Purpose: This article explains how to set up and manage relationship fields in Kizen, allowing you to link records across different objects. This functionality is essential for creating structured connections between data, helping to track interactions, manage relationships, and organize information more effectively. It covers best practices for establishing one-to-many (Primary) and many-to-many (Additional) relationships to ensure your records are efficiently connected for streamlined data management

Object Relationship Overview

Records in Kizen can be tied together via relationship fields. These fields can be set up at the object level from the Object Settings page or at the custom field level from the Customize Fields page.

Relationships can be created between records in the same object or between records in different objects. 

There are two types of relationships in Kizen - one to many (Primary) or many to many (Additional).

Relationships Best Practice Example

Lets look at an example of a Kizen account with three objects that will need to have relationships - Contacts, Companies, and Sales Pipeline. The best practice for a relationship between Contacts and Companies is to setup both a Primary and an Additional relationship at the Object Level.

1. Click Data

2. Click Custom Objects

3. Click the "... " under Actions for the Companies object

4. Click Edit Object Settings

5. Click + Add Related Object 

6. Under Selected Object, choose Contacts

7. Under Relationship Type, choose Both Primary and Additional Relationship

8 Under Share Timeline?, choose if you want the Contact and Company records to share timeline events with each other

9. Click Save 

The relationships have now been established between the Contact and Companies Objects. On the Contact record, there will be a Primary for Company field and an Additional for Company Records field.

The Primary for Company Record field is a one to many relationship type, meaning the Company record can only have one primary contact, but the contact record can be a primary contact for many companies.

The Additional for Company Records field is a many to many relationship type, meaning that the Company record can have many additional contacts (who are not the primary contact) and the contact record can be an additional contact for many companies (where they are not the primary contact). 

In this example let's look at Isaac Newton's contact record and ABC Company's company record. Isaac Newton is the Primary Contact for ABC Company.

The best practice for a relationship between Contacts and the Sales Pipeline is to setup both a Primary and an Additional relationship at the Object Level.

Hint:  Follow the steps above using the Sales Pipeline object instead of the Companies object to setup this relationship. Once saved, the relationships between the Contact and the Sales Pipeline Objects will be established

On the Contact record, there will be a Primary for Deals field and an Additional for Deals field. The Primary for Deal Record field is a one to many relationship type, meaning the Deal record can only have one primary contact, but the contact record can be a primary contact for many deals.

The Additional for Deal Records field is a many to many relationship type, meaning that the Deal record can have many additional contacts who are not the primary contact and the contact record can be an additional contact for many deals where they are not the primary contact.

In this example let's look at Isaac Newton's contact record and the Sales Pipeline record for Bartell, Medhurst and Gutkowski. Isaac Newton is the Primary Contact for the Bartell, Medhurst and Gutkowski deal.

Best practice for a relationship between Companies and the Sales Pipeline is to setup a Primary Relationship at the Object Level.

When setting up relationships between two Custom Objects, it is important to setup the relationship on the correct object. We only want a Deal record to have one related Company record, but we want the Company record to be related to many Deal records. In this case, you will need to setup the relationship on the Sales Pipeline Object.

1. Click Data

2. Click Custom Objects

3. Click the "... " under Actions for the Sales Pipeline object

4. Click Edit Object Settings

5. Click + Add Related Object

6. Under Selected Object, choose Companies

7. Under Relationship Type, choose The Primary Relationship

8. Under Share Timeline?, choose if you want the Company and Deal records to share timeline events with each other

9. Click Save 

The relationships have now been established between the Companies and the Sales Pipeline Objects.

On the Companies record, there will be a Primary for Deal Record field, which is a one to many relationship type. The Deal record can only have one primary company, but the company record can be a primary company for many deals.

In this example let's look at ABC Company's company record and the Sales Pipeline record for Bartell, Medhurst and Gutkowski. ABC Company is the Primary Company for the Bartell, Medhurst and Gutkowski deal.