Source: https://manu-tests-all-orgs.docs-staging.pageloop.ai/product/assets-objects/custom-objects/patterns/clients-and-teams

# Clients & Client Teams

If your organization manages external accounts — whether that's customers, portfolio companies, agency clients, or strategic partners — custom objects give you a proper place to keep that data inside Atomicwork rather than in a shared spreadsheet that drifts out of date the moment someone changes teams.

This pattern is common in professional services, managed IT, consulting, and customer success.

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## What You're Modeling

A **Client** is a standalone record representing an external organization. It exists independently — it's not tied to a single internal employee and it's not a ticket. It has its own identity, status, and attributes.

**Client Team** isn't a separate object — it's represented by relationship fields on the Client record. You link multiple internal employees to the client directly: one as the account owner, others as team members. Because these are relationship fields pointing to your actual user directory, the data stays current automatically as people change roles or leave the organization.

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## Setting Up the Client Object Type

Go to **Settings → Custom Objects → New Object Type**.

- **Name**: Client (plural: Clients)
- **Display ID prefix**: `CLT` (produces `CLT-1`, `CLT-2`, etc.)
- **Scope**: Global (clients are organization-wide, not workspace-specific)

### Suggested fields

Start with a **Details** section and a **Team** section.

**Details section**

| Field                 | Type       | Notes                                                                  |
| --------------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Client Name           | Short text | Primary identifier — make this required                                |
| Industry              | Dropdown   | e.g. Financial Services, Healthcare, Technology, Retail, Manufacturing |
| Account Tier          | Dropdown   | e.g. Strategic, Growth, Standard, At Risk                              |
| Status                | Dropdown   | Active, Onboarding, Churned, Paused                                    |
| Website               | URL        |                                                                        |
| Primary Contact Name  | Short text | Main stakeholder at the client                                         |
| Primary Contact Email | Email      |                                                                        |
| Contract Value        | Decimal    | Annual or total value if relevant                                      |
| Renewal Date          | Date       | When the relationship is up for review                                 |
| Notes                 | Long text  | Internal context, history, or caveats                                  |

**Team section**

| Field          | Type                   | Notes                                      |
| -------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Account Owner  | Relationship to person | Required — one person per client           |
| Client Team    | Relationship to person | Allow multiple — all assigned team members |
| Technical Lead | Relationship to person | Optional — single person                   |

These are live links to real user records. When the account owner changes, you update the field and the change flows through anywhere this client is referenced in workflows or automations.

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## Creating and Managing Records

Once the type is published, your team creates client records from the Clients directory (**Directory → Clients → New Client**).

Every record gets an auto-incremented ID (`CLT-1`, `CLT-2`, etc.) that you can reference in requests, automations, and agent conversations.

Fields can be updated directly on the record. The activities log on each client record tracks every field change — who changed what, and when.

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## Useful Views

Build saved views for the client directory:

**My Clients** — filter by `Account Owner is current user`. Account managers see only their own portfolio without having to filter manually every time.

**Strategic Accounts** — filter by `Account Tier is Strategic`. Leadership gets a fast view of the accounts that matter most.

**Renewals This Quarter** — filter by `Renewal Date is within 90 days` and `Status is Active`. Your whole team can see what's coming up without anyone having to maintain a renewal tracker.

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## Automations

**Renewal reminder** — trigger: `Renewal Date is 30 days away` and `Status is Active`. Action: notify `Account Owner` with the client name and renewal date. No one misses a renewal because it lived in someone's personal calendar.

**New client notification** — trigger: `Record created`. Action: post to a Slack channel or send an email to the team lead. Keeps the broader team aware of new accounts without requiring a manual announcement.

**At-risk alert** — trigger: `Status changes to At Risk`. Action: notify `Technical Lead` and `Account Owner`. Flags the account for immediate attention the moment someone marks it.

---

## Connecting Clients to Contracts

If you also track contracts (see [Contract Management](/docs/custom-objects/contracts)), link them to clients using a relationship field on the Contract object type pointing to Client. When someone opens a client record, they can see all associated contracts through the reverse relationship.

This gives you a complete account view: client details, team assignment, contract history, and related service requests — all from one place.