---
title: How records are created | Lightfield
description: Choose how synced email and meetings create accounts and contacts.
---

Lightfield links each email and meeting from your connected accounts to the accounts and contacts of the people on it, and creates new accounts and contacts for the people you work with. You don’t log activity by hand. Each connected account’s **Account & contact creation** setting decides which emails and meetings can create new records.

## Who can use it

Every plan. Each member sets it on their own connected accounts; Viewers can’t connect accounts. See [Mail and Calendar](/help/settings/mail-and-calendar/index.md).

## What gets created automatically

Unless **Account & contact creation** is **Off**, Lightfield creates:

- **Accounts**: one per company domain. Email someone at acme.com and an Acme account is created.
- **Contacts**: one per person, linked to their company’s account.

Meeting sync follows the account’s **Calendar sync** setting, even when **Account & contact creation** is **Off**. It includes external meetings, plus internal meetings when you choose **All meetings**; see [Calendar sync](/help/settings/mail-and-calendar/#calendar-sync/index.md).

Lightfield never creates opportunities on its own from email or meetings. You, the agent, an automation or the API create them, so your pipeline holds only the deals someone chose to track. See [Opportunities](/help/opportunities/index.md).

## Choose which emails create records

1. Go to [Settings → Mail and Calendar](https://crm.lightfield.app/crm/settings/mail-and-calendar/) and click the account.
2. Under **General**, open the menu next to **Account & contact creation** and choose an option.

You can also choose it on **Add account**, before you sign in.

| Option                           | New records are created when                                                                                                           |
| -------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Off**                          | Never. No new accounts or contacts are created automatically.                                                                          |
| **When someone responds**        | Someone responds to your email or attends a meeting with you.                                                                          |
| **When you reach out** (default) | You email someone or attend a meeting with them. Records are created only from emails you sent and meetings you organized or attended. |
| **Always**                       | Any email or meeting with external participants.                                                                                       |

Keep the default. With **When you reach out** or **When someone responds**, inbound email from someone who isn’t in your CRM yet doesn’t create a new record, which keeps spam, cold pitches and marketing email out of your accounts. Choose **Always** for a mailbox that mostly receives new leads, such as one CCed on a shared inbox (see [Shared inboxes](/help/settings/mail-and-calendar/shared-inboxes/index.md)).

This setting only controls new records. Emails and meetings with people who already exist in your CRM are linked to them regardless. A reply to one of your sequence emails always creates the contact, whatever this setting says.

### Include personal email addresses

By default, Lightfield only creates records for business domains, so people who write from personal addresses such as @gmail.com or @outlook.com aren’t added. To include them, check **Create contacts from personal email addresses (eg. @gmail.com, @outlook.com)** under **Account & contact creation**. The checkbox is hidden when the setting is **Off**.

## What’s left out

Lightfield keeps some email out of your CRM on purpose, whatever your creation setting:

- **Internal email and meetings.** If everyone involved is on your workspace’s domains, it’s treated as internal. Admins list those domains under **Domains** in [Settings → General](https://crm.lightfield.app/crm/settings/organization/). Internal meetings are tracked only when **Calendar sync** is **All meetings**.
- **Automated email.** Messages with unsubscribe links, bulk or auto-reply headers (such as out-of-office replies), or automated senders such as noreply@ or notifications@ are filtered out.
- **Personal addresses.** If everyone outside your workspace on an email uses a personal domain such as @gmail.com, the email is left out, unless one of them is already a contact or you checked the personal addresses box.
- **Blocked senders and domains.** Email and meetings with anyone on your blocked list, or on your workspace’s **Do not track** list, are ignored. See [Blocked senders and domains](/help/settings/mail-and-calendar/#blocked-senders-and-domains/index.md).

## How records stay up to date

After records exist, Lightfield keeps them current from new emails, meetings and notes. Each field’s **AI fill** and **Enrichment** settings decide what Lightfield updates on its own and what it suggests for your approval; see [Data model](/help/settings/data-model/index.md). Opportunity stages follow the **Stage updates** setting; see [Pipelines](/help/settings/pipelines/index.md). Suggested changes wait on the record for someone to approve or dismiss them.

When you delete an account or contact, it moves to **Deleted Items**, and Lightfield doesn’t create it again from new email. See [Deleted items](/help/deleted-items/index.md).

## Troubleshooting

### A record was created that I didn’t expect

Usually one of three causes:

- **Always.** With **Account & contact creation** set to **Always**, any email or meeting with external participants can create a record. Switch to **When you reach out** to create records only from email you send and meetings you attend.
- **A teammate’s mailbox.** Records also come from teammates’ connected accounts. Check who the email was sent to or from.
- **The first sync.** Connecting an account brings in past email, which can create many accounts at once.

Review the records before deleting them. You can ask the agent, for example: “Show me accounts with no opportunities, no meetings, and only one email contact.” Check the matches, then ask it to delete only the records you no longer need. Deleted accounts and contacts won’t be recreated from new email; see [Deleted items](/help/deleted-items/index.md) for restoration. For duplicates, see [Merge duplicates](/help/accounts/merge-duplicates/index.md).

### A contact wasn’t created from an email I received

The sender is new to your CRM and your account uses **When you reach out** or **When someone responds**, so inbound email from strangers doesn’t create records. Reply to them, or switch the account to **Always**. For other causes, see [Troubleshooting](/help/settings/mail-and-calendar/troubleshooting/index.md).

## Exclude a type of activity

Use [Exclusion categories](/help/settings/mail-and-calendar/exclusion-categories/index.md) on each connected account to exclude mail and meetings by what they contain. Excluding activity does not delete contacts and accounts already created from it.

## Common questions

**Why does my account list look noisy at first?** Your first sync brings in past email, which can create accounts for vendors, newsletters and recruiters. Block domains you never want (see [Blocked senders and domains](/help/settings/mail-and-calendar/#blocked-senders-and-domains/index.md)), delete records you don’t need, and work your deals from your Opportunities view.

**Does Lightfield create opportunities automatically?** No. You create them yourself, ask the agent in chat, or have an admin build an automation that creates them. See [Opportunities](/help/opportunities/index.md).

**Does Lightfield change my data without asking?** Only where your settings allow it. Each field’s **AI fill** and **Enrichment** settings, and the object’s shared **Stage updates** setting, decide what changes on its own and what waits for approval. See [Data model](/help/settings/data-model/index.md).