Automatic Company Creation & Association by Email Domain

TL;DR

HighLevel now automatically creates new companies or associates contacts with existing ones using their email domain. Review your company settings; this could significantly impact how company records are managed.

Who this affects

HighLevel has not confirmed who this affects regarding plan levels or specific user types. However, any agency or SaaS entrepreneur using the CRM's Company object, especially those relying on accurate company data and associations, should pay attention. If your business depends on segmenting or managing contacts by their company affiliation, this update is relevant.

What changed

A new Company Domain Name field now exists, with uniqueness enabled by default. Contacts automatically associate with existing Companies when their email domain matches. A new Company automatically creates if no suitable match exists. Companies are enriched with their Company Name and Logo upon creation. Duplicate Companies are prevented from sharing the same domain. Common free email providers are excluded from this automation. Custom domains can be added to an exclusion list if needed. The system prioritizes matching against existing Company records before creating a new one. Existing Companies can have their domain information optionally populated when the feature is enabled. HighLevel has not confirmed any limits or plan gating for this feature. HighLevel has not confirmed the rollout status for this feature.

Where to find it

This feature is enabled and configured in two main areas. To activate the core "Automatic Company Creation & Association by Domain" functionality, navigate to Settings -> Labs. Once enabled, further configurations and settings related to Company Automations can be found under Settings -> Objects -> Companies, specifically within the Automations section.

How agencies will use this

Consider an agency onboarding a new client, 'Tech Solutions Inc.', who has provided a spreadsheet of 500 leads. Historically, an agency might have imported these leads as contacts, then manually created a 'Tech Solutions Inc.' company record and associated all 500 contacts. With this update, the agency imports the 500 contacts, ensuring their email addresses use the 'techsolutionsinc.com' domain. HighLevel will automatically create a single 'Tech Solutions Inc.' company record if it doesn't already exist. It will then associate all 500 contacts to this new company. Furthermore, the company record will automatically populate with 'Tech Solutions Inc.' as the name and their logo, streamlining data entry and ensuring consistent company data across the CRM. This reduces manual effort and improves data integrity from the moment contacts are added.

Our take

This is a major update. It addresses a long-standing need for better company data management within HighLevel. The automatic association, creation, and enrichment features can save significant time for agencies and SaaS businesses that handle a large volume of contacts from various organizations. The ability to exclude free email providers and custom domains adds necessary control, preventing clutter. While the rollout status and specific impacts on existing setups are unknown, this feature is poised to improve data hygiene and operational efficiency. Pay attention to how it populates existing company domain fields and ensure your exclusion lists are configured correctly upon activation.