Associate Custom Objects with Other Objects

Custom Objects let you store information specific to your business. You can associate a Custom Object with a supported Ordway object or with another Custom Object. 

When an association is enabled, the associated Custom Object is displayed as a tab on the referenced object's details page.  The tab shows the Custom Object information associated with the referenced object. 

Contents

• How Custom Object Associations Work
• Associate a Custom Object with an Ordway Object
• View an Associated Custom Object
• Associate Custom Objects with Other Custom Objects
• Supported Objects
• Limitations

How Custom Object Associations Work

A Custom Object can reference another object through a Reference field.

There are two supported association patterns:

• Custom Object → Ordway object
• Custom Object → Custom Object

When you enable Show in Associated Tabs for the Reference field, the Custom Object is displayed as an associated tab on the referenced object's details page.

Associate a Custom Object with an Ordway Object 

You can configure a Custom Object to reference a supported Ordway object, such as Customer, Subscription, Product, Invoice, or Payment. 

For example, you can create a Customer Preference Custom Object and add a Reference field that references the Customers object. 

Create a Custom Object and Reference an Ordway Object 

1. Create the Custom Object and enter its basic information, such as Display Name, API Name, and Menu Group. Refer to Create a Custom Object 
   
2. Click ADD to add a field to the Custom Object. The Add Field dialog box is displayed.
   
3. In Field Type, select Reference.
4. In Reference Object, select the Ordway object you want the Custom Object to reference, such as Customers.
5. Turn on Show in Associated Tabs to display the Custom Object as a tab on the referenced object's details page. 
6. Select Save.  The Custom Object field is created successfully.

Configuration Example

For this example, configure the Custom Object as follows:

This configuration associates the Customer Preference Custom Object with the Customers object. 

View the Associated Custom Object

After the association is configured, the Customer Preference Custom Object is available as an associated tab on the details page for the referenced object.

The associated tab displays the Custom Object information related to that object.

After you configure the association, the Customer Preference Custom Object is displayed as an associated tab on the referenced Customer object's details page. 

Because Show in Associated Tabs is enabled, the associated Customer Preference record is displayed in the associated tabs on that Customer's details page.

Associate Custom Objects with Other Custom Objects 

A Custom Object can reference another Custom Object through a Reference field.This creates an association between the two Custom Objects. 

When Show in Associated Tabs is enabled, the referencing Custom Object is displayed as an associated tab on the referenced Custom Object's details page. 

For example, you can associate the Customer Preference Custom Object with the Customer Profile Custom Object. 

Create a Custom Object and Reference Another Custom Object

1. Create the Custom Objects that you want to associate and enter their basic information, such as Display Name, API Name, and Menu Group. Refer to Create a Custom Object – Ordway Support Portal.
   
2. Open the Custom Object that you want to use as the referencing object. For this example, open Customer Preference.
   
3. Click ADD to add a field to the Custom Object. The Add Field dialog box is displayed.
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4. In Field Type, select Reference.
5. In Reference Object, select the Custom Object you want to reference, such as Customer Profile (Custom Object).
6. Turn on Show in Associated Tabs to display the referencing Custom Object as an associated tab on the referenced Custom Object's details page.
7. Select Save.The Custom Object field is created successfully.
   

Configuration Example

For this example, configure the Custom Object as follows:

This configuration associates the Customer Preference Custom Object with the Customer Profile Custom Object. 

Because Show in Associated Tabs is enabled, the Customer Preference Custom Object is displayed as an associated tab on the Customer Profile object's details page. 

Supported Objects

Custom Object associations are supported with the following objects that have supported details pages:

• Invoices
• Payments
• Plans
• Usage
• Products
• Orders
• Quotes
• Credits
• Billing Schedules
• Journal Entries
• Debit Memos
• Financial Periods
• Price Books
• Revenue Rules
• Chart of Accounts
• Refunds
• Revenue Schedules

Contacts and Account Types are excluded because they do not have their own details pages.

Limitations

• Associated Custom Objects are displayed only on supported object details pages. 
• Contacts and Account Types do not display associated Custom Object tabs because they do not have their own details pages.
• API support for this association update is not currently available.