An additional field type has been added to the available options when creating a new custom field in the "Admin Module › Fields and Forms". The new “Lookup” field allows Pipeliner Admins to create custom relationships between different types of entity/record ⤵

For example, on an Account record, as well as the record Owner which is a default in Pipeliner, you may want to create a "User Lookup" field named “Account Manager” to track which of your colleagues is responsible for ongoing account management for the company.

Or for Opportunities, you might want to add a field named “Main Competitors” so you can look up the account(s) that is/are the main competitor(s) for the deal and track all opportunities where those companies have been your main competition over time.

When creating your Lookup field you can choose to enable a Primary (or main) relationship to be established so you can have a "main" linked record. This offers even more possibilities when using Filtering, Personalization, Document Templates, Automatizer, or Sending Emails based on the values entered in your Lookup field in the app.

A “Lookup” field is multiple entry fields that “looks up” entity records (Account, Contact, Lead & Opportunity, Task, Appointment, Product, User as well as Custom Entities) in order to create a relationship between the current entity and the “lookup” entity.

"Enable Primary record" enables a specific relationship to be established between the original record and one of the records linked using the Lookup field. Only one such relationship can exist which allows for specific targeting of the primary, or main, record when using tools such as Filters or when sending Emails, for example.

When creating a lookup field, a new tab will also be created on the “looked up” entity record to display all instances of the relationship that is created (this does not apply to User Lookup fields).

"Advanced Properties" for Lookup fields include applying for User Role-based Field Permissions and setting a Minimum and Maximum Item Count when the field is added to the Form.

Enter the Admin Module — from the Pipeliner CRM Application, click on the App Switcher in the top left corner and choose “Administration” ⤵

​NOTE: Only Users with Admin Rights will see the Administration menu

Select "Fields & Forms" from the menu and then click on the Accounts tab. Click on the Fields tab and then the “Create New” button to add your new field.

Let’s go through the example where, on an Account record, as well as the record Owner which is the default in Pipeliner, you want to create a custom User Lookup field named “Account Manager” to track which of your colleagues is responsible for ongoing account management for the company. If there could be more than one Account Manager, and you wish to track the user who is the main one, make sure to toggle on "Enable Primary Record" ⤵

NOTE: Remember you can use “Field Permissions” with Lookup fields. See this article for details.

NOTE: once Enable Primary Record has been selected, it is not possible to revert this choice.

As with all fields, place the field on the Form in order for your users to be able to access it. Choose your "Field Form Settings" as you drop the field onto the Form ⤵

You can make the field required, enable it (or not) for users to access on the Pipeliner Mobile application and, as Lookup fields intrinsically allow multiple values, you are also able to specify the Minimum and a Maximum number of selections.

For example, if there is only ever a single Account Manager per Account in your organization and you want to prevent users from inadvertently selecting more than one, you could set the “Maximum Item Count” to "1" ⤵

Finally, "Publish" your changes as always when you make any changes at all in "Fields & Forms" in the Admin Module.

In the Web application, your users will now see your new "Account Manager" field. Click into the field and search for an active user by name or pick from the list that will appear when you click into the field ⤵

Alternatively, hover and click on the "+" symbol to open up a list view of active users ⤵

If you have set a "Maximum Item Count" and your users select too many users, the field will display the following message ⤵

Once they remove one of the selections, the message will disappear and they will then be able to "Save" the record.

As another example, for Opportunities, you might want to add a field named “Main Competitors” so you can look up the Account(s) that is/are the main competitor(s) for the deal and track all opportunities where those companies have been your main competition over time. You'd most likely want to select "Enable Primary Record" for this type of field as it would be extremely useful to be able to define the main competitor for a deal and to be able to access that record when reporting on Opportunites, for example ⤵

In this example, you would use the “Filter” option to refine the Account records available for users to select when using the field to just accounts of type “Competitor” ⤵

NOTE: You can use multiple filter criteria for your field conditions. This article Filters in Detail has more information on how to create filters.

In “Related Entity Name”, type the name you want to use for a new tab which will be created on the linked entity so, in our example, you will be able to see all related Opportunities where the Account is one of your main competitors. We’ll use “Competing For” as the name for our new tab in this example ⤵

NOTE: The "Related Entity Name" tab is not available when choosing an Entity Type of Task, Appointment, Product or User.

As with all fields, place the field on the Form and publish it in order for your users to be able to access it. Only Accounts which meet your filter criteria will be available for selection. You can change and update your filter in the Admin Module if necessary.

In the Web application, your users will be able to use the new Main Competitors field. When they click into the field, the only Accounts for them to choose from will be those where “Type of Account”=“Competitor”. We didn’t set a Maximum (or Minimum) Item Count in this example so there will be no restriction on the number of “competitors” that users can choose ⤵

Because we enabled the Primary Record option, the first account selected will be, by default, the primary record. This can be easily changed by selecting another record and choosing “Set as Primary”. The “Set as Primary” option is also available from the List View in the Custom Tab for the Lookup records (the Main Competitors tab in the example shown) ⤵

The primary record can also change in accordance with these rules

Once the Primary relationship is set, you can access it in Filters, Reports, when sending Emails, when using Personalization markers, in Automatizer processes and Email Sequences and so on ⤵

There could be certain specific, really important, types of Activity that you want your users to be able to access quickly and easily. Now, of course, filtering on Activities and Feeds is simple to do but you could also choose to create a Lookup field.

In this example, I’m going to create an Appointment Lookup Field named “Last QBR”, filtered by the Appointment being a “Quarterly Business Review” rather than any other type of meeting, and then place the new field on the Account form. Account Managers (for example) will then be able to click straight through to the last QBR appointment and read all the notes (and any other information captured in fields you’ve added to the Appointment Form).

Create your Lookup field with Entity Type “Appointment” ⤵

NOTE: You’ll want to check the tickbox to “List only Appointments linked to selected Account” — this means that the options available to select from the Lookup field will only include Appointments related to the record that you have open rather than all.

Enable filtering and choose Activity Type = “Quarterly Business Review” ⤵

NOTE: “Quarterly Business Review” is a custom appointment type that I created earlier in the Appointments tab in Fields & Forms.

The new Lookup field “Last QBR” is then added to the Account form and the changes published.

Users will now see it when they open up an Account record and can click into the field to see a list of "Quarterly Business Reviews" to pick from ⤵

Or can click on the three dots icon to create a new "QBR", add an existing one or “show all” ⤵

Add from the "List View" ⤵

Click on the link to access the "QBR" activity itself ⤵

NOTE: This is a great way to enable your users to access a particular, important type of activity but you will need to make sure that the subject line that your users fill in lends itself to easily finding which "QBR" is linked to which record.

PRO TIP: You’ll see in the example that I’ve added the company name to the subject line of the QBR and therefore it’s really easy to choose the right one. You could also add “Linked Items” to your "List View" grid accessed from the three dots icon. This example illustrates that there is no magic and that you always need to plan for real-life data!!

Lookup fields can be used in List Views, Reports, Filters and Automatizer processes.

Yes, existing Lookup fields can be updated to have “Enable Primary Record” switched on. This change is irreversible. Users need to select the most appropriate option for their dataset to choose which of the existing records will be marked as the current Primary ⤵

From the "Competitor Account" record, use the new “Competing For” tab to see all Opportunities where the selected Account is, or has been, the main

competitor ⤵

Using our example, you'd first add columns from "Main Competitors (Sum)" to your report ⤵

and then click on the small gear icon to change your selection to Main Competitors (Primary) and add the fields that you want to include in your report. This article has details of adding additional entities to reports, the (Primary) option is specific to working with Lookup fields ⤵