Company vs Contact — which one?
A quick cheat-sheet for when you need a Company in your CRM vs just a Contact. One simple test, a decision table, examples from B2B SaaS and debt advisory — and the rules for one-person businesses and group structures.
The simple test
Ask one question:
If the person I’m talking to left their job tomorrow, would the relationship continue?
- Yes, the company would still buy from us → You need a Company record. The relationship lives at the company level, the person is one touchpoint.
- No, the relationship would end with that person → You only need a Contact. The relationship is with the individual.
B2B vs B2C — the clearest line
| Type of business | Need Companies? | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| B2B — selling to organisations | Yes, always | Aditya’s StoreWorks (sells to retail chains) · Rajiv’s Pragati Capital (advises borrower companies) · Office equipment to corporates · Industrial supplies to factories |
| B2C — selling to individual consumers | Usually no | A coaching centre · a salon · a clinic · a boutique · a tutor |
| B2B with small organisations or solo proprietors | Yes, but lightweight | Smaller SME borrowers (one-person + family) · single-doctor clinics as referral partners · solo distributors |
| Service businesses with named clients | Depends | Wedding planners — the family is essentially a B2C client; corporate offsite clients are B2B |
The decision table
| Situation | Add a Company? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bandhej Lifestyle — 12-outlet apparel chain you’re selling software to | Yes | Multiple people involved (Nikhil, Priya), relationship lives at chain level |
| Bharati Steel — borrower client raising debt through you | Yes | Promoter + CFO + finance manager + (sometimes) bankers — all attached to the company |
| A solo consultant who buys your software | Yes (proprietorship) | Even one-person businesses have a business identity. Set up both. |
| A banker at HDFC you’ve worked with on many deals | Add HDFC as a Company | Banker is a Contact, HDFC is the Company — lets you map your full HDFC relationship |
| A CA who refers mandates to you | Their firm, optionally | If you stay in touch beyond a few introductions, having his firm as a Company makes sense |
| A journalist who interviewed you | Their publication, optionally | If you stay in touch for ongoing media, having “Mint” as a Company makes sense |
| Your accountant (sole practitioner) | Add the firm | Even one-person firms grow — set up as Company + Contact from the start |
| An HR head you’re selling employee wellness to | Yes — the employer | Classic B2B — Company = the employer, Contact = the HR head + the CEO + the finance head |
The B2B rule — Company first, Contact second
When you do business with an organisation, set up the Company first. Then create the Contacts for the people you talk to, and link them to the Company. This is backwards from how it feels — usually you meet a person first, then learn about the business. But the data model works better the other way around: the Company sits at the centre, the Contacts hang off it.
For Rajiv at Pragati, Bharati Steel looks like this:
Company: Bharati Steel Rolling Mills Pvt Ltd (Aurangabad · GSTIN · CIN · client since 2017 · total fees ₹2.8 Cr · total debt raised ₹182 Cr)
Linked Contacts: Mr Suresh Kothari (Promoter / MD) · Karthik Kothari (Director Strategy) · Ms Anjali Deshpande (CFO) · Mr Vivek Patil (Finance Manager) · Mr Pradeep Sharma (Former CFO, dormant) — all under the same Company
One Company, five Contacts. Reports at the company level (total business with Bharati Steel), conversations at the contact level (Sneha’s WhatsApp with Karthik vs her calls with Mr Kothari vs her term sheet negotiations with Ms Deshpande).
The B2C rule — Contacts only, link them where it makes sense
For B2C businesses, you usually don’t need Companies. A coaching centre’s students don’t belong to “companies.” They belong to families. TatvaCRM lets you link Contacts directly to each other — parent-of, child-of, spouse-of — without forcing a Company in between. Use that linkage instead.
When in doubt: if you find yourself wanting to create a Company called “The Sharma Family,” you’re probably over-engineering. Use Contact-to-Contact linkages instead.
Common confusions, cleared up
“The client is a one-person business — do I really need a Company?”
Yes. Even a solo proprietorship has a separate business identity — registered name, possibly GSTIN, a separate bank account, a separate tax filing. Create the Company anyway, with the proprietor as the linked Contact. The day they hire their first employee, your data structure is ready. The alternative — restructuring later — is painful.
“One client has plants / offices in multiple cities. One Company or many?”
Depends on legal structure. If all locations are under one CIN / GSTIN (one legal entity), one Company with multiple addresses. If each location is separately registered, multiple Companies — even if the same promoter controls all of them. Tag with a “Group” identifier so you can roll up reports.
“One contact works at multiple companies (a consultant, an advisor, a board director). Add them once or multiple times?”
Once. The same Contact can be linked to multiple Companies in TatvaCRM. Mark one as the “primary” company — usually their main role — and link the others as secondary. When you’re tracking deals, attach the Deal to the Company they’re representing for that specific conversation.
“Our client was an individual borrower, now they’ve incorporated. Migrate?”
Add the Company as a new record and link the existing Contact to it. Don’t delete the past history — the Contact’s individual history still matters. New Deals get attached to the Company; the historical individual deals stay attached to the Contact. Both records coexist, linked.
“We sell to a government department. Company?”
Yes — treat the department as a Company. Government departments are classic B2B-style buyers: multiple stakeholders (the buying officer, the section head, the procurement officer, the budget controller), relationships that span political and bureaucratic transitions, and the “department” buys, not the individual. Same logic as a corporate B2B account.
“Our banker is at HDFC. We also sometimes win HDFC as a service client. How do I track that?”
One Company (HDFC Bank), two relationship contexts. Use Contact-level tags to distinguish: Mr Khanna (Banker — Mumbai Corporate Desk, places our deals) vs Ms Iyer (Procurement, who buys our software). Deals get attached to HDFC at the Company level but tagged with the right business line so reporting stays clean.
Quick rule to memorise
If more than one person can speak for the buyer, you need a Company.
If the relationship lives with the individual alone, you only need Contacts.
When in doubt, create the Company — restructuring later is harder than having the structure ready early.
What to read next
- What is a Company? — deeper treatment of the Company concept itself.
- What is a Contact? — deeper treatment of Contacts.
- Lead vs Contact — the related cheat-sheet.
- The sales funnel — see Companies and Contacts in the wider context.