The Unobits platform
Connected records
How a contact, a project, an invoice, a file and a stock movement link to each other, and where you see those links in every module.
On this page
Unobits keeps one record for each thing in your business and links records to each other, instead of copying them between modules. That is what lets a client's page show their invoices, a project show what it has cost, and an email thread show which deal it belongs to.
What gets linked#
The links come from normal work. You rarely create them by hand:
| When you… | Unobits links… |
|---|---|
| Add a person to a company in CRM | the contact ↔ the company |
| Add people to an opportunity with a role (the roles come from CRM Settings, such as Buyer or Budget holder) | the opportunity ↔ each contact, with that role |
| Create a quote from an opportunity | the opportunity ↔ the quote (and the invoice it becomes) |
| Invoice a customer | the invoice ↔ the CRM contact you billed |
| Link a project or task to a record | the project or task ↔ the contact, company or opportunity |
| Log hours, move stock or approve a bill against a project | the time, stock movement or bill ↔ the project (this is how job costing works) |
| Receive goods on a purchase order | the receipt ↔ the order ↔ the draft bill it raises |
| Enrol a CRM contact in a Reach campaign | the Reach lead ↔ the same person in CRM |
| Upload a file to a record | the file ↔ that record |
Where you see the links#
On a CRM record. The record page shows what the contact, company or opportunity is Connected to, plus tabs for Work (linked projects and tasks), Files, Quotes, money owed (invoiced, paid, outstanding, overdue) and Conversation history. There is also a Map view of everything linked to the record.
On Finance records. Every invoice, quote, bill, purchase order and expense claim has a Connections panel listing the records it is linked to — the customer, the deal, the project, the order.
On projects and inventory items. Projects and items show their links and a timeline of what happened to them, drawn from the whole workspace rather than only their own module.
In Timeline. Every module writes to one organization-wide activity stream, so Timeline can show a record's history even when the events came from different modules. See Timeline.
Links respect access#
A link never lets someone see something they otherwise could not. When a record's connections are listed, each one is checked against the viewer's permissions: a member without Finance access sees the project, not the invoice linked to it. Donna follows the same rule.
Why links rather than copies#
Because Finance reads the customer's name from the CRM record rather than keeping its own copy, renaming a client in CRM updates their invoices, their Finance page and the customer portal lookup at once. The same principle runs through the product: one record, many views.
Two links that are not automatic#
- CRM people and Reach leads are resolved to one identity when a lead is imported from CRM or enrolled from it. A lead imported from a spreadsheet is matched to an existing CRM person by exact email; otherwise it stays a Reach lead until it becomes a relationship.
- Portal users are not CRM contacts. People you give portal access to are a separate kind of user, even if the same person is also a contact. See Members, contacts and portal users.