How can I add multiple related records to a custom object?

[Lawrance]

We are a non-profit who manage funds coming in from Corporate clients and going out to NGOs.  We are just starting out with Salesforce so please excuse any daft questions.

I have set up two Account Record Types, NGO Accounts and Corporate Accounts

I have set up a Custom Object called Corporate Programs linked to the Object Accounts

I create new Corporate Program records linked to a Corporate Account through a Related List.  I've done this, no problem.

Now I want to be able to add a list of NGO Accounts against the Corporate Program.

A single Corporate Program will thus be linked to multiple NGO Accounts

An NGO Account could be linked to multiple Corporate Programs, effectively a many to many relationship

An example could be Acme Co Ltd has a Corporate Program called Matched Fundraising

Acme Co Ltd would like the three NGOs; Cats Home, Dogs Home and Pets Home to be linked to the Matched Fundraising Program.

I would like to see the list of three NGOs against the Corporate Program - Matched Fundraising when looking at the Acme Pty Ltd record

When looking at any of the three NGO records I would like to see that they are linked to the Acme Pty Ltd Matched Fundraising Corporate Program

I can not find a way to establish a one to many or many to many relationship using the standard interface and would not like to start coding.

Does anyone know if what I want to do is possible and if so how I'd go about it?

[Garry_Polmateer]

You could create a custom object call it "Account Links", and then have fields on there for the corporate account and NGO account to link the two together (and create any other fields that you need to track regarding the relationship such as start date/end date).  Create two lookup fields to account, call one NGO account, call one Corporate account, probably need some validation rules etc.   Then add both related lists to hte account page layout.  Go to NGO page layout and remove the unneeded related list, go to corporate page layout and remove unneeded related list and it should accomplish what you're looking for.

Garry

[Lawrance]

Hi Gary

Thanks for taking the time to respond

I've used this technique for other purposes but I don't think it will give me what I need. 

I would want a custom object 'Program' that would link to a corporate Organisation record through a related list.  A Program record belonging to a corporate Organisation record would need to link to a list of NGOs, (20, 30 or more) that are participating in the one Program.  So effectively I would be looking for something similar to a multi pick list of NGOs.  Given that the population of NGOs is quite large (around 2,000) there need to be a way of filtering or searching for the sub-set of NGOs to link to the program

Hope this makes sense

Lawrance

[Garry_Polmateer]

The only way I can think of is to have that many to many object relationship, it sounds like you're looking for filtered lookups, which is a feature that is sort of out in the spring '10 release but not in the capacity that you're looking for.  Supposedly, Salesforce is supposed to beef up the ability of the filtered lookup in future releases, allowing more criteria and other field criteria to affect the resultset.

Garry