Each channel has a preference policy: nobody, admins and owners only, or all users. There is a separate policy for ignore lists.

If the policy is nobody, the account default wins. An advisor cannot switch their personal WhatsApp from manual review to all contacts. That is the right lock when you have already decided personal numbers must go through review.

If the policy is admins and owners, leadership can still tune one mailbox, for example a shared service inbox on all contacts, without opening the floodgates.

If the policy is all users, each person can override their Gmail or WhatsApp. Use that only when the team is small and trusted. Overrides are per connection. They do not rewrite the account default for everyone else.

The same idea applies to ignore lists. You can let everyone add their own ignored numbers, or keep ignore as an admin tool. The Ignore rules lesson goes deeper.

Admins can also be allowed to view activity across the account. That is a governance choice, not a sync mode. Pair it with groups, as you did in Workspace setup.

When sync creates a person, it needs a record type. The account can set a default, for example Lead. A mailbox or WhatsApp can point at a different type if overrides are allowed.

Pick Lead if most new names are still in the pipeline. Pick Contact only if the mailbox is already a client book and you convert by exception. The type is not a second identity. Email and phone stay unique. Changing the default does not convert the people you already have. It only changes where the next new row lands.

You can also assign the new record to the person whose mailbox or WhatsApp created it, so James’s advisor owns the row from the first email.

Per mailbox you can turn contact sync on or off, and you can turn email processing on or off. Processing is what lets Frontline read the thread, attach it to the person, and run labeling. If processing is off, you have a connected inbox that is not feeding the CRM.

Labeling is the automation layer on that mail. Frontline can categorize inbound messages, with labels such as to respond, watching, awaiting reply, FYI, marketing, and action required. You set how sensitive those calls are, and you can add instructions so a wealth inbox treats custodian notices differently from a newsletter.

Each label can be on or off. It can drive an auto-draft, or not. It can move the message into a folder, or not. It can be ingested into the timeline, or skipped. Drafts and follow-ups both depend on labeling. If you turn labeling off, you cannot keep auto-drafts or follow-up detection on. Follow-ups wait a number of days you choose, then surface the thread that went quiet.

Writing style, signature, and draft instructions live here too. They shape what Max writes. They do not change who becomes a Person. That is still all contacts vs selective, plus ignore.

A WhatsApp Business number is the preferred account type for Frontline. Set All contacts as its default so each person who messages the business becomes a CRM contact automatically.

Personal WhatsApp has extra switches because a phone is messier than a mailbox.

Sync scope decides which chats are even in play. All chats is the widest. One-to-one only drops groups from creating new people. Existing contacts only means Frontline will not create anyone new. It only attaches messages to people you already have. On a personal number, existing contacts only, or manual review, is how you keep the CRM professional.

Create contacts from groups is a separate toggle. A family group or a school thread can otherwise mint a dozen pending people. Turn this off if groups should stay out of Contact sync.

You can exclude muted chats and archived chats so the noise you already hid in WhatsApp stays hidden in Frontline.

Activity sync, when on, writes those chats onto the person after they are Added. Pending and ignored people do not get a People timeline. That is the point of review.

Save the account default first. Then open one advisor’s WhatsApp and confirm the effective mode is manual review, groups are off if you want that, and muted chats are excluded. Then open Contact sync. Pending review should be the only surprise, and it should be a queue you empty, not a junk drawer.

Next: Company Brain, which is what happens after the right people are in and the conversations have a home.