Creating Relationship Types

"Relationships" are custom-created labels that describe the connections between individuals, organizations, individuals and organizations, committees, and individual and chapters. They can be used for the following purposes:

  • Tracking Relationships: Tracking current and historical relationships between customers.

  • Searching: Querying different types of entities related to one another.

  • Imparting Membership Benefits: Relationships allow for the sharing of membership benefits between entities; for example, configuring benefits that flow from a member organization to related individuals.

  • Data Management: Relationships can be configured to allow non-staff users to manage the data of a related organization and purchase on that organization's behalf.

Create relationship types suitable for your system in the Customers App > Setup Feature. Typically, relationships necessary for your database are outlined and created during implementation of your system, but these can be modified, "retired," and added to as necessary.

  1. Go to the Customers App > Setup.

  2. Click the Relationship Types menu option.

  3. Click Add New Relationship Type to add a new relationship.

  4. Enter a Relationship Type Name.

    Example: "Employer" and "Employee" are examples of a common relationship name. Keep the relationship name short but descriptive.

  5. Choose the Relationship Type from the drop-down list. This indicates the types of customer that this relationship type and its reciprocal can be used for.

    Options include:

    • Individual to Organization: e.g., Employee to Employer

    • Individual to Individual: e.g., Spouse to Spouse

    • Organization to Organization: e.g., Parent company to Subsidiary

    • Individual to Chapter

    • Organization to Chapter

    • Organization to Individual: e.g., Employer to Employee

    • Chapter to Organization

    • Chapter to Individual

    • Committee to Committee: See also: Creating and Managing Committee Relationships

  1. Choose the permission settings for the relationship. (Note that not all of these permissions are available for each Relationship Type.)

    • Allows Primary: Causes the "Primary?" checkbox to appear whenever relationships of this type are created between customers. The Primary flag can also be included as a query parameter.

    • Allow Members To Edit Relationship: (Individual to Organization relationship type only.) This setting allows members to edit the Relationship Start/End Dates and Primary Relationship.

    • Allow Members to Mark as Primary: (Individual to Organization relationship type only.) This setting allows members to mark their own relationship as primary.

      Note: The Allows Primary checkbox above must be enabled in order to have this option available for selection.

    • Can Manage Organization: (Individual to Organization relationship type only.) Allows the user holding this relationship type to see the Manage button next to their related org on the My Profile, Organizations page. This opens access to the My Organization page, which allows a non-staff user to manage organization information, add related individuals, end-date relationships with their organization, and more.

    • When enabled, the Can Also Manage Related (Child) Organizations of Type field appears, allowing staff to specify whether this relationship holder can manage "child" organizations of the type specified in the field. This setting comes into play when allowing users to access the My Organization Subsidiaries page.

      An image of the Add Relationship Type form, highlighting the Can Manage Organization and Can Also Manage Related (Child) Organizations of Type field.

    • Can Manage PAC: (Individual to Organization relationship type only.) The Can Manage Organization check-box must be clicked for this to be enabled. This allows a user to access their My Organization Profile page and manage PAC settings.

    • Can Purchase for Organization: (Individual to Organization & Organization to Organization relationship types only.) Allows the user holding this relationship type to purchase for and bill to their related organization. This setting is necessary when allowing members to create group registrations for their org or to renew or purchase an organization membership.

      When this setting is enabled, staff can also choose exactly which product type(s) the relationship holder can purchase on behalf of their organization.

      An image of the Add Relationship Type form, highlighting the Can Purchase for Organization and product types that can be selected.

    • Maximum Active Per Organization: (Individual to Organization relationship type only.) If only a limited number of customers should hold this relationship type, define that number here. For example, if there should only be one "Key Contact" individual per organization.

      • Allow Staff to Override Maximum Active Per Organization: (Individual to Organization relationship type only.) For clients using the Maximum Active Per Organization setting, enable this checkbox to permit staff to override the Maximum Active Instances limit for the relationship type being configured.

    • Can Manage Chapter: (Individual to Chapter relationship type only.) The individual can manage data for their related chapter.

    • Can Purchase for Chapter: (Individual to Chapter relationship type only.) The user can purchase on behalf of their chapter. When this setting is enabled, staff can also choose exactly which product type(s) the relationship holder can purchase on behalf of their chapter.

    • Can Purchase for Individual: (Individual to Individual relationship type only.) An individual can purchase on behalf of another individual. When enabled, staff can choose which product type(s) the relationship holder can purchase on behalf of the related individual.

    • Allows Individual to Receive Subscription Access to: (Individual to Organization relationship type only.) This setting allows you to select subscriptions that individuals with this relationship type will have access to. See also: Assigning Subscriptions by Customer Relationship

  2. Choose the Reciprocal Relationship for the relationship being created. In certain cases, such as when the relationship being created is reciprocal to itself (as in the case of Spouse to Spouse relationships), you may need to leave this field blank during the initial creation and edit it in order to be able to assign the relationship to itself as reciprocal.

  3. Select the Hierarchy from the drop-down to describe how this relationship type compares to the relationship type selected as the Reciprocal Relationship.

    Note: When a different Reciprocal Relationship is selected from the drop-down this affects the choices shown in the Hierarchy drop-down.

    An image of the Add Relationship Type form, highlighting the Hierarchy field.

  4. If necessary, enter a Sort Order for the relationship. Relationships with a lower number will appear at the top of the list.

  5. An End Date can also be applied to a relationship. Once the end date has passed, the relationship will no longer be usable. Customers who hold a relationship that has been end-dated will still be visible and queryable in the system, but the relationship can no longer be applied once the end date has passed.

  6. Click Save.

Note: For more on customer relationship setup, see Lunch & Learn - Customer Relationships - 6/23/22