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Parley gives each kind of information an appropriate home. The most reliable system does not collapse them into one record type.

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The layers

Together these make a record useful without making any single layer carry every kind of information.

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Native properties

Built-in attributes that define the identity or basic structure of a record: a Project name, an Account name, a Contact’s name, an Account association on a Contact. Use native properties for core identity. Don’t create a duplicate custom field merely because a native property is also represented as text.

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Custom fields

Custom fields — also called resource fields — are organization-defined, typed attributes attached to Accounts, Contacts, or Projects. They’re for structured information that should be consistently captured, filtered, reported on, exported, or used to guide downstream work. See Field types.

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Notes

Narrative context attached to an Account, Contact, or Project. Use a note for information that’s important for future work but doesn’t fit naturally into a typed field: intake summaries, case strategy, relationship background, open questions, internal instructions, explanations of unusual facts, meeting or call summaries. A note is durable context — not a replacement for a source document or a structured field.

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Files

Source artifacts: agreements, identity documents, correspondence, reports, pleadings, exhibits, templates. Each Account, Contact, and Project can own a file tree with folders and documents. Projects commonly hold matter-specific evidence and work papers, while Accounts and Contacts hold reusable or person-specific documents. Parley extracts text from supported documents, so agents can search and reason over the contents without every fact being copied into a note or field.

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Generated outputs

Work products produced by Parley agents — drafts, briefs, forms, packets, letters. They are distinct from source files:
  • Files are inputs supplied to Parley.
  • Outputs are work products generated from those inputs and the record context.
Keeping the distinction clear preserves the difference between evidence and the work product created from it.

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Email and calendar

Calendar events answer: what is scheduled, when, and who is expected to participate? Consultations, interviews, hearings, filing appointments. When a date must remain a durable case attribute — a statutory deadline, a target filing date — represent it in a Project date field as well. Emails answer: what was communicated, by whom, and when? Email is evidence of communication and often supplies facts worth preserving in the matter’s context. A concise operational conclusion may belong in a note, while the original email remains the authoritative correspondence.
Don’t use a status field to store an email thread, and don’t replace important source correspondence with a paraphrase when the original message matters.
See Email and calendar.

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Workflows

The procedural layer: the sequence of actions, conditions, and handoffs used to move work forward. A workflow may use fields as inputs, files as required evidence, emails as communication, calendar events as scheduled steps, and notes as human-readable context. The workflow should not become the permanent home for the underlying facts — those belong on the appropriate Account, Contact, Project, note, or file.

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Choosing where information belongs

Ask these in order:
1

Is this identifying the record?

Use a native property.
2

Is this a structured fact to filter, report, or reuse?

Use a custom field.
3

Is this narrative context, an instruction, or a conclusion?

Use a note.
4

Is this source evidence or an original artifact?

Use a file.
5

Is this a connection between records?

Use a relationship.
6

Is this a communication or scheduled event?

Preserve it as email or a calendar event.
7

Is this a sequence of actions or conditions?

Use a workflow.

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A practical example

A firm handling an employment-based immigration filing:
  • The employer is an Account.
  • The employee is a Contact linked to that Account.
  • The filing is a Project linked to both.
  • Current Immigration Status belongs on the Contact, because it describes the person generally.
  • Case Status, Receipt Number, and Target Date belong on the Project, because they describe the filing.
  • The employment agreement and identity documents are Files.
  • A summary of the client’s explanation of a complicated travel history is a Note.
  • The consultation appointment is a Calendar event.
  • The client’s instructions sent by email remain Email correspondence.
  • A filing checklist or generated support letter is a Generated output.
  • The steps for collecting missing evidence belong to the Workflow layer.
The same fact should not be copied into every layer. Each layer points to or relies on the durable source that owns the fact.