SharePoint lists are great for storing data, but by default they are flat: each record stands alone. Business processes, however, rarely work that way. An invoice has multiple line items, a project has tasks, a help desk ticket has comments.
The Associated Items feature in UltimateForms bridges this gap. It lets you embed related child items directly into a parent form. Think of it as adding a “mini list” inside your form that automatically links to the parent.
With Associated Items, you can:
- Add and edit related records without leaving the parent form.
- Show totals, averages, or counts of those child records right in the parent.
- Automate creation of related tasks or documents.
- Work in a relational way inside SharePoint — without coding.
How It Works
When you add an Associated Items column to a parent list (e.g., Projects), it creates a link to another list (e.g., Tasks). Inside the Project form, you’ll now see a section listing all related Tasks.
- Each new child item is automatically linked to its parent.
- You can add/edit/delete child items directly inside the parent form.
It feels like having a relational database table inside your form — but fully integrated into SharePoint.
Key Scenarios
Associated Items can be used in many ways:
- Invoices and Line Items → Parent: Invoice; Children: individual line items with quantities, prices, totals.
- Projects and Tasks → Parent: Project; Children: tasks, milestones, deliverables.
- Tickets and Comments → Parent: Help Desk ticket; Children: comments or updates added by different users.
- Contracts and Amendments → Parent: Master contract; Children: amendments or related documents.
Options and Variants
With Associated Items, you can work with related data in several ways:
- Ready-to-use item types
UltimateForms comes with special item types for common scenarios: - Associated Item → general related records (like contacts or comments)
- Associated Task → tasks connected to a parent item
- Associated Document → documents linked to a parent record
- Use your existing lists
Already have a SharePoint list for contracts, vendors, or tickets? You can connect it to your parent list and show those items directly inside the form. - Summary columns
Automatically calculate totals and statistics from related items. For example: - Show the total amount of all invoice lines
- Count how many tasks are linked to a project
- Calculate the average score from related reviews
- Web part for forms
Allows you to manage the related item on the Edit/Display form outside the column. - Workflow support
Build automation based on associated items. For example: - Automatically create subtasks for each team member when a new project is added
The Associated Items feature turns SharePoint into a relational platform. Instead of working with flat, disconnected lists, you can model real-world processes: projects with tasks, invoices with line items, tickets with comments.
This introduction explained what Associated Items are and why they are useful. In follow-up tutorials, we’ll show you how — step-by-step scenarios for setting up Associated Items in real business cases.
