Contact Activity (Notes, Appointments, Documents, Payments)

What you'll learn

Common Use Cases

Once you know your way around the activity column, here's what you can start doing right away.

📊

See How A Contact Came In

Check the activity feed to see attribution, like whether a contact filled out a form, visited a page, or came in through direct traffic.

📝

Add A Note In Seconds

Drop in a quick note about a contact, format it with bullets or links if you need to, and save it right to their record.

📅

Keep Tasks And Appointments Together

View, edit, and manage tasks and calendar appointments for this contact without leaving their record.

💳

Manage Documents And Payments

Store internal documents, track contracts, and charge a card, send an invoice, or create an estimate, all from the same place.

Key definitions

Terms worth knowing

The running feed showing how a contact came in and what they've done since, such as submitting a form, visiting a page, or being created directly. This is also called attribution.

The other features and records connected to this contact, such as opportunities or custom objects you've created. Associations show you everything that's linked to this contact in one place.

A written entry you add to a contact's record. Notes can be formatted with highlighting, bullet points, and links, and can be associated to related records like opportunities.

A scheduled meeting tied to this contact, created through your calendar. Appointments made with this contact show up here automatically.

A file stored on a contact's record, such as an internal document, contract, or something sent or received by email. Uploaded files show up under the internal section.

The transactions, subscriptions, invoices, and estimates tracked for this contact, along with quick actions for charging a card or creating a new invoice or estimate.

"Watch the activity as it comes in, check your associations, add any tasks, check your appointments, manage your documents, and easily review any payments made with that contact."

How it works

Working The Third Column

See how this contact came in

Open a contact and you'll land on the third column, activity. This is where you see how the contact came in, whether that's a website or funnel page, a social media source, or a form they filled out. If you've set up a form in your CRM, submitting it will show up here too, along with the page they visited. This is also known as attribution. The first attribution shows the first way they arrived, like direct traffic straight to your website, and the last attribution shows the most recent way they showed up.

Everything connected to this contact

Associations relate this contact to other features in your CRM, like opportunities or any custom objects you've created. Think of associations as everything that's connected to this contact in one view. Right below that is tasks, where you can easily add a task, view a task, edit a task, and manage tasks tied to this specific contact.

Add a note in the editor

Select Add A Note to open the note editor. You can get as specific as you want, highlighting text, adding bullet points, or dropping in URLs. You can also associate a note to specific records, like contacts and opportunities. Just don't forget to select Save once you've created a note, or it won't be kept.

Appointments made through your calendar

This is where you'll see any appointments made using your calendar for this contact. If you haven't set up a calendar yet, this is a good reminder to do that so appointments start showing up here automatically and stay tied to the right contact.

Store and organize documents

Select Add Document to attach a document to this contact and store it under their record. Once added, it shows up under the internal section, which is where uploaded documents live. This can also include documents sent or received by email, or documents and contracts related to payments. It's a simple way to keep everything on file in one place.

Transactions, invoices, and quick actions

Payments shows transactions, subscriptions, invoices, and even estimates for this contact. Select the actions dropdown to add a card on file, charge a card, create a subscription, create an invoice, manage cards, or create an estimate. To charge a card, enter the dollar amount and a description, confirm your payment gateway is entered, then confirm and charge. Before any of this works, go to Payments, select Integrations in the top right, and connect the payment provider of your choice. Once that's connected, you can manage and track payments right here under the contact's payments option.

Tips

Worth remembering

Always select Save after adding a note. It's an easy step to skip, and the note won't be kept without it.
Check the activity feed before reaching out to a contact so you know how they came in and what they've already done.
Set up your calendar first if you haven't, so appointments made with this contact start showing up automatically.
Connect your payment provider under Payments and Integrations before trying to charge a card or create an invoice.
Look for the small shortcuts icon in the bottom right of your desktop display for keyboard shortcuts to navigate faster between columns.

Check yourself

Quick Knowledge Check

Four quick questions on this lesson. One attempt each, and the answer is revealed either way.

0 of 4 answered

What does the activity feed on a contact record show you?

What are associations, on a contact record?

What's an important step to remember after writing a note?

Before you can charge a card or create an invoice for a contact, what do you need to do?

Apply it

Try this with your favorite AI

📋Build my contact activity routine

You are helping me build a simple routine for reviewing a contact's activity column in my CRM before I follow up with them. Here is my situation: - The kinds of contacts I usually work with: [describe, e.g. new leads, existing customers] - What I most want to check before reaching out: [describe, e.g. how they came in, past notes, open tasks] Based on that, give me a short checklist I can run through every time I open a contact record, covering activity, associations, notes, appointments, documents, and payments, in the order I should check them. Finish by asking me which part of this routine I'm most likely to forget, so we can build a reminder for it.

💳Plan my payment setup and follow-up

You are helping me plan how I'll use the payments section of a contact record in my CRM. Here is my situation: - The payment provider I plan to connect, or already have connected: [describe] - The kinds of charges I typically need to make: [describe, e.g. one-time charges, subscriptions, invoices, estimates] Based on that, walk me through what I need to confirm is set up before I try to charge a card or send an invoice, and suggest a simple note-taking habit so I always record what a payment was for.

The third column on a contact record puts everything about that relationship in one place: activity and attribution, associations, tasks, notes, appointments, documents, and payments. Check activity before you reach out, save your notes, keep documents organized, and connect a payment provider before you try to charge a card. Ready? Let's keep building on your Contacts skills next.