This guide explains how Tribe organises and connects information using relationships and activity types. Understanding this structure helps you manage your data more efficiently and decide where to add fields or enable features. By following this article, you will be able to confidently navigate and configure your Tribe CRM database to match your organisation’s needs.
Table of Contents
Understanding Relationships and Activity Structure
How to Navigate and Manage Relationships and Activities in Tribe
Activity Types and Linking Example
Quick Summary
Understanding Relationships and Activity Structure
In Tribe, all information is stored across different parts of the database. These parts are connected using relationships, which are central to how data is organised and accessed. Although you may not see these connections during daily use, they are essential when viewing data, adding fields to templates, or configuring your Tribe setup.
Relationships always involve either an organisation or a person. It is important to distinguish between the two:
Organisations allow you to register information such as organisation name, general phone number, general email, website, and addresses.
Persons allow you to register data like first and last name, date of birth, private phone number, and private email address.
Tribe provides standard fields for both organisations and persons, but you can add custom fields at these levels if you need to capture more information.
Each organisation or person entered into Tribe must be classified by a relationship type. For example:
An organisation could be a customer or a supplier.
A person could be a private customer, prospect, or contact person.
Each relationship type comes with its own set of standard fields. For example, customers have fields like status and group, while suppliers have a type field. A single organisation or person can take on multiple relationship types within Tribe (such as being both a customer and a supplier), but they are only stored once in the database.
Tribe also uses contact persons to link people to organisations. This allows one person to act as a contact for several organisations without duplicating their core profile information. Their personal details are maintained in a single record, ensuring consistency and reducing data maintenance.
How to Navigate and Manage Relationships and Activities in Tribe
Open the My Workspace dashboard and select a Relationship you want to start working with, within organisations or persons. This gives an overview of your contacts and allows you to manage data centrally.
Select a record to view details and check its relationship types (e.g., Customer, Supplier, Prospect, Contact Person). Relationship types classify the record, determine available fields, and control which features apply. Multiple types can be assigned without duplicating the record, keeping data consistent.
Review and update standard fields, activate or deactivate fields, and add custom fields as needed. Editing fields ensures only relevant information is captured and stored correctly. Custom fields allow tracking additional data unique to your organisation.
Use contact persons to link people to organisations. This connects records without duplicating personal information, maintaining a single source of truth.
Open the Activities section of the record to view, add, or edit activities (sales opportunities, tasks, projects, work orders). Activities are linked to organisations and/or persons to maintain context and track interactions efficiently.
Link activities to each other when relevant (e.g., tasks to sales opportunities or projects). Add associated products to sales opportunities with details such as name, quantity, and price. This shows relationships between activities, making it easier to track progress and outcomes.
Assign tasks directly to organisations, persons, or activities. Direct assignment ensures responsibilities are clear and follow-ups are tracked properly.
Activity Types and Linking Example
Activities can be linked not only to relations, but also to each other. For example, a task can be connected to a specific sales opportunity or project. This same linking approach applies to other entities, such as products, which can be associated with a sales opportunity to clearly show which products a prospect is interested in.
Sales Opportunities can be linked to organisations or contact persons. Linking to a person will automatically link to the organisation they represent.
Products can be associated with each sales opportunity to keep track of what is being offered or sold.
Tasks can be related to activities, organisations, or persons. For example, when you need to call back a client, create a task and assign it directly to the relevant colleague.
Quick Summary
Having a clear understanding of Tribe relationship and activity structure allows you to manage your data more effectively. You can now confidently link contacts, assign roles, and connect activities in a logical way across your CRM. This structure supports a streamlined workflow and ensures your information is registered in the right place for future use.