Business Relationship
One organization’s standing to another, with dates and contact memberships.
Source table: Organization Relationships in Core Record Types (bds:BusinessRelationship). A row describes how one organization stands to another: corporate structure, succession or a related company. It is not a sales record: CRM leads and customers are Deals (the CRM Relationship table was removed on 2026-11-04).
Rules and ownership
Read From Company, To Company and Relationship Type together; direction matters. Existing Division Of rows follow the convention From = parent, To = unit: the group’s units are Organizations linked to their parent company by Division Of. Read literally, the Relationship Type description (how From is related to To) implies the opposite; follow the existing rows until the labels are settled. A client of a group company is a CRM Relationship, never a row here. Contact links memberships. Notes explains Other (Explain on Notes). Source Relationship Kind keeps the wording of an imported row.
Lifecycle and checks
Is Active and the effective and end dates describe the period. V3 · Relationship status and V3 · Next action are calculated guidance, not the CRM sales queue. Reciprocal labels (for example Parent Of against Subsidiary Of) are not generated; whether both directions should be stored is an open question.
Source fields
Names, types, options and links are those configured in Core Record Types. The meaning is the first line of each field description in Airtable. Options describe configuration; they do not prove a rule is enforced elsewhere.
Recorded values
| Field | Type | Meaning | Options, link or calculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relationship Type | Single select | Select how the From Company is related to the To Company. | Parent Of, Subsidiary Of, Holding Company Of, Division Of, Predecessor To, Successor To, Related To, Other (Explain on Notes) |
| Is Active | Checkbox | Stores whether this relationship is in force today. | Entered value. |
| Effective Date° | Date | Stores the day this relationship started. | Entered value. |
| End Date° | Date | Stores the day this relationship stopped holding. | Entered value. |
| Notes | Long text | Stores short context about this relationship that no other column holds. | Entered value. |
| Source Relationship Kind | Text | Stores the relationship wording exactly as the source system recorded it. | Entered value. |
Links
| Field | Type | Meaning | Options, link or calculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| From Company | Linked records | Links the company whose standing this row describes. | → Organization · one record |
| To Company | Linked records | Links the company on the other side of this relationship. | → Organization · one record |
| Contact | Linked records | Links the people who serve as contacts for this exact relationship. | → Membership · several records |
| Tags | Linked records | Links optional labels from the shared Core Tags catalog. | → Tag · several records |
Calculated
| Field | Type | Meaning | Options, link or calculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relationship Name | Formula | Shows the whole relationship as one readable line. | Formula below. |
| To Company (Name) | Formula | Shows the name of the company on the other side, without quotation marks. | Formula below. |
| Detail Relationship | Formula | Shows the whole relationship as one readable line. | Formula below. |
| V3 · Relationship status | Formula | Shows whether this relationship row is complete and valid. | Formula below. |
| V3 · Next action | Formula | Shows the next thing to fix on this relationship row. | Formula below. |
Generated by Airtable
| Field | Type | Meaning | Options, link or calculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Auto number | Shows the running number Airtable gave this relationship when the row was created. | Airtable system value. |
Current formulas
Field IDs are rendered as current field names.
Relationship Name
CONCATENATE({ID}," - ",{From Company}," > ",{To Company})To Company (Name)
SUBSTITUTE({To Company}, '"', '')Detail Relationship
{From Company} & " → " & {Relationship Type} & " → " & {To Company}V3 · Relationship status
IF(OR({From Company} = "", {To Company} = "", {Relationship Type} = "", {Effective Date°} = ""), "Needs setup", IF({From Company} = {To Company}, "Invalid self-link", IF(AND({End Date°} != "", {End Date°} < {Effective Date°}), "Invalid dates", IF({Is Active}, "Active", "Inactive"))))V3 · Next action
IF({From Company} = "", "Link source company", IF({To Company} = "", "Link destination company", IF({Relationship Type} = "", "Choose relationship type", IF({Effective Date°} = "", "Set effective date", IF({From Company} = {To Company}, "Choose different companies", IF(AND({End Date°} != "", {End Date°} < {Effective Date°}), "Correct date order", IF({Is Active}, "Ready", IF({End Date°} = "", "Set end date or activate", "Review inactive relationship"))))))))Example (fictitious)
Following the existing convention, Example Holdings LLC is linked as From Company and Example Roofing Division as To Company, with Relationship Type Division Of, Is Active checked and an Effective Date°. V3 · Relationship status reads Active.
Use by other systems
Sync direction and the source view are confirmed only where the note says so; see Architecture and ownership.
| System | Local table | Note |
|---|---|---|
| CRM | BusinessRelationship (mirror) | — |