> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bizzyco.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Contacts, Customers & Businesses > Understand how Bizzy organizes people and business relationships Bizzy provides three ways to organize the people and companies you work with: **Contacts**, **Customers**, and **Businesses**. Each serves a different purpose, and understanding the distinction helps you get the most from the platform. ## Overview | Type | What It Represents | Example | | ------------ | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | **Contact** | An individual person you communicate with | John Smith, [jane@example.com](mailto:jane@example.com) | | **Customer** | A business relationship with a person | John Smith as a buyer | | **Business** | A company or organization | Acme Corporation | ## Contacts A **contact** represents an individual person. Contacts are the core of Bizzy's data model — they're the link between people and the messages you exchange with them. Every contact can have multiple email addresses and phone numbers, each with labels like "work" or "personal." When Bizzy receives a message, it matches the sender's email to an existing contact, linking the message to that person's history automatically. This means you can open any contact and see every conversation you've had with them, across all channels. Contacts are also created automatically when you receive emails from new senders, so your address book grows organically as you communicate. ## Customers A **customer** represents a business relationship. While a contact is just a person in your address book, a customer indicates they have a commercial relationship with you — they've bought something, signed up for a service, or are in your sales pipeline. Customers can have **transactions** associated with them — records of purchases, payments, or other financial events. This gives you a financial history tied to a person, separate from your communication history. ### When to Use Customers * Someone makes a purchase or payment * You want to track an ongoing client relationship * You need to record transaction history * You're building a sales pipeline ## Businesses A **business** represents a company or organization. Where contacts track individuals and customers track financial relationships, businesses track company-level information: industry, offerings, online presence, and physical locations. Businesses can be connected to contacts (people who work there) and customers (commercial relationships), giving you both the company-level and individual views. ## How They Work Together These three types form a hierarchy that mirrors real business relationships: ``` Business: Acme Corporation ├── Contact: John Smith (Sales Manager) │ └── Customer: John Smith (purchased in 2024) ├── Contact: Jane Doe (CEO) └── Contact: Bob Wilson (Support) ``` In this example: * **Acme Corporation** is tracked as a business with its company information * **John**, **Jane**, and **Bob** are contacts (individuals) * **John** is also a customer because he's made purchases ## Choosing the Right Type The general rule: * **Start with contacts.** Every person you communicate with should be a contact. Bizzy creates these automatically from email senders. * **Add customer records for buyers.** When someone makes a purchase or becomes a client, create a customer record to track the financial relationship. * **Add businesses for companies.** When you need to track company-level information — their products, locations, or team — create a business and link relevant contacts to it. ## Related Topics Add, edit, and organize your contacts How contacts link to your communications