Contacts
A contact is a person attached to a client. Every client has at least one — the primary contact, created when you add the client — and most have more: a spouse, a bookkeeper, an attorney, an authorized representative.
Contacts are the people Assure Pro talks to. Documents, emails, SMS, and portal invitations all go to contacts, not to the abstract client record.
How to add a contact
From the client detail page, open the Contacts tab and click Add contact.
[Screenshot: Add contact dialog]
| What | What goes here |
|---|---|
| First / last name | Required. |
| Required if this contact will receive portal access or invitation emails. | |
| Phone | Optional. Used for SMS and as a fallback when email bounces. |
| Contact type | One of: Taxpayer, Spouse, Owner, CFO, Bookkeeper, Office manager, Authorized rep, Dependent. |
| Date of birth | Optional. |
| SSN | Optional. Stored securely. Used for spouse and dependent contacts that the IRS requires identifying. |
Click Save. The contact appears in the contacts list on the client detail page.
How to pick the right contact type
| Type | Who they are | Typical access |
|---|---|---|
| Taxpayer | The primary client themselves (for an individual). | Portal Owner. |
| Spouse | The MFJ filing spouse. | Portal Owner or Signer. |
| Owner | The owner of a business client. | Portal Owner. |
| CFO | A business client’s chief financial officer. | Portal Editor — uploads, but can’t change settings. |
| Bookkeeper | The client’s outsourced bookkeeper. | Portal Editor — uploads, but doesn’t see invoices. |
| Office manager | A business client’s admin staff handling tax paperwork. | Portal Editor. |
| Authorized rep | A third party authorized to act on the client’s behalf (often an attorney). | Portal Viewer — read-only. |
| Dependent | A dependent on a 1040 (often a minor child). | No portal access. |
Contact type is a label — it doesn’t grant any access on its own. Access is granted separately through portal roles. See Portal access.
How the primary contact works
Every client has exactly one primary contact — the default recipient for communications. The primary contact:
- Is the contact created when you first added the client.
- Carries a Primary badge on the contacts list.
- Becomes the “From” target for AI-drafted client emails.
- Is the default signer on engagement letters (unless overridden per signing package).
To change who’s primary, open the Contacts tab, click the three-dot menu next to the new primary, and pick Make primary. The old primary loses the badge but stays as a contact.
How to edit a contact
Click any contact on the Contacts tab to open the edit dialog. You can change name, phone, contact type, and DOB without restriction.
Changing a contact’s email
If a contact has portal access, changing their email requires a verification step:
- Enter the new email and click Save.
- Assure Pro sends a verification code to the new email.
- The contact enters the code to confirm they own the new address.
- Assure Pro swaps the email and signs them out of any active portal sessions.
This prevents accidentally redirecting portal access to the wrong email. You can cancel a pending email change at any time before the code is verified.
How to delete a contact
From the three-dot menu, click Delete contact. The contact is removed and any portal access they had is revoked.
Deleting the primary contact requires you to first promote another contact to primary. If the client only has one contact, add a second one first.
What contacts can do
By default, a contact is just data — Assure Pro stores their name and how to reach them. To let a contact upload documents, sign engagement letters, or pay invoices, grant them portal access. The role you give them controls what they can do.
See Portal access for the five roles and what each one can do.
Next
- Portal access — invite contacts to the client portal.
- The client detail page — the Contacts tab in context.
- Communications — sending messages to contacts.