Manage Relationships Between Accounts and Contacts

You can connect a contact to an account to create a relationship between that account and the contact. You can create different relationship types, such as bill-to or executive, that help organize and further define the relationships that contacts have with an account.

You can update the relationship between an account and contact if a contact is no longer with an account or if the relationship type changes (a different contact becomes the bill-to contact for example) or you can delete the relationship entirely.

Add a Relationship with an Existing Contact

Select the Accounts link for the appropriate designation from the Main Menu. For example, Accounts - Registration for registration accounts. In this example, we use Accounts - Event Sales but you can follow the same process for accounts and contacts in all designations.
Select the account with the contact relationship to add.
Right-click and select Edit. The Edit Account screen opens.
Select the Contacts tab.
Click the arrow next to the Add button.
Select Add an Existing Contact (Child). The Add Relationship screen opens.
Enter the necessary information:
- Relationship - Select the existing contact for the relationship from the first drop-down and the relationship type that exists between the contact and the account from the second drop-down. If it a general relationship, select Contact. Your organization can configure as many relationship types as needed to define the relationships that exist between the accounts and contacts.
- Relationship Status - If the relationship between the account and contact is active, select Active. If the relationship is no longer active (for example, a contact has left an organization), then select Retired. Selecting Retired does not retire either the account or the contact; it only retires the relationship that exists between the two. Retired relationship display in gray on the Contacts tab.
- Relationship Notes - Enter any additional information regarding the relationship.
- Contact - Only used when editing the relationship with a bill-to account and contact. If you are editing the bill-to account, you can update the bill-to contact for the bill-to account. If you are not editing the bill-to account and contact relationship, do not select anything in this field.
- Relationship Designations Section - Select which designations the contact is active.
  - Primary - Indicates the contact is the main contact for the relationship type with that account. This is often the first person you would call or email when communicating with the account. The Primary contact displays in bold on the Contacts tab. You can have multiple Primary contacts for each designation.
  - Secondary - Indicates the contact is a general contact for the relationship type with that account. These are people you work with for an account but are not your main point of contact.
  - Inactive - Indicates the contact is not a contact within that area of the software. For example, you may have only one or two contacts in the Receivables area who handle billing where there are multiple contacts in the Event Sales side who you work with on an event.
Click OK.

Edit the Relationship

Select the Accounts or Contacts link for the appropriate designation from the Main Menu. For example, Accounts - Registration for registration accounts. In this example, we use Accounts - Event Sales but you can follow the same process for accounts and contacts in all designations.
Select the account with the contact relationship to edit.
Right-click and select Edit. The Edit Account screen opens.
Select the Contacts tab.
Select the contact with the relationship to edit.
Right-click and select Edit -> Edit Relationship. The Edit Relationship screen opens.
Update the necessary information:
- Relationship - Select the relationship type that exists between the contact and the account from the drop-down. If it a general relationship, select Contact. Your organization can configure as many relationship types as needed to define the relationships that exist between the accounts and contacts.
- Relationship Status - If the relationship between the account and contact is active, select Active. If the relationship is no longer active (for example, a contact has left an organization), then select Retired. Selecting Retired does not retire either the account or the contact; it only retires the relationship that exists between the two. Retired relationship display in gray on the Contacts tab.
- Relationship Notes - Enter any additional information regarding the relationship.
- Contact - Only used when editing the relationship with a bill-to account and contact. If you are editing the bill-to account, you can update the bill-to contact for the bill-to account. If you are not editing the bill-to account and contact relationship, do not select anything in this field.
- Relationship Designations Section - Select which designations the contact is active.
  - Primary - Indicates the contact is the main contact for the relationship type with that account. This is often the first person you would call or email when communicating with the account. The Primary contact displays in bold on the Contacts tab. You can have multiple Primary contacts for each designation.
  - Secondary - Indicates the contact is a general contact for the relationship type with that account. These are people you work with for an account but are not your main point of contact.
  - Inactive - Indicates the contact is not a contact within that area of the software. For example, you may have only one or two contacts in the Receivables area who handle billing where there are multiple contacts in the Event Sales side who you work with on an event.
Click OK.

Delete a Relationship

If a contact is used in particular areas of the software, for example as a bill-to contact on an order, then you cannot delete the relationship. In these cases, it is recommended that you retire the relationship.

Select the Accounts or Contacts link for the appropriate designation from the Main Menu. For example, Accounts - Registration for registration accounts. In this example, we use Accounts - Event Sales but you can follow the same process for accounts and contacts in all designations.
Select the account with the contact relationship to delete.
Right-click and select Edit. The Edit Account screen opens.
Select the Contacts tab.
Select the contact with the relationship to delete.
Right-click and select Edit -> Edit Relationship. The Edit Relationship screen opens.
Click the Delete button. You receive a confirmation message to delete the record.
Click Yes.

Comments

15 comments

Kris Corrigan
- November 12, 2015 09:52
When creating a relationship between a contact and a event should the activities come over from the contact to the account?

0 upvotes
Barbara Key
- November 12, 2015 14:34
Hi Kris,

Activities of a contact can be seen on the activities tab of their organization. You have to make sure to allow the display of related activities in your view to be able to see them. If you have a specific example where this doesn't work please consider submitting a ticket to Support so we can review.

Thanks!

0 upvotes
Kris Corrigan
- November 12, 2015 15:08
Thanks Barbara

I have submitted a ticket #49783

0 upvotes
R.C. Chancy
- December 17, 2015 19:30
Please confirm: Deleting the contact relationship on a specific account does not delete the contact from other accounts. Correct?

0 upvotes
Barbara Key
- December 17, 2015 19:34
This is correct.

0 upvotes
Eileen Durand
- March 08, 2017 14:29
Can someone please help out with the following:

I used an update import to change the status of 350 contacts to Inactive. After I did so, I went back and looked at the record of the contact and saw that under the Account, it was not in italics. I dug further and found that changing the Contact's Event Sales Status to Inactive did not make it inactive under the Account the way it would if I had done one manually. Does anyone know how I can now update the 350 to make their Relationship Designation to the Account inactive which will then make their relationship status Retired?

And does anyone know how I can do this through the import next time so that it's all done in one step?

Thank you

0 upvotes
Carrie Spalding
- March 08, 2017 21:24
Eileen,

I just wanted you to know I'm working on this, but it might be a day or two before I have an answer.

Thank you!

--Carrie

0 upvotes

Lee Tickett (Tickett Enterprises Limited)

March 09, 2017 08:40

Eileen, the following will identify any relationships which don't match the contact's status and indicate the status "we think they should be";

SELECT 
 EV870_ACCT_CODE
  CONTACT_ACCOUNT_CODE
 , EV870_NAME
  CONTACT_NAME
 , EV870_STATUS
  ACCOUNT_STATUS
 , EV875_LINK
  LINK_TYPE
 , EV875_STATUS
  CURRENT_LINK_STATUS
 , CASE WHEN EV870_STATUS = 'A' THEN 'A' ELSE 'I' END
  NEW_LINK_STATUS
FROM
 EV870_ACCT_MASTER
JOIN
 EV875_ACCT_LINKS
ON
 EV875_ORG_CODE2 = EV870_ORG_CODE
 AND EV875_ACCT_CODE2 = EV870_ACCT_CODE
WHERE
 (
  EV870_STATUS != 'A' 
  AND EV875_STATUS = 'A'
 ) 
 OR (
  EV870_STATUS = 'A'
  AND EV875_STATUS != 'A'
 )

You may or may not want to treat prospect status'd accounts differently...

Hopefully USI will come back with something but if you agree with the output of the above you can run the following to update/fix them (obviously run on your test system and past USI before running it on production);

UPDATE
 EV875_ACCT_LINKS
SET
 EV875_STATUS = CASE WHEN EV870_STATUS = 'A' THEN 'A' ELSE 'I' END
FROM
 EV870_ACCT_MASTER
JOIN
 EV875_ACCT_LINKS
ON
 EV875_ORG_CODE2 = EV870_ORG_CODE
 AND EV875_ACCT_CODE2 = EV870_ACCT_CODE
WHERE
 (
  EV870_STATUS != 'A' 
  AND EV875_STATUS = 'A'
 ) 
 OR (
  EV870_STATUS = 'A'
  AND EV875_STATUS != 'A'
 )

0 upvotes

Eileen Durand
- March 09, 2017 14:18
Lee, thanks a lot for this - really appreciate it. Unfortunately for us we are hosted so I cannot do any updates myself, I can only do it through an import or an "edit multiple". Hopefully UB can help me out with what I should do.

thanks to all, Eileen

0 upvotes
Carrie Spalding
- March 13, 2017 13:41
Eileen,

Per Development:
- The import process is not currently set up with the functionality you seek.
- There is a way to get it done, however.
  
  You can configure the import to set the keyword field and have somebody on your side write the UPDATE statement.
  
  Or USI Services could assist you with the process.
  
  Or USI Services could do the whole process for you.
Thanks,

--Carrie
0 upvotes
Andreas Langer
- July 13, 2021 10:15
Hi,

we have a lot of contacts with always changing organizations. Now it is important for us to keep the information from the last company relationship (e.g. telefon number, email, position, some UDFs). They should be specifically linked to the relationship with the company.

So contact 'A' is working for company 'XYZ' ('A' is a contact of 'XYZ'). 'A' has a certain position and field of work in company 'XYZ', a telefon number to their office, an email address, etc.

But now 'A' changes the company to 'WVU'. So all the main information needs to be changed (new telefon number, email address, position, ....). But we need to keep all the former information as well.

Is there a way to do this?

I think it should be possible to add all the former information in this space, but I can't add anything other than "relationship notes":

Thanks all,

Andreas

0 upvotes
Heather Gruppelaar
- September 11, 2022 08:28
How do you create a relationship between two accounts, ie the parent account (Head office) and the subsidiary (branch) account please.

0 upvotes
Ryan Canny
- September 12, 2022 14:27
Hi Heather,

This can be found under the following article:

https://supportcenter.ungerboeck.com/hc/en-us/articles/204848098-Accounts-and-Contacts

Thanks,

Ryan

0 upvotes
Nina Dennison
- July 31, 2024 19:20
IS there a way to edit Relationship Status for multiple Contacts in an Account from "Retired" to "Active" ?? We have up to 5 contacts in an account that was marked Inactive, but now changed back to Active. We'd like to Edit Multiple instead of one by one.

0 upvotes
Sam Wilson
- August 05, 2024 19:51
Hello Nina,

I can confirm that the software does not currently support editing the Relationship Status for multiple contacts at once.

Please consider entering an enhancement request. If you have a particular mechanism in mind, please add it so our development team members can evaluate its feasibility.

Here are the steps to add a product idea.
1. Go to the Community by clicking on the The Community button in the Support Center Quick-links section displayed at the top of this page.
2. Click on the Product Ideas tab.
3. Click the Enter the Forum button for the CRM Product Ideas forum.
4. Click the Create a Post in this Topic button.
5. Complete the form and click the Submit button.
Regards,

Sam
0 upvotes

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Add a Relationship with an Existing Contact

Edit the Relationship

Delete a Relationship

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