Data objects
Specification Reviewed · not yet fact-checked
In short
What is a company in Reply and how does it relate to contacts?
A company is Reply's record for one organization — Accounts in the app, Company in the API. Each account groups contacts, and one contact belongs to at most one account at a time. Accounts carry an eight-value stage enum from New to Closed-won and Closed-lost, plus account lists, CSV import with four merge modes, and filters.
Contact vs Company. A Contact is a person; a Company is the organization the person belongs to. The Reply app labels these People and Accounts.
At a glance
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it is | The record for one organization — Accounts in the app, Company in the API — grouping the contacts that belong to it |
| Belongs to / Contains | Contains contacts — one contact can only be in one account at a time; member of account lists |
| Surfaces | UI (People → Accounts) · REST API · MCP |
| Key limit | CSV import of up to 10k accounts per file |
| Lifecycle | Eight account stages, from New through Qualified and Negotiating to Closed-won or Closed-lost |
| Does not | Get enrolled in sequences (enrollment is per contact), hold a contact that already sits in another account, or copy contacts when duplicated |
| Plans | The Accounts feature is switched on from the People → Accounts page; existing prospect data is migrated into accounts when you enable it |
Definition
An account groups contacts that belong to the same company or organization — for example, Reply or Salesforce. Each account can include multiple contacts, making it easier to see all interactions with a company in one place and choose the right person to reach out to. The app calls the section Accounts (People → Accounts); the API noun is Company. Accounts are created manually, imported from CSV, or formed automatically from the contact information in your Reply account.
Purpose
Companies add an organization level on top of individual contacts: account stages track the pipeline from initial contact to deal closure, account lists group companies by industry, region, or any other attribute, and the individual account page collects company-wide activity, notes, and contacts in one place. Once Accounts are enabled, company-level fields such as company size and industry are managed on the account rather than on each contact.
Relationships
| Relationship | Object |
|---|---|
| Contains | Contacts, assigned through the contact's Account field or the Move to account action — one contact can only be in one account at a time |
| Member of | Account lists — accounts can be added to multiple lists at once |
| Tracked by | Account stages, plus per-account activity feeds and notes |
Creation
- Manually: People → Accounts → New Account → Create manually, fill in the fields, and save. You can also create an account inline from a contact's profile via + New Account in the Account field.
- CSV import: New account → Import from CSV. Importable fields: Domain name, Account name, Domain secondary, Description, Email, Phone number, Industry, Company size, LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, Country, State, City, Time Zone. The Account name is mandatory for mapping, and one file holds at most 10k rows. Company size accepts the values Empty, Self-Employed, 2-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, 501-1000, 1001-5000.
- Automatically: accounts are formed from contact information, and data enrichment can create an account for an enriched company and link the contact to it.
When an imported account matches an existing one, the import's additional options decide what happens:
| Import option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Overwrite existing fields | Imported data replaces the existing field values |
| Update missing fields | Only fields that are empty in the existing account are filled |
| Skip | Existing accounts are left untouched |
| Duplicate | The original account stays unchanged and a duplicate is created with the imported data |
The final import step reports how many accounts were imported, updated, and skipped, plus failed rows — each with a downloadable file.
Lifecycle and states
Account stages represent the phases of the outreach process with the account, from initial contact to deal closure:
| Stage | Description |
|---|---|
| New | The account is new to the outreach pipeline |
| Qualified | Sales-qualified account |
| Meeting booked | A meeting is booked with a decision-maker |
| Negotiating | Negotiations are in progress |
| Disqualified | The account is not relevant |
| On hold | Contact later |
| Closed-won | The deal was completed successfully |
| Closed-lost | The deal was lost |
Stages are shown in the Accounts grid, on the individual account page, and in the account sidebar. Set or change a stage with Set stage; selecting None removes it. You cannot create new stages — only edit the existing ones (name, color, and description) under Settings → Accounts → Account stages. The stage filter supports the conditions Equals, Does not equal, and None (accounts with no stage set).
Configuration
- Enabling Accounts: click Enable Accounts on the People → Accounts page and confirm. Reply migrates the prospects' data and creates accounts. Once enabled, the Account company size and Account industry fields become uneditable on contacts — that information is edited only in the Accounts tab.
- Grid: columns include Account Name, # of contacts, Domain, Country, City, Company Size, Sequences, Stage, Industry, Owner, and Last Activity Date. Customize order and visibility via the settings icon; any column sorts ascending or descending.
- Account fields (sidebar): Domain name, Account name, Domain secondary, Description, Email, Phone, Industry, Company Size, LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, Country, State, City, Owner, Time Zone.
Processing behavior
Newly created accounts appear at the top of the grid by default. Smart filters narrow accounts by owner, creation date, number of contacts, stages, sequences, and more, with the properties Equals, Does not equal, Contains, Not contains, and Is null; default filters cover All owners, Activity date, and Saved filters.
The individual account page has four tabs — Contacts activity, Notes, Contacts, and Activity. From the Contacts tab you can validate emails, move contacts to a sequence or another account, change statuses, log meetings, blacklist or unblacklist, export to CSV, and add new contacts (Import from CSV, Add from existing, or Create manually). Contacts added there are linked to the account and added to the general contact database.
Side effects
- Enabling Accounts locks the Account company size and Account industry fields on contact records.
- Duplicate creates a copy of the account with the same information but without contacts; its name gets (Copy) appended by default.
- Because a contact can only be in one account at a time, moving it to another account replaces the previous link.
- LinkedIn URL enrichment always overwrites account fields with enriched values — there is no keep-existing option at the account level — and can move a contact to a different account when its company changed. See Prospect data.
Limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Accounts per CSV import | 10k rows in one file |
| Accounts per contact | 1 |
| Account stages | 8 fixed values — editable, not extendable |
| Stage name | 21 symbols maximum |
| Stage description | 512 symbols maximum |
The support sources do not document a cap on the total number of accounts per workspace.
Deletion behavior
Select the account(s) in the grid and click the Delete icon. Removing accounts from a list is a separate action that requires typing REMOVE to confirm — the accounts stay, only the list membership goes. The support sources do not document a cascade from account deletion to its contacts; contacts are separate records on the People page.
Edge cases
- The Duplicate import mode never merges: re-importing an existing account with it creates a second account while the original stays unchanged.
- A blacklisted contact stays linked to its account but does not receive emails or any other messages from the platform, even while still connected to sequences.
- Accounts can be formed automatically from contact information, so the Accounts page may list companies nobody created by hand.
- Filtering stages with the None condition is the way to find accounts that have no stage set.
FAQ
How does a contact get linked to a company?
Set the Account field while creating or editing the contact, use Move to account in bulk from the People page, or let Reply form the account automatically from contact information. One contact can only be in one account at a time. See Entity relationships.
Can a company be enrolled in a sequence?
No. Sequences process contacts. For account-based outreach, open the account's Contacts tab, select the people you need, and move them to a sequence from there.
What happens when I import accounts that already exist?
The import's additional options decide: Overwrite existing fields replaces the data, Update missing fields fills only empty fields, Skip leaves existing accounts untouched, and Duplicate keeps the original and creates a copy with the imported data.
Does duplicating an account copy its contacts?
No. A duplicated account carries the same information but no contacts — add them later. By default its name includes (Copy), which you can change.
Related
Build with Reply
- REST API: docs.reply.io — company endpoints
- MCP: agents.reply.io/mcp · CLI: agents.reply.io/cli