How to link contacts to deals and email threads

Understanding how contacts connect to deals and email threads is one of the most important things to get right in Teamopipe. Get it right and your inbox stays organised automatically. Get it wrong and you'll see unexpected emails appearing in deals. This article explains the two linking modes, how to add and remove links, and how to see linked emails from a deal or contact.

The two linking modes

Every deal has a linking mode that controls which emails appear in it. You set this when creating the deal from an email, and Teamopipe remembers your last choice.

Contact-level linking

All emails from the contact's email address are automatically associated with the deal — past and future. Every time they email you (or you email them), it appears in the deal without you doing anything.

Best for: one person, one deal. A consultant with a single client engagement, a freelancer tracking one project per client. You want everything from them visible automatically.

Thread-level linking

Only the specific email thread you linked when creating the deal is attached. Replies within that thread continue to appear; other emails from the same person do not.

Best for: one person, multiple deals. A web designer with one client across three separate projects — each project is its own deal, each linked to its own email thread. Emails from the client don't bleed across deals.

How to set the linking mode

When creating a deal from an email, the Teamopipe popup shows a toggle to switch between "link to thread" and "link to contact." Set it before selecting the pipeline. Teamopipe remembers whichever you chose last, so if you mainly use thread-level linking you only need to set it once.

To change the linking mode on an existing deal: open the deal detail view, go to the Linked Contacts section (top-right of the panel), and switch the link type there.

Adding a contact to a deal

A deal can have multiple linked contacts — useful when several people from the same company are involved in a deal. To add an additional contact:

1. Open the deal card
2. In the Linked Contacts section (top-right), click Select contact...
3. Search for and select the contact from your Contacts list

Linking an additional email thread to an existing deal

If a new email thread about the same deal starts — maybe a colleague forwarded something, or the contact emailed from a different address — you can link it manually:

1. Open the email thread in Gmail
2. Click the Teamopipe icon (T) in Gmail's top toolbar
3. Search for and select the existing deal
4. Make sure the toggle is set to "link to thread" if you only want this specific thread (not all emails from this address)

Viewing linked emails

From a deal

Open the deal and click the arrow icon next to the contact name in the Linked Contacts section (top-right). This jumps you directly into the email thread in Gmail. In List view, click the upward arrow icon at the start of the deal's row to view linked emails.

From a contact page

Open the contact's detail page. The Overview tab shows all deals this contact is linked to, each with a link to the email thread. The Activity tab shows the full interaction history across all deals.

Removing a contact or thread link

To unlink a contact from a deal: open the deal, find the contact in the Linked Contacts section, and use the remove option. This stops that contact's emails from appearing in the deal going forward.

Note: If emails keep appearing in a deal after you unlink the contact, check whether the deal has contact-level linking enabled for another contact whose email address is the same sender.

Common issues

"All emails from this person are appearing in my deal." Contact-level linking is active. Switch to thread-level in the Linked Contacts section of the deal.

"Emails are showing a deal label in Gmail even though I deleted the deal." This is a known edge case — contact-level tags can persist. Email support@teamopipe.com with the affected addresses and we'll clear them.

"Emails from one deal are appearing in another deal." Two deals share the same contact with contact-level linking. Switch one or both to thread-level linking to separate them.

If you run into issues, email support@teamopipe.com — we typically respond within 4 hours on business days.