> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.ciarem.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Contacts and funnel stages > How contacts are created, what lives on a contact, and how to keep your pipeline data clean. Every person who writes to you becomes a contact, automatically, on the first message from any channel. You can also add them yourself with **Add contact** or bring in your existing base with **Import CSV / XLSX**. ## What a contact carries * **Channel identities**: their phone and WhatsApp (with verification status), Instagram handle, Messenger profile, and email * **Origin**: which channel they came from, so you learn which sources send qualified leads and which send noise * **Stage**: where they are in your funnel * **Owner**: which teammate is responsible for them * **Location**: country and city * **Custom properties**: fields you define for whatever your business tracks, from industry to decision timelines Everything is editable from the contact view, which also shows the full conversation history and activity for that person. A contact view showing channel identities, origin, stage, owner, and custom properties ## Funnel stages Stages are defined per workspace, so your funnel matches how you actually sell (for example: Nuevo lead, Calificado, En propuesta, Cliente). Set a contact's stage from the contact view, and watch the distribution on the Dashboard's **Contacts by funnel stage** chart. Update the stage the moment you learn something, not at the end of the week. It is one click in the place you already are, and it is the difference between a pipeline view you trust and one you ignore. ## Filtering and lists The contact list searches by name and filters by list and other criteria, so questions like "qualified leads from Instagram" are a filter away. Lists let you group contacts for follow-up or campaigns, and bulk actions cover the rest: export, add to list, send template, or merge duplicates.