Overview

The Association feature enables the linking of a single contact to multiple organizations. This functionality is essential to reflect real-world scenarios such as:

An individual serving as the Executive Director of one organization while holding board member positions at several other organizations.
A contact who is a professor at a university, a consultant at a hospital, and the CEO of a start-up company.
An individual artist who collaborates with multiple arts collectives.

The relationship between the contact and the associated organization is governed by their respective roles. Therefore, when viewing a contact, all organizations they are associated with, along with their roles at each organization, will be displayed.

An Associations tab can be made visible on a company record to showcase associated individuals, and on a contact record to present the companies they are linked with.

Configuring Associations

The steps for configuration are as follows:

Enable the Association feature.
Create List Views.
Configure the Associations tab on the Organization Profile, including Lookup and Assignment Roles.
Configure the Associations tab on the User Profile, including Lookup Categories.
Enable Date Range for Associations (optional).
Enable the Switch Organization feature (optional).

Enable Association Feature

System Administration (gear icon) >> Global Settings >> Assocations (tab)

Create List Views

The List View settings on this page allow System Administrators to define the list views for associated records across various profiles.

The Contact Association List View settings will determine how the list of associated contacts appears when viewed from within an Organization profile.

The Organization Association List View settings will dictate how the list of associated companies appears when viewed from within a User profile.

Refer to Configuring List Views for detailed instructions.

Configure Associations Tab on Organization Profile, Including Lookup and Assignment Roles

The Associations tab will appear on the Company Profile once the corresponding standard field is enabled.

The steps for enabling the Associations tab are as follows:

Navigate to Global Settings - Organizations or Global Settings - Users tab.
Proceed to Company & Organization Settings and click on Standard Fields.
Select the Edit option for the Associations Standard field.
Click Save. The Associations tab is now enabled.

The Standard field also governs the Lookup Roles and Assignment Roles utilized within the Associations tab.

Lookup Roles

Lookup roles allow System Administrators to restrict the roles that are returned when Associations are selected. Only users in the roles specified in Lookup Roles will be selectable from the contacts lookup.

Assignment Roles

Assignment Roles allow System Administrators to restrict the roles with which contacts can be associated with an organization. Only those roles selected in Assignment Roles will be available for selection from the Role dropdown when associating a contact with an organization.

The steps for configuring the Assignment Roles are as follows:

Click on the Lookup button adjacent to the Assignment Roles field.
The Roles pop-up will appear. Select the checkboxes for the roles to be utilized when associating contacts with an organization.
Click OK to close the Roles pop-up. The selected roles will appear in the Assignment Roles field.
Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Configure Associations Tab on User Profile, Including Lookup Categories

The Associations tab will appear on the Contact Profile once the corresponding standard field is enabled.

The steps for enabling the Associations tab are as follows:

Navigate to Global Settings - Organizations or Global Settings - Users tab.
Proceed to Staff & Contact Settings and click on Standard Fields.
Select the Edit option for the Associations Standard field.
Click Save. The Associations tab is now enabled.

The Standard field also governs the Lookup Categories utilized within the Associations tab.

Lookup Categories

Lookup categories enable System Administrators to restrict the categories that are returned when associated organizations are selected. Only those organizations in the categories specified in Lookup Categories will be selectable from the organization lookup.

The steps for configuring the Lookup Categories are as follows:

Utilize the Lookup Scope radio buttons to specify whether the list of organizations is limited to internal organizations, external organizations, or both.
Click on the Lookup button adjacent to the Lookup Categories field.
The Categories pop-up will appear. Select the checkboxes for the categories to be returned when associated companies are selected.
Click OK to close the Categories pop-up. The selected categories will appear in the Lookup Categories field.
Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Enable Date Range for Associations (optional)

When configuring Associations, there is an option to enable a date range. This feature allows for the entry of a start and end date when creating Associations.

A daily automated process reviews the company-user associations and will expire any associations with end dates that have lapsed, provided their status is not marked as Expired.

The steps for configuring the date ranges are as follows:

Check the box next to the Enable Date Range setting.
Click Save at the bottom of the page.
Access the Standard Fields, and navigate to the Start or End Date standard fields.
Click Save. The Date standard field is now enabled.

Enable Switch Organization Feature

Users may have multiple associations with various organizations, each requiring a different role and consequently different access levels (e.g., a user may be Staff with one organization, granting access to all data, while being a Reviewer with another organization, necessitating more restricted access).

The Switch Organization setting provides the option to prevent switching between the associated organizations.

The steps for configuring are as follows:

System Administration (gear icon) >> Global Settings >> Associations (tab) >> [Organization Switch Permission]

Once enabled, Organizations may be switched from within the Profile options:

My Profile (icon) >> [Organization]

When a different organization is selected, their session will temporarily update to reflect the interface and access level corresponding to the associated role.

Enable Switch Organization Variables

The sessioncompany variable syntax can be utilized if there is a need to filter information (e.g., dates returned in list views) based on the organization to which the user has switched.

The syntax is as follows:

@sessioncompany.FIELD@