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Contact

The Contact custom field is a powerful tool for linking people directly to your inventory items. It allows you to create clear lines of ownership, responsibility, and association, answering crucial questions like "Who has this?" or "Who is the supplier for this product?".

You can select contacts from two distinct sources:

  1. App Users: Active team members within your Maxilist account.
  2. Contacts: A separate address book you manage for customers, clients, or vendors.

This field allows for multiple selections, so you can link several people to a single item when needed.

When to Use the Contact Field​

This field transforms your inventory from a simple list of things into a dynamic record of how those things relate to people.

Here are some powerful use cases:

  • Asset Management: Create an Assigned To field to track which employee (App User) has which company laptop, phone, or vehicle.
  • Supplier Tracking: Use a Supplier field to link each product to the vendor (External Contact) you purchase it from.
  • Client & Rental Management: For a rental business, a Rented By field can link equipment to the customer (External Contact) who currently has it.
  • Task Assignment: In a repair shop, a Technician field can assign a specific job to a team member (App User).
  • Stakeholder Management: A Project Managers field can link an asset to all the managers (App Users) responsible for it.

How to Create a Contact Field​

Step 1: Create the Field​

Follow instructions in the Custom Fields guide on how to add new field.

tip

Contacts can be added to all types of objects including:

  • Collections
  • Items
  • Transactions
  • Contacts (even nested within other contacts)

How to Use the Contact Field​

Once created, you can begin linking people to your items.

  1. Open an item within the collection.
  2. Find and tap on the new Contact field you created.
  3. A contact selection screen will appear. You will typically see a search bar to quickly find a contact by name.
  4. Tap on the name of each person you want to link to the item. A checkmark will appear next to each selection.
  5. Tap Save.
  6. The selected contacts will now appear in the field on the item's detail page, often as interactive tags showing their name and profile picture.

Managing Your External Contacts​

Your list of external contacts (customers, vendors, etc.) can be managed centrally. Look for a main "Contacts" section in the app's primary navigation menu. From there, you can add, edit, or remove contacts from your address book.

Properties of Contacts Fields​

  • Maximum Selection

    • e.g., 2
    • Optional
    • This is the maximum number of contacts that can be selected. If not set, the field will allow any number of contacts to be selected.

  • Has Searchbar

    • e.g., ✅
    • Optional
    • If set, the field will have a search bar that allows you to filter the contacts. This is helpful when you have a large number of contacts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)​

What is the difference between a Contact field and a Short Text field?**​

A Short Text field only stores a name as plain text. The Contact field links to a rich contact object, which can contain more information (like an email, phone number, or profile picture). This also enables powerful, accurate filtering (e.g., "Show me all items assigned to John Doe").

Will an external contact be notified if I assign them to an item?**​

No. The Contact field is for your internal tracking and record-keeping purposes only. External contacts do not have access to your Maxilist account and will not receive any alerts or notifications.

Can I filter my item list based on the selected contact?**​

Absolutely. The Contact field is fully integrated with Maxilist's filtering engine. You can easily create a filter to see all items assigned to a specific employee or supplied by a particular vendor.