For many sales organizations, it can be strategically important to relate accounts together by a parent, or master account, and the child accounts that are associated underneath it. Whether you work with franchises, distributors, school branches, or affiliates, this functionality allows you to navigate between related companies quickly and easily.
To create parent-child relationships in Close, we use custom fields and integration links.
We'll first implement a solution that will allow you to create a list of all child accounts associated with a parent account.
Step 1: Create the Parent Account Lead Custom Field
First, create a Custom Field by heading to Settings > Custom Fields > Add Lead Custom Field in your Close account.
Name this Custom Field something similar to "Parent Account" or however your company refers to the Master account.
Select it either as a text-type field or a dropdown-type field. We recommend choosing text-type if you have a large number of parent accounts. Select choices-type if you have fewer than 30. If you create a choices type, add each choice now.
Next, for each child account that is associated with the parent, add the parent name in the custom field on the lead.
Step 2: Create the Integration Link to Search for all other Child Accounts (from a Child Account)
Now let's create an integration link that will search for all child accounts associated with the Parent account listed in the Custom Field.
Go to Settings > Integration Links.
Add a new integration link. Title it ‘Search for Child Accounts (from Child)’, and choose ‘Lead’ as the type.
In the URL box, your link will look like this:
https://app.close.com/search/%22custom.Parent%22%3A%22{{lead.custom.["Parent"]}}%22
This link prompts the system to open the link in a new page of the app and search for the lead name value that is in the previously created custom field called Parent.
If you chose a different name for your Parent custom field, you’ll want to replace lead.custom.["Parent"] in the link above with the correct custom field name for your use case.
Pro tip:
You can create integration links to link to pages within the Close app or within the Close browser version. In this case, we chose the browser version of Close, using https:// as the URL. If you use the Desktop App more often, use the URL of closeio:// to prompt the page to open in the Close app.
Step 3: Create an Integration Link to Search for the Parent Account
Our next step is to create an integration link that will quickly jump you to the parent account lead page from the child account.
Go to Settings > Lead Customization > Integration Links.
Add a new integration link, name it ‘Search for Parent Account,’ and choose ‘Lead’ as the type.
In the URL box, your link will look like this:
closeio://app.close.com/search/name%3A%22{{lead.custom.["Parent"]}}%22
Again, if you chose a different name for your Parent custom field, you’ll want to replace lead.custom.["Parent"] in the link above with the correct custom field name for your use case.
When you click the completed integration link, you'll return to the parent account in Close.
Step 4: Create an Integration Link to Search for the Child Accounts from the Parent Account
Our next step is to create an integration link that will quickly jump you to the child accounts from the parent account.
Go to Settings > Lead Customization > Integration Links.
Add a new integration link, name it ‘Search for Child Accounts (from Parent),’ and choose ‘Lead’ as the type.
In the URL box, your link will look like this:
closeio://app.close.com/search/%22custom.Parent%22%3A%22{{lead.display_name}}%22
Now test it out! Head to a child or parent account and use the integration links you made to quickly find the leads it is associated with.