Actionable Relationship Center
Actionable Relationship Center (ARC) is a Salesforce Industries feature that renders the network of records around a focal point, typically an Account, Contact, or Household, as an interactive visual graph and lets users act on those records without leaving the visualization.
Definition
Actionable Relationship Center (ARC) is a Salesforce Industries feature that renders the network of records around a focal point, typically an Account, Contact, or Household, as an interactive visual graph and lets users act on those records without leaving the visualization. ARC is configured per object via ARC Relationship Graph metadata, where admins choose which related objects to display, which fields to show inside each card, and which Quick Actions to expose. The result is a single canvas where a banker can see the household, the family members, the joint accounts, and the recent service cases on one screen, and create a referral or open a new product without clicking through three layouts.
ARC shipped first in Financial Services Cloud, where modelling household relationships is the bread-and-butter of the cloud, and expanded into Health Cloud, Consumer Goods Cloud, and the broader Industries family. It replaces the older Relationship Tab and Relationship Map components. Underneath, ARC reads the ARC Graph metadata to traverse junction objects, Account Contact Relationships, and lookup fields in any direction, including reverse lookups. The visualization stays interactive and the actions stay one click away; both pieces are why the feature carries the word Actionable in its name.
How ARC actually renders a relationship graph
The ARC Relationship Graph metadata
ARC is driven by the ActionableRelationshipType metadata. Admins define one or more graphs per central object, naming the source object, the related objects, the relationship fields that link them, and how deep the traversal should go. The metadata is editable in the ARC Configurator UI in Setup, and the configuration ships as metadata so it can move between sandboxes with change sets or Salesforce DX.
Node types, cards, and Quick Actions
Each related object is represented on the canvas as a node card. The card layout is configured separately; admins pick which fields appear, the card icon, and which Lightning Quick Actions show on hover. A banker viewing a Household node can hover over a Contact card and click New Opportunity, Log a Call, or Send an Email without leaving the graph.
Traversal of direct, indirect, and reverse relationships
ARC supports several traversal types. Direct lookups (Contact.AccountId), indirect relationships (Account Contact Relationship), reverse traversal (Accounts that look up to this Account through ParentId), and junction object traversal (any custom junction with two lookups). Each path is configured as an Action Relationship Edge in the graph metadata. The same graph can mix all four kinds in a single canvas.
Quick Actions on the canvas
The actions exposed on each card are standard Lightning Quick Actions, picked per object. ARC does not invent its own action surface; it just renders the same Quick Actions the rest of Salesforce uses, in a more discoverable place. This means admins do not need to maintain two parallel action menus, and any new Quick Action surfaces in ARC the moment it is added to the object.
ARC versus the old Relationship Tab
The original FSC Relationship Tab was a tree view, useful for households but limited beyond them. The Relationship Map was a static SVG that did not allow editing. ARC replaces both. The same data renders as a draggable, zoomable graph, and the same record opens in a side panel with full record details on click. Most FSC orgs that upgraded past Winter 22 have moved their layouts to ARC and retired the old components.
Enabling ARC and adding it to page layouts
ARC requires the relevant Industries permission set licence and permission set. Once those are assigned, the ARC component appears in App Builder. Drop it into a page layout and bind it to the ARC Relationship Graph you want to render. The component supports parameters for default zoom, default expand depth, and which actions to show.
Performance and the practical limits of the graph
ARC renders client-side, but the data fetch is a server-side traversal that can balloon if the graph is too wide or too deep. Salesforce caps depth and node count per graph, but reaching either limit produces a slow page and an unhelpful UX. The safer pattern is one focused graph per surface (household, sponsor network, care team) rather than a single mega-graph that tries to render everything related to the record.
Common modelling patterns
FSC orgs typically build one ARC graph per main use case: Household for retail banking, Sponsor Hierarchy for institutional wealth, Care Team for Health Cloud. Each graph stays narrow and purposeful. The Household graph shows Members, Joint Owners, Beneficiaries, and Financial Accounts. The Care Team graph shows Patient, Practitioners, Caregivers, and recent Episodes. Splitting graphs by purpose is the difference between a useful ARC and a slow, cluttered one.
How to set up ARC on a record page
ARC requires both a configured Relationship Graph metadata record and a page-layout placement. The configuration takes about an hour for a first graph; subsequent graphs reuse most of the work.
- Assign the Industries permission set
Setup, Permission Sets. Find the relevant Industries permission set (Financial Services Cloud Standard, Health Cloud, etc.) and assign it to users who should configure or view ARC.
- Open the ARC Configurator
Setup, search for ARC Configurator, then create a new Relationship Graph. Name it after the use case (e.g. Household Graph, Care Team Graph).
- Define nodes and edges
Add the central object as the root node. Add related objects as nodes and define each edge: lookup, indirect (ACR), reverse, or junction. Keep depth shallow on the first pass; you can extend later.
- Configure card content and actions
For each node, pick which fields to display on the card and which Lightning Quick Actions to expose on hover. The Quick Actions must already exist on the object.
- Drop the ARC component on the Lightning record page
App Builder, edit the Lightning record page for the central object, add the Actionable Relationship Center component, and bind it to the Relationship Graph created above. Save and activate the page.
- ARC requires the Industries permission set licence. Users without it will not see the component, even in App Builder.
- Wide or deep graphs can blow the page-load budget. Keep depth shallow; build one graph per use case rather than one mega-graph.
- Quick Actions shown in ARC are the standard Lightning Quick Actions on the object. Removing a Quick Action elsewhere also removes it from ARC.
- Indirect relationships through Account Contact Relationship only show up if the multi-Account contacts feature is enabled. ARC does not work around that setting.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Actionable Relationship CenterSalesforce Help
- ARC ConfiguratorSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Actionable Relationship Center.
- Set Up Actionable Relationship CenterSalesforce Help
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Actionable Relationship Center.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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