Contacts vs. Deals

Dewy stores people and revenue opportunities as two different records. Keeping them separate is what makes the pipeline and the reporting accurate.

Definitions

Contact: one unique client or patient. One person, one record. Identified by email address and phone number.
Deal: one revenue opportunity attached to a contact. A consult request, a treatment quote, a package, a membership renewal.

Every deal belongs to exactly one contact.
One contact can have many deals over time. A patient who books a consult in March and a laser package in September has two deals. That is normal and expected.
A contact with no deals is a lead or patient with no open opportunity right now.

Normal: one contact, several deals for different services or different points in time.
Not normal: two deals for the same service for the same contact while the first is still open. Update the existing deal instead of creating a second one.
Not normal: two contact records for the same person. Merge them from the contact record: Actions, then Merge. Deals from both records are kept on the merged contact.

Contacts: Contacts in the left menu. Search by name, email, or phone.
Deals: Deals in the left menu, organized in pipeline stages. Also visible on the Deals tab of the contact record.

Contact record controls communication: subscription status, SMS consent, tags, which sequences the person is in, the full message history.
Deal record controls the opportunity: stage, dollar value, owner, Won or Lost status, tasks and notes about that opportunity.

A new lead submits a consult form. Result: one contact created, one deal created in the first stage.
The same lead books and completes a consult, then books treatment. Result: still one contact; the deal moves through the stages and is marked Won.
Six months later the same patient asks about a second service. Result: still one contact; a second deal is created.
The same patient submits a second form with a different email address. Result: a duplicate contact. Merge it.