How to Add and Manage Family + Friends in PhotoBiz Contacts

Overview

The Family + Friends feature in PhotoBiz Contacts helps you organize relationships between clients, family members, friends, and referrals. You can connect people who already exist in your Contacts list or add new Family + Friends entries without creating separate contact records.

When you link two existing contacts, PhotoBiz automatically displays the relationship in both contact records, making it easier to keep track of how your clients are connected.

This guide explains how to manually add, link, edit, and remove Family + Friends entries in your PhotoBiz account.

You can also collect and link Family + Friends information automatically through your forms. Learn more in our How to Capture and Link Family + Friends Through Form Submissions guide.

STEP ONE

Open Your PhotoBiz Contacts

This opens your Contacts list, where you can view and manage the people associated with your photography business.

STEP TWO

Select the Contact You Want to Add a Relationship To

Find and click the contact you want to associate with a family member, friend, or referral.

This opens the contact's individual record.

STEP THREE

Open the Family + Friends Tab

Click family + friends in the contact's menu.

This section displays anyone already associated with the selected contact, along with their name, relationship, email address, phone number, and contact status.

Click new to add another person.

STEP FOUR

Enter the Family + Friends Information

Complete the available fields for the person you want to add:

FIRST NAME: Enter the person's first name.
LAST NAME: Enter the person's last name.
RELATIONSHIP: Select how the person is connected to the original contact.
PHONE: Enter their phone number.
EMAIL: Enter their email address.

The RELATIONSHIP dropdown includes the following options:

Wife, Husband, Daughter, Son, Mother, Father, Grandmother, Grandfather, Sister, Brother, Friends, Fiancé, and Other.

Select Other if none of the available relationships describes the connection.

Choose Whether to Add the Person to Contacts

Below the information fields, you'll find the Add as a Contact checkbox.

This option determines whether the person will also have an individual record in your main PhotoBiz Contacts list.

Selected: PhotoBiz adds the person to your main Contacts list and associates them with the original contact through Family + Friends.
Not selected: PhotoBiz creates the Family + Friends entry without adding the person to your main Contacts list.

If you want to manage the person as an individual contact for email marketing campaigns, order history, or other contact-related activity, select Add as a Contact.

If you only want to record their relationship to the original contact, you can leave the checkbox unchecked.

FINAL STEP

Create the Family + Friends Connection

After entering the person's information and choosing whether to add them as a contact, click create new.

PhotoBiz saves the entry and displays the confirmation message:

Family/Friend created successfully.

You can now review the person's information, update their relationship details, or return to the original contact's Family + Friends list.

If the Person Is Already in Your Contacts List

If you enter an email address that already belongs to an existing PhotoBiz contact, PhotoBiz recognizes the matching record and asks whether you want to link that person.

The confirmation message explains that the email address is already associated with a contact and asks whether you would like to link them.

You can choose:

yes, link them: Connects the existing contact to the Family + Friends entry without creating a duplicate contact record.
cancel: Cancels the linking action.

After selecting yes, link them, PhotoBiz displays the successful creation message and opens the linked person's Family + Friends details.

You can also click go to contact to open their individual contact record.

Understanding How Family + Friends Connections Work

Linked Contacts Appear in Both Contact Records

When you link two existing PhotoBiz contacts, the relationship automatically appears in both people's family + friends tabs.

For example, if you link Sarah to Michael's contact record, Michael will also appear in Sarah's Family + Friends list.

You do not need to create the connection twice.

This is especially useful when managing related clients, such as wedding couples, family portrait clients, and referral connections.

Understanding the CONTACT? Column

The family + friends tab includes a CONTACT? column that identifies whether a linked person also has their own record in your main PhotoBiz Contacts list.

Yes: The person has an individual PhotoBiz contact record.
No: The person is saved as a Family + Friends entry but does not have a separate contact record.

A Family + Friends entry marked No will not appear as an individual in your main Contacts list. That person cannot be selected as a recipient for email marketing campaigns and does not have a separate contact record for tracking order history.

How to Edit a Family + Friends Entry

You can update an existing Family + Friends entry whenever someone's information or relationship changes.

Open the original contact's record, click family + friends, and click the person's name to open their details.

You can update the available fields, including:

First Name
Last Name
Relationship
Phone Number

Click save changes when you're finished.

Updating an Existing Contact's Email Address

If the Family + Friends entry is linked to an individual PhotoBiz contact record, the email address is displayed but cannot be edited from the Family + Friends details screen.

To change their email address, click go to contact and update it directly in their individual contact record.

This keeps the email address associated with the existing contact record rather than changing it separately through the Family + Friends relationship.

How to Remove a Family + Friends Entry

You can remove a family member, friend, or referral connection without deleting an existing contact record.

Open the original contact's record and click family + friends.

Select the checkbox beside the person you want to remove, then click delete.

PhotoBiz displays the confirmation message:

Are you sure you want to delete this friend?

Choose one of the following:

yes, delete it: Removes the Family + Friends entry.
cancel: Closes the confirmation and keeps the entry.

Important: If the person also has an individual record in your PhotoBiz Contacts list, deleting their Family + Friends entry does not delete that contact record, contact information, or order history. It only removes the Family + Friends association.

Automatically Capture Family + Friends Through Forms

In addition to manually creating Family + Friends entries, you can use the PhotoBiz Form & Contract Builder to collect relationship information through form submissions.

This can be useful for photographers who want to collect referral information or identify relationships between clients without entering every connection manually.

For instructions on setting up this workflow, see our How to Capture and Link Family + Friends Through Form Submissions guide.

Need Help?

If you have questions about adding, linking, or managing Family + Friends in your PhotoBiz Contacts, our Support Team is happy to help.

Support Hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm EST

Phone: 866.463.7620

Support Channels: Phone, Live Chat, Support Ticket

Previous Post Next Post

How Can I Search My Contacts?

April 9, 2025

Linking Family + Friends via Form Submission

June 5, 2026

Import My Existing Client Information into the Contact Tool

October 9, 2026

What are the different form fields I can use on my custom form?

May 13, 2026

What is the Family + Friends Tab?