Connections record how people relate to each other and to the organisations and things you track: a trustee of a foundation, a partner, a volunteer holding a collection tin. They link records without merging them, and they let activity show up on related profiles.

Before you start

You need relationships:write:contacts. Connection types come from Relationships → Configuration → Connection types.

Add a connection

  1. Open the contact’s profile and find Connections.
  2. Choose Add.
  3. Search for the contact, organisation or resource and select it.
  4. Choose a connection type. Only types that apply to that kind of record are offered, and the add button stays disabled until you choose one.
  5. Add the connection.

It’s saved straight away; there’s no separate save step. Connections made in the Relationships section of Edit contact also save immediately. If the connection type has a reciprocal, the other contact’s side is recorded with the reciprocal type, for example “Manages” on one side and “Reports to” on the other.

You can also connect contacts from an organisation’s profile with Connect a contact, and link organisations and resources while adding a contact.

Remove a connection

Use the remove control beside the connection (Remove connection). This unlinks the records without deleting either. If it can’t be saved you’ll see “Couldn’t remove connection”.

Resources: lending is not the same as connecting

Checking a resource out to someone creates a connection, but an ordinary connection is not a loan. Use Check out and Check in on the resource to record who has an item; see Create and edit resources. A resource sent to a contact shows as Received on their connections.

Manage connection types

Administrators with relationships:admin:settings maintain the list at Relationships → Configuration → Connection types. Each type says which pairings it Applies to: Contact → Contact, Contact → Organisation and Contact → Resource. Archiving a type removes it from new choices and keeps existing connections. Renaming a type doesn’t change connections already saved under the old name. See Relationships settings.