Overview
In Ottili HQ, the organizations you do business with are your companies* — your customer accounts. The people you work with inside those organizations are your contacts*. Companies and contacts are the first records of the lead-to-cash flow: a first contact becomes a customer, and that customer becomes deals, quotes, orders, invoices and payments — all in a single company-scoped workspace.
Every company and contact record is bound to your [company context](/docs/company-and-team). That means what you create in Ottili HQ stays inside your company boundary and is not visible to other companies.
What a company is in Ottili HQ
A company* is the organization you have a business relationship with — a customer, a lead or a supplier. In Ottili HQ a company is the anchor of the entire lead-to-cash flow.
- B2B companies*: an organization with its own details (industry, size, revenue) and multiple contacts.
- B2C customers*: an individual with their own contact information.
A company carries the core information of your business relationship: name, email, phone, address, plus company-specific details and tags for categorization.
What a contact is
A contact* is a person who works for or belongs to a company. You can maintain multiple contacts per company — with role, email and phone — and mark one of them as the primary point of contact.
Contacts keep communication tangible: when Ottili AI drafts a reply or suggests a follow-up, it refers to a specific contact rather than a loose email address.
Connecting companies and contacts
The relationship is simple and consistent:
- A company* can have many contacts*.
- A contact* belongs to exactly one company*.
- All contacts, notes, tasks and transactions hang off the same company — so you never lose the context.
This linkage is why a deal, a quote or an invoice always knows who it belongs to.
Lifecycle: lead, prospect, customer
Ottili HQ maps the lifecycle of a business relationship:
- Lead*: first contact, not yet qualified.
- Prospect*: a qualified potential customer.
- Customer*: an active business relationship.
A lead becomes a customer once the first deal is won. Status labels follow the canonical Ottili ONE maturity vocabulary — from *Concept* through *Beta* to *Live*. Where labels appear is explained in [Understand feature status labels](/docs/understand-feature-status-labels).
The anchor of the lead-to-cash flow
Companies and contacts are not isolated: they anchor the whole chain. In Ottili HQ these lead-to-cash records are available:
- Customers* (companies) and contacts*
- Leads* and deals*
- Quotes* and orders*
- Invoices* and open items*
- Payments*
A quote is created from a deal and stays attached to the customer; an order comes from the quote; an invoice from the order; open items and payments show what is still due and what has been collected — all in the same company context. For the full flow see [What is Ottili ONE?](/docs/what-is-ottili-one).
Connections across modules
Companies and contacts work with the other Ottili products:
- Ottili AI* summarizes a company's history, drafts replies and suggests follow-ups — always approval-first and only within your company context.
- Ottili Flows* automates follow-up tasks and onboarding steps, for example triggered by events on the customer record. Build one in [Build a flow](/docs/build-a-flow).
- Marketplace Connect* syncs orders and customers from marketplaces; new customers are created automatically from marketplace orders. Set it up in [Connect an integration](/docs/connect-an-integration).
- Ottili Files* stores documents attached to the company, deal or contact — stored once, available to AI, Flows and LD3.
Data isolation and permissions
Every company and contact record is company-scoped. Access is controlled by your company's roles and permissions; sensitive actions (replying to customers, purchasing, publishing) go through the approval queue. Your business relationship stays inside one company boundary and remains auditable.
Related articles
- [What is Ottili ONE?](/docs/what-is-ottili-one)
- [Getting started with Ottili ONE](/docs/getting-started-with-ottili-one)
- [Company and team](/docs/company-and-team)
- [Workspace and modules](/docs/workspace-and-modules)
- [Build a flow](/docs/build-a-flow)
- [Connect an integration](/docs/connect-an-integration)
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