Immediate Value
After this tutorial, you’ll navigate profiles confidently, understand the field color system, edit your first field, and use the activity timeline for meeting prep.Prerequisites
- Tutorial 1: Your First List
Quick-Start Roadmap
- Open and navigate a profile
- Recognize the core fields on a profile
- Understand field colors (the most important concept)
- Edit your first field
- Verify edits propagate across lists
- Explore the activity timeline
- Add your first note from a profile
What Profiles Show You
A profile is the single page that aggregates everything Affinity knows about a person or company — emails, meetings, notes, relationship connections from your team, and enriched data from Crunchbase / Dealroom. Whenever you need context on someone, you start at their profile.Task 1: Open and Navigate a Profile
Context
Profiles are the canonical record for any person or company. The fastest way to open one is global search.🎬 Watch
Action
- Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Alt+K (Windows/Linux) to open global search.
- Type a company or person name → click the result to open the profile.
- The profile loads with several tabs. The most commonly used during onboarding:
- Overview — summary fields + activity feed
- Connections — who on your team knows this entity, plus inferred connections (possible paths) on Scale, Advanced, and Enterprise
- Notes — notes linked to this entity
- Reminders — follow-up tasks
- Files — attached documents Additional tabs (Introductions, News & Insights, embedded apps) appear depending on your plan and integrations.
- Also try it from a list: open the list you built in Tutorial 1 and click a row’s name. The profile opens in a slide-out next to the list, so you can check records one after another without leaving it (how).
Expected Outcome
You’re viewing a profile with auto-populated data from email sync and enrichment sources.📚 Help Center
Task 2: Recognize the Core Fields
Context
Profiles can show 50+ fields. When you’re starting out, the ones you’ll reference most are:Action
On any profile, locate:- Name (Company or Person)
- Industry (enriched, see Task 3 about colors)
- Last Contact (auto-populated from email sync)
- Owner (the team member who owns this relationship)
- Notes (linked notes from the Notes tab and in the activity feed) Other fields are useful as your work deepens — formulas, custom dropdowns, list-specific overrides are covered in Tier 2–3 tutorials.
Expected Outcome
You can quickly locate the core fields on any profile.Task 3: Understand Field Colors (Most Important)
Context
On a profile, field colors tell you the scope and source of every data point. Lists work a little differently — in New Lists, enriched values show as black text with your overrides highlighted yellow by default (see Tutorial 1, Task 3).Action
On any profile, identify:Expected Outcome
You can identify field colors on any profile and know the consequences of editing each type.📚 Help Center
Task 4: Edit Your First Field
Context
Dropdown fields are the easiest type to edit — they have a defined list of options, no free-text formatting concerns.Action
- Open any profile.
- Find a 🔵 blue dropdown field (e.g., Industry).
- Double-click the field value.
- Select an option from the dropdown.
- Click outside the field or press Enter to save. Affinity auto-saves; no separate Save button. For multi-select fields, keep clicking options to add more.
Expected Outcome
The field updates immediately and the change is saved.📚 Help Center
Task 5: Verify Edits Propagate
Context
🔵 Blue (global) fields update everywhere. This task is a quick check to confirm the data model in practice.Action
- Remember the field you just edited (e.g., Industry on TechCorp).
- Open a different list that contains the same entity.
- Find the same field — your change is reflected.
Expected Outcome
You confirm that a 🔵 blue field edit appears across every list and view that contains the entity.Task 6: Explore the Activity Timeline
Context
The activity timeline shows the entity’s full interaction history with your team — emails, meetings, notes, field changes — automatically captured from email and calendar sync.Action
- On any profile, scroll to the Activity Timeline.
- The feed shows emails, meetings, notes, and field changes in chronological order.
- Use the filter controls to narrow by type (emails only, meetings only, etc.). What’s filtered out of the timeline by default:
- Calendar replies and invitations — subject lines starting with “Accepted:”, “Tentatively Accepted:”, “Declined:”, “Rejected:”, “Invitation:”, “Updated invitation:”, or “Canceled Event:” — are filtered to reduce noise.
- Anything involving a blocklisted person or organization is hidden, and some emails and meetings never sync at all. See Why won’t some emails or meetings show up on the Activity Timeline? for the full list.
Expected Outcome
You see a chronological feed of interactions for the entity, with noise filtered.📚 Help Center
Task 7: Add Your First Note from a Profile
Context
Adding a note from a profile pre-links the entity, so you don’t need to search for it during note creation.Action
- While viewing a profile, click “Add Note”.
- The entity is pre-selected.
- Type your note.
- Click “Publish”.
Expected Outcome
Your note appears in the profile’s Notes tab and in the Activity Timeline.📚 Help Center
Common Questions
Why does this profile show so many fields I don't recognize?
Why does this profile show so many fields I don't recognize?
Affinity pre-populates profiles with enriched data from Crunchbase, Dealroom, and email/calendar sync. Many fields are auto-generated. Focus on the core fields (Task 2) and explore the rest as you get comfortable.
Can I hide fields I don't need?
Can I hide fields I don't need?
Yes. Click “Customize” on the profile to show/hide specific fields. This only affects your view — it doesn’t delete data or affect teammates.
What if I accidentally edit a 🟢 green (enriched) field?
What if I accidentally edit a 🟢 green (enriched) field?
Clear the cell completely and leave it blank. The enriched value resyncs within 24 hours.
See It In Action
Where to Go Next
- Next tutorial: Tutorial 3: Search and Discovery
- Learning Paths: Fundraising & IR, Portfolio Management