Missing associations cause problems throughout your entire organization. Your sales and marketing teams rely on accurately related records for context in sales conversations and account-based marketing applications. Customer support and success teams also miss important information, and analysis and reporting are skewed. Missing relationships can impact your customers across the entire customer journey.
With Insycle's Associate app, you can automatically detect relationships and link contacts, companies, deals, custom objects, and other object types in bulk. You can create hierarchical associations such as child and parent relationships, and you can copy data between the linked records. This will maintain order in your CRM and give your teams a complete picture of every account.
Key Use Cases
- Link and Associate People to Companies
- Associate or Link Parent-Child Companies, Create Accounts Hierarchy, and Relationships
How It Works
The Associate app makes it easy to match different record types, or identify parent-child relationships and associate them in bulk.
Powerful filtering options let you segment records based on attributes like existing relationship identifiers, company names, domains, or any other field. Records that meet these criteria can automatically be linked to other records based on matching rules.
These configurations can be saved and automated, set to run automatically at regular intervals, putting your association process on autopilot.
Step 1: Filter Records Down to Those You Want to Associate
In the Associate app, select the database and the record type in the top menu. Then explore the templates for an existing solution that may be close to what you need.
Each row in Step 1 is for a field you want to look at to determine whether to include or exclude a record from this task. With this filter, you're telling Insycle what records you would like to update.
In the below example, contacts that do not have an Associated Company ID but do have a Company Name, will be included in the results.
When you click Search, Insycle will list records in the Record Viewer at the bottom of the page. If you make changes to the filter, you need to click the Search button again to refresh the viewer.
Step 2: Configure Rules That Will Create the Relationship
Under Step 2, you'll define the rules for bulk matching the two record types during the association process. This example will associate Contacts to Companies.
Configure the rules that will create the relationship between the two record types. In the first row:
1. Action tells Insycle what to do to the records surfaced in Step 1. All CRMs allow you to Add or Remove associations. Additionally for Hubspot, you can use the Replace action to remove existing associations and create new ones.
2. Associate specifies the type of record you want to create the relationship with. In the example above, Contacts will be associated to Companies.
3. Hubspot users will see a Labels field which is used to name the relationship.
4. Click the Companies Filter button to narrow the target records down to those that would be a good fit for this relationship.
In the Company Filter popup you could, for example, add the "Company name," field and set the Condition, "exists." This tells Insycle to only consider companies for association if the Company Name field has a value in the database.
Click Search to apply the filter and close the popup. Note that the Company filter will not update the results in the Record Viewer, only in your final Review steps.
The next line tells Insycle what values to use to identify company matches:
5. The Field Name is the field from the source record (in this example, Contact) you want to try and match with the target record (Company). In the example above, Company Name from the Contact record will be used.
6. The Match Field is the target field to be matched with the source record. In this example, the Company Name field from the Company records will be analyzed for a match.
The Field Name and Match Field are often the same for both records.
7. The Comparison Rule tells Insycle whether the values between the Contact and Company records must be an Exact Match or Similar Match. In most cases, you'd select Exact Match, but you can learn more about these Comparison Rules in the Advanced How-Tos below.
8. In the Ignored field you can specify parts of a field value to ignore, such as specific text, whitespace, or characters. In the dropdown, check the box for the values you'd like to ignore.
In the example, the Ignore rule tells Insycle to ignore a list of Common Terms that may appear in the Company Name field such as "LLC," "Inc." or "Co." This is often a necessary field for matching companies. To view or alter the list of Common Terms, click the Terms button at the bottom of this section (see below).
9. The Match Parts field tells Insycle whether to match the entire field or just part of it—such as the first or last few words, or first and last characters.
10. If no matching Company is found, an association will not be created. In these cases, you can choose to automatically create a new Company record based on what is in the Contact record. Check the Create new Companies when no matching is found box to enable.
There are a couple of things to note when using this setting:
- This feature only works when associating Contacts to Companies, not Companies to Contacts.
- When using the "Exact Match" Comparison Rule, the "Create new..." setting could potentially create duplicates, so you should be thoughtful with the Matching Field and Comparison Rule that you use.
11. The Ignored "Common Terms" can be edited using the Terms button.
12. Check the Count unmatched Contacts records as Failed box to flag unmatched contacts as "Failed" on the Result popup and in the CSV report. When left unchecked, unmatched records are counted as "Unmodified."
Step 3: Optionally, copy a value between the associated records
If your team is capturing valuable detail in the CRM you can automatically copy info into related records, avoiding errors and saving time.
After setting the association rules in Step 2, you can create rules to copy values between the records. If one record type consistently has values that would be helpful in the associated record, you can execute that copy in bulk.
Under Step 3, select the field from the source record type (in this example, Contact), and the relevant field on the target records (Companies). You can choose to copy values from the source record to the target, or target record to the source.
The Copy Rule gives you three options:
- Only when Target Field is empty
- Only when Source Field is not empty
- Always copy
The preview CSV will include these fields, and specify if the value was copied for each record.
Preview Changes in the CSV Report
Now with the filters and association/linking actions in place, you can preview the changes you are making to your data. That way, you can check to ensure the relationships are being created as expected before those changes are made in your live database.
Under Step 4, click the Review button, then select Preview in the popup.
On the Notify tab, add any additional recipients who should receive the CSV (and make sure to hit Enter after each address). You can also provide additional context in the message subject or body.
On the When tab, click Run Now and select which records to apply the change to (you could do All, but if you have a large number of records, you may just want to do a chunk for your preview), then click the Run Now button.
Open the CSV file from your email in a spreadsheet application and review the columns. Each row in the CSV includes the record types, IDs, names, deeplinks to both records in the native CRM, relevant values (Before) and (After) the operation, and results info.
The below example highlights the last few columns of the CSV, showing:
- Source record info (contacts)
- Target record info (companies)
- Source field value before it is changed
- Target field value
- Result of the copy operation (if set up in Step 3)
- Result of the association. This example shows, "Added" which means an association was made.
If the results don't look the way you expected, go back to your filters and associate functions and try making some adjustments, then preview again.
Apply Changes to the CRM
If everything in your CSV preview looks correct, return to Insycle and move forward with applying the changes to the live CRM data.
Under Step 4, click the Review button again, and this time select Update mode.
On the When tab, you should use Run Now the first time you apply these changes to the CRM. If you have a large number of records, you may want to do a smaller batch to review the results in your CRM.
After you've seen the results in the CRM and you are satisfied with how the operation runs, you can save all of the configurations as a template and set up automation so this association operation runs on a set schedule.
Return to the Template menu at the top of the page and click Copy to save your configurations as a new version of whatever template you started with. Then click the pencil to edit your new template name.
Under Step 4, click the Review button, and select Update mode.
On the Notify tab, select the send option appropriate for your automation: Always send, Send when errors, or Do not email.
Add any additional recipients who should receive the CSV each time the automation runs. You can also provide additional context in the message subject or body.
On the When tab, select Automate, and configure the frequency you'd like the template to run. When finished, click Schedule.
If you have several templates you'd like to automatically run together, you can create a Recipe. Additionally, HubSpot users can integrate Insycle Recipes into HubSpot Workflows.
By automating with a template, you'll save time and ensure that your records are associated in a consistent way on an ongoing basis.
With the Activity Tracker, you have a complete audit trail and history of changes made through Insycle, including processes run in Preview mode or data syncs. At any time you can download a CSV report that lets you see all of the changes that were made in a given run of the operation.
Navigate to Operations > Activity Tracker, search by module, app, or template name, then click the Run ID for the operation.
Tips for Creating Associations between Records
- To create associations between records, you need a field with a similar value in both records. For example, "Email Domain" on the contact, and "Website Domain" on the company. Then, you can pick those fields to match the records and establish the association.
- You can make associations in both directions: contacts to companies, or companies to contacts.
- Though making associations will work in both directions, consider that contacts to companies is the standard direction, and some features (such as the "If Company is Not Found Create New Company" feature) are only designed to work when contacts are being associated to companies.
- For straightforward relationships with obvious matching fields, the direction of the relationship doesn't matter. But in some cases, such as creating associations with custom objects or child and parent companies, the direction may be important. If you are having trouble, try changing the direction of the association.
Advanced How-Tos
When using the Associate app, you have the option to be alerted when records aren’t matched. This may be helpful if you want to investigate and address any records where a relationship has not been created.
Under Step 2 check the Count unmatched records as Failed box.
Then in the Step 4 popup on the Notify tab, you can select the email delivery option “Always send,” or “Send when errors.”
When checked, any record where there is no match to create the association will be counted as “Failed.” This will be reflected by a “with Failures” suffix on the report email subject line…
…and a, "Failed, no matching record found (use 'Grid Edit' to troubleshoot)" message in the Result column of the CSV report.
When you save this associate configuration as a template and set up automation, the report emails will let you know when a relationship has not been created for a record so you can address it as needed.
The Comparison Rule defines what kind of likeness to look for when deciding if field values should be considered a match for association.
It's a good idea to start with Exact Match for the straightforward matches, then use Similar Match to look for edge cases.
Exact Match looks for values that match exactly, with no differences from one record to the next. Any unique identifying fields should use Exact Match. This is usually your best bet when looking for associations.
Similar Match looks for values that may be close but with a one-character difference (like a typo, extra character, or missing character) and broadens the search. This search behaves like when Google shows results for a slightly different term or says “Did you mean...”
For example, if a Company Name of, “Acme” is found, it could include records with the Company Name values, “Akme," "acm," or "Acma,” as matches.
Similar Match uses looser criteria that cast a wider net for what can be considered matches. Make sure to carefully review the results to ensure the relationships being created are what you're expecting.
*Note that ID fields can only be Exact Match, never Similar Match.
Troubleshooting
A "Failed, multiple target matches (x)" or "Multiple sources matched" result occurs when multiple records meet your matching specifications. For example, if you were associating contacts to companies, and Insycle found ten company records with the name "Microsoft," it wouldn't know which Microsoft to establish the relationship with.
There are a few options for resolving this issue:
- If there shouldn't be multiples of these records you should first go through the process of merging duplicates before trying to create these relationships.
- If there are supposed to be multiple similar, but distinct records, you can add another matching field in Step 2 to make the criteria more specific. A record would have to match both field values to be considered appropriate for making the relationship.
- Or, use the filter in Step 2 to narrow the records to be associated.
In the filter popup you could, for example, add the "Company name," field and set the Condition, "contains" "HQ." This tells Insycle to only consider companies for association if the Company Name value includes the term "HQ."
An "Unmodified, no matching record found (use 'Grid Edit' to troubleshoot)" result occurs when there aren’t any records that meet your matching specifications.
You can examine the data in the unmatched records and troubleshoot using the Grid Edit module. Look at different fields and values to identify why your associate setup didn’t work for the record. Then decide what match options could work or if some cleanup is needed.
Learn more about reviewing your data using the Grid Edit module.
When using the Associate app, you have the option under Step 2 to Count unmatched records as Failed. When checked, any record where there is no match to create the association will be counted as “Failed.” This will be reflected by a, "Failed, no matching record found (use 'Grid Edit' to troubleshoot)" message in the Result column of the CSV report.
You can examine the data in the unmatched records and troubleshoot using the Grid Edit module. Look at different fields and values to identify why your associate setup didn’t work for the record. Then decide what match options could work or if some cleanup is needed.
Learn more about reviewing your data using the Grid Edit module.
Bulk associations require that you have a field that you can use to match the two records. For instance, you might select "Company" for contact records, and "Company Name" for company records. You then use these two fields to associate the two records.
But what do you do if you have no obvious matching field between the two record types that you would like to associate?
This is a fairly common scenario. For example, maybe you would like to associate contacts not only with the company that they work for but with the parent company as well. In this scenario, it is not very likely that you capture the parent company on the contact record, which means that you may have no field to use to match the association. As a result, you'll need to create a custom field for contacts and companies, such as "Custom Parent Company." Ideally, if child companies are already associated with parent companies, you'll be able to pull this data from your company records and populate both custom fields using your CRM's automation features.
Then, you'll be able to use the Custom Parent Company field for both contacts and companies to make the match.
The key is finding a data point that would allow you to match the associations, even if it is only available for one record type. Then you can create the custom matching fields that allow you to make the associations.
It can take a while for Insycle to find and match records if the fields being used to identify the relationship have very long values. The longer the values the longer it takes Insycle to process the data and generate the results. This might come up when using links with long ID numbers, LinkedIn bios, or other URLs with long strings (e.g., https://www.linkedin.com/in/svadin%C3%ADr-n%C4%9Bmec-1234b31a3/).
If the end of the values are all unique you can try and speed this up by using the Match Parts parameter under Step 2, which will limit the comparison to the last several characters.
Or use the Ignored > Text (Substrings) parameter, and click the Terms button.
On the Ignored Text tab of the popup, add the common portion of the URL or text string.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use any field in your database to create relationships between records, you just need to figure out which field in each record type will have the same value. For instance, you might select "Company" for contact records, and "Company Name" for company records. Or you could use "Email Domain" on the contact, and "Website Domain" on the company.
Commonly used fields for linking include company names, company domains, and company URLs.
Yes. You can associate in either direction.
Though making relationships will work in both directions, consider that contacts to companies is the standard direction, and some features (such as the "If Company is Not Found Create New Company" feature) are only designed to work when contacts are being associated to companies.
Or in some cases, such as creating relationships with custom objects or child and parent companies, the direction may be important.
Yes, Insycle can help manage parent-child associations. For more information, see the Associate or Link Parent-Child Companies article.
Yes. If no matching record is found, you can choose to automatically create a new company record based on what is in the contact record. Under Step 2, check the Create new Companies when no matching is found box to enable, then select the field to use for naming the new company.
When Insycle creates a company record during the association process, the Original Source Data 2 property value will be "Insycle Data Management."
No, Insycle does not currently allow you to access, update, or associate activities.
You can save several templates and string them together into a longer, ordered sequence. This can then be automated to run on a set schedule.
Get more help with Recipes, or learn Why Data Management Is So Time-Consuming and How Recipes Can Help.
Additional Resources
Related Help Articles
- Lead to Account Matching and Association Best Practices
- Copy Values between Already Associated Records
- Associate Contacts, Companies, and Deals from CSV by Matching Property Values
- Recipes
- Activity Tracker: Audit Trail and History
Related Blog Posts
- The Business Case Against Improperly Associated Contacts and Companies in Your CRM
- Case Study: Organized School District Hierarchies to Improve Account-Based Marketing
- Create Profitable Segmented Campaigns by Fixing Missing Deal-to-Company Associations From the HubSpot-Shopify Integration