Reciprocal roles and inverse relationship records
Key Takeaway
When both parties hold the same role, one party role relationship covers both directions. When their roles differ, you need a party role relationship and its inverse, and "Create Inverse Role Automatically" creates both at once.
Reciprocal roles describe how two parties relate from each side, such as Attorney and Client, or Proprietor and Owned Business. Admins define these role pairs in setup so users can record contact-contact and account-account relationships. An inverse relationship record shows the same link from the other party's side. Whether the system creates that record for you depends on which households feature the org uses.
Objects that model relationships
Agentforce Financial Services models one-to-one relationships with three objects.
| Object | Standard or custom | Links |
|---|---|---|
| Contact-Contact Relationship | Custom | Two people |
| Account-Account Relationship | Custom | Businesses, institutions, and groups |
| Account Contact Relationship | Standard | A person to a business or other account |
Account Contact Relationship also holds details about the members of a group.
The Reciprocal Role custom object describes the nature of a relationship between a person and another person, business, or other account, along with the other party's corresponding role. Examples include Proprietor and Owned Business, or grandparent and grandchild. Reciprocal roles are used on the Account-Account Relationship and Contact-Contact Relationship objects.
Unlike those two objects, Account Contact Relationship describes the link with its "Roles" picklist. A value can show, for example, that a contact is a decision maker, an influencer, or a child in a family. To add a role such as Legal Counsel for a business account or household, add a new value to the Roles picklist.