Standard objects that link CRM records many-to-many
Key Takeaway
Contacts to Multiple Accounts stores each link between a contact and an account as an Account Contact Relationship record, so one contact can relate to many accounts without duplicate contact records. Unlike Account Contact Roles, it supports customizations such as custom fields, validation rules, flows, and triggers.
Some standard objects let one record connect to many records on the other side, and the other way around, without making duplicate records. The main example is the Account Contact Relationship object. The Contacts to Multiple Accounts feature uses this object, so one contact can relate to several accounts and one account can show many related contacts. You also need to know how this feature compares with Account Contact Roles and with a custom junction object, so you can pick the right tool.
Relating a single contact to multiple accounts
People often work with more than one company. Contacts to Multiple Accounts lets you relate a single contact to multiple accounts, so you can track these links without creating duplicate contact records.
For example, a business owner may own several companies, or a consultant may work for several organizations. Each of these people can be one contact record that relates to several accounts.
Salesforce stores each link between a contact and an account as an Account Contact Relationship record.
Each contact has one primary account: the account in its Account Name field. The link to the primary account is a direct relationship. The link to every other account is an indirect relationship.
The fields on an Account Contact Relationship record include these:
- Account
- Contact
- Active
- Direct: a read-only field that marks the direct relationship, based on the contact's Account Name field.
- Roles: the contact's role at that account, such as Buyer, Decision Maker, or Evaluator. A contact can have more than one role, and you can customize the picklist values. Roles is a separate field from the Role field on Account Contact Roles.
- Start Date and End Date: together, these two fields keep a history of when the relationship began and ended.