Difference between "parent" field in core_company and company_account

[Hanson Do]

Hi There,

What is the difference between the "parent" field in core_company vs. company_account for the same company?  

Thank you!

Anna Tchoudnovska

Product Owner at IT Glue

[ccajohnson]

I do not see a field called company_account. Is this a custom field? If it is, you should ask whoever created it to define what the difference is.

[Hanson Do]

Hi, sorry about that , I wrote an incorrect table name! 

What is the difference between the "parent" field in core_company table vs. customer_account table, for the same company?

Which "parent" field (i.e.: in which table) is best to use? 

Thank you!
Anna 

[ccajohnson]

Parent is used when you are arranging your records in a hierarchy. Every table that has a parent field can arrange their data this way. For your company example, you may have a large corporation called Food and that corporation is represented by a company record called Food. That company record would have children such as Toast, and Steak. Those children would have Food as their parent.

I would look at the Dictionary attributes of the field(s) in question and see what they point to. My guess is that Company [core_company] would point to other Company records. Since I still cannot find any field named company_account, you would have to see what table that field is on, and what the field name is in case it is custom so you can see it too is pointing to the same table as the field is on.

[Hanson Do]

Hi ccajohnson,

Sorry, I meant the "customer_account" table (not "company_account"!). 

From what I understand there is a core_company table and a customer_account table. These tables can both have a record for the same company, let's say Company A.  Each table has a 'parent' field, but these 'parent' fields are not synced / linked in any way. 

So, Company A could appear in both tables & have "XYZ" as its parent field value in the core_company table and "ABC" as its parent field value in the customer_account table. 

Which 'parent' field (in which table) would I look at as the source of truth? Why is there a separate 'parent' field in both tables? 

Thank you!!

Anna