Sundry Works Help · Contacts

An address book for galleries and collectors

Galleries, collectors and suppliers - what they bought, and when you last spoke.

What it's for

The Contacts tab is a contact book for the people you deal with as an artist - galleries, collectors, show organizers, suppliers, and anyone else worth keeping track of. Each one keeps how to reach them, what they have bought from you, and a dated note of every conversation, so you can see at a glance who you haven't spoken to in a while.

Adding and editing

1. Press the gold + New contact button at the top of the list, beside the search box. A blank contact opens with the cursor in Name.
2. Fill in the name, pick a type, and add whatever you have: email, phone, address, website, Instagram, a gallery's commission, how you met, and notes.
3. Everything saves automatically as you type.

Conversations

Under the notes is Conversations: a line for each time you spoke to somebody, with the day it happened. Type what it was about and press Add or Enter. The day is today unless you change it, so a call from last week can go in with last week's date.

The newest one is when you last spoke, and it shows on the list beside their name - "spoke 3 weeks ago". The × on a line removes it.

Finding people

• Search - looks through every field and every conversation. A phone number is found however it was written: "5550101" finds "(555) 010-1". Clear the box with the × at its end, or by pressing Escape while you are in it.
• Sort - A-Z, Last spoke (whoever you spoke to most recently first, and anybody with no conversations at the foot), or Changed (whoever you edited most recently first). The list remembers which you left it on.
• Type filter - the buttons at the top filter the list to one type at a time, or show All.
• Edit types - add or remove types to match your world (Supplier, Print Shop, Framer, whatever you need). "Other" always stays as a catch-all.

What they've bought from you

A contact who has bought from you shows "Bought from you" under their conversations: each painting they bought, with its sale date and price, and what the lot came to. Click one to open that painting. The Sales tab counts them as the same person, with the same total.

The link is made on the painting, not here. Mark a piece Sold on the Paintings tab and press "Pick from Contacts" against the buyer, and it appears on that contact from then on. If you typed the buyer's name instead and it is exactly the name of one of your contacts, the sale still appears here, marked "typed, not linked", and the painting offers a Link button under the buyer's name to make it a proper link. A typed name that matches nobody - or two contacts with the same name - isn't anybody's here, and counts on the Sales tab under the name as typed.

What's happening at this place

A contact used as a venue shows "On the calendar" under their notes: what is coming up there, soonest first, and then what has already happened. Click one to open that event on the Calendar tab.

The link is made on the event, not here. Add a show on the Calendar and press "Pick from Contacts" against Where, and it appears on that gallery from then on. A venue that was simply typed in isn't linked to anybody, so it won't appear here.

Bringing in a spreadsheet

If you keep your contacts in a spreadsheet already, save it as CSV (in Excel: File, Save As, CSV; in Google Sheets: File, Download, Comma-separated values) and press "Import from a spreadsheet" under the list. The first row should be the column headings. Name, Email, Phone, Type, Address, Website, Instagram, Commission, How we met and Notes are all recognised, along with the usual other spellings - E-mail, Mobile, First name and Last name. Any other column is kept in the contact's notes.

Somebody already in Contacts with the same email - or with no email, the same name - is left out, so importing the same file twice adds nobody the second time. A type you don't have comes in as Other, with the original written in the notes.

"Export to a spreadsheet" takes a copy of everybody, with when you last spoke and every conversation, as a file any spreadsheet opens. It reads straight back in.

Contacts are stored separately from paintings and from the calendar. Deleting a contact doesn't change any painting record - a piece they bought keeps its buyer name and its sale - and it doesn't change any event: a show keeps the venue name it was given, and only stops offering the phone number.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Putting Sundry Works on your phone, beside the laptop or instead of it.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - Where the app opens: what to carry on with, what needs you, what's coming up.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Story cards, show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's story cards or labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.
• Making an artist bio sheet for a show - One page about you, to stand beside your work at a show.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, and colours.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - Galleries, collectors and suppliers - what they bought, and when you last spoke.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Pinning your paintings to Pinterest - Pins with a link back to your page, sent by the Sundry Works service.
• What social media may do with your paintings - What each place you post to may do with your pictures, and what you can do about it.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the app closed.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.