Last reviewed: September 2026.
Overview
The Redtail integration copies your firm's client data from Redtail CRM into SurgeTK: contacts, family groupings, accounts with balances and holdings, beneficiary designations, and advisor assignments. It is one-way. SurgeTK reads from Redtail. Nothing is ever written back to Redtail.
The integration is available on every SurgeTK plan. Only SurgeTK Admins can connect it, run a sync, change Sync Filters, or disconnect it.
Related articles: Sync Filters, Why do children or other family members appear in my households?, and the Redtail integration technical reference for field-by-field mapping.
Before you connect
You need:
An active Redtail subscription with API access enabled on your Redtail account. If you do not have API access, contact Redtail Support first.
Your Redtail username and password.
The Admin role in SurgeTK. Lead Advisors, Assistants, and Team Members can open Settings and see whether Redtail is connected and when it last synced. If they click Sync, Sync Filters, or Connect, SurgeTK refuses with "This action requires administrator access." Ask an Admin at your firm.
Connect Redtail
Sign in to SurgeTK as an Admin.
Go to Settings, then Integrations. If your firm has no CRM connected yet, the Connect CRM link in the top bar opens the same page.
On the Redtail card, click Connect, or turn the toggle on. The Connect Redtail CRM window opens.
Leave Redtail Environment on Production. The Development option connects to Redtail's review environment, which is used only for Redtail-guided testing. Your firm's real data is not there.
Enter your Redtail Username and Redtail Password.
Click Connect.
SurgeTK checks your credentials with Redtail. On success you see "Redtail connected successfully!" and the page reloads. The card now shows Connected with two buttons, Sync Filters and Sync. The top bar shows a Redtail Connected badge and a Sync button.
Set your Sync Filters before your first sync. See Sync Filters below. The first sync reads every contact in your Redtail database, and the default filter brings in every contact whose category contains the word "client".
If SurgeTK cannot connect, the window shows one of these messages:
Message | What to do |
Invalid Redtail credentials. Please verify your username/password. | Re-enter your Redtail username and password. Check Caps Lock. |
Your Redtail account is locked. Please contact Redtail support or try again later. | Redtail locks accounts after repeated failed logins. Contact Redtail Support to unlock it, then connect again. |
Redtail API is currently unavailable. Please try again later. | Redtail's API returned a gateway timeout. Wait 5 to 10 minutes and retry. |
Request to Redtail API timed out. Please try again later. | SurgeTK waited 30 seconds with no answer from Redtail. Retry. |
Could not connect to Redtail API | A network error stopped the request. Check your connection and retry. |
Run a sync
Syncs are manual. SurgeTK does not run Redtail syncs on a schedule and does not receive notifications from Redtail. You sync when you want updated data.
Click Sync on the Redtail card, or Sync in the top bar.
The Confirm Redtail Sync window opens. It tells you whether custom sync filters are active or default filters are in use, with a link to review them.
Leave Re-read every contact unticked for a normal sync (see below).
Click Sync Now.
What each sync reads
Contacts: only the contacts Redtail reports as changed since your last successful sync. The first sync after connecting or reconnecting reads every contact.
Families: every family, every sync.
Accounts: every account of every imported contact, every sync. Large books take time on every sync for this reason.
Re-read every contact
Ticking Re-read every contact in the Confirm Redtail Sync window makes SurgeTK read every contact instead of only changed ones. The window says: "Normally we only ask Redtail for contacts that changed since your last sync. Tick this to check all of them — slower, but it re-applies your filters and restores households you deleted."
Use it when you changed Sync Filters and want them applied to every contact, or when SurgeTK support asks. Two cautions:
It brings back households and clients you deleted in SurgeTK, unless your filters now exclude them.
If a re-read sync does not finish cleanly (partial, failed, or cancelled), the next sync is also a full re-read.
The box resets each time you open the window.
One sync at a time
Only one Redtail sync, Zoho sync, or account import can run for your firm at a time. If one is running you see "A Redtail sync is already in progress. Please wait for it to finish." Spreadsheet imports of accounts, beneficiaries, insurance, liabilities, and assets are also refused while a sync runs. You can start at most 10 syncs in 5 minutes.
While the sync runs
A toast says "Redtail sync started. Syncing data from Redtail. You can continue working." The sync runs on SurgeTK's servers. You can leave the page or close the tab.
Everyone in your firm sees the progress card at the top of Settings › Integrations. It shows "Redtail Sync in progress", the running time, the step ("Step 2 of 5"), record counts, and a progress bar. There is no percentage.
Step messages: "Preparing your sync...", "Counting contacts...", "Counting households...", "Fetching Redtail settings...", "Getting your contacts...", "Organizing households...", "Pulling account data... (N/M contacts)", "Wrapping things up...".
The Redtail toggle, Connect, Sync Filters, and the Zoho and Calendly controls are locked until the sync ends. Edit forms show "Heads up — a sync is running. Your changes might get overwritten when it finishes."
Cancel a sync
Click Cancel on the progress card, then Cancel sync in the confirmation: "The sync will stop after the current step finishes. Data already synced will be kept." Cancellation is cooperative. Work in flight finishes first, so there can be a short delay. Records already written stay in SurgeTK. The card then shows "Sync cancelled" with Retry Sync and Dismiss.
When the sync finishes
The progress card becomes a result card:
Sync complete or Sync complete — no changes found: every record was processed.
Sync finished with issues: some records could not be read. The rest were synced. Retry, and if it repeats, check Redtail's status page.
Sync failed: an unrecoverable error stopped the sync, most often an extended Redtail outage.
Redtail needs to be reconnected: Redtail rejected the saved login, usually because the Redtail password changed. The card shows "Update your Redtail password if it changed, then reconnect below. No data was lost." with a Reconnect Redtail button.
Also after a sync:
A banner reads "New data is available from the latest sync." with a Refresh button.
Admins get a bell notification when a sync fails or completes with issues.
The sync appears on the Imports page as a "Redtail sync" row. Click What changed to open the Sync details drawer with counts of created, updated, and skipped records. Admins also see the raw sync log.
Value Adds for affected households recalculate the next time you open them. Saved snapshots and Surge packets are not changed.
Stalled or interrupted syncs
Counting and first-fetch steps can run for several minutes on a large book with no visible change. If nothing updates for 20 minutes, the card shows "Sync may have stalled" with Retry Sync.
If SurgeTK restarts during a sync, the sync is marked failed within a few minutes ("Sync interrupted by server restart") and the lock is released. SurgeTK runs the interrupted sync again automatically about 10 minutes later.
Changes made in Redtail while a sync is running can be missed until that contact changes again, or until you tick Re-read every contact.
What a sync brings in
Redtail | SurgeTK | Fields |
Contacts | Clients | First, middle, and last name. Date of birth. Gender. Marital status. Occupation. Employer. Redtail category and status. Mobile phone and home phone. Primary email. First address. Date of death and deceased flag. |
Families | Households | One household per Redtail family, with every family member as a household member. Head of household from Redtail's flag. Contacts with no family get a household of their own. |
Accounts | Accounts | Account number. Type. Custodian. Balance and as-of date. Tax status. Status (Active, Closed, Transferred, Inactive, Pending). Close date. Systematic withdrawals (amount and frequency). Federal and state withholding percentages. Holdings (symbol, name, shares, price, value). Buckets allocation calculated from the holdings. |
Account beneficiaries | Beneficiaries | Name. Date of birth. Relationship. Primary or contingent. Percentage. |
Servicing and writing advisors | Redtail advisors on each household | Advisor names from Redtail's advisor lists. They become SurgeTK lead advisors only after you link them. See Link Redtail advisors below. |
Rules to know
Business contacts and deleted contacts never sync, and their accounts are not pulled.
A family becomes a household only when at least one member was imported as a client.
Marital status: Married, Widowed, and Divorced come across as written. Any other Redtail value becomes Single.
Deceased: a contact is marked Deceased when its Redtail status contains "deceased", "dead", or "death". Firms can map statuses differently under Household Lifecycle from Redtail (below).
Names: a blank first or last name in Redtail shows as "(Unknown)".
Holdings and Buckets allocation: holdings are replaced on every sync, and the newest holding price date becomes the account's as-of date. SurgeTK classifies each holding as Cash, Income, Annuities, or Growth. When every holding on an account is classified, SurgeTK writes the account's Buckets allocation. An annuity-type account with no holdings gets 100% Annuities. If you edit an allocation by hand, the sync stops changing it. Admins can review how securities are classified under Settings › Securities.
Beneficiaries are replaced on every sync. A beneficiary whose Redtail type is "Primary" is primary. Any other type is contingent. If Redtail returns no beneficiaries for an account, the account's lists are cleared. Beneficiaries you add by hand to a Redtail account are removed at the next sync. Make the change in Redtail. The account's Per Stirpes setting and "intentionally has no beneficiaries" box are kept.
Anything Redtail lists under a contact's accounts arrives as an account, including insurance products that Redtail stores as accounts. Redtail's separate insurance policy records are not read.
Client IDs are assigned by SurgeTK. You cannot set them for synced clients.
Account numbers are stored exactly as Redtail sends them. A later spreadsheet import of accounts or beneficiaries must use the same number, including dashes and spaces. Only the billing import ignores dashes, spaces, and letter case.
Redtail is the source of truth
Every sync overwrites the fields it syncs. If you edit a synced field in SurgeTK, the next sync puts the Redtail value back. Make the correction in Redtail, then sync.
Overwritten every sync: client names, date of birth (cleared if Redtail has none), marital status, email, phones, address, category, status, and the deceased flag. Account number, value, type, custodian, tax status, status, household, beneficiaries, holdings, and the holdings-based allocation.
Household membership follows Redtail. If you move a Redtail contact or a Redtail account to another household by hand, the next sync moves it back. A household left with no clients is deleted.
Kept by the sync: notes, tasks, Value Add snapshots, the Per Stirpes setting, accounts, assets, liabilities and insurance you created yourself, advisors you assigned by hand (the sync adds advisors and never removes them), allocations you edited by hand, and account owners you added.
What does not sync
Not synced | Note |
Contact notes, activities, and tasks | They stay in Redtail. |
Contact custom fields | Account custom fields are used only to fill in missing systematic withdrawal details. |
Insurance policy records | Enter policies in SurgeTK by hand or with the Insurance import. |
Cost basis, tax lots, performance, and returns | Not available at the level SurgeTK needs. Holdings themselves are synced. |
Retirement date | Enter it in SurgeTK. |
Phones other than mobile and home, emails other than the primary, addresses other than the first | Only one of each is pulled. |
Deletions | When a contact or account is deleted in Redtail, SurgeTK keeps its copy. Syncs stop updating it. Delete it yourself from the Households page. |
SurgeTK to Redtail | Nothing is written to Redtail. |
Sync Filters
Sync Filters control which Redtail contacts come into SurgeTK and what happens to closed accounts and inactive households. Click Sync Filters on the Redtail card. The window is called Redtail Sync Filters. Changes take effect on your next sync. Click Save Filters to keep them.
The category and status lists come from your own Redtail database. SurgeTK keeps them for 24 hours. Click Refresh at the top of the window to load the newest lists, for example after you add a status in Redtail. Saved values that Redtail no longer has are marked "(no longer in Redtail)".
Contact Categories
Categories are your relationship labels in Redtail, such as A Client, Personal Client, or Prospect. The toggle picks the mode:
Allowlist (the default): "Only sync contacts matching the selected items."
Denylist: "Skip contacts with the selected items."
Matching is exact and ignores capitalization. "A Client" matches "a client". It does not match "A Client - Retired". If your firm uses A Client, B Client, and Personal Client, tick each one.
When no category is ticked, SurgeTK uses a built-in default, whichever mode the toggle shows: it syncs every contact whose category contains the word "client" (this includes values like "Former Client"), skips "Ex-Client" and "Trust Client", and skips contacts with no category. Set your own list for an accurate result.
Contact Statuses
Statuses are your lifecycle values in Redtail, such as Active, Inactive, or Deceased. This section works the same way but starts in Denylist mode. When no status is ticked, every status passes.
A contact must pass both filters. If the category filter allows a contact but the status filter blocks it, the contact does not sync.
Blank categories and statuses
Mode | Contact with a blank value |
Allowlist with items ticked | Excluded |
Denylist with items ticked | Included |
If some contacts have no category and you use an Allowlist, they do not sync. Either set their category in Redtail, or switch to a Denylist and name only the categories to keep out.
Linked family members
Contact Categories does not apply to linked family members. Anyone in the Redtail family of a synced client comes across, even with a category you did not tick. This includes children, grandchildren, and parents, not only spouses.
Contact Statuses applies to linked family members only in Denylist mode. The window says: "Skipped statuses are also left out of a client's household. Use this to keep adult children out of their parents' household."
Closed Accounts
This section decides "What happens when Redtail marks an account Closed, Transferred, or Inactive." An account counts as closed when its Redtail status is Closed, Transferred, or Inactive (Dormant and Suspended count as Inactive), or when it has a close date.
Mark closed (the default): the account stays in SurgeTK, marked closed. Closed accounts do not count toward AUM and are left out of Buckets, Guardrails, Net Worth, and the Beneficiary report. They are kept for history, for example on the 1099 letter for the year they closed.
Delete (legacy): on every sync, SurgeTK permanently deletes Redtail accounts that count as closed, both accounts already in SurgeTK and accounts arriving from Redtail. Accounts you created by hand or imported from a spreadsheet are not deleted. Accounts you closed or reopened yourself in SurgeTK are left alone.
Hide closed accounts: hides closed accounts on household account lists. Each list has a Show control.
Household Lifecycle from Redtail
"When every member of a household is deceased or no longer a client, SurgeTK can suggest archiving it, or archive it for you."
Off (the default): the sync never changes a household's status.
Suggest: after a sync, a household whose members are all deceased or no longer clients shows "Redtail suggests archiving" on the Households page. You choose Apply Redtail suggestion or ignore it.
Automatic: the sync archives those households for you, at most 25 per sync, and captures final Value Add snapshots. It restores a household it archived if the members become active again. A status you set by hand always wins, and restoring is one click.
Below the mode, each Redtail contact status can be read as Default, Active client, No longer a client, or Deceased. On Default, statuses containing deceased, dead, or death read as deceased. Statuses containing inactive, former, ex-, terminated, archived, closed, or estate read as no longer a client. Any other member keeps the household active.
Filters apply to new contacts only
Filters decide which contacts are imported. A contact already in SurgeTK keeps updating on every sync, and its accounts keep refreshing, even after you change a filter that would now exclude it. Tightening a filter never deletes anything. To remove a household or client that is already in SurgeTK, delete it on the Households page. Deleting a household removes its clients, accounts, liabilities, assets, and insurance records. If the household has Value Add snapshots or Surge packets, SurgeTK offers Archive instead.
What a sync can delete or change
Closed Accounts set to Delete (legacy) deletes closed Redtail accounts on every sync.
Household Lifecycle set to Automatic archives households. Archived households can be restored.
Emptied households are deleted. When the sync moves a client into its Redtail family's household, the household it left is deleted if no clients remain in it.
Deleted households come back. SurgeTK does not remember that you deleted a household. A normal sync recreates it as soon as one of its contacts changes in Redtail. Re-read every contact recreates it at once. To keep a contact out for good, give it a status or category that your filters exclude.
Reconnecting makes the next sync a full read. Set your filters before that sync.
Link Redtail advisors to SurgeTK users
Redtail stores a servicing advisor and a writing advisor on contacts and families. The sync records the Redtail advisor on each household but does not map it to a SurgeTK user. Until you link them, the household has no lead advisor and shows as unassigned.
Go to Settings, then Team Members.
Scroll to Unlinked Redtail Advisors. The table shows Advisor Name, Type (servicing or writing), and a Link to Lead Advisor dropdown that lists your active Lead Advisors.
Pick the matching user and click Link.
Linking a servicing advisor reassigns every household with that Redtail advisor right away. You see "Lead Advisor (servicing) linked successfully!". Linking a writing advisor takes effect on the next sync. New Redtail advisors that appear in later syncs must be linked the same way. Only Admins can link advisors.
Disconnect and reconnect
Turn the Redtail toggle off. The Disconnect Redtail? window says: "Disconnecting will remove all saved Redtail credentials from SurgeTK. All data imported from Redtail will remain. You can reconnect later by toggling Redtail back on and re-entering your credentials." Click Disconnect.
Disconnecting:
Removes your Redtail username, password, and environment from SurgeTK.
Resets every Sync Filter setting: categories, statuses, Closed Accounts, Hide closed accounts, and Household Lifecycle. Set them again after you reconnect and before you sync.
Keeps every household, client, account, and beneficiary that was synced. Advisor links are kept.
To reconnect, turn the toggle on and enter your credentials. The next sync is a full read of every contact. SurgeTK matches existing records by their Redtail IDs, so reconnecting does not create duplicates.
If your Redtail password changes, the card shows Action needed and the next sync ends with "Redtail needs to be reconnected". Reconnect with the new password. No data is lost.
Troubleshooting
I cannot use the Sync or Sync Filters buttons
Only Admins can use them. Other roles see "This action requires administrator access." Ask an Admin at your firm.
A contact I expected is missing
Open Sync Filters. Check that the contact's Redtail category and status pass both filters. Allowlist matching is exact.
Check the contact's status in Redtail. A status you deny-list is skipped.
Check the contact type in Redtail. Business contacts are never synced.
Check whether the contact was deleted in Redtail.
If you deleted the contact's household in SurgeTK, it comes back only when the contact changes in Redtail, or when you tick Re-read every contact.
Run a sync. Contacts changed in Redtail arrive only after the next sync.
An account I expected is missing
Check Closed Accounts in Sync Filters. In Delete (legacy) mode, closed accounts are removed. In Mark closed mode they are kept but left out of reports and may be hidden on account lists.
Check that the account's owner was imported. Accounts are only pulled for imported contacts.
Check that the account is linked to the contact in Redtail.
If the account is in SurgeTK but not on a report, open it and read its Exclusions tab. See Why a Client or Account Is Missing From a Report.
I see duplicate households after connecting
SurgeTK matches Redtail records by Redtail ID only. Clients, households, and accounts you imported from spreadsheets before connecting are not merged with their Redtail copies. Delete the spreadsheet copies, or keep one source of truth.
My manual edit disappeared
Expected. Redtail is the source of truth for every synced field. Make the change in Redtail and sync again.
Beneficiaries I added are gone
Beneficiaries on a Redtail account are replaced on every sync. Add them in Redtail.
A household has no lead advisor
Link the Redtail advisor to a SurgeTK user under Settings › Team Members › Unlinked Redtail Advisors.
A child's name is in the household name
The sync says it is already in progress
Another sync or an account import is running for your firm. Wait for it to finish. If a sync was interrupted, the lock clears itself within a few minutes.