Folkbase
Folkbase

Help Center.

Everything you need to start keeping track of the people you know — the conversations you've had, the things you've promised, and the next move you should make.

New here? Take the 3-minute guided tour →

I · Orientation

What is Folkbase?

Your personal relationship manager.

Folkbase is a private CRM for your own life and work. It remembers the people you know, the last time you talked, what you discussed, and what you owe them — so you don't have to hold it all in your head.

The thing that makes it different: your data lives in your own Google account. Folkbase stores everything in a Google Sheet in your own Drive. No company server holds your contacts. You're always in control, and everything works offline — changes sync back to your sheet when you're online again.

I · Setup

Signing in & first-time setup

About five minutes, one time. No install, no credit card.

  1. Open Folkbase in your browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, or Firefox).
  2. Click Sign in with Google and approve the basic permissions (your name, email, and profile picture). That's just so Folkbase knows who you are.
  3. The first time you sign in, Folkbase creates a sheet called Folkbase - [Your Name] in your Google Drive. You'll be asked to grant one more permission: Google Drive (file) access.
  4. Finally, you'll be prompted to Connect Apps Script — go to Settings → Integrations, click Connect Apps Script, approve the popup, and wait for the green "Connected" badge.
Why Apps Script? It's the step that keeps your data safe — saves are routed through a small script attached to your own sheet instead of being written directly from the browser. You only do it once per workspace.
Folkbase never sees your whole Drive. It only ever touches the one sheet it creates for you. You can open that sheet from Google Drive any time.

I · Quick tour

A quick tour

Where things live once you're in.

Dashboard

Your home screen — today's tasks and recent activity at a glance.

Contacts

The heart of Folkbase. Everyone you know, searchable and filterable.

Notes

Capture a thought anywhere, sort it onto the right person later.

Tasks

What you owe people, with due dates and priority.

Lists & Trackers

Outreach lists and multi-touch campaigns you can work through.

Search

The universal search bar finds anything — people, orgs, notes — from anywhere.

The floating Braindump button (the note icon in the bottom corner) is always there. Tap it — or press Ctrl/Cmd + B — any time a thought strikes, and file it later.

II · Contacts

Adding & managing contacts

The first thing to do is get a few people in. When your list is still empty, Folkbase leads with an Import contacts button so you can bring in a whole list at once — or add people one at a time below.

Adding a contact Only a name is required — organization, phone, email, tags, and notes are all optional.
folkbase.pages.dev/contacts/add
The Add Contact form, with fields for name, organization, phone, email, tags, and notes.
  1. Go to Contacts and click Add Contact.
  2. Fill in a name (the only thing truly required) plus any of: organization, location, phone, email, notes.
  3. Set a priority (No Urgency → Urgent) and a status (Active, Inactive, Do Not Contact) if you like. These drive filters and reminders later.
  4. Save. You'll land on the contact's profile — their timeline, notes, touchpoints, and relationships all live here.
From a profile you can log a touchpoint, add a note, record a "moment," or link this person to another contact — all without leaving the page.

To edit lots of contacts at once, select them from the list and use Batch Edit, or copy them into another workspace with Bulk Copy.

Archiving & restoring contacts

When someone no longer belongs in your active list, archive them instead of deleting. Archived contacts are hidden everywhere — the People list, every contact picker, the network graph, and the dashboard — but nothing is lost, so you can bring them back anytime.

  • Archive one: open the contact, click Edit Contact, then Archive contact.
  • Archive several: select them in the People list and choose Archive from the bulk toolbar.
  • See archived contacts: turn on the Archived chip in the People filter row — the list then shows only archived people.
  • Restore: from the Archived view, select people and click Restore, or open an archived profile and click Restore contact. Their priority and status come back exactly as they were.

Archiving never changes a contact's status (Active / Inactive / Do Not Contact) — those stay independent. If you import someone who matches an archived contact, the duplicate review flags them as Archived and offers Restore & merge.

II · Organizations

Organizations

Group the people you know by where they work, volunteer, or belong — companies, non-profits, churches, clubs, anything.

An organization is a record for a group, separate from the individual people in it. Once you set a contact's Organization field, that person shows up automatically under the org — so you can see everyone you know in one place at a glance.

  1. Go to Organizations and click Add Organization.
  2. Enter an Organization Name (the only required field).
  3. Add any details that help: type, size, industry, phone, email, website, address, or a founded date.
  4. Set a priority (No Urgency → Urgent) and status (Active, Inactive) if you like, plus tags and notes.
  5. Save. You'll land on the organization's profile.

Each profile has tabs for Details, Key Contacts (everyone linked to this org), Events, and Notes.

You don't have to add orgs first. Type an organization name straight into a contact's Organization field while adding them — you can flesh out the org record later whenever you want.

II · Locations

Locations

Keep track of the places that matter — venues, offices, meeting spots, community centers.

Locations are useful when the where matters as much as the who: a regular meeting venue, a partner's office, the hall you book for events.

  1. Go to Locations and click Add Location.
  2. Enter a Location Name and Address (both required).
  3. Add any of: type, phone, website, business hours, capacity, or accessibility notes.
  4. Set a priority and status if useful, plus tags and notes.
  5. Save. You'll land on the location's profile.

Each profile has a Details tab and a Visit History tab that gathers the times you've been there.

Handy for events. Capacity and accessibility notes make it easy to pick the right venue when you're planning an event later.

II · Touchpoints

Logging touchpoints

A touchpoint is any interaction — a call, email, meeting, text, or event.

Logging a touchpoint Choose a type and outcome, add the date and notes — every touchpoint updates who's gone cold.
folkbase.pages.dev/contacts
The touchpoint form showing date, type, notes, outcome, follow-up, and duration fields.
  1. From a contact's profile (or the quick-log button anywhere), click Log Touchpoint.
  2. Choose a type: Call, Email, Meeting, Text, Event, or Other.
  3. Record the outcome: Successful, No Answer, Left Message, Will Follow Up, Not Interested, and so on.
  4. Add the date and any notes, then save.

Every touchpoint feeds the contact's "last contacted" date, so you can always see who's gone cold. The Touchpoints page lists them all, filterable by type and outcome.

II · Notes

Notes & Braindump

Capture now, organize later.

Two ways to capture:

  1. Braindump — hit the floating note button in the corner (or press Ctrl/Cmd + B, or open the Braindump page) and just type. No need to decide who it's about yet.
  2. A note on a contact — open a profile and add a note directly, tagged to that person.

Loose notes pile up in your Notes Inbox. When you have a minute, open Triage and assign each note to the right contact or entity — or commit several at once with Bulk Commit.

Triage, one note at a time Triage walks you through unprocessed notes one by one, so each lands on the right person.
folkbase.pages.dev/notes/triage
Notes Triage showing one captured note at a time with a link-to-contact action.
Note types include Meeting Note, Phone Call, Idea, Follow-up, Action Item, and more — pick one so future-you can filter.

II · Tasks

Tasks

The things you've promised people.

  1. Open Tasks and add a task with a due date and a priority.
  2. Priorities are color-coded: Urgent, High, Medium, Low.
  3. Link a task to a contact so it shows up on their profile too.

Anything due today surfaces on your Dashboard the next time you sign in.

III · Lists

Lists & Work Mode

Outreach lists, prospect lists, holiday-card lists — anything.

  1. Go to Lists → Create List and give it a name.
  2. Add contacts with Add Contacts to List.
  3. Click Work this list to enter Work Mode — a focused, one-person-at-a-time view that walks you through the whole list so nobody gets skipped.

III · Trackers

Trackers

Multi-touch campaigns where you can see who's done and who's left.

  1. Go to Trackers → New Tracker.
  2. Add the people you're working through (or import them).
  3. Open the tracker to see progress at a glance, or jump into a Work Session to power through outreach.
  4. Use Review to check results when the campaign winds down.
Lists vs. Trackers: a List is a simple grouping of people you want to work through once. A Tracker is for repeated, multi-step outreach where progress over time matters.

III · Events

Events

Track gatherings and who was there.

  1. Go to Events → Add Event.
  2. Open an event to add attendees, attach notes, or log a touchpoint for everyone who attended at once (Bulk Touchpoint).
  3. If you use Google Calendar, Sync Past Meetings can pull past meetings in automatically.
  4. It works the other way too: open an event with attendees and choose Send Calendar Invites to add the event to your Google Calendar and email everyone who has an address. Edits and deletions you make in Folkbase then sync back to that calendar event. (Requires turning on calendar access — see Settings → Integrations.)

III · Network

Network view

See how the people you know connect.

Link contacts to each other (from any profile → Add Relationship), then open Relationships to see the whole web as a visual graph. Great for spotting introductions and mutual connections.

III · Live modes

Call Mode & Meeting Mode

Focused, distraction-free screens for when you're live.

Call Mode opens a single contact in a clean view built for being on the phone — their key info and a fast way to log the call as you go. Meeting Mode is the same idea for a live meeting: capture notes and touchpoints in the moment, sort them after.

IV · Data

Importing & exporting

Bring contacts in, or get your data out — it's always yours.

Import, step by step The wizard takes you from upload through mapping, validation, and duplicate review.
folkbase.pages.dev/data?tab=import
The Import Contacts wizard with Upload, Mapping, Validation, and Duplicates steps and source options for iPhone, Android, CSV, and vCard.

Everything data-related lives under Data, in five tabs:

  1. Import — upload a CSV and map its columns to Folkbase fields.
  2. Export — download your data any time.
  3. Duplicates — find and merge duplicate contacts, with a preview before you commit.
  4. Quick Sync — push recent changes to your sheet on demand.
  5. Backup & Restore — snapshot your data and roll back if needed.
Remember: your live data already is a Google Sheet in your Drive — export and backup are extra safety nets, not the only copy.

IV · Workspaces

Workspaces & sharing

Keep personal and shared relationships separate.

Creating a shared workspace A short wizard: details, contacts, then team — with a one-time Apps Script consent step.
folkbase.pages.dev/workspaces/create
The Create New Workspace wizard on the Details step, with name and description fields.

By default you're in your personal workspace. You can create a shared workspace for a team, a campaign, or a family:

  1. Go to Workspaces → Create Workspace and follow the wizard (it includes a one-time Apps Script consent step).
  2. Generate an invitation link and send it to teammates.
  3. They open the link, hit Join, and you're sharing the same contacts.
  4. Switch between workspaces any time from the workspace switcher in the top bar.

Clone to my Drive. On the Workspaces page, any workspace has a Clone to my Drive button — available to every member, including view-only ones. It creates an independent copy owned entirely by you in your own Google Drive. The original is untouched and its members are not carried over, so the copy is yours alone. It's also the way to recover a workspace someone deleted by accident.

IV · Settings

Settings & appearance

Make it yours.

Open Settings and you'll find four tabs: Account, Integrations, Data, and System. Under the Account tab, the Appearance card lets you pick a color palette: Redwood (default), Sage, Slate, Indigo, or Forest. Your choice is remembered on your device. The Integrations tab is where you manage the Apps Script connection and Google Calendar access.

IV · Privacy

Privacy & your data

The short version: it's yours, it stays in your Google Drive, and you can take it or delete it any time.

Where it lives. Everything you put into Folkbase is written to a single Google Sheet called Folkbase - [Your Name] in your own Google Drive. There is no Folkbase database and no company server holding your contacts. You can open that sheet directly from Drive, make a copy, or delete it — and deleting it removes your data.

What Folkbase can access. Signing in shares only your name, email, and profile picture, so the app knows who you are. To read and save your data it asks only for Google Drive (file) access — the restricted kind that only lets an app see files it created or ones you explicitly open with it, so Folkbase can never see the rest of your Drive. There is no separate Google Sheets permission: both loading and saving happen through that one Folkbase sheet, and saves are routed through an Apps Script attached to your own sheet.

Calendar. Folkbase only requests Google Calendar access if you turn on calendar features, and you approve that separately. The access is read and write: it lets Folkbase pull in past meetings you choose to import and add events to your calendar (for example, sending invites for an event you create in Folkbase). Folkbase only touches events you ask it to, tags the ones it creates, and you can revoke the access any time from your Google Account.

Sharing. Your personal workspace is yours alone. Contacts become visible to other people only if you deliberately create a shared workspace and invite them; each member connects with their own Google account.

Beta bug reports. If you send a bug report from the user menu, the message you type — plus the page you were on and basic browser info — goes to the project owner so the issue can be reproduced. It does not include your contacts.

Taking your data with you. Use Data → Export for clean CSVs any time, or just open the underlying sheet. You're never locked in.

IV · FAQ

FAQ

Where is my data actually stored?
In a Google Sheet called "Folkbase - [Your Name]" in your own Google Drive. You own it and can open it directly.
Does it work offline?
Yes. You can keep working with no connection; changes sync to your sheet when you're back online.
Do I need to pay or install anything?
No install, no credit card, no signup form — just a Google account and a browser.
Can other people see my contacts?
Only if you explicitly create a shared workspace and invite them. Your personal workspace is yours alone.
Can Folkbase add events to my Google Calendar?
Yes. It's not just read-only — once you turn on calendar access, the Send Calendar Invites action on any event adds that event to your Google Calendar and emails attendees who have an address. Edits and deletions sync back. Folkbase only changes events you act on, and tags the ones it creates.
I'm a beta tester — how do I report a bug?
Open the user menu (your avatar, top-right) and choose Report a Bug. It sends your message — along with the page you're on — straight to Elliott, so the quickest thing is to hit it right when something looks off. Jot down what you expected versus what actually happened. (You can always email Elliott directly too.)
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