Build relationships between reference contacts

Building relationships between reference contacts enables you to set up a contact network in Civic Platform.

Example: An individual can be the CEO of an organization (contact), the manager of his team, and at the same time, the client of his lawyer. You can add associated reference contacts to an individual contact, and define the roles each one plays for the other in every association.

The reference contact relationship is a network (instead of a hierarchical tree). The relationship that you set up for two reference contacts has nothing to do with other contacts. You can configure the relationship between two reference contacts in the Contact Relationship tab of one contact, and view the relationship in both the contact details.

To manage contact relationships for a reference contact

On the Contacts page, find and open the desired contact.
Select the Contact relationship tab.
Do any of the following as needed:
- To filter the contact relationship list:
  1. Enter one or more filter criteria.
  2. Select Filter.
- To relate one or more reference contacts with the current contact:
  1. Select Look up.
  2. Enter search criteria as appropriate, then select Submit.
  3. If the search results do not contain the contact(s) you want to add, select Close matches to retrieve close match contacts.
  4. Select the contact(s) you want to relate with the current contact, and then select Select.
  5. Enter the relationship details.
  6. Select Select.
    
    Note: Civic Platform adds the new relationship into the relationship list for both the current contact and the target contact.
- To edit an existing relationship:
  1. Select the link in the Current contact role column of the relationship.
  2. Update any of the fields that display, and select Submit.
- To delete or deactivate an existing relationship:
  1. Select the contact relationship that you want to remove or deactivate.
  2. Select Delete to delete the contact relationship, or Deactivate to deactivate it.
    Notes:
    - If you delete a relationship, the relationship list no longer displays the relationship.
    - If you deactivate a relationship, the relationship list still displays the relationship, but the relationship status becomes Inactive.