Contacts — the people and businesses you work with
Your address book for building work: clients, subbies, suppliers, consultants, the council. Some of them are on QSME and some never will be, and both kinds sit in the same list. When you invite people to a tender or a project, add signers to an agreement, or give someone a job on the schedule, this list is where QSME looks first.
Where it sits
Sidebar → Contacts. It is there on both sides of QSME, and it is one list. If you run jobs and also bid for work, you see the same contacts on either side.
On a computer it is a table. In a phone's browser it is a list of cards, and tapping one opens it.
Two kinds of contact
| On QSME | Has a QSME account and carries the Platform badge. Their name, e-mail and phone come from their own profile and stay up to date. From here you can Message them or View Profile. |
| Outside QSME | A name plus an e-mail address or a phone number, typed in by you or saved by QSME. They do not need an account to be invited to a tender or to sign an agreement. |
If the e-mail address you type in belongs to a QSME account, the contact is linked to that account. If someone you saved signs up later with the same address, your contact links itself to their new account. You do not need to add them again.
Adding someone
Press the add contact button at the top of the page (a person with a plus sign), or ⋮ → Add contact.
| Tab | What you give it |
|---|---|
| QSME user | Type at least two letters of their @username or company, then press Add. This tab is only there where QSME's member directory is available, which is New Zealand. |
| Outside QSME | A name, and an e-mail address or a phone number. One of the two is enough, so a tradie you only have a mobile number for can still go in. Company, category and notes are optional. |
You can also add someone from their profile page with Add to contacts.
When you add someone with an e-mail address, QSME e-mails them to say you added them. The e-mail carries your name and business. If they are not on QSME it links to a free sign-up, and if they are, it links to sign-in.
Importing a list
Use ⋮ → Import from Excel / CSV. You can upload a CSV file (in Excel, use Save As → CSV) or paste a list straight in. Before anything is saved, QSME shows how many contacts it found and the first few of them.
- Columns are matched by their headings, so Name, Company, Phone, Mobile, Email and Job are all picked up, whatever order they are in.
- A Job or Trade column sets each person's category. Any row without one gets the category you pick in the dialog.
- If the same person appears on two rows, they become one contact with both jobs on it.
- If you import the same file twice, nobody is added the second time. A row with the same name and the same e-mail or phone as an existing contact is skipped.
- Anyone who cannot be added is listed by name, with the reason ("no e-mail address or phone number").
Everyone you import with an e-mail address is sent the "added you" e-mail described above.
Contacts QSME saves for you
Some people end up in your list because you have done something with them. These people are not sent the "added you" e-mail. Each one has a note saying how it got there.
| When | Who is saved | Filed as |
|---|---|---|
| You start a conversation with someone | They go into your contacts. If they would already take your messages, you also go into theirs. | Other |
| A message request is accepted | Each of you goes into the other's contacts. | Other |
| A quote you sent is accepted | The client goes into your contacts. If they are on QSME, you go into theirs. | Client / Service Provider |
| You record a bid that came to your tender by e-mail | The bidder | Contractor |
| Someone signs in on site with the project's QR code | They go into the project owner's contacts, with the company they said they work for | Contractor |
| You put someone who is not on QSME on a schedule task | That person. A name is enough here. | By trade |
| You record a payment with Save this contact ticked | Who you paid, or who paid you | From the payment's category |
What a contact holds
Each contact holds a name, a company, an e-mail, a phone, a category, who they work for, and notes. Search finds people by name, company, e-mail, phone or @username.
A contact does not carry a licence or a Verified badge of its own. For someone on QSME, open View Profile to see their Verified badge and licences. Licences, verification and trust explains what those mean.
Categories
QSME comes with 36 categories, from Client and Electrician through to Tenant and Other. You can add your own on top, such as Drainlayer or Gib fixing.
- The row of chips under the search box filters the list and shows how many people are in each category. QSME's categories with nobody in them are under More. Your own categories always show.
- Add category makes a new one.
- ⋮ → Categories is where you rename or remove your own categories. Removing one asks where its contacts should go. QSME's own categories cannot be renamed or removed.
- Trades that came in from an imported Job column are offered as ready-made categories, under Words already on your contacts.
Who works for whom
One company often means several contacts: the director, the site manager, the office. Works for, in a contact's edit form, files a person under their company. The company's contact then shows "2 people here", and each person shows "Works for …".
If several contacts share a company name but are not linked yet, a line on the page offers Link them. You can also use ⋮ → Link people to their company. For each company you pick the main person, and the others go under them. Nothing changes until you press Apply.
When someone signs in on site, the company they give is filled in for you.
Many at once
Tick contacts with the checkboxes. On a phone, press Select first. A bar then offers:
| Remove | Takes them off your list. Their QSME accounts are not affected. |
| Change category | Moves them into one category. New category… makes one on the spot and moves them into it. |
| Put under… | Files them all under one company. |
| Sends one e-mail to up to 50 contacts. Anyone without an address is named and left out before you send. Replies come back to you, not to QSME. You need a paid plan to send e-mail from QSME. | |
| Export CSV | Saves contacts.csv, using the same headings the import reads. |
Where your contacts are used
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| Tenders | Invite lists your contacts. Invitations go out by e-mail, and QSME members are also told in the app. Invite New Contact saves someone new and adds them to the invite. |
| Projects | Invite → Who? lets you pick from your contacts, or add someone new with a name and an e-mail address. Someone new is saved to your contacts before the invite goes. |
| Agreements | Lets you pick signers, and choose who it is with. |
| Contracts and Money | Lets you pick the other party, or who you paid. |
| Schedule | Who is doing it shows your contacts, both on QSME and off it. |
| Documents | Choose from your contacts when you share a folder. |
| Messages | Message on any contact who is on QSME. |
A contact with no e-mail address and no QSME account cannot be sent an invite, so pickers show them greyed out. Give them an e-mail address on the Contacts page and they can be invited.
Who can see what
- Your list is yours. Nobody else on QSME can see who is in it, or the notes and categories you gave them.
- Removing someone takes them off your list only. They are not told.
- Anyone in your contacts can message you without a message request. See Messages.
- A QSME member's phone number only shows once they have verified it.
On a phone
In the app, go to Account → People to read and search your contacts. Account → Add from contacts brings people in from your phone's own address book: tick them and choose a role. Each one needs an e-mail address or a phone number. You can find both screens on the running-jobs side of the app. Editing, categories, importing and everything else on this page are done on the web.
If something looks wrong
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| "Add a name and an e-mail address or a phone number" | Someone outside QSME needs a name and one way to reach them. |
| Greyed out with "No email — add one on the Contacts page" | They have no e-mail address and no QSME account, so an invite has nowhere to go. Edit them and add an e-mail address. |
| "Nobody found" on the QSME user tab | Check the @username, or add them under Outside QSME with their e-mail address. If it matches their account, they will be linked. |
| They joined QSME but have no Platform badge | They signed up with a different e-mail address from the one you saved. The contact links itself once that address is on their account. |
| Someone you never added | QSME saved them for you. Their notes say why. See Contacts QSME saves for you. |
| "E-mail sending is part of paid plans" | Sending e-mail from Contacts needs a paid plan. You can still e-mail people from your own e-mail account. |
| "You can e-mail up to 50 contacts at a time." | Send it in batches. |
More on the words: the glossary.
Still stuck? hello@qsme.co.nz, or +64 27 338 8500.