Multiple associations from single table rails -

in attempt expand on this guide creating multiple associations same table came following user class

class user < activerecord::base     has_secure_password      validates_uniqueness_of :email     validates_presence_of :email     validates_presence_of :name     belongs_to :role     has_many :clients, foreign_key: 'rep_id'     has_many :submitted_jobs, class_name: 'workorder', through: :clients     has_many :processing_tasks, class_name: 'workorder', foreign_key: 'processor_id'      def has_role?(role_sym)         role.name.underscore.to_sym == role_sym      end end 

my goal able refer submitted jobs , processing tasks separately depending on type of user. far processing tasks part works expected , far can rep workorder, when attempt rep.submitted_jobs following error:

nomethoderror: undefined method `to_sym' nil:nilclass         /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.5@rails4/gems/activerecord-4.1.6/lib/active_record/reflection.rb:100:in `_reflect_on_association'  ect... 

clearly has_many through relationship works differently i'm expecting, i'm not quite sure call type of relationship i'm @ of loss for. worth noting that

rspec.describe user, type: :model   {should validate_uniqueness_of(:email)}   {should validate_presence_of(:name)}   {should belong_to(:role)}   {should have_many(:submitted_jobs)}   {should have_many(:processing_tasks)} end 

all pass

edit:

class client < activerecord::base   has_many :contacts   has_many :addresses, through: :contacts   has_many :permits   has_many :work_orders   validates :clientnumber, format: { with: /\a\d{3}\z/ },                                     length: { is: 3 }    belongs_to :rep, class_name: 'user'   belongs_to :default_processor, class_name: 'user' end 

edit 2: work order associations

class workorder < activerecord::base   belongs_to :client   belongs_to :project_type   belongs_to :status   belongs_to :labels   belongs_to :contact   belongs_to :processor, class_name: 'user'   has_one :rep, through: :client, class_name: 'user'   has_one :presort_information   has_one :printing_instructions   has_one :production_details   ........ end 

typical has_many_through_association like

to solve problem, write custom association, method give related work_orders

inside user model

def submitted_jobs   workorder.joins(:client).where('clients.rep_id = ?', self.id) end