VIP example."
availability:
  plans: ["msp"]
  permission: "identity:manage"
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/msp/contacts-and-sites.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Client contacts, sites, and contact tags

Each client's record holds the people you deal with there and the places they
work. Contacts carry a phone number, a job title, and contact tags such as
**Primary contact** or **VIP**. Sites carry a postal address and a phone
number. A contact tag can also warn your technicians: when a tagged person
raises a ticket or is added to one, a banner at the top of the ticket says who
they are. This page shows how to keep contacts and sites current, how to define
and assign contact tags, and how to set up a VIP alert from start to finish.

## Before you begin

- You are on the MSP plan. Contact tags are defined once for your whole
  practice.
- Reading contacts and sites needs `identity:read`. Changing a contact's
  phone, title, or tags, and changing a site, needs `identity:manage`.
- Defining contact tags needs `ticket:manage`, the same permission as the rest
  of **Desk defaults**. See
  [Roles and permissions](/depot/roles-and-permissions/).

## How contacts, sites, and tags fit together

A client's contacts are the people in that client's **Users** list. There is
no second address book. A person Outpost discovered from an endpoint, or one
you added by hand, is a contact, and the details you add here are the same
person's details everywhere else in the console. See
[End users and user groups](/endpoints/end-users/).

A client's sites are the same sites its endpoints are sorted into. See
[Organize endpoints](/endpoints/organize-endpoints/#create-a-site).

A contact tag is a label you define once for the practice. Every client gets
the same set of tags, so **VIP** means the same thing at every client. You
assign tags to people inside each client. A tag has these settings:

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Label** | The name technicians see on chips and banners, up to 64 characters. |
| **Code** | What filters, the API, and Pioneer AI use, such as `vip`: 1 to 32 lowercase letters, digits, or underscores. It cannot be changed after you save. |
| **Description** | Up to 500 characters. It is shown under the banner on a ticket, so write what a technician must do. |
| **Color** | **Red**, **Orange**, **Amber**, **Green**, **Purple**, **Pink**, or **Gray**. Chips and the edge and icon of ticket banners use it. |
| **Alert on tickets** | Shows a banner on every ticket this person is on. |
| **Only one per client** | Only one person at a client can hold the tag at a time. |
| **Sort order** | Where the tag lists. Lower numbers list first. Banners on a ticket follow the same order. |

### Primary contact

**Primary contact** is built in. It marks the main person to contact at a
client, and the **Primary contact** card on the client's **Overview** tab
shows who holds it. Until someone holds it, the card says **Nobody is the
primary contact yet.** and offers **Choose one from Contacts**. You can change
its label, description, and color. You cannot delete it, change its code, or
make it a tag that several people hold.

### Single-holder tags move, they do not stack

A single-holder tag, one with **Only one per client** turned on, such as
**Primary contact**, belongs to one person per client. When you give it to someone else, Outpost takes it off the person who
held it and gives it to the new person in the same step. Nothing is refused
and nobody ends up with a duplicate. When you choose a single-holder tag for a
contact, the console tells you who it moves from first.

Tags without **Only one per client** can be held by as many people as you like. A
client can have several VIPs.

## Define a contact tag

1. Select **Inbox** > **Desk defaults**, then the **Contact tags** tab.
2. Select **Add contact tag**.
3. Enter a **Label** and a **Code**, and optionally a **Description**.
4. Choose a **Color**.
5. To warn technicians on this person's tickets, turn on **Alert on
   tickets**.
6. To allow only one holder per client, turn on **Only one per client**.
7. Select **Save**.

The tag reaches every client right away. A client that cannot be reached at
that moment catches up within a few minutes, the same way the other desk
defaults do. See
[Desk settings](/service-desk/desk-settings/#msp-defaults-and-per-client-settings).

To change a tag, select **Edit** in its row, change it, and select **Save**.
To remove one, select **Remove**, then **Remove** again to confirm. Removing a
tag takes it off every person who held it, at every client. **Primary
contact** is marked **Built in** and cannot be removed.

## Keep a client's contacts current

1. Select **Clients**, then the client's **Record**.
2. Select the **Contacts** tab. It opens **Users** in the client's
   workspace, with a **Tags** column. To show only the people with one tag,
   filter on **Tag**.
3. Select a person to open them, and stay on the **Profile** tab.
4. Enter their **Title** and **Phone**, then select **Save changes**.
5. In **Contact tags**, select the checkbox of each tag this person holds,
   then select **Save tags**.

Tags save on their own, separately from the rest of the profile. A
single-holder tag is marked **One per client**. When someone else holds it,
selecting it shows **Moves from** and their name. Phone numbers are stored encrypted, like names and email
addresses.

## Keep a client's sites current

1. Select **Clients**, then the client's **Record**.
2. Select the **Sites** tab. It opens **Sites** in the client's workspace.
3. Select **Edit** in the site's row.
4. Under **Address and phone**, enter any of **Address line 1**, **Address
   line 2**, **City**, **State or region**, **Postal code**, **Country**, and
   **Phone**. All are optional.
5. Select **Save changes**.

**New site** has the same fields. The site's **Overview** tab shows the
**Address** and **Phone** under **Details**.

## Example: flag a VIP on every ticket

Your client's owner should never wait in the queue. This example makes a red
**VIP** tag that warns technicians, then gives it to that person.

1. Select **Inbox** > **Desk defaults**, then **Contact tags**, then
   **Add contact tag**.
2. In **Label**, enter `VIP`. In **Code**, enter `vip`.
3. In **Description**, enter what a technician must do, such as `Owner of
   the business. Pick up within 15 minutes and call them back.`
4. In **Color**, choose **Red**.
5. Turn on **Alert on tickets**. Leave **Only one per client** off, so a
   client can have more than one VIP.
6. Select **Save**.
7. Select **Clients**, then the client's **Record**, then **Contacts**.
8. Open the owner. In **Contact tags**, select **VIP**, then select **Save
   tags**.

From now on, every ticket where the owner is the requester or a participant
opens with a banner under the ticket's title, edged in red, that reads
**VIP:** and their name, with your description below it. Their requester card on the ticket shows
the **VIP** chip. Removing the tag from the owner, or turning off **Alert on
tickets**, removes the banner.

## What a ticket shows

A ticket shows one banner for each tagged person and tag that alerts. It
counts:

- the requester
- every participant on the ticket, whatever their role

A person on a ticket twice gets one banner per tag. Banners are ordered by the
tag's **Sort order**, then by name. Tags without **Alert on tickets** show on
the person's chips but never as a banner. See
[Tickets](/service-desk/tickets/#contact-alerts).

## Verify

- The client's **Contacts** tab shows the tag chip in the person's **Tags**
  column, and filtering on **Tag** lists them.
- Open one of their tickets. The banner is under the ticket's title.
- For **Primary contact**, the **Primary contact** card on the client's
  **Overview** tab names the new holder, and the previous holder's chip is
  gone.

## Next steps

- [Tickets](/service-desk/tickets/)
- [Desk settings](/service-desk/desk-settings/)
- [End users and user groups](/endpoints/end-users/)
- [Add and manage clients](/msp/clients/)