Missing relationships cause problems throughout your entire organization. Your sales and marketing teams rely on accurately linked 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, accounts, 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 Salesforce and give your teams a complete picture of every account.
Key Use Cases
- Link and Associate People to Companies
- Lead to Account Matching In Salesforce
- Associate or Link Parent-Child Companies, Create Accounts Hierarchy and Relationships
How It Works
The Associate app simplifies matching different record types and identifying parent-child relationships, allowing for easy bulk linking.
Powerful filtering options let you segment records based on attributes like existing relationship identifiers, account 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.
Insycle supports the following Salesforce record types:
- Contacts
- Accounts
- Leads
- Opportunities
You can request enabling custom or other standard record types for your account by reaching out to our support team.
All enabled record types will appear in the dropdown at the top of the module.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Navigate to RevOps Acceleration > Associate.
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 Account ID value will be included in this operation.
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.
Under Step 2, define the rules for bulk matching the two record types during the association process. This example will link contacts to accounts.
There are two options for managing relationships between records using the tabs at the top of Step 2:
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Simple Tab
Use the Simple tab to set up basic association rules. This is the most common approach for straightforward relationships. -
Advanced Tab
The Advanced tab provides the same options as Simple, plus the ability to specify Related Match Fields—letting you use multiple fields to find matches. For example, when matching contacts to accounts, you could use the Email Domain from contacts and look at both the Website and Additional Domains fields for a match. Learn more in the Advanced How-Tos below.
Action specifies what Insycle should do with the records identified in Step 1. You can Add/Replace or Remove relationships.
Association specifies the type of record you want to create a relationship with. In the example above, contacts will be linked to accounts.
Filter Target Records
Use the filter to limit the number of records Insycle searches for matches, reducing unnecessary searches.
Click the Accounts Filter button to narrow down the target records to those that would be a good fit for this relationship.
In the Filter popup, you could, for example, add the "Account Name" field and set the parameters to "exists." This tells Insycle to only consider accounts for association if the Account 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.
Resolve Multiple Matches with Selection Rules
Selection rules prevent results from being marked as "Failed" in the CSV report if Insycle finds multiple potential matches.
Click the Selection button to set rules for choosing the account if multiple matches are found.
In the Association Selection popup, you can create rules to choose the most suitable record. For example, you might select the most recently created record with an assigned owner.
- Select the Contacts Field you want to use for matching with the account record. In the example above, the Email Domain from the contact record will be used.
- Select the Accounts Field with the value that should match the contact field. In the example above, the Website from the account record will be used to match the contact and account. The two matching fields are often the same for both record types.
- The Comparison Rule determines whether the values between the contact and account records must be an Exact Match or a Similar Match. In most cases, you'd choose Exact Match, but you can learn more about these Comparison Rules below.
- The Ignored option allows you to select parts of the match field values to exclude. In the dropdown, check the boxes for all elements you want to remove from the comparison.
Choose from: Symbols; Digits; Letters; Whitespace; Common Terms (to view or alter the list of Common Terms, click the Terms button at the bottom of Step 2); Text (substrings); URL Path (i.e., /us/western-region); Top-Level Domain (Extension) (i.e., .com, .co.uk); Sub Domain (i.e., www., app.) - The Match Parts field tells Insycle whether to match the entire field or just part of it—such as the first few words, or last few characters.
If you need to create relationships between records based on one of several values in a field, you can use the "Semicolon Separated" option.
You can create multiple matching field rules to set stricter criteria for records to be considered a match. A record must match all the rules to qualify for the relationship.
When adding extra match fields, the Condition options let you specify additional rules for the field that enable more flexible matching.
If no matching record is found, you can choose to automatically create a new account record based on what is in the contact record. Check the Create new Accounts when no matching is found box to enable this feature, then select one or more fields to use for naming the new account.
Important notes about this feature:
- This feature only works when associating contacts to accounts, not accounts 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.
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."
This setting is useful when you want to be notified about records where a relationship couldn't be created, especially when configuring automated processes.
You can automatically copy field values into related records, improving consistency, avoiding errors, and saving time.
Under Step 3, select the field from the source record type (in this example, contacts), and the relevant field on the target records (accounts). 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 [the record you're linking to] field is empty
- Only when [the record you're linking from] 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 (in most cases this will be All, but if you have a large number of records, you may just want to do a chunk for a test), 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 Salesforce, relevant values "before" and "after" the operation, and results info.
The below example highlights several key columns of the CSV, showing:
- The Result of the association operation:
- Failed – An association could not be made. Review the Message text for details.
- Added – An association was successfully made.
- Succeeded – An association was made and a new record was created.
- A Message with details on the process. Details about any errors will be included here. Learn more in the Troubleshooting section below.
- Source record match field (Contacts: Email Domain)
- Target record match field (Accounts: Website)
- Source field value before the copy operation from Step 3 (Contacts: Mailing Country (Before))
- Target field value before the copy operation (Accounts: Shipping Country (Before))
- The result of the copy operation
If the results don't look the way you expected, go back to your filters and associate functions and, make some adjustments, then preview again.
Apply Changes to Salesforce
If everything in your CSV preview looks correct, return to Insycle and move forward with applying the changes to your live Salesforce 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 Salesforce. If you have a large number of records, you may want to do a smaller batch to review the results in your database.
After you've seen the results in Salesforce 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 linking operation runs on a set schedule. You can also integrate Insycle Recipes with Salesforce Flows.
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.
By automating with a template, you'll save time and ensure that your records are linked 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 shows all the changes made in a given operation run.
Navigate to Operations > Activity Tracker, search by module, app, or template name, and then click the Run ID for the operation.
Tips for Creating Associations between Records
- Successful associations require fields with corresponding values between record types. Use unique identifiers whenever possible, such as contact email domain matched to company website domain, contact company name to company name field.
- Before processing large datasets, test your association logic with a small sample dataset to verify that matching criteria work as expected.
- While associations can be created in both directions (contacts to companies or companies to contacts), the direction of the association affects the available functionality. Contacts to companies is the recommended standard direction with full feature support, including automatic record creation when no match is found. Use companies to contacts when importing company data that references existing contacts, but note that some automation features may be limited in this direction.
- 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
You can specify more than one matching field when making associations.
For example, maybe you want to compare a contact's Email Domain against an account's Website, along with any listed in the Additional Websites field.
To do this, under Step 2, select the Advanced tab. There, you'll be able to add Related Match Fields to catch more associations.
In Step 2, the Comparison Rule defines what kind of likeness to look for when deciding if field values should be considered a match for linking.
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 relationships.
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 an Account Name of, “Acme” is found, it could include records with the Account 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.
If using ID fields to match, note that they will only work with Exact Match, not Similar Match.
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" Result, with the Message "No matching record found (use 'Grid Edit' to troubleshoot)" in 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.
Troubleshooting
When Insycle detects multiple potential matches for a single record during association, it marks those records as 'Failed' in the CSV report to prevent incorrect links. You will also see a Message similar to 'Multiple target matches (x)...' or 'Multiple source matches...'
For example, if you were associating contacts with accounts, and Insycle found ten account records named "Microsoft," it wouldn't know which Microsoft to establish the relationship with, so this would fail.
There are a few options for resolving this issue:
Merge duplicates: If there shouldn't be multiples of these records, you should first go through the process of merging duplicates before trying to create the relationships.
Add parameters to be more specific: If there are supposed to be multiple similar but distinct records, there are several parameters in Step 2 that you can try to refine the criteria:
-
Add a second field. A record would have to match both field values to be considered appropriate for making the relationship.
-
Use the filter. This will narrow the set of records to be associated.
For example, in the filter popup, you can add the "Account Name" field and set the parameters to "contains" and "HQ." This tells Insycle to only consider accounts for association if the Account Name value includes the term "HQ." -
Add Selection rules. In cases where there are multiple target records that could match, you can add Selection rules to choose the appropriate record.
For example, you can create rules in the selection pop-up to select the most recently created record with an owner assigned. -
Add a Condition field. Add a Condition to your second matching rule to create more specific criteria. For example, to remove contact-to-account associations where the contact's country doesn't match the account's country, add a condition that the Country must not match.
An "Unmodified" Result with the Message "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" Result with the Message "No matching record found (use 'Grid Edit' to troubleshoot)" message in 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.
If you run into issues linking records, you can look up the matching values individually to determine what to use for a match.
Doing the below steps in order allows you to compare how the values look before matching. That way, you can adjust the matching rules if they are not an exact match.
- In the Grid Edit module, select the record type and look for a specific matching value.
- Then again, in the Grid Edit module, select the linked record type and look for the field value that matches the value from the previous step.
- In the Associate app, select the record type, and add a filter for the value you discovered in Step 2 so that you can focus on these specific records.
Bulk associations require that you have a field that you can use to match the two records. For instance, you might select "Account ID" for contact records, and "Account Name" for account records. You then use these two fields to link 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 link?
For example, you might want to link contacts not only to the account they work for but also to the parent account. In this case, it is unlikely that you track the parent account on the contact record, which means you might not have a field to match the association. As a result, you'll need to create a custom field for contacts and accounts, such as "Custom Parent Account." Ideally, if child accounts are already related to parent accounts, you'll be able to pull this data from your account records and populate both custom fields using Salesforce's automation features.
Then, you'll be able to use the Custom Parent Account field for both contacts and accounts 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 some time for Insycle to find and match records if the fields 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 "Account ID" for contact records, and "Account Name" for account records. Or you could use "Email Domain" on the contact, and "Website" on the account.
Commonly used fields for linking include account names, email domains, and website URLs.
Yes. You can link records in either direction.
Though making relationships will work in both directions, consider that contacts to accounts is the standard direction, and some features (such as the "Create new when no matching is found" checkbox) are only designed to work when contacts are being linked to accounts.
In some cases, such as creating relationships with custom objects or child and parent accounts, the direction may be important.
Yes, Insycle can help manage parent-child relationships. 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 account record based on what is in the contact record. Under Step 2, check the Create new Accounts when no matching is found box to enable, then select the field(s) to use for naming the new account.
When you have a solid set of templates that reliably link your records, you can put them together into a longer, ordered sequence as a Recipe. Then, you can schedule that Recipe to run on a consistent, set schedule. Your templates will run one after another in the order that you set.
With Recipes, you can also integrate Insycle with Salesforce flows.
Learn more about 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
- Integrate Insycle with Salesforce Flows
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