Working with Record Links
Links are created as people work — from a record, from a conversion, or in bulk during a migration.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Record Links — browse, filter and audit every link
- Merges — where duplicate records are combined
- Trash — deleted records, whose links remain
Creating them
Most links are created in context: somebody looking at a record connects it to another. Some are created automatically — a document conversion writes one without being asked.
Bulk creation during a migration is legitimate, but pick the link type carefully: a migration that writes ten thousand links of type relates-to has recorded that things are connected without recording how, and nobody will go back and refine it.
Finding what is linked
Because links are stored centrally, they can be queried in either direction — what does this record point at, and what points at it. The second question is the one people forget to ask, and it is usually the more interesting: not "what did this case reference" but "what has been raised against this asset".
Removing a link
Remove a link when the relationship was recorded in error. Do not remove one because the relationship ended — a quotation that was converted was still converted, even if the order was later cancelled.
The distinction matters because links are provenance. Deleting historical connections to make a current view look tidy destroys the trail that explains how the current state arose.
Deleted records
Deletion is soft, so a link to a deleted record is not broken — it points at something recoverable. Expect to see links to records that no longer appear in normal browsing, and treat that as correct rather than as orphaned data.
Merges
When duplicate records are merged, review the links. Two records merged into one may leave two links to the same target where one is now sufficient, or a duplicate-of link that has served its purpose. This is worth a pass after any significant deduplication exercise.
Audit them occasionally
Links accumulate quietly. A periodic look at the link types actually in use will usually find one created for a single project three years ago, and one that people are using for something other than its original meaning. The first can go; the second needs a conversation before it spreads.
Worked example
A quotation is converted to an order, writing a converted link. The order is later cancelled and a replacement raised, linked supersedes to the cancelled one. Asked why the customer has two order references, the sales manager reads the chain — quote, order, cancellation, replacement — without opening a single email thread.
Recommendations
- Query links in both directions; the inbound view is usually the useful one.
- Remove links only when they were wrong, never because they are historical.
- Review links after a merge.
- Audit the type vocabulary annually.