Relationships
Most tax-firm clients don’t live in isolation. A married couple has two filers. A business has owners. A holding company has subsidiaries. A trust has beneficiaries. Assure Pro represents these links as relationships between clients.
A relationship is directional — Client A → Client B with a relationship type — and bidirectional in the UI (the link shows up on both clients).
The 8 relationship types
| Type | Direction | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Person → Business | Marcus → Marcus Consulting LLC |
| Spouse | Individual → Individual | Jordan ↔ Casey (MFS filing separately) |
| Parent company | Business → Business | Holdings Co → Operating Co |
| Subsidiary | Business → Business | Operating Co → Holdings Co (the reverse of above) |
| Partner | Person → Business | Sara → Smith & Associates LLP (Sara owns 50%) |
| Beneficiary | Person → Trust | Alex → The Smith Family Trust |
| Group company | Business → Business | Sister entities under common ownership |
| Other | Either | Custom relationship the standard types don’t cover |
Why relationships matter
Three uses:
- K-1 flow tracking. A 1120S issues K-1s to its shareholders. If shareholders are linked via Owner relationships, Assure Pro flags the dependency — the 1040s of the owners are gated until the 1120S K-1 is ready. The pipeline surfaces the blocker.
- Combined view. Open any client and the Relationships section shows linked clients. Click through to jump between members of a family or business group without re-searching.
- Shared communications. Conversations with one client can be tagged as relevant to its linked clients. Useful for “We talked about the family’s overall tax strategy” — the conversation lives on the husband’s record but is visible from the wife’s too (if she’s a contact with portal access on both).
Creating a relationship
From the client detail page, scroll to the Relationships section and click + Link client.
- Search for the other client by name.
- Pick a relationship type.
- Click Link.
The link appears on both clients immediately. The other client sees the relationship from its end (e.g. if you linked Marcus → Marcus Consulting LLC as “Owner”, the LLC’s page shows Marcus as a linked owner).
Removing a relationship
From either client’s Relationships section, click the three-dot menu on the link and pick Remove link. The link disappears from both sides.
Relationships and engagements
Relationships are between clients, not between engagements. Each client still has its own engagements, deliverables, and pipeline cards.
But the pipeline view surfaces relationships:
- A card for the 1120S engagement on a business client shows a Blocked by badge if any owner-relationship 1040 engagement depends on its K-1.
- Conversely, the dependent 1040 engagement shows a Waiting on badge linking back to the 1120S.
See Engagements & workflow for how this shows up in practice.
Relationships vs contacts vs assignments
A common confusion:
| Concept | What it links | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Contact | A person attached to a single client | The spouse on a joint return who’s a contact, not their own client |
| Relationship | Two separate clients | The spouse on an MFS return who has their own 1040 |
| Assignment | A firm user to a client | A preparer assigned to handle the client |
Rule of thumb: if the person files their own return, they’re a separate client and the link is a Relationship. If they’re on the same return (MFJ spouse, dependent), they’re a Contact on the single client.
Future: the relationship layer
A top-level “relationship” container (above clients — e.g. “The Smith Family” holding multiple individual + business clients) is on the roadmap but not shipped yet. For now, use these pairwise links to represent the same idea.
Next
- Contacts — for people on the same client.
- The client detail page — where the Relationships section appears.
- Engagements & workflow — how relationships surface in pipeline views.