Family and Circles
See how the people in your CRM are related - a family tree across the generations, and each person's circles of family, friends, mentors and groups.
Family and Circles show the people in your CRM as they relate to each other. Family draws a tree around one person: their parents and grandparents, their partners, brothers and sisters, and their children and grandchildren. Circles shows the same person with everyone around them: their family, their friends and mentors, and the groups they belong to.
They suit a personal CRM, and any work where families matter, such as estate planning or a client whose partner and children are part of the picture. Each Space decides whether it uses them, so nothing changes until you turn them on.
Pro feature
Family and Circles are part of PrimeCRM, which requires Pro. Upgrade from License.
What you can do
Build a family tree
add parents, partners, children, brothers and sisters by name, and work back one generation at a time
Record each parent's kind
birth, adoptive, step, foster or guardian - and where each partnership stands
Keep life details
a birthday, a surname at birth, and a year or date of death, shown as the years someone lived
Save a tree
as an image or a PDF, ready to attach to a file or print
See someone's circles
their family, each kind of connection they have, and every group they belong to
Add kinds of connection of your own
such as Neighbour, or Coach and Player
Select several people
to delete them or remove their links at once, and take back any change with Undo
Decide what your AI agent may see
family details stay private until you allow it
How to open Family and Circles
Turn them on for a Space
Open Settings from the sidebar, then expand PrimeCRM Settings.
In the Contacts tab, open Relationships between people.
Switch on Family, Circles, or both.
Or pick a template under How do you use your CRM? in the same card: Personal turns on both, and Legal practice turns on Family. See PrimeCRM Settings.
From a person's page
Once Family or Circles is on, a person's page has a Family section. It lists their parents, partners, children, brothers and sisters, and their connections, and each name opens that person's page. Click Family tree or Circles to open the org chart window with them in the middle. See Contact Details.
From the org chart window
In the org chart window, opened from a company's page or a person's page, switch to Family or Circles. The person you selected, or the person whose page you came from, goes in the middle. With nobody there yet, find someone with the chart's search box and pick them. See Company Details for the rest of the window.
Build a family tree
The tree shows the person in the middle with two generations each way: their parents and grandparents above them, their partners, brothers and sisters beside them, and their children and grandchildren below.
Add someone
- Click an empty Add Parent place above the person in the middle to add a parent. There is one for each parent they don't have yet.
- Click someone in the tree, then use Add to [name]'s family: choose Parent, Partner, Child or Sibling, and type a name. People already in your CRM are listed, so pick one, or create a new person with the name you typed.
- Right-click anyone and choose Add Parent, Add Partner, Add Child or Add Sibling.
A few things are taken care of as you add:
- A child gets both parents. With names the other parent: the person's current partner, unless you choose another, or No one for a single parent.
- A brother or sister gets the same parents. For a half brother or sister, choose the parent they share under Through. Someone with no parents yet needs a parent first.
- A third parent for someone with two birth parents asks what kind they are first, under As.
- Someone already in the family is listed with what they already are, so typing their name again never makes a second person.
Building a tree backwards
Start with one person, add their parents in the empty places, then double-click a parent to put them in the middle and add theirs. A few clicks take you back several generations.
Move around the tree
- Double-click anyone to put them in the middle. Their parents appear above them, so you can keep going one generation at a time.
- Back and Forward retrace your steps.
- Click someone to see their family: their parents and each one's kind, their partners and where each partnership stands, their children, and their brothers and sisters, a half brother or sister marked Half. Click a name to see that person, remove a link from there, or click Open page to open their page.
A child's other parent is in the tree too, even when the two were never recorded as partners.
Kinds of parent and partnership
Each parent has a kind: Birth, Adoptive, Step, Foster, Guardian or Not known. Each partnership has a status: Together, Separated, Divorced, Widowed or Annulled. Click someone to change either one.
Up to four parents
A person can have two birth parents and two parents of any other kind, four in all. Nobody can be their own ancestor, and two people have one family link between them.
Birthdays and the years someone lived
Click someone and, under Life, pick the day and month of their birthday and type the year. It's the same birthday their page and the contact form use, and the tree shows the year under their name.
Open More about [name] for:
- Year or date of death - a year, a year and month, or a full date
- Date not known - for a death whose date nobody knows
- Surname at birth
The contact form has the same fields while Family is on.
Once a year of death is recorded, the tree shows the years the person lived, such as 1946–2019. Their page shows the same years, with their age when both full dates are known, and no longer counts down to their birthday or offers a yearly reminder. A reminder set before stays as a task until you delete it. Emptying the field takes all of this back.
Only you record it
PrimeTask never records a death for you and never asks for one. It changes only when you, or your AI agent with your permission, record it.
Save the tree
In the Family view, click Save the chart and choose Save as an image or Save as a PDF. The whole tree is saved under the person's name, ready to attach to a file or print. A PDF keeps a client's family as it stands, for a matter or an estate file.
See someone's circles
Circles puts a person in the middle with their circles around them:
- Family - their parents, partners, children, brothers and sisters
- One circle for each kind of connection - such as Friend, Mentor, or a kind of your own
- One circle for each group they belong to - the companies they are linked to, with the other people in them, in your Space's own word for companies
Click a circle
Click a circle to see who is in it, and click a person to see them. From a group, Go to shows that group's own org chart and Open opens its page. From Family, Show the family tree switches to Family. From a kind of connection, you can remove someone from it.
Double-click a group to go to its org chart, or Family to see the family tree. Esc, Back or a click on empty space takes you back to the person.
Add a connection
Click someone, then under Add a connection to [name] type a name and pick the kind, such as Friend, Mentor, Mentee, Introduced by or Introduced. Or right-click them and choose Add a connection. The connection shows on both people's pages, each the right way round: if Grace is Sarah's mentor, Sarah is Grace's mentee.
Kinds of connection of your own
Click Edit types to add, rename or remove kinds of connection without leaving the chart. A kind can work side by side, such as Neighbour, or have two roles, such as Coach and Player. Removing a kind turns its links into Other. The same list is in PrimeCRM Settings, where the Legal practice template adds Executor and Testator and Trustee and Beneficiary, ready to use.
Select, delete and remove links
- Select several: hold Shift and drag across empty space, Cmd+click (Ctrl+click on Windows) to add or take out one person, or press Cmd+A (Ctrl+A) for everyone shown. Esc clears the selection.
- Remove all their links: with several selected, choose Remove all their family links…, or Remove all their connections… in Circles. For one person, right-click them for the same. Family links and connections are kept apart, so removing one kind keeps the other. It asks first, nobody is deleted, and Undo in the message puts the links back.
- Delete: right-click someone and choose Delete [name]…, or select several and choose Delete…, or press Delete or Backspace. It asks first, as the person's page does. Their family links and connections go with them, and anyone who reported to them no longer reports to anyone. A delete can't be undone.
A child always keeps a parent
PrimeTask won't delete someone's only parent on their own. It names the child who would be left without one: delete the child first, or select them both and delete them together. This applies wherever you delete people, including the Contacts list.
Every other change in the chart can be taken back with Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows) and made again with Cmd+Shift+Z (Ctrl+Y on Windows).
Things worth knowing
Each Space has its own switches
Family and Circles are off in every Space until you turn them on, and a Space can use one without the other. Turning a switch off only takes Family or Circles off your screens: no link, date or name is removed, and turning it on again brings everything back. In a shared Space, the owner and admins turn them on and name the links.
Family details go wherever their people go
Family links, dates and surnames at birth belong to the people they describe, so they travel with them: to everyone in a shared Space, and to another Space with the contacts you copy or send there. PrimeTask tells you before that happens:
- Turning on Collaboration for a Space says how many people in it have family details. See File Sync Collaboration.
- Turning on Family or Circles in a shared Space asks first.
- Copy to Space and SpacesCare say how many of the people going have family details. See Copy to Space and Space Sharing Between Spaces.
Shared means shared
In a shared Space, everyone who can open it sees the family links and dates you record there. Turning Family off later doesn't take back what others already have.
Your AI agent needs your permission
Family details are private, even from your AI agent. Open Settings, then the External Integrations card, and under Family and Circles in the MCP Server section turn on:
- Read family and circles to let it look up people's families and circles
- Change family and circles to let it link people and record dates. It asks first, and it also needs Read and Write on.
Both are off until you turn them on, and your AI agent's other tools never show family details. See External Integrations and CRM & MCP.
In a project with its own CRM
Inside a project with its own CRM, Family and Circles show that project's people, and the links you make are saved in that project. See Shared vs Isolated CRM.
The words are yours
Rename Parent, Child and Partner for each Space under Relationships between people, and the tree, the person's page and your AI agent use your words. Nothing in Family or Circles records anyone's sex or gender, so every family can be recorded the way it is.
Common questions
"Can someone have more than two parents?"
Yes. A person can have two birth parents and up to two others, such as an adoptive parent, a step-parent or a guardian: four in all.
"How do I add a half brother or sister?"
Click the person, choose Sibling, and under Through pick the parent they share. With Both parents, they get both.
"Why can't I delete this person?"
They are the only parent of someone in your CRM, and PrimeTask never leaves a child without one. Delete the child first, or select them both and delete them together. If the child is in a project's own CRM, delete them there first.
"What changes when I record a year of death?"
The tree shows the years the person lived, and their page shows those years in place of their age and stops counting down to their birthday. Nothing else changes, and emptying the field takes it back.
"Can my AI agent see family details?"
Only after you turn on Read family and circles under Family and Circles in the External Integrations card. To let it make changes, turn on Change family and circles as well.
"Does turning Family off delete anything?"
No. It only takes Family off your screens in that Space. Every link and date stays, and turning it on again brings them back.
Where to go next
| If you want to… | Read this |
|---|---|
| Turn Family and Circles on, or name the links | PrimeCRM Settings |
| See someone's family on their page | Contact Details |
| See an organisation's companies and people | Company Details |
| Let your AI agent read or change family details | External Integrations |
| Share a Space with your team | File Sync Collaboration |