When you create a relationship for a selected organization or person, you create both directions of the relationship. For example, the selected organization is Vision and you create a relationship with Subsidiary as the role and Vision2 as the object of the relationship. You can then see that Vision's subsidiaries include Vision2, when viewing the relationships of Vision. When you view relationships of Vision2, however, you can also see that Vision2's headquarters is Vision.
You can create multiple relationships between the same two parties, with different relationship roles, even if relationship date ranges overlap. For example, Joe Smith can be both a contact and beneficiary of Jane Smith at the same time.
To use the same relationship role for multiple relationships between the same two parties, however, the relationship date ranges must not overlap. For example, Joe Smith can be a contact for Jane Smith from 1997 through 2002, and then again from 2004 on.
If you use the current date for the start date, then the relationship's start time is the system time. If not, the start time is at the beginning of the start date. The relationship's end time is at the end of the end date. You do not have to enter an end date.
You can use new or existing organizations and persons to create a relationship with. You create the new organization or person as well as a new relationship. If duplicate prevention is enabled, you are warned if your new organization or person is a potential duplicate of existing parties. See: Preventing Duplicate Organizations, Persons, or Contacts.
If you use existing organizations or persons for the relationship, you cannot create the relationship if a relationship between the two parties already exists with a date range that overlaps your new relationship.