Why is Linking Important?

Linking gives you the ability to connect related information together, sharing the knowledge between two pieces of data.

You may have several Contacts at a single Company, or have multiple Contacts linked to a single Project. Perhaps you have an upcoming meeting with multiple stakeholders, all of whom are involved in the Project you are presenting. Do you know what role they all play?

One of the most important and unique features of Daylite is its ability to easily link relevant information together.

Examples of Linking

Typical examples of linking might include:

• Having multiple People records linked to a single Company record. In this way Daylite shows the number of people who work for a Company.

• Linking two People together to indicate that they are related in some way. This is called a Relationship.

• Linking emails to a Person in Daylite through Daylite Mail Assistant.

Linking To Your Contacts

By using + Add Link, you can either create a new Person in Daylite and link them to the currently selected Person, or link two existing People in Daylite.

This produces what is called a Relationship between the two Contacts.

There are two types of Relationships when it comes to Linking.

• The first Relationship is called a hierarchy based relationship. This is most often found in a work environment. As an example, David has an assistant named Stephen. This relationship also means Stephen is the assistant of David, depending on which way you are looking at this record.

• The second Relationship is called an equality based relationship. This is usually found in personal relationships, such as Toby is the brother of Susan, which also means Susan is the sister of Toby.

You can also assign relationships to Companies, by linking one Company to another just like you would with equality and hierachical relationships.

As an example, Sunshine Consulting is the parent company of The Dreamers, so you would select + Add Link, scroll down to companies, add The Dreamers to the Sunshine Consulting record, and select is the parent company from the list of menu options. Remember to press Save when finished.

One of the really neat features in Relationships is when you select how Sunshine Consulting relates to The Dreamers, Daylite automatically assigns the opposite relationship to The Dreamers.

So...

If Sunshine Consulting is linked to The Dreamers as the parent company, then The Dreamers is now automatically linked to Sunshine Consulting as a subsidiary.

You could also add a new Person to a Company record which would be linked to the selected Contact. This would produce what is called a Role and Job Title that the person would play in the company.

A Role is chosen from a pre-defined drop down list in Daylite, and represents what they mean to us at that company.

A Job Title is usually what would be written on their business card, and is how they see themselves. As an example:

• Role: Sales

• Job Title: Senior New Business Executive

This enables the user to search more reliably for specific People and their Role or function at a company.

Using the same method, you could create a new Project that would be linked to the selected Contact. This will then let you set a Role for the person to play in the Project.

You could create a new Opportunity that would be linked to the selected Contact. This will then let you set a Role for the person to play in the Opportunity.

Daylite allows three types of Roles:

• Project roles

• Opportunity roles

• Company roles

If a Person in Daylite is linked to each of the above then that Person could have three completely separate and different roles.

For example, Mike has the role of Chief Executive in the Company, the role of Decision Maker in an Opportunity and the role of Project Lead in a Project. This context can be reviewed in Settings > Roles & Relationships.

When viewing these Roles and Relationships in Daylite you will notice:

• Company Roles use a Building icon

• Opportunity Roles use a $ icon

• Project Roles use a hammer icon

Pro Tip:

If someone has left a company but you still want to show that they used to work there you can create a Role type called LEFT. The Job Title would remain but the Role would be LEFT.

In the screenshots below, you begin to see how this all ties together, as your primary Contact has been linked to two different Companies, including their Role at one of them, linked to an Opportunity, linked to a Person, including their Relationship, their most recent Activity with you, and finally, linked Tasks, Appointments and Notes. You would also be able to find any emails that had been added to Daylite, as well as any Forms or Files that had been attached to the Contact record.

All in one place.