External Relationships Data Model Overview
The XRM data model is built around merchants - business entities that extend the platform's party model - with supporting records for classification, geographic presence, product catalogues, and external system integration. Understanding how these relate is the key to understanding how Raytio's merchant management works.
The big picture
Merchants as parties
Every merchant is first a party in the PRM module. The merchant profile adds merchant-specific attributes - name, description, branding images, type and class codes, and approval status - while retaining the underlying party identity.
This separation means contact details, addresses, and relationships are managed at the party level, while merchant-specific concerns live in XRM. For full details see Merchants and Merchant Details.
Classifications
Merchants are categorised using classification items from the general product catalogue. These form hierarchical category trees. A merchant can be linked to one or more classification nodes, with one category marked as the principal business category. See Merchant Classifications.
Items and services
What a merchant sells or provides is modelled by associating the merchant with items from the product catalogue. An optional location reference scopes the offering to a specific location. See Merchant Items and Countries.
Geographic presence
Merchant country records identify which countries a merchant operates in, using ISO country codes. A primary country flag marks the principal country of operation. See Merchant Items and Countries.
Integration configuration
Authentication configuration stores per-merchant OAuth 2.0 flow parameters so the platform can programmatically obtain tokens from merchant APIs. See Merchant Authentication Configuration.
Common patterns
XRM records share these structural conventions:
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Tenant scope | Keeps each tenant's merchant data separate |
start_date / end_date | Temporal validity window (defaults to a 100-year span) |
created_by, updated_by, owned_by | Audit and ownership tracking |
row_version | Optimistic concurrency control |
| Authorisation scope | Controls which users can view or manage merchant records |
metadata | Extensible attributes for additional merchant-specific information |