Adding Contacts to the Advisor Portal

Study Notes:

The first step is to log in to Advisor Portal and select the Contacts Tab.

You can add contacts using the + icon on the right. Select Contact by Manual Input.  The more data you can include about a prospect the better, as this can save time when it comes to sending account Invitations to prospects. The Advisor Portal will prefill the invitation with inputs added to the prospect’s record.  You can always update the information after adding the information.

So, I’ll enter the minimum, name, phone number and country of residence.  Then below that you’ll see information on address, employment, etc.  Then hit continue.

Now just review the contact profile, if you want to edit anything go back or select OK.  You will then see a green checkmark with a completed status.

Let’s search for the contact, and here it is!

Importing Multiple Contacts

To add multiple contacts using the import feature, select the + icon again and select Contact by Excel File. 

First step is to download IBKR’s Excel template.

Let’s open up the Excel template.

The first tab is where you input the contact information – see the instructions at the top on what is minimally required.

The second tab contains a full list of acceptable values and you’ll see an asterisk if the value is required.

The third tab list the country, state and province codes.

Here is a sample entry in the first line of the spreadsheet– so lets import it.

Select the file and click submit.  The software will alert you to any input errors in the sheet. You must fix these before the sheet can be uploaded again.

If successful – you will see a message saying contact successfully imported.  Then click ok.  Now we should be able to search for our imported contact.

Lastly, contacts can be created from vCards, also known as VCF or Virtual Contact Files, a format for electronic business cards.

You can see that whether adding data for individuals or by using Excel or vCard, the Advisor Portal Contact database can be configured to contain plenty of valuable information that can aid the sales cycle. Remember that information entered into a prospect’s record will prefill the Account Application when it comes time to sending Application Invites.

Be sure to watch next how to invite a contact to open an IBKR account.