Delete a contact or a client
What blocks a delete, why, and how to clear it in one pass.
The rule: work blocks a delete
No record that holds work of its own is quietly deleted. A feed, a task, a seat, attendance at a meeting, an engagement, a document — each of these is a holder.
Things that merely point at the record — a cross-post link, a seat referencing it — are not holders and go with it.
The refusal names every holder at once
When a delete is refused, the answer is a complete list of what is blocking it — not just the first thing found.
So you can clear all of it in one pass, instead of discovering the next blocker after each removal.
Who can delete what
| Record | Its creator | Workspace admin | Another member |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client | |||
| Contact | |||
| Engagement | The engagement lead | ||
| Seat | Follows access to that contact |
Older records
Records created before the creator field existed have no recorded creator. Deleting those is a workspace admin's job only — with no creator, that is the one safe answer.
Common questions
When a colleague leaves the team, is their contact deleted?
No. The contact stays and only the colleague tag is removed. Their feed, seats and work are the firm's history, and deleting them would erase exactly that.Why can't I delete a contact who only attended one meeting?
Because attendance is a real record pointing at that person. They have to be removed from that meeting's participant list first.
Read this next
- When something does not workA delete was refusedThe refusal names every holder at once. Start there.
- Security & dataWhat refuses to deleteOne rule across the product: anything with real work attached does not quietly go.
- Contacts & engagementsIndividual clientsWhen your counterparty is a person rather than a company — and what "promote" actually does.
Still stuck?
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