How accounts and contacts enter Athean
Accounts hold the company context for your work, and contacts are the people you research and reach out to. Tools → Discover searches the accounts and contacts already in your workspace; it isn't a catalog of every company. Open the Accounts tab to choose companies to work, or the Contacts tab when you know the roles you want to reach.
Records reach your workspace in several ways, including:
| Source | How records are added |
|---|---|
| CRM sync | Salesforce accounts, contacts, and leads sync into Athean (see CRM sync and troubleshooting). HubSpot and other CRMs are set up with Athean's help; what syncs depends on that setup. |
| Chat, agents, and automations | Chat, agents, and automations can research external sources, such as public board or staff directories for SLED accounts, and create the accounts and contacts they find. Chat asks for your approval before it imports contacts from LinkedIn or ZoomInfo or creates contacts from research, but it can add a single person you name without asking. New accounts are created only when your organization allows account creation. Contacts that agents create stay in Athean; they aren't sent to Salesforce unless the agent's instructions include exporting them. |
| LinkedIn and Sales Navigator imports | Profiles captured with the Athean Copilot Chrome extension or imported from a Sales Navigator search or list URL in Tools → LinkedIn imports. See Import contacts. |
| CSV uploads and the Integration API | CSV files uploaded to a list or a sequence (see Import contacts), and accounts and contacts created or updated through the Integration API (see API setup). |
| Enrichment | With a ZoomInfo connection, which Athean sets up with your team, ZoomInfo matching during LinkedIn imports and Import from ZoomInfo on an account's Contacts tab can create contacts. Enrichment also adds email addresses and phone numbers to existing contacts. |
| Manual creation | On an account's Contacts tab, select Add contacts → Create contact. When your organization allows account creation, you can also create an account from account search. |
| Email and calendar activity | Where your organization turns this on, Athean creates contacts for the people in your email and calendar activity. If account creation isn't allowed, it adds them only to accounts that already exist for their email domain. |
Records, enrichment, CRM fields, and available filters depend on your organization's connected data and permissions. A record in Athean doesn't guarantee an email address, phone number, or complete activity history.
Import contacts from Sales Navigator or CSV
- Sales Navigator URL or Chrome extension: Use Tools → LinkedIn imports or the Chrome extension to capture profiles, match them to accounts, and import them into Athean, with optional ZoomInfo matching and enrichment. When Salesforce is connected and Automatically import contacts to Salesforce is on, Athean also tries to add the contacts you import to Salesforce.
- CSV upload: Upload a CSV file into a contact list or sequence. Rows keyed by Email or LinkedIn URL match existing contacts or, when the row has a name, title, and email or company website, create new ones. Rows keyed by a CRM ID (Salesforce ID or Hubspot ID) only match contacts already in Athean.
See Import contacts for step-by-step instructions.
Account record tabs and research reports
Open an account from Tools → Discover, a list, or search. Its default tabs are:
- Overview: Account pulse (the account's heat index and notable activity), Active actions (open tasks, signals, and sequences), Account detail with company information and the account's Custom fields or Salesforce section, Recent activity, and Reference customers.
- Contacts: The people associated with the account. Narrow the directory to the roles you need, or use Add contacts to create or import contacts.
- Research: Account research reports. Select an account research agent and use Run now for a report, or Regenerate for fresh research. If you turn on Default agent in an agent's Run settings, that agent opens first on the Research tab and runs on its own when the account has no report from it yet. With Auto-regenerate set, it also refreshes a successful report older than that many days when you view it.
- Contact details: The selected contact's Contact pulse and Signals, then their information, activity, notes, tasks, and first sequence step. See Contact details, activity history, and notes.
Account pulse heads the standard Overview tab. Its header shows the account's heat index rating (see Find accounts), its number of notable activities, and how many of them were in the last 30 days. The Heat index panel explains the rating, and Notable activity lists the activity behind it; select an activity to open it. To see one person's activity, choose them in the All contacts menu. The buttons below open Ask Athean with a suggested question about the account, or select Ask another question to ask your own. With no recent activity or account status to show, the block is one line: No prospect-side activity in the last 90 days. If your Overview doesn't have it, add it with Edit layout → Add block.
Your organization or your personal layout may arrange these tabs differently. Account research agents produce reports on one account; recurring workflows are managed in Agents. Account pages use the same Edit layout, New tab, and Add block controls as Home (see Layout configuration). Your personal account-page tabs apply to every account you open.
Contact details, activity history, and notes
Select a contact row on the Contacts tab to open that person in the sidebar; the account's Contact details tab then shows them. Its default blocks are:
- Contact pulse: The person's heat index rating and why they have it. It offers Reply or Prep call when relevant, plus Ask; each opens Ask Athean about this person.
- Signals: The person's notable activity, then Also happening at the account, which lists the account's other notable activity. Select an activity to open it.
- Contact info: Job title, email addresses, phone numbers, LinkedIn URL, location, time zone, sources, and opt-out status. Use Edit to correct contact information you can verify.
- Contact activity, Contact tasks, and Contact's first sequence step: The person's emails, calls, meetings, and LinkedIn activity, their tasks, and their sequence progress.
- Contact notes: Notes about the person. To link people to a note without mentioning them in its text, select Contacts at the bottom of the note and choose them from the account's contacts. A note you start from a contact is linked to that contact automatically, and a saved note lists its linked contacts beneath the text.
Contact pulse and Signals head the standard Contact details tab. With nothing to show, they say there's no prospect-side activity in the last 90 days. In the contact sidebar, select Why on the person's heat card to open the Heat index dialog, which ends with the same buttons as Contact pulse. If your Contact details tab doesn't have these blocks, add them with Edit layout → Add block; they're under Selected contact.
Enrichment and CRM actions appear according to your organization's connections. When information is missing, check the contact's account and any connected source before assuming a field is unavailable everywhere. Respect the contact's opt-out status when choosing an outreach channel.
Review custom fields and Salesforce live fields
The Custom fields section on an account or contact can show fields stored in Athean alongside live Salesforce fields. When there are no Athean custom fields, the section is titled Salesforce instead. Native Athean fields don't need a Salesforce record. The fields available to you depend on your organization's configuration.
Salesforce live fields bring your connected Salesforce fields into the account or contact you are working on. Your organization chooses the fields, labels, order, and editing access through Account field sets and Contact field sets in Layout configuration.
- Live Salesforce account fields: Open the account and find its Custom fields section. These fields belong to the linked Salesforce Account.
- Live Salesforce contact fields: Select the person and find Custom fields in their details. These fields belong to the person's linked Salesforce Contact or Lead.
The section's location depends on your layout, and your assigned field set can differ from a teammate's. The account or contact must be linked to a Salesforce record before its live Salesforce fields can load.
To save research or other information in Athean, see Athean custom fields. CRM sync mappings separately control which records and activity sync with Salesforce; see CRM sync and troubleshooting.
Edit and save Salesforce live fields
- Check that you have the right account or contact open. In its Custom fields section, check that you are editing a live Salesforce field, then select the field's edit control.
- Enter a value or choose from the field's options. Finishing the edit stages the change and adds it to the change pending count.
- Review your pending values. Use a field's Revert to undo that edit, or Discard to clear all pending changes in the section.
- Select Save to Salesforce. Wait for saving to finish, then check the returned values and any error message.
Save to Salesforce updates the linked Salesforce record. Staging an edit doesn't save it. Finish or discard pending changes before you switch records or reload the page.
If a field changed in Salesforce while you were editing, Athean shows a conflict and won't save. Select Discard conflicting changes to drop your edits to those fields, then select Save to Salesforce again to save the rest. If your field configuration or editing access changed, follow the message to discard the older edits, review the current fields, and edit again.
Athean custom fields in the same section save as soon as you finish editing them. They don't use change pending or Save to Salesforce.
Troubleshoot custom fields and Salesforce live fields
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| An Athean field is missing or read-only | It may be hidden on contact cards, archived, or synced from Salesforce. Read the edit control's explanation and ask your administrator to check Athean custom fields. |
| No Salesforce fields appear | Check that Salesforce is connected, that the record is linked to Salesforce (an account shows Open in Salesforce; a contact's Sources row shows View in Salesforce), and that a field set is assigned to your group in Layout configuration. An empty section doesn't mean the Salesforce record has no data. |
| A Salesforce field can't be edited | Hover over its edit control to see why: Editing is turned off for this field. (the field set's setting), You don't have access to edit this field. (your permissions), or This field's Salesforce details aren't available, so it can't be edited. Ask your administrator to check Layout configuration. A field that is read-only in Salesforce fails when you save. |
| Fields couldn't load | Select Retry when offered. If field access doesn't recover, wait before editing. |
| A value looks outdated | Finish or discard your pending edits, reload the record, and check again. A displayed value may not include every later change made in Salesforce. |
| Save to Salesforce fails | Read the message, such as a validation rule or a required field, correct the value, and save again. If Salesforce couldn't be reached, check the current value before retrying, because the save may have gone through. |
For a persistent problem, contact support with the account or contact, the field name, and the message shown.
Take action on accounts and contacts
- Accounts: In Tools → Discover, select accounts and choose Add to list to keep them in an account list.
- Contacts: In Discover or a contact list, select contacts and choose Add to list, Create task (general or call tasks), or Assign sequence (see Sequences).
Assigning a template starts the sequence for the selected contacts. Assigning an operator creates drafts that wait for review in Approvals; a draft isn't an enrollment, and nothing is sent until it is approved.