Contact Management Improvements

Scheduled release: Thursday evening, 22 October 2026

We're introducing some important improvements to PracticeFlow, making it easier to manage contacts and their relationships with Organisations.

One important change is to how Primary Contacts are managed. Instead of maintaining separate Primary Contact details against each Organisation, you'll be able to select a Primary Contact from your existing Linked Individuals. Your original Primary Contact information will be retained temporarily, allowing you to compare the old and new records.

The update also includes improvements to Companies House officers and PSC information, Personal Codes, and account security.

This article explains how existing Primary Contact information will be handled during the update and what you may need to check afterwards.


Why are we changing Primary Contacts?

PracticeFlow has supported Linked Individuals for some time, allowing you to associate one Individual with several Organisations or several Individuals with one Organisation.

Until now, however, Organisations have also had four separate Primary Contact fields:

  • Contact First Name
  • Contact Last Name
  • Contact Email
  • Contact Phone

This means some customers maintain contact information in both places.

For example, you may already have an Individual linked to five Organisations, but also have their name and email address entered separately in the Primary Contact fields of each Organisation.

Sometimes the information is identical. In other cases, the Individual record may have more complete information, or the Primary Contact fields may contain information such as a telephone number or an email address that isn't recorded against the Individual.

The update brings these two approaches together.

Following the update, you'll be able to select one of an Organisation's Linked Individuals as its Primary Contact, rather than maintaining separate contact details against the Organisation.

This has several benefits:

  • A person's contact details can be maintained centrally rather than repeated across multiple Organisations.
  • You can change the Primary Contact simply by selecting a different linked Individual.
  • The Organisations grid will automatically display the details of the selected Primary Individual.
  • It's easier to manage relationships between people and Organisations.
  • Contacts, Prospects and Individual Clients can all be linked to Organisations.

How will the updated Contacts section work?

The Organisation Contacts section will show the existing Linked Individuals, with an option to designate one person as Primary.

You can continue to create new Individuals or link existing ones to an Organisation.

Where an Individual is linked to several Organisations, their details can be maintained in one place.

The Organisations grid will continue to have Contact First Name, Last Name, Email and Phone columns, but these will now display information from the linked Individual selected as Primary, rather than from separate Organisation fields.

Changing the Primary Contact selection will automatically update the information shown in the grid.

We've also added an Organisation filter to the Individuals grid, making it easier to see everyone linked to a particular Organisation.


What should you consider before the update?

You may wish to review how you've been using Primary Contacts and Linked Individuals.

In particular:

  • If you already use Linked Individuals: Check whether the correct people are linked to your Organisations and whether their contact details are complete.
  • If you mainly use Primary Contact fields: Consider whether you already have Individual records for some of those people.
  • If you manage groups of companies: Check whether the same person appears across several Organisations and whether their information is consistent.

PracticeFlow will automatically use your existing Primary Contact information to set up Primary Contacts through Linked Individuals, so you won't need to do this manually. There is no need to delete or change your existing Primary Contact details before the update, even if the person is already recorded as a Linked Individual. However, reviewing your records beforehand may help reduce duplicates and the amount of tidying up required afterwards.


What happens during the update?

Where possible, we'll use an existing Individual record, linking it to the Organisation if necessary and designating that person as Primary Contact.

Where a suitable Individual cannot be identified, we'll create a new Individual with the relationship type Contact, link them to the Organisation and designate them as Primary.

We won't change any details held on existing Individual records, including names, email addresses or telephone numbers.

Because existing contact information may be incomplete or inconsistent, some duplicate Contacts may be created.

Any new Individuals created during the update will have PF_Migration in their Reference field, making them easy to identify and review afterwards.

Contacts do not count towards your PracticeFlow client limit.


What happens to my original Primary Contact information?

Your original Primary Contact information will be retained following the update.

The four existing fields will be renamed:

  • Legacy Contact First Name
  • Legacy Contact Last Name
  • Legacy Contact Email
  • Legacy Contact Phone

These will be available as optional columns in the Organisations grid and included in CSV exports.

This means you can compare your original contact information with the details held against the linked Individual selected as Primary.

We intend to retain these fields until after 31 January 2027, giving you time to review your records.


What should I check after the update?

We recommend reviewing your contact information following the update, particularly if you have a large number of Organisations or already use Linked Individuals.

The main things to check are:

  • Primary Contacts: Make sure the correct Individual is selected as Primary for each Organisation.
  • Contact details: Check that names, email addresses and telephone numbers are correct. You can compare these against the Legacy Contact fields.
  • New Contacts: Use the Reference PF_Migration to identify Individuals created during the update.
  • Duplicates: Check whether any new Contacts duplicate existing Individuals and correct their links where necessary.

Pay particular attention to email addresses used for client communications and Client Portal requests.


Need help?

We recognise that some customer records may need tidying up following these changes.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us at support@practiceflow.co.uk.

We believe these improvements will make managing contacts considerably easier, particularly where the same people are associated with several Organisations.