How to Build Your Contact and Company Database

Your contact list is the foundation of your event business. Every client, vendor, sponsor, and lead you have ever worked with represents a relationship - and relationships drive repeat business, referrals, and revenue. But if those contacts are scattered across your phone, email, spreadsheets, and sticky notes, you are not managing relationships. You are just hoping you remember people.

Ripluo's CRM gives you a centralized contact and company database that connects directly to your events, opportunities, and invoices. This tutorial walks you through building it from the ground up.

Note: The CRM is available on Ripluo's Pro plan ($49.99/mo). Event planning tools are free.

Step 1: Add Contacts

From the main sidebar, click Contacts under the CRM section. Click "Add Contact" to create your first record.

Each contact includes:

Name - First and last name
Email and Phone
Contact Type - Client, Vendor, Event Staff, Volunteer, Sponsor, Speaker, Guest, or Other
Company - Link the contact to a company record (covered in Step 3)
Address
Notes

Start by adding the contacts you work with most - current clients, active leads, and key vendors. Over time, your database grows into a complete picture of every relationship in your business.

Step 2: Organize with Contact Types

Contact types let you categorize your database so you can quickly find who you are looking for. Ripluo includes types like Client, Vendor, Event Staff, Volunteer, Sponsor, Speaker, Guest, and Other - covering the key relationships in any event business.

Filter your contact list by type to see all clients, all leads, or all vendors at a glance. This is especially useful when you need to send updates to all your clients or reach out to all your vendor contacts for a new event.

Step 3: Fill In Contact Details

Each contact record comes with a set of standard fields to capture the information that matters - name, email, phone, address, company, contact type, and notes. Use the notes field to store any additional context like wedding dates, event preferences, budget ranges, or referral sources.

Having structured contact records means you are not relying on memory or scattered notes. Every detail about a relationship lives in one place, ready when you need it.

Step 4: Create Company Records

Many of your contacts belong to organizations - a corporate client's company, a sponsor's business, a vendor's firm. Company records let you group contacts under a shared organization and track company-level information.

Click Companies in the CRM sidebar and create a company record. You can also create a company inline from a contact record - just type the company name and it will be created for you.

From the Companies view, you can add full details like industry, website, address, and notes. When you open a company record, you see all associated contacts, all opportunities tied to that company, and a combined activity timeline. This is useful for managing business relationships where you interact with multiple people at the same organization.

Creating a company record and linking contacts

Step 5: Track the Activity Timeline

Every contact and company record includes an activity timeline - a chronological log of every interaction, note, email, opportunity, and event associated with that person or organization.

The timeline builds automatically as you work. When you create an opportunity for a contact, it appears on their timeline. When you log a note after a call, it is added. When an email is logged (see the BCC email logging tutorial), it shows up too.

This means when a past client calls six months later, you can open their record and see the full history of your relationship in one scroll - what events you planned, what they paid, and what you last discussed.

Viewing the activity timeline on a contact

Get Started

Ready to build a real contact database for your event business? The CRM is available on Ripluo's Pro plan ($49.99/mo), which also includes the full sales pipeline, proposals, contracts, and invoicing. Create your Ripluo account to get started - you can explore the free event planning tools immediately and upgrade to Pro when you are ready for the CRM.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the CRM included in the free plan?

No. The CRM - including contacts, companies, pipeline, proposals, contracts, and invoicing - is part of Ripluo's Pro plan at $49.99/mo. The free plan includes event planning tools like schedules, checklists, budgets, and guest lists.

Can I import contacts from a spreadsheet?

Yes. Ripluo supports CSV import for contacts, so you can bring in your existing database without manually entering every record.

How many contacts can I store?

There is no contact limit on the Pro plan. Store as many contacts and companies as your business needs.

Can I link a contact to multiple companies?

A contact is linked to one primary company, but you can note additional affiliations in the contact's notes or custom fields. This covers cases where someone serves on multiple event committees or works with multiple organizations.