> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.monolithforensics.com/monolith/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.monolithforensics.com/monolith/using-monolith/people/contacts.md).

# Contacts

Track people related to your case and associate them with cases, evidence items, acquisitions, and other forensic work.

Contacts represent people who are related to your forensic work but are not necessarily the client or requestor for the case.

Contacts can be added as you work through a case and associated with the records where that relationship matters. This makes it easier to preserve who a device, account, acquisition, or other piece of case information belongs to or is associated with.

Common contacts may include:

* Custodians
* Suspects
* Victims
* Witnesses
* Attorneys
* Opposing counsel
* Investigators
* Employees
* Colleagues
* Device owners
* Account holders
* Other people relevant to the case

For many cases, teams simply add the few contacts they need as they move through intake and examination. For larger matters or organizations with many known people, Monolith also provides CSV import, directory integrations, and API options to add contacts at scale.

### Contacts vs. Clients

Monolith uses **Clients** and **Contacts** to represent different relationships to your work.

**Clients** generally represent the person or organization requesting the work and are associated with the case as the requestor.

**Contacts** represent other people connected to the case, evidence items, acquisitions, or related forensic work.

For example, a case may have:

* An investigator or attorney as the **Client** who requested the work
* A device owner as a **Contact**
* A suspect as a **Contact**
* A victim or witness as a **Contact**
* A custodian whose device or account is being examined as a **Contact**

See **Clients** for more information about managing requestors.

### Adding Contacts During Casework

For most workflows, contacts are added naturally while working within a case.

You do not need to populate a large contact directory before beginning casework. Add people as they become relevant, then associate them with the appropriate case, evidence item, or acquisition.

### Add Contacts From a Case

The **Contacts** tab within a case provides a central place to manage the people associated with that case.

From the case Contacts area, users can:

* Create a new contact
* Assign an existing contact to the case
* Import multiple contacts from CSV
* Review the contacts already associated with the case

A contact added to the case can later be associated with specific evidence items, acquisitions, or other records when additional context is needed.

This is useful when you know who the relevant people are at intake but have not yet determined exactly which devices, accounts, or collections belong to each person.

### Add a Contact During Evidence Intake

Contacts can also be selected or created while adding an evidence item.

The **Linked Contact** field on the evidence creation form allows you to:

* Search for an existing contact
* Select a contact already available in Monolith
* Create a new contact without leaving the evidence intake workflow

This is useful when the relationship between the person and the evidence is already known.

For example, when entering a mobile phone, laptop, email account, or other item, you may immediately associate it with the custodian, owner, suspect, or other relevant person.

If the appropriate contact is not yet known, the evidence item can be created first and the relationship can be added later.

### Add a Contact During Acquisition Intake

Contacts can also be associated directly with acquisitions.

When creating or editing an acquisition, use the **Linked Contact** field to connect the acquisition with the person relevant to that collection.

This can help document relationships such as:

* Whose account was collected
* Which custodian an acquisition belongs to
* Which person is associated with a forensic image or extraction
* Who is relevant to a particular collection or examination

As with evidence intake, users can work with existing contacts and add the relationship as it becomes known.

### Contacts From Relay

Contacts may also enter the case workflow through the **Relay Request Portal**.

A typical workflow is:

1. A requestor submits information through Relay.
2. The request appears in Monolith as an **Inquiry**.
3. Your team reviews the inquiry and its submitted information.
4. The inquiry is used to create a new case or merge into an existing case.
5. Relevant people from the request can carry forward into the resulting Monolith workflow.
6. Those contacts can then be associated with the appropriate evidence items, acquisitions, or other case records.

This allows people identified during request intake to remain connected to the case instead of being entered again manually.

### People > Contacts

**People > Contacts** is the global contact directory for your Monolith environment.

Contacts created during casework, imported from other sources, or added through supported integrations and APIs become part of this reusable contact list.

Use **People > Contacts** to:

* Search and review contacts
* Create contacts outside of a specific case when needed
* Update contact information
* Review or maintain people used across Monolith
* Reuse existing contacts instead of creating duplicates

For most day-to-day casework, users may encounter contacts primarily from within a case, evidence item, or acquisition. The global Contacts area provides the broader management view when needed.

### Contact Information

A contact record can preserve information that helps identify the person and document their relationship to your work.

Depending on the information available, this may include:

* Name
* Organization
* Title
* Email address
* Phone information
* Address
* City
* State or province
* Postal code
* Contact type
* Notes or other descriptive information

Capture enough information to clearly identify the person and distinguish them from similarly named contacts.

### Printing Contact Labels

Contact information can also be used with Monolith's custom label system.

From a contact record, use **Print Label** to select an available label template and print a label using information associated with that contact.

The information displayed on the label depends on the selected template and the variables configured within it.

For more information about custom labels and supported People variables, see **Item Labels**.

### Adding Contacts at Scale

Manual contact entry works well when a case involves only a few important people.

Larger cases and environments may involve dozens, hundreds, or more custodians, employees, account holders, or other relevant people. In these situations, Monolith provides additional methods for adding contacts without entering each person individually.

#### Import Contacts From CSV

Contacts can be imported into a specific case from a CSV file.

From the case **Contacts** tab:

1. Open **Actions**.
2. Select **Import from CSV**.
3. Select the CSV containing the contacts you want to add.
4. Complete the import.
5. Review the imported contacts in the case.

This can be useful for:

* Large custodian lists
* Internal investigations
* eDiscovery matters
* Employee investigations
* Matters involving many witnesses or account holders
* Other cases where manual entry would be inefficient

After the contacts have been imported into the case, they can be associated with specific evidence items or acquisitions as needed.

#### Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace

Organizations using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace can configure supported directory integrations from **Settings > Integrations**.

Available directory integrations include:

* **Microsoft 365 Admin**
* **Google Workspace Admin**

These integrations can help organizations use existing directory information when adding internal contacts to Monolith.

This can be especially useful for internal investigations or larger organizations where many of the people involved already exist in the organization's Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace directory.

{% hint style="info" %}
Directory integrations are optional. For cases involving only a few contacts, creating or selecting contacts directly during casework is often the simplest workflow.
{% endhint %}

#### Contacts API

Contacts can also be created and managed programmatically through the Monolith API.

The API can be useful when:

* Integrating Monolith with another system
* Loading larger sets of contact records
* Automating contact creation
* Maintaining contact information through an existing organizational workflow

Contacts created through the API become available for use throughout Monolith just like contacts created through the application.

See [Contacts API](https://docs.monolithforensics.com/monolith/monolith-api/contacts-api) for available endpoints and developer documentation.

### Contacts and Reporting

Contacts associated with a case can be included in Monolith Case Reports.

When configuring the **People** section of a case report, users can select which contacts should appear in the final Microsoft Word document.

This allows relevant people and their information to remain part of the final case documentation without requiring that information to be manually recreated in the report.

Not every contact needs to appear in every report. Select the people that are relevant to the intended audience and purpose of the report.

### Best Practices

* Add contacts as they become relevant during casework.
* Create or select a contact directly during evidence or acquisition intake when the relationship is already known.
* Use the case Contacts tab when managing the broader group of people associated with a case.
* Associate contacts with specific evidence items or acquisitions when that relationship provides useful context.
* Search for an existing contact before creating a duplicate.
* Capture enough identifying information to distinguish similar people.
* Use CSV import when a case contains too many contacts for practical manual entry.
* Use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace integrations when internal directory information can reduce repetitive data entry.
* Use the Contacts API when contact creation needs to be automated or integrated with another system.
* Include only relevant contacts when generating case reports.

### Related Documentation

* [**Clients**](/monolith/using-monolith/people/clients.md)
* [**Evidence Items**](/monolith/using-monolith/evidence-management/evidence-items.md)
* [**Relay Request Portal**](/monolith/relay-request-portal/relay-overview.md)
* [**Monolith Case Reports**](/monolith/using-monolith/case-management/cases/case-reports/monolith-case-reports.md)
* [**Item Labels**](/monolith/using-monolith/settings/item-labels.md)
* [**Contacts API**](https://docs.monolithforensics.com/monolith/monolith-api/contacts-api)