A record can store information on associated relationships such as parents, a spouse, a company contact, and more. These associated relationships exist as relationship records. Relationships records can be managed on the Relationships subtab of the Profile tab of a record. Relationship records provide much of the function of records, storing interactions, contact information, and custom relationship-scoped fields. Relationship records reside only with the record that owns them, but they can be linked to an existing constituent or dataset record. A relationship record linked to a record in the database is a "linked relationship." A relationship record that resides only with the owning record is an "unlinked relationship."

Relationship Management

Relationships are managed on the Relationships subtab of the Profile tab. You can add new relationships to a record through data import, form submissions, and administratively by selecting the New Relationship link on the relationship table display. 

Select New Relationship on the table to administratively add a new relationship.

First name, last name, and relationship type field values are required when creating an unlinked relationship. Creating linked relationships requires an existing record in the database, a relationship type, and an inverse relationship type.

Selecting a relation from the relationship table opens the record of that relationship. Links are provided at the top of the record to return to the owning record. A standard relationship record includes three tabs: Dashboard, Timeline, and Profile.

• Dashboard: The default Dashboard tab will display the relation's name and contact information. You can create a custom relationship dashboard.  

• Timeline: The Timeline tab will display the relation's chronologic history of interactions.

• Profile: The Profile tab includes several subtabs: Overview, Contact / Address, Edit Relationship, Schools, Jobs, and Edit Restricted Access.

  • Overview: A summary of the relationship record

  • Contact / Address: The address and contact information of the relation 

  • Edit Relationship: Data entry for default and custom relationship fields

  • Schools: The educational history of the relation 

  • Jobs: The employment history of the relation

  • Edit Restricted Access: Permissions controls of the relation

An Edit button also appears on the upper right of the relationship record, providing a shortcut to the Edit Relationship tool.

Unlinked Relationship

An unlinked relationship is a relationship record that only appears on the owning record. The relationship record on the Profile tab manages all the relations information. Unlinked relations cannot be associated with materials, nor with giving (such as a soft credit).

A Relationship Record field under the Edit Relationship subtab can be found on the Profile tab. The Relationship Record field has three possible values to unlink a linked relation and link an unlinked relation.

• Relation does not have a record: The default value for an unlinked relation. Leaving this value unchanged will leave the relation record unlinked. This field value can also change a linked relationship to an unlinked one. 

• Relation exists as record: This value links an existing unlinked relationship record to an existing record in the database.

• Create a new person record with data from this relationship upon save: This value will create a new constituent record in the database and link the constituent record to the relationship record.  

Linked Relationships

A linked relationship is a relationship record associated with an existing record in the database. A linked relationship record still has the three primary tabs: Dashboard, Timeline, and Profile, and the navigational links at the top of the page. The relation will also have a link to the linked record.

Linking a relationship to a record in the database will also create a corresponding relationship on the linked record. In the following example, Alexander Hamilton has created a linked relationship with Elizabeth Hamilton's existing record.

On Elizabeth's record, a linked relationship record for Alexander was created.

A linked relationship will inherit the information stored on the existing record in the database. Likewise, any edits to a linked relationship record will be reflected on the existing record in the database and vice versa. This behavior will be called out in the relationship record.

A relationship and inverse relationship types are required when creating a linked relation. The relationship type and inverse relationship type are seen through the perspective of the linked record. In the following example, on Shawn's record, there is a relation to Schuyler Family Foundation. This relation is a linked relationship to a scholarship dataset. The relationship type from Shawn's perspective is that the Schuyler Family Foundation is a Scholarship Fund. The relationship type from the Schuyler Family Foundation's perspective is that Shawn is a Scholarship Recipient.

Linking a Relationship

Relationship Settings

What if we want to create a new record from a relationship record and link them?

Once a relationship has been established, a new option appears for the Relationship Record field under a relationship's Profile > Edit Relationship tab.