Linking Employers to Their Primary Broker Office

BenefitFlow links brokers, their office locations, and contacts in your CRM automatically. Employers are different: they sync as standalone accounts with no built-in tie to the broker that serves them. This guide shows you how to add that link yourself, so every employer points to its primary broker office.

The broker hierarchy (broker → office → contact) is created for you on every sync. You don’t need to build it. See CRM Integration: Association Architecture for how that works. This guide covers the one association BenefitFlow does not create automatically: employer to primary broker office.

Why link employers to broker offices

Once the link is in place, you can:

See every employer tied to a given broker office from that office’s record
Spot whitespace: offices with employers you haven’t worked yet
Report pipeline and closed revenue by broker relationship (see Tracking ROI from BenefitFlow)

How the link works

Every record BenefitFlow syncs carries an ID:

Record	ID field in the mapping table	What it identifies
Employer	Primary Broker Office ID (Employer Only)	The employer’s primary broker’s closest office
Broker office	Broker Office ID	That office’s own unique ID

The two share the same ID space, so the link is a match: find the broker office whose Broker Office ID equals an employer’s Primary Broker Office ID, then associate the two records. You’ll map both IDs into your CRM, then build a short automation that makes the match.

“Primary broker” is the broker that reports the largest share of commissions for an employer on the Form 5500. The office BenefitFlow links to is that broker’s closest office to the employer. See What is the Primary Broker? for the full definition.

Before you start

Your brokers, broker offices, and employers are synced to your CRM
You have admin access in both BenefitFlow and your CRM
Test on a small batch (5 to 10 records) before running across your full database

HubSpot
Salesforce
Dynamics 365

Step 1 — Create two company properties

Go to Settings → Properties → Company Properties and create a group called BenefitFlow Fields, then add two single-line text properties to it:

Property	Holds
BenefitFlow Broker Office ID	A broker office’s own ID
Primary Broker Office ID	An employer’s primary broker office ID

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

In Integration Settings, open your HubSpot field mapping:

On the Employer (Parent Account) mapping, map Primary Broker Office ID (Employer Only) → Primary Broker Office ID
On the Broker Office (Child Account) mapping, map Broker Office ID → BenefitFlow Broker Office ID

Turn on Allow Overwrite for both so they stay current on re-sync. Sync 5 to 10 records and confirm both fields populate before going further.

Step 3 — Create association labels

Go to Settings → Objects → Companies → Associations and create a company-to-company association with two labels: Employer and Primary Broker Office.

Step 4 — Build the association workflow

Create a company-based workflow:

Enrollment trigger: Primary Broker Office ID is known
Add the Create associations action and choose Matching property values. Match the enrolled employer’s Primary Broker Office ID to a company’s BenefitFlow Broker Office ID
Apply the Employer and Primary Broker Office labels to each side
Test on one employer, confirm the association shows on both records, then enroll existing companies

Matching property values is exact and case-sensitive, and works only on single-line text properties (which is why both ID fields above are single-line text). Since BenefitFlow writes both IDs, the values line up automatically.

Each employer now links to its primary broker office. Open any broker office record to see its full list of employer clients.

Step 1 — Create two Account fields

In Setup → Object Manager → Account → Fields & Relationships, create two text fields (length 50):

API name	Label	Holds
`BF_Broker_Office_ID__c`	BenefitFlow Broker Office ID	A broker office’s own ID
`Primary_Broker_Office_ID__c`	Primary Broker Office ID	An employer’s primary broker office ID

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

In your Salesforce field mapping:

On the Employer (Parent Account) mapping, map Primary Broker Office ID (Employer Only) → Primary_Broker_Office_ID__c
On the Broker Office (Child Account) mapping, map Broker Office ID → BF_Broker_Office_ID__c

Enable overwrite on both. Test on 5 to 10 records before proceeding.

Step 3 — Link the records with a Flow

Build a record-triggered Flow on Account that runs when Primary_Broker_Office_ID__c is set. Have it find the Account where BF_Broker_Office_ID__c equals that value, then either:

Set Parent Account to the broker office (uses the native Account Hierarchy), or
Set a custom lookup field to the broker office (use this if Parent Account is already in use for another relationship)

Step 4 — Validate and backfill

Run the Flow on a few records and confirm the right office is linked. Then re-sync your employer lists to backfill IDs, and activate the Flow across existing records.

Step 1 — Add two Account columns

In Power Apps → Dataverse → Tables → Account, add two text columns (max length 100):

Column	Display name	Holds
`bf_brokerofficeid`	BenefitFlow Broker Office ID	A broker office’s own ID
`bf_primarybrokerofficeid`	Primary Broker Office ID	An employer’s primary broker office ID

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

In your Dynamics field mapping:

On the Employer (Parent Account) mapping, map Primary Broker Office ID (Employer Only) → bf_primarybrokerofficeid
On the Broker Office (Child Account) mapping, map Broker Office ID → bf_brokerofficeid

Enable overwrite on both. Test on 5 to 10 records first.

Step 3 — Link the records with Power Automate

Build an automated cloud flow that triggers when an Account row is added or modified and bf_primarybrokerofficeid is set. Use List rows to find the Account where bf_brokerofficeid equals that value, then set the employer’s Parent Account to that broker office (or relate them with a custom Connection Role).

Step 4 — Backfill

Test on one record, then trigger the flow across existing employers with a Dataverse bulk update.

The CRM-side automation (HubSpot workflow, Salesforce Flow, Power Automate) runs in your CRM, not in BenefitFlow. BenefitFlow pushes the IDs; your CRM makes the match. Build and test the automation in a sandbox before running it on production data. See Can I create CRM workflows from within BenefitFlow? for what the integration does and doesn’t handle.

Keeping the link current

BenefitFlow IDs can change over time as company data is reconciled, for example when records are merged or a primary broker is recalculated. When that happens, the IDs in your CRM only update on the next sync, so:

Keep Allow Overwrite on for both ID fields so re-syncs refresh them
Re-run your association automation after a sync so links rebuild against the current IDs. A scheduled or re-enrollment run keeps associations from going stale
A link built on an ID that later changes can point to the wrong office until the automation runs again, so re-run it before you rely on these associations for reporting

Salesforce Integration

HubSpot Integration

Dynamics Integration

Bulk Data (SFTP)

Linking Employers to Their Primary Broker Office

Why link employers to broker offices

How the link works

Before you start

Step 1 — Create two company properties

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

Step 3 — Create association labels

Step 4 — Build the association workflow

Step 1 — Create two Account fields

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

Step 3 — Link the records with a Flow

Step 4 — Validate and backfill

Step 1 — Add two Account columns

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

Step 3 — Link the records with Power Automate

Step 4 — Backfill

Keeping the link current

CRM Integration: Association Architecture

Tracking ROI from BenefitFlow

What is the Primary Broker?

​Why link employers to broker offices

​How the link works

​Before you start

​Step 1 — Create two company properties

​Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

​Step 3 — Create association labels

​Step 4 — Build the association workflow

​Step 1 — Create two Account fields

​Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

​Step 3 — Link the records with a Flow

​Step 4 — Validate and backfill

​Step 1 — Add two Account columns

​Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

​Step 3 — Link the records with Power Automate

​Step 4 — Backfill

​Keeping the link current

​Related resources

CRM Integration: Association Architecture

Tracking ROI from BenefitFlow

What is the Primary Broker?

Why link employers to broker offices

How the link works

Before you start

Step 1 — Create two company properties

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

Step 3 — Create association labels

Step 4 — Build the association workflow

Step 1 — Create two Account fields

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

Step 3 — Link the records with a Flow

Step 4 — Validate and backfill

Step 1 — Add two Account columns

Step 2 — Map the IDs in BenefitFlow

Step 3 — Link the records with Power Automate

Step 4 — Backfill

Keeping the link current

Related resources