Group people into a household

A household groups people who live or decide together, such as a family or flatmates sharing a lease. You see its members, and their chats, tasks and deals, on one record.

A record is one entry in Mesy, such as one customer or one deal. A record type is a kind of record, such as Contacts or Deals.

You only see households if your workspace has a household record type. The ready-made Spaces leasing template (a starting setup for your workspace) has one called Household. In School admissions it’s called Family. If you don’t use either template, your admin sets one up, as described in Design your data.

Add a person to a household

First, create the household like any other record, from your Households list (or whatever your business calls it). See Add and edit records.

Each person’s record has a link field for their household. A link field is a box on a record that points to another record, such as a contact’s company. In Spaces leasing it’s the Household field on a Tenant. In School admissions it’s the Family field on a Parent. Fill it in like any other link field, as shown in Link records to each other.

In School admissions, a Child also has a Family field, but children don’t appear in the household’s list of members.

To add several people at once, start from the household’s record:

1. Open the household’s record.
2. Click the Household tab.
3. Click Add member.
4. In the first box, pick the kind of person you’re adding. Each choice shows the kind of person, then the field that links them, such as Tenant · Household.
5. In the search box, type the person’s name. The box names the kind of person, for example “Search Tenant…”.
6. Pick the person from the list. (If they’re not in Mesy yet, click Add to create them.)
7. Click Add member under the search box. The person now shows in the household’s list of members.

In the ready-made templates, a person is in one household at a time. Adding them here moves them out of their old one.

See a person’s household

Open a person’s record. On the Details tab, the Household section shows their household and the other people in it. Click any name to open that record.

Mesy also shows the household’s name beside a member’s name, and beside a deal that’s linked to a household. You see it in lists, on the pipeline board (where deals move through their steps), and wherever a person’s name appears as a link.

Follow everything in a household

Open the household’s record, then click the Household tab. Its members are at the top. Below them is one list, sorted by date with the latest first:

• WhatsApp chats linked to any member
• Messenger and Instagram chats linked to any member, if your business has the Social channels add-on (an extra part of Mesy that Mesy turns on for you; see Add-ons)
• tasks linked to any member
• deals linked to the household or to any member, with each deal’s stage (the step it has reached, such as “Viewing”)

Each chat is dated by its last message, each task by its due date, and each deal by when it last changed. Tasks with no due date come last and read “No due date”. Tasks linked only to the household itself don’t show here.

To open a chat in your Inbox, click the arrow on its right (Open in Inbox). Click a deal to open it. Clicking a task takes you to your Tasks page. The list shows 30 items at a time. Click Next and Previous to move through it.

You may not be able to see some members’ records. This happens when your admin keeps that kind of record private and a colleague owns the record. You then see a line such as “2 restricted members”, which gives the number but not their names. Their chats, tasks and deals don’t appear in your list.

If something doesn’t work

• If a person has no Household section on the Details tab, click Save Changes or Cancel to close any edit you have open. If it’s still missing, ask your admin. Either your workspace has no household record type, or that list isn’t set up as a list of people.
• “No visible household assigned. Membership is optional.” means the person isn’t in a household yet, or is in one you can’t see.
• If there’s no Add member button, your people records have no field that links to this household. Ask your admin to add one.
• “No members yet” means nobody has been added to this household.
• “No linked activity yet” means the members have no chats, tasks or deals that you can see.