Represent Contacts' Connections to Each Other and to Accounts

Use Salesforce objects to identify how the people and programs in your school relate to each other.

Think of all the connections between the people at your school and the activities and programs they're involved in. Without understanding these connections, or relationships, the people and activities have no context; they don't tell a story.

For example, the relationship between our student, Elijah, and his grandmother tells us that a family member other than a parent is able to share important information about him. And his connection to the Schoolwide Assistance Account tells us he's receiving additional support.

In K-12 Architecture Kit, we connect the dots using:

• Relationships to connect people (Contacts) to other people, like Elijah to his grandmother.

• Affiliations to connect people (Contacts) to the Accounts that contain the activities or programs they participate in, like Elijah's connection to the Schoolwide Assistance Account.

When you create a Relationship, a “reciprocal relationship” that reflects this same relationship in the other direction is automatically created. For example, when we create a Relationship from Elijah's Contact record to his mother, Juliana Espozito, her Contact record also reflects that she has a son, Elijah.

• Connections for Student Contacts
  Relationships represented in Household Accounts include connections to family, but also other important people in a student's educational sphere. Remember that Contacts' connections to other people are represented by Relationships and connections to Accounts are represented by Affiliations.
• Connections for Faculty and Others
  Contact records for faculty members show Relationships with other Contacts (like a principal or teacher). They also show Affiliations with Accounts like Educational Institution Accounts (like the school) or Academic Program Accounts (like Third Grade). Known as affiliated Accounts, these types of Accounts are distinct from Household Accounts.