Contacts vs. Related Parties: Structuring Your CRM the Right Way
One of the most common questions we hear from advisors isn’t about a specific feature—it’s about how to structure data correctly.
And at the center of that conversation is a deceptively simple question:
What’s the difference between a contact and a related party?
The answer isn’t just technical—it’s foundational. Getting this right impacts everything from reporting and workflows to how efficiently you can run your business.
Start with the Core Idea
In Quivr (and Salesforce), a contact represents an individual person.
But the real question is:
Where should that person live within your CRM?
A helpful rule of thumb:
If someone will only ever be associated with one household, they can live as a contact within that household
If they may be connected to multiple households, they should be set up as a related party
This distinction is what allows your CRM to scale with your business.
Why Related Parties Matter
Related parties create a many-to-many relationship, meaning one person (like a CPA or attorney) can be linked to multiple client households.
This unlocks powerful capabilities, such as:
📊 Segmenting your clients by shared relationships (e.g., same CPA firm)
📧 Sending targeted communications to centers of influence
⚙️ Automating workflows based on those relationships
Without this structure, you’ll quickly run into limitations—especially as your network grows.
A Real-World Example: Tax Season
Consider how this plays out during tax season.
Instead of manually tracking who works with which CPA, you can:
Group clients by their CPA
Send one email to each CPA with a list of shared clients
Automatically request tax returns in minutes
What could take hours of manual coordination becomes a repeatable, streamlined process—all because of how your data is structured.
Best Practices for Setup
When building out your CRM, a little extra effort upfront goes a long way.
1. Create Separate Households for COIs
Even if a CPA or attorney is a solo practitioner, it’s best practice to create a household for their firm.
This ensures:
Flexibility if their business grows
Consistency across your data
Cleaner reporting and segmentation
2. Think Ahead with Relationships
Ask yourself:
“Will this person ever be connected to multiple clients?”
If the answer is yes (or even maybe), use a related party structure from the start.
3. Be Intentional with Adult Children
This is another common edge case:
If an adult child could become a client or prospect → create a separate household
If not → they can remain within the family household
Build for Efficiency, Not Just Today
Many CRM challenges don’t show up immediately—they appear over time as your data grows.
Taking an extra 30 seconds to structure relationships correctly today can save hours of cleanup and manual work later.
At its core, Quivr is designed to help you operate more efficiently. Features like related parties aren’t just technical—they’re intentional tools built to reflect how advisory firms actually work.
Want Help Setting This Up?
Want to see how Quivr can help streamline your workflows—
👉 Schedule a demo and we’ll walk through it with you.
