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Question

Search contacts by company VAT Number

  • February 5, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 33 views

Hi everyone,

Currently, the majority of our contacts are associated with a company.

We use a custom text field on the Company object called “VAT Number”, which is unique and works well to identify companies.

Here’s what I’m seeing so far:

  • I can successfully search for a company using the custom field VAT Number

  • However, when I search for the same VAT Number in the Contact search, no results are returned

Question:
Is there a way to configure the contact search bar (on ticket creation) so that entering a company’s VAT Number will return all contacts associated with that company?

Target functionality:
When someone calls in:

  • The agent asks for the VAT Number and the caller’s name

  • The agent searches using the VAT Number

  • If results are found, the agent selects the correct contact from the list

  • If no results are found, the agent proceeds with creating a new contact under that company

Additional context:
Not all contacts have a dedicated email address or mobile number, which makes searching by company identifier (VAT Number) essential for correctly identifying callers and avoiding duplicate contacts.

Any guidance or possible workarounds would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

1 reply

Helina
Community Manager
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  • Community Manager
  • February 21, 2026


Hi Alex,

Greetings from Freshworks community. 

We understand that not all contacts have a dedicated email address or mobile number, which makes searching by company identifier (VAT Number) essential for correctly identifying callers and avoiding duplicate contacts.

As a workaround, we do have an field called Unique external ID which can help you with your case. You can add the VAT number in the unique external field. This will help your agents to search the contacts based on the VAT number that is stored in the unique external ID.
 

 


Please let me know if this will work for your use case. If you are facing any issues, you can always reach out to support@freshdesk.com and we will be happy to assist you.