---
title: "Linking Cards to Projects, Clients, Users, Equipment, or Materials"
url: "https://help.ontraccr.com/en/article/linking-cards-to-projects-clients-users-equipment-or-materials"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2025-05-27T11:29:17.624Z"
---

# Linking Cards to Projects, Clients, Users, Equipment, or Materials

## **🔗 Linking Cards to Projects, Clients, Users, Equipment, or Materials**  
 

### **Overview**

Ontraccr allows you to link board cards to various entities — like **projects, clients, equipment, users, or materials**. Linking helps provide context, automate workflows, and enable powerful filtering and reporting.

* * *

## 🎯 **Why Link Cards?**

Linking allows you to:

-   Associate a **purchase request** with the project it's for
-   Track an **inspection card** against a specific piece of equipment
-   Tie a **recruiting card** to the project or division the hire is for
-   Use **filters** to view all cards related to a client, user, or material
-   Enable **automations** (e.g., auto-assign cards based on linked entity)

* * *

## 🧩 **How to Link Items to a Card (Manually)**

1.  Open a board and **create or edit** a card.
2.  Locate the **“Link” dropdown** field.
3.  Choose what you want to link:
    -   **User**
    -   **Project**
    -   **Client**
    -   **Equipment**
    -   **Material**
4.  Select the appropriate item from the search-enabled list.
5.  Save and submit the card.

✅ The linked item will now appear on the card and can be used in filters, views, and automations.

* * *

## 🤖 **Linking via Automations (Automatically)**

In some workflows (like form submissions or system-generated cards), links can be **added automatically**.

Examples:

-   A workflow that creates a card **when a new project is created** can auto-link the card to that project.
-   A service form submitted by a field tech can create a card and link it to the **equipment** or **client** selected on the form.

> These automations are configured in the Workflows > Field Mapping section when setting up triggers.

* * *

## ✅ **Example Use Cases**

| Use Case | Link Type | Why It’s Useful |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PO request for a specific job | **Project** | Tracks spend by project |
| Equipment inspection | **Equipment** | Links card to the asset being inspected |
| Recruiting pipeline | **Project or Client** | Associates new hires with the relevant job |
| Customer request form | **Client** | Keeps all communication tied to the customer |
| Material tracking board | **Material** | Logs usage and orders by type |

* * *

## 🧠 **Tips & Edge Cases**

-   You can link **multiple types** of entities to the same card (e.g., a project and a user)
-   **Filters** become more powerful when link fields are consistently used
-   Linking is often required for **automation logic**, such as when assigning tasks or triggering downstream actions
-   If your cards aren’t linking automatically, double-check the **workflow mapping settings**