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Managing Collaborators

A collaborator is an outside firm or person you hand work to, such as a contractor, an engineer, a designer, or a notary. Collaborators now have their own place in Arkata, so their contact details live alongside your clients and projects instead of in a separate list somewhere else. Open Collaborators from the sidebar, just under Clients.

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Adding a collaborator

1. Click Add Collaborator
2. Fill in the details:
   • Name (required): the company or person you work with
   • Type (required): pick one or more of Agent, Contractor, Designer, Engineer, Notary, or Other
   • VAT Number, Contact Phone, Contact Email, Postal Address: all optional
   • Notes: anything you want to remember about them
3. Click Create Collaborator

The new collaborator appears in the list straight away.

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Duplicate warning

As you type a phone number or an email address, Arkata checks whether you already have a collaborator with the same details.

• A tick next to the field means nothing similar was found
• A warning triangle means there may already be an entry for them, and the possible matches are shown below the fields
• You can open the existing collaborator instead, or carry on and save anyway

The warning never blocks you. It is there so you do not end up with the same firm listed twice.

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Finding a collaborator

The toolbar at the top of the list gives you three ways to narrow things down:

• Search: matches on name, VAT number, and contact email or phone
• All types: shows only collaborators of one type
• Active / Inactive: switches between the ones you still work with and the ones you have set aside

The list loads more rows as you scroll.

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The collaborator page

Click any row to open the collaborator. The page shows: Click a project in Linked Projects to jump straight to it. Notes can be added straight from the page: click the notes area, type, and save. See Collaborator Contact Details for more on the phone, email, and address fields.

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Changing types from the page

The type tags sit next to the collaborator’s name. Click them to open the list, then click a type to add it or to take it off. A tick marks the ones already in use, and your change saves as soon as you make it. Every collaborator keeps at least one type, so Arkata tells you if you try to remove the last one.

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Editing a collaborator

Click Edit Collaborator on their page, or the pencil icon on the list, change what you need, and click Save Changes. Emptying a field and saving clears it on the record. The switch at the top of the edit window marks a collaborator Active or Inactive. Setting one to inactive keeps the record and its project links, and just takes it out of your day to day list. Inactive collaborators show up under the Inactive tab.

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Deleting a collaborator

Use the bin icon on the list, or the bin button on the collaborator page, then confirm. Deleting cannot be undone, so set a collaborator to inactive instead if you might need them again.