Relationship Management
Relationships are used to depict hierarchies and networks between accounts and persons.
You can depict relationships between doctors and hospitals/practices, for example. Listings are also inherited based on relationships.
Depending on your configuration, you can depict relationships in the relationship chart and/or relationship network.
The relationship network displays all that an account or person’s relationships with other companies and persons, see Relationship Network.
The relationship chart displays all that an account’s relationships with other accounts and persons, see Relationship Chart.
Switch to the Relationships node in the tree view of a person or account, and switch to either the Relationship Chart or Relationship Network tab in the main area.
Adding Relationships
To add a new relationship:
- Switch to the desired record. Click on the Relationships node
in the tree.
The results list is displayed. The header of the results list contains buttons that you can use to restrict the results to a particular type of relationship (e.g. General relationships or Personal relationships).
- Click on (New) in the results list.
- Choose whether you want to add a relationship with a company (account) or a person.
- Select the desired record from the search results to add a relationship with that
account/person.
- Double-click on the desired relationship. The relationship is added and a reciprocal relationship is added in the background automatically.
Defining Relationship Levels
The relationships that are available for selection are defined in the Relationship Level info area.
To add a relationship level record:
- Select (Settings) > Maintenance > Relationship level.
- Click on (New).
- Define the Relationship category, Relationship and Business Area for both the relationship and the reciprocal relationship, and enter the appropriate Level.
- Save the record.
The defined relationship can then be selected when adding relationships.
Relationship Chart
The relationship hierarchy provides a graphical overview of all accounts and persons that are directly or indirectly linked to other companies or persons.
To display the relationship hierarchy:
- Switch to the desired account/person.
- Click on Relationships in the tree.
- Click on the Relationship Chart tab.
- Determine which relationships to display in the chart. You can restrict the chart to
certain types of relationships (e.g. Supplier &
Retailer).
- Click on a person or account in the chart to open the person or account record.
Relationship Network
The relationship network displays all a company or person’s relationships with other companies and persons.
Multiple levels can be displayed in the relationship network. Each level represents a degree of separation from the current record (i.e. the first level corresponds to those companies/persons directly linked to the current record, the second level corresponds to those companies/persons linked to the companies/persons in the first level etc.).
- The current record (company or person) is displayed at the center (large node with a green border). All records that are linked to the current record via a relationship are displayed surrounding the current record. Reciprocal relationships are not displayed.
- Move the mouse cursor over a connecting line to display the type of relationship.
- Click on on the left to open the side bar containing a list of the relationships stored for the current record (note that any predefined filters are also applied to this list). Open the context menu for an entry in the list and select the person or company’s name to display the company or person in the quick view. Click on to close the side bar.
- Click on a node to select it. The list of relationships in the sidebar is updated.
- Double-click on a node to open the corresponding record.
- Click again on a selected node to hide or display all relationships defined with that company or person. The nodes are color-coded according to their level in the network (i.e. how many degrees of separation lie between the node and the current record).
- Click on a node and hold down the mouse button to open the company or person in the quick view. You can access the record’s context menu from the quick view.
- Use your mouse wheel to zoom.
- You can the scroll the view and reposition nodes in the network:
- Click anywhere in the network where the mouse cursor is displayed to scroll in the network.
- Click on a node and then click on it again while holding down the mouse button to move the node. Any child nodes are also moved.
- If the current record has relationships with more than 10 records (by default), the and nodes are displayed. Click on these nodes to display additional records that relationships have been defined with.
- Enable the Cross Links option to prevent the same record being
displayed multiple times in multiple nodes (when more than one company or person is
related to the same company/person).
Example:If a relationship is defined between a person and two companies, and a relationship has also been defined between these two companies, the person is displayed twice, once for the relationship with each company. If the Cross Links option is enabled, the person is only displayed once and a dotted line links the second company to the person.
Cross Links disabled | Cross links enabled |
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Relationship Tree
The relationship tree provides a graphical overview of all companies that are directly or indirectly linked to other companies using relationships.
To display the relationship tree:
- Switch to the desired company.
- Click on the Relationships node in the tree.
- Switch to the Relationship Tree tab in the main area.
The company you access the relationship hierarchy from is displayed in bold.