Timeline entries - e.g. activities, transactions and so on - can be linked to other constituents you have in Donorfy - this is when you should use each type of link

• Soft Credits - a transaction can have one or more soft credits - use this when you want another constituent to have recognition for the gift - e.g. if Mrs Jones gave you £1,000 but Mr Jones should also be recognised for the gift
• Beneficiaries - an allocation belonging to a transaction or recurring payment instruction can have a beneficiary assigned - to is used to indicate which constituent benefits from the transaction - e.g. if the payment is for a gift membership the beneficiary would be the person who received the gift - the transaction would be on the timeline of the person who paid for the gift
• Connections - connections can be made from activities, transactions and recurring payment instructions - use connections when the timeline entry has some connection to another constituent - e.g. suppose you add an activity to Jane Smith's timeline recording a phone conversion about her company Smith Enterprises sponsoring an event - you would create a connection to Smith Enterprises. 

When

• A timeline entry is linked to another constituent in one of the ways listed above you will see an entry on the 'linked to' constituent's timeline.
• A gift is soft credited or connected to another constituent the value of gift is shown in the giving stats shown at the top of the constituents profile - e.g. as a soft credited or connected amount
• You record details of communications with a constituent who is a contact at an organisation you should add the communication as an activity to the timeline of the person you are communicating with and link the activity to the organisation they work for - this means if anyone looks at the organisation record it is clear what other communications are taking place 
• You received a gift from an organisation (e.g. a trust) we recommend that the gift is added to the trusts records and the gift is connected to constituent who is your contact at the trust.