Contacts to Multiple Accounts versus a single parent account
Key Takeaway
A contact's primary account, in its Account Name field, is its direct relationship. Every other related account is an indirect relationship. A contact can't have indirect relationships until it has a primary account.
A contact's Account Name field links it to one primary account. Real people often work with more than one company, such as a consultant or someone who owns several businesses. Contacts to Multiple Accounts lets you relate one contact to many accounts without creating duplicate contact records. Salesforce stores each of these links as an Account Contact Relationship record.
Direct and indirect relationships
With Contacts to Multiple Accounts, each contact still needs a primary account, which is the account in the contact's Account Name field. The link between a contact and its primary account is the direct relationship. Any other account you add to the contact is an indirect relationship.
Priya Nair is a consultant. Her Account Name field shows Northwind Traders, so Northwind Traders is her primary account and she is a direct contact of Northwind Traders. Priya also advises Blue Harbor Bakery, so you add Blue Harbor Bakery as a related account on her contact record. She is now an indirect contact of Blue Harbor Bakery. She appears on the Related Contacts related list of Blue Harbor Bakery.
A private contact is a contact with no primary account. A private contact can't have indirect relationships. To relate a private contact to other accounts, first put an account in its Account Name field to give it a primary account. After that, you can add the other accounts as indirect relationships.
Contacts to Multiple Accounts links one person to several companies, unlike an account hierarchy, where the Parent Account field links accounts to other accounts to build a family tree.