Managing Contacts

Hometrace includes a contact management system to help you organize the people you work with: clients you've inspected for, real estate agents you partner with, and contractors you recommend. Contacts sync between web and mobile, so the agent you added in the field this morning is searchable on the dashboard this afternoon.

Where to find Contacts

• Web: click Contacts in the inspector dashboard navigation. Tabs across the top let you filter by All, Contractors, Clients, and Agents.
• Mobile: open the Contacts tab in the bottom navigation.

Both surfaces support the same three contact types and share the same database.

Contact types

• Clients are the homeowners and buyers you perform inspections for. Hometrace can attach them to inspection records so their info is one tap away when you start a new inspection.
• Agents are the real-estate agents you work with. Tracking them helps you see referral patterns and quickly cc them on report deliveries.
• Contractors are service providers you recommend (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc.). You can categorize each contractor by the appliance or system they service so you can quickly pull up the right person when a finding calls for one.

Note: Contractors are available to inspectors. Homeowner-only accounts see only Clients and Agents.

Adding a contact manually

On the web

1. Open Contacts and click Add contact.
2. Pick the contact type.
3. Enter the contact's details. Required: Name. Optional: company, phone, email, notes. Contractors get an additional categories picker for the systems they service.
4. Click Save.

On the mobile app

1. Open the Contacts tab.
2. Tap the + button in the top right.
3. An action sheet appears with two options. Tap Create New Contact.
4. Fill in the contact details and save.

Importing from your phone (mobile only)

If you've been keeping track of clients and agents in your phone's address book, you can pull them straight into Hometrace without retyping anything.

Steps

1. Open the Contacts tab in the mobile app.
2. Tap the + button. From the action sheet, choose Import from Phone.
3. The first time you do this, the app asks for permission to read your device contacts. If you accidentally deny, the modal includes an Open Settings shortcut so you can grant permission and return.
4. Browse or search your phone contacts. The list paginates as you scroll.
5. Tap to select any contacts you want to import. A checkmark appears on each. The bottom bar shows how many are selected.
6. Tap Import. Selected contacts are added to Hometrace as the currently-selected type (or Client if you're on the All tab).

What gets imported

For each selected phone contact, Hometrace pulls the name, email, phone number, and company. It does not import addresses or photos.

Deduplication

If a phone contact's email matches one already in your Hometrace contact list (of the same type), Hometrace skips it. After the import finishes, you'll see a toast like "Imported 7 contacts, skipped 2 duplicates." If every selected contact was already in Hometrace, the toast says so and nothing changes.

Permissions and privacy

The app reads device contacts only while the picker is open and only after you grant permission. Hometrace never copies your address book to the server in bulk; only the contacts you explicitly select are sent. You can revoke contacts permission at any time from your device settings.

Importing from another inspection tool (web only)

If you're switching from another inspection platform, you can bulk-import your existing contact list.

1. Open Contacts in the web dashboard.
2. Click Import.
3. Pick the source:
4. • Spectora (.xls / .xlsx contact export)
   • Home Inspector Pro (.tpz contact export)
   • Other (a .csv formatted to our template; the modal includes the sample to download)
4. Drag in the file and review the preview. Hometrace shows you what types of contacts it found.
5. Confirm the import.

Searching and filtering

• Search: type any part of a name, email, phone number, or company. Results filter as you type, with a short debounce to avoid thrashing while you type fast.
• Type filter: the tabs (All, Contractors, Clients, Agents) limit the list to one type. The selected tab also drives the default type when you tap + or import from your phone.

Editing and deleting

Edit

• Web: click a contact to open it, edit any field, then save.
• Mobile: tap a contact to open it, edit, save.

Delete

• Web: open the contact and use the action menu, or click the menu icon on the contact card.
• Mobile: long-press a contact to bring up the action sheet, then choose Delete.

Deleted contacts are gone for good. Inspections you've already attached the contact to keep their information; only the standalone contact entry is removed.

Using contacts in inspections

Once a contact exists, it's available throughout Hometrace:

• Starting an inspection: the client and agent fields suggest matches from your contact list as you type. Pick from the suggestions to attach the contact instead of retyping the info.
• Recommending a contractor: when you're writing up a finding that warrants a referral, you can pull a categorized contractor from your contact list directly.
• Booking page intake: when a client books through your public booking page, their contact info is auto-saved as a Client contact (with the booking attached).

Best practices

• Keep notes specific. Use the notes field for things you'll forget otherwise: preferred contact times, communication style, gate codes, dog warnings.
• Categorize contractors as you add them. Filtering by category later only works if you tagged the system they service.
• Import once, edit later. It's faster to bulk-import a messy list and clean up the duplicates than to enter fifty contacts by hand.
• Re-run phone imports periodically. As you add new clients to your phone in the field, a quick "Import from Phone" pass on the way home pulls the new ones in. Email deduplication keeps you from creating duplicates.

Getting help

Email support@hometrace.co with any questions about the contact list, imports, or syncing.