Contacts are a list of your suppliers and in general, accounts to which a payment can be made.
You can create contacts in any of the following ways:
Auto-capture from an uploaded bill (expenses) attachment.
Import from a payroll payment file when you pay wages.
Add manually, which is typically the case for manual payments like inter-company transfers.
We will always validate the new bank details using several techniques, including a Confirmation of Payee system that checks whether the account exists and if the name of the beneficiary matches the name of the account owner.
If there is a new contact or an existing contact has been edited, we'll highlight them in the interface so that you can double-check and eliminate human error or fraud.
We'll store your contacts in Apron for future payments.
Contacts in the 'Contacts' tab are ones imported from Xero/QuickBooks.
If you would like to see contacts created manually (except ones created when uploading a payroll file) together with contacts imported from Xero and QuickBooks, go to 'Pay' > '+New Payment' > 'Enter manually'.
You can also set up Contact rules, which allow you to automate filling in the details from documents for or from selected contacts. Learn more in our article: How do I set up contact rules?.