Relationships

Relationships, including Who Knows Whom, are an important part of InterAction and can be added to your reports. Depending on the intended purpose for the report you are creating, you may choose to filter and arrange the relationship results you receive.

NOTE Private relationships (user selected Keep my relationship private for a contact) only print for the users with those relationships and the InterAction administrator user.

For example, you may want a report that lists all the people at your organization who know people at a particular company. To create this report:

• Arrange relationships by row.

  For details, see Relationships as Separate Rows.

• Include relationships for people at a company.

  For details, see Including Relationships for a Person's Company and Including Relationships for Company Personnel.

• Set the filter to only include the Known By relationship type.

  For details, see Filtering Relationships.

Another example to consider is the following: you want to create a spreadsheet report that lists the basic information for a company, such as name, address, and industry as well as a column that shows the Relationship Manager, a relationship you maintain in InterAction. To create this report:

• Arrange relationships by column.

  For details, see Relationships as Separate Columns.

• Set the filter to only include the Relationship Managed by relationship type.

  For details, see Filtering Relationships.

 

Relationships as Separate Rows

For most reports, Relationships as separate rows is the option you should use for your report. It provides the most access to information on the relationship and the related contacts as well as more flexibility in arranging relationships in the report. Choose this option to create a report that does any of the following:

• Groups contacts by relationship
• Groups relationships for a contact
• Displays information about the contact with which the relationship exists

For examples of reports that include relationships by row, see the following reports provided with InterAction:

• Known by - Who Knows Whom
• Who Knows People at the Selected Companies
• Company Personnel We Know
• Relationship List
• Key Relationships
• Board Members/Memberships

Additionally, you have all the following options if you report on relationships as rows:

• Include relationships for people at a company
• Include relationships for a person's associated company
• Specify more fields for the relationship including the format for the relationship type (sentence vs. name)
• Include more information on the related contact, including more name options, job title, contact information, and more.
• Limit the relationships included in the report to those entered within a recent time period, such as the last month
• Limit the relationships included to only those identified as Strong
• Include former relationships in the report

Relationships as Separate Columns

Typically, reports are created using the Relationships as separate rows option. However, Relationships as separate columns is the right option to choose if you are creating a report that displays each relationship in a separate column, like an additional field.

For example, assume you maintain a relationship called Relationship Manager to identify the person at your organization who is primarily responsible for all contact with a client. You may need to create a report that looks like a spreadsheet and displays all the following information:

• Name
• Address
• Industry
• Annual Revenue
• Relationship Manager

To create this report, you can use relationships as columns. Note that there are many limitations to relationships as columns:

• You cannot include more information on the related contact
• You cannot include former relationships
• You cannot include relationships for a person's company or vice-versa
• You cannot display each field for the relationship separately (for example, you cannot show the relationship description in a separate field from the related contact's name)

All the items listed above are available when reporting on relationships as rows.

Filtering Relationships

You do not have to include every relationship for contacts in a report. You can filter relationships by choosing to include only specific relationships in your report.

To filter relationships, open the Relationship Options dialog box by selecting Relationships in the list of fields included on the report and choosing Edit.

Relationship Options Dialog Box

You can choose any of the following options:

• All relationship types
• Only Key relationship types
• Only selected relationship types

Additionally, if you are arranging the relationships output as Relationships as separate rows, you have more options:

• Only show relationships entered within a recent time period, such as the 90 days
• Only show relationships identified as ‘Strong’
• Include former relationships
• Include relationships for people at a company
• Include relationships for a person's associated company

NOTE For more information on including relationships for people at a company, see Including Relationships for Company Personnel. For more information on including relationships for a person's company, see Including Relationships for a Person's Company.

How do I Know I Have the Correct Side of the Relationship for the Contact I Have Selected?

Relationship types can be difficult to understand if you aren't seeing them in context of the two contacts that are related. For example, if you choose to include the relationship type Board Member you may wonder, “If I'm reporting on companies, will choosing this display the people that are Board Members, or should I choose Board Members Include instead?”

If you are confused and cannot decide which relationship type is correct, do the following:

1. Before you create the report, find the contacts on which the report will typically be run. Ensure that they have at least one relationship of the type that is causing confusion.
2. Create the report, adding relationships and filtering the types to only include the relationships with which you have confusion.

3. When choosing the output format of the report, choose Export the information to a file, choose to export the data to Microsoft Excel, then choose the Preview button. (Make sure you are previewing from the folder that contains the contacts with the relationships you are testing.)

   For Overview report sections, choose Check Data in the Design tab.

4. Look at the information in the spreadsheet and find the relationship type on which you want to report. The relationship type displayed for this relationship is the type you want to include in the report.
5. Close the Excel document, then change the data fields included on the report to only include that type. See Filtering Relationships for more information.

Selecting the Information to Include on the Main and Related Contact

When including Relationships as separate rows in your report, you can choose which data displays for the main and related contact.

To select the contact information to include on the report:

1. Open the Relationship Options dialog box by selecting Relationships > Relationships as separate rows in the list of fields included on the report and choosing Edit.

2. Choose the Arrange Results tab.

3. Choose Select in either the Main Contact Information or Related Contact Information sections to select the data to include for each contact.

   The Related Contact Options dialog box displays with all the data fields available to include for the main or related contact.

4. Select the data fields to include on the report and choose OK.

   See Adding and Removing Data Fields steps on adding data fields to the report.

Fields Included on the Main and Related Contact

[A] This section lists the fields on the main contact that you can add to the report. Choose Select to add or remove fields.

[B] This section lists the fields on the related contact that you can add to the report. Choose Select to add or remove fields.

For each contact you are reporting on, information is output into separate rows for each of the main contact’s relationships. For example, Jane Tarnoff has a relationship with three contacts: Adam May, John Thomas, and Mary Smith. Relationships output to three rows.

Including Relationships for Company Personnel

If you include Relationships as separate rows on your report, you can optionally include relationships for all the people at the company. When the report is run, the report includes all relationships that meet the other filter criteria (type, former, etc.) that are either on the company included in the report or on the people who have the company as their associated company.

To configure this setting:

1. Open the Relationship Options dialog box by selecting Relationships > Relationships as separate rows in the list of fields included on the report and choosing Edit.
2. Select For companies, include relationships for people at the company.

Including Relationships for Company Personnel

Including Relationships for a Person's Company

If you include Relationships as separate rows on your report, you can optionally include relationships for a person's associated company. When the report is run, the report includes all relationships that meet the other filter criteria (type, former, etc.) that are either on the people included in the report or on each person's associated company.

To configure this setting:

1. Open the Relationship Options dialog box by selecting Relationships > Relationships as separate rows in the list of fields included on the report and choosing Edit.
2. Select For people, include relationships for their associated company.

Including Relationships for a Person's Associated Company