Contacts
Your people, in one place. Clients are the ones you bill; vendors are the ones you pay. A single contact can be both, and Wrenbase keeps them in one list so you’re never maintaining two.
One list, two roles
Every person or business you work with is a contact. What makes a contact a client or a vendor is the role it carries:
- A client is someone you send invoices to.
- A vendor is someone who sends bills to you.
A contact can be both. If a company you invoice for a project also bills you for office space, that’s one contact wearing both hats, not two records. Wrenbase can tag the role for you: invoice someone and they become a client; receive a bill from someone and they become a vendor.
Contacts are the data everything else builds on. An invoice needs a client, a bill comes from a vendor, and your reports read from the same list, so getting a contact in once keeps every document that references them consistent. That’s why Contacts sits at the top of the workspace, above your revenue and bills.
Adding a contact
A contact needs very little to start: a name, and either an email or a phone number so you can reach them. Everything else is optional and there when you want it, including company, website, a full address that fills in automatically on invoices, notes for your team, and a code or ID if you track them in another system too.
The short form is deliberate. You shouldn’t have to fill a dozen fields to send someone a bill, so Wrenbase asks for just enough to reach them and put their name on a document.
Clients
Your clients are under Contacts → Clients, on every plan. Add them as above, then invoice them.
You can also invite a client into their own Invoice Inbox, where they see and pay what you’ve sent. It’s optional. Clients can always pay straight from the invoice email without an account, but the inbox gives a regular client one place to see everything from you.
How you deliver to a client
Open a client and you’ll find a Delivery preference with two options. Send link (the default) emails a link to a secure page where they view and pay, with nothing attached; Send with attachments sends the invoice and its documents as PDFs in the email, for a client whose accounts team needs the file itself. It’s one choice per client and it covers both invoices and quotes. There’s more on what each does in How invoices reach a client.
Additional recipients
Sometimes an invoice needs to reach more than one person at a client, like the project contact plus an accounts-payable inbox or a manager. On the client, add them under Additional recipients. They receive a copy of every invoice and quote you send that client; they don’t get a login. You choose how each one appears on the email:
- Cc shows the address to everyone on the message.
- Bcc keeps it hidden from the others.
Everyone rides on the same email, so the attachment is sent once and the primary contact stays the main addressee. You can add up to ten, and each is checked the same way your client’s own email is, including our sanctions screening, before it’s saved.
Client groups
You can file clients under a label, like a department, division, or region, using Group on the client. It’s a flat label for organizing and reporting, not a hierarchy: a client belongs to one group, and you pick an existing group or create one right there, up to 30 characters. Grouping makes it easy to view clients together and, over time, to read numbers by group.
Vendors
Vendors are under Contacts → Vendors, available on the paid plans. Adding a vendor does something a client add doesn’t: it gives that person permission to bill you.
- Adding a vendor is how you approve them. Only vendors on your list can send you bills through Invoice Me. Anyone you haven’t added is turned away. Remove a vendor and that permission goes away.
- Vendor activity. Open a vendor to see your history with them: the bills they’ve sent and what you’ve spent, so “how much do we pay this vendor” is one click, not a dig through bills.
- Blocking. If you need a hard stop, you can block a vendor so they can no longer bill you. It’s stronger than simply removing them.
- Inviting. If a vendor isn’t set up on Wrenbase yet, you can invite them so paying them later is smoother. See Payments.
Nobody can push a bill onto you just by knowing your Invoice Me link. Only the vendors you’ve added can, and you decide who’s on that list.
Importing in bulk
If you’re bringing a list from another system, use the import option on the Clients or Vendors page. It reads a CSV and maps the usual columns: name, email, company, phone, and address. Name and email are required; rows missing either are skipped. Existing contacts are merged rather than overwritten, so a re-import fills blanks without replacing what you already have or creating duplicates. Client import is available on every plan; vendor import comes with the paid plans.
Related
- Invoicing: a client is the one thing an invoice needs
- Invoice Me: the link vendors use to bill you
- Payments: how you pay the bills vendors send
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between a client and a vendor in Wrenbase?
- A client is someone you send invoices to, and a vendor is someone who sends bills to you. A single contact can be both, and Wrenbase keeps everyone in one list so you're never maintaining two.
- What do I need to add a contact?
- A contact needs only a name and either an email or a phone number so you can reach them. Everything else, like company, website, address, notes, and an ID from another system, is optional and there when you want it.
- Can I import my existing contacts from another system?
- Yes. Use the import option on the Clients or Vendors page to read a CSV that maps name, email, company, phone, and address. Name and email are required, rows missing either are skipped, and existing contacts are merged rather than overwritten so a re-import fills blanks without creating duplicates.