External authorizations

An external authorization record allows another Intacct company to access your company externally for a specified time period or until you disable the access.

About external authorizations

You may see one of the following types of external authorizations:

• Consolidation: Used by the Consolidation application in a multi-entity distributed environment. The subsidiary entity adds the external authorization record for the parent entity.
• Practice: Used by a console to link to a client or entity. The Intacct provisioning team creates this type of external authorization record for each applicable client or entity. A client or entity can disable this authorization record as applicable.
• Services: Used by an Intacct services provider company to perform services in another Intacct company. The company that wants the services creates this type of external authorization record for the Intacct services provider company. The Intacct services provider company must be subscribed to the External Services Provider application in order for the authorization to be valid.
• Support: Used by Intacct Support. The system automatically creates a Support external authorization in every company and associates an "intacct" external user with it.

An external authorization record is in effect until its Access field is set to "Disabled" or, for Services or Customer Support only, the Expiration date has not been exceeded.

Add an external authorization

You can only add an external authorization record for a parent consolidating company or for a service provider. The system automatically adds an external user for each company to which you give external authorization.

1. In the Company ID field, enter the ID of the company to which you are authorizing access. This will either be the company ID of the parent company for Consolidations or the external services provider company ID for Services.
2. Use the dropdown list in the Access type field to select Services or Consolidations.
3. If you want to add text describing the need for the authorization, enter the desired text in the Description field.
4. If Access type = "Services", use the calendar tool to enter a date in the Expiration date field. The authorization record will expire on this date.
5. Select Save.

Edit an external authorization

You can enable or disable an external authorization or edit the description. If the Access type = "Services" or "Support" (associated with the intacct external user), you can also edit the Expiration date to extend or shorten the duration of the external authorization.

1. Select Edit next to the desired external authorization.
2. If you want to change the Access, select the desired option.
3. If you want to add text describing the need for the authorization, enter the desired text in the Description field.
4. If Access type = "Services" or "Support" and you want to change the Expiration date, use the calendar tool to change the date as applicable.
   The Expiration date cannot exceed a date that is beyond the number of days the service provider company has specified as the Maximum duration for service authorizations. If you enter a date that is beyond the service provider's maximum duration, you will receive an error message stating that the expiration date must be less than or equal to X days from today, where X is the number of days set by the external services provider. Select Go back and then enter a valid date in the Expiration date field.
5. Select Save.

Delete an external authorization

You can only delete an external authorization record for a parent consolidating company. Alternatively, you can set the Access field to "Disabled", which prevents the external company from accessing your company but retains the external authorization for historical purposes.

1. Select Delete next to the desired external authorization.

   Depending on your user preferences, the system might prompt you to confirm the deletion.

Disable an external authorization

When an external authorization is disabled, no users associated with the external company associated with the external authorization can access your company externally. You can re-enable access at a later time as desired.

1. Select Edit next to the desired external authorization.
2. Use the Access dropdown list to select "Disabled".
3. Select Save.

Field descriptions

Field	Description
Company ID	The company ID of the company to which you are authorizing access. For example, if this authorization is for a parent consolidation company, enter the company ID of the parent company in this field. This field is case-sensitive.
Company name	The name of the company associated with the Company ID. This field is read-only and appears in Edit or View mode.
Access type	The following are the external access types: Services: Select this type if you are giving access to an external service provider. Consolidation: Select this type if you are giving access to your parent consolidating company for use with Advanced Consolidations. Practice: Indicates that your company is linked to a console. For example, your company is a client company of an accounting partner company that regularly performs work in your company. You can't create a Practice type external authorization record. This record is created automatically when your company is linked to the applicable console. The system also automatically creates a CPAUser external user record and associates it with the Practice external authorization record. Support: Used by Intacct Customer Support and Platform Services only. You can't create a Support type external authorization record. The system automatically creates this type of external authorization in every company and associates an "intacct" external user with it.
User ID	This column only displays in the External authorizations list. Select the link in this field to display the default external user for the corresponding external authorization.
Status	Displays one of the following: Linked: Your company is linked to the company on the external authorization. Not linked: Your company is not linked to the company on the external authorization.
Access	Displays one of the following: Enabled: The external authorization is in effect. Disabled: Your company turned off the external authorization. No users associated with the Company ID on this record can access your company. Disabling an external authorization disables the access as of the moment you save the record, regardless of whether the Expiration date has been reached.
Description	Any text pertaining to the external authorization. For example, if this external authorization is for an external services provider, you could enter text describing the service provided here.
Expiration date	This field is only applicable if Access type = "Services" or "Support" (associated with the "intacct" external user). The date the external authorization record terminates. No users from the Company ID on this record can access your company after the expiration date. To extend access to a company, enter a new Expiration date for this record. The Expiration date cannot exceed a date that is beyond the number of days the service provider company has specified as the Maximum duration for service authorizations. If you enter a date that is beyond the service provider's maximum duration, you will receive an error message stating that the expiration date must be less than or equal to X days from today, where X is the number of days set by the external services provider.