Customers and suppliers in a multi-entity shared company

In a multi-entity shared environment, it's typical to have customers and suppliers that are common to multiple entities. These customers and suppliers can be set up once, at the top level of the company, and then used by all entities or restricted by entity or department.

Are certain customers or suppliers unique to a particular entity? You can set that up too by creating them at the entity level.

Overview

  • Shared data is visible to users with access to all entities. By default, items that are created at the top level are shared by the top level and all entities. Shared customers, suppliers, and bank accounts appear in the lists for all entities.
  • Restricted data is visible only to those users with access to those entities to which the data is restricted. If a customer, supplier, or bank account should be limited in use, you can restrict it to a subset of locations or departments, or restrict it to the top level only. For example, a supplier in the UK might be restricted to only UK entities so that other entities don't see the supplier in lists.
  • Private data is visible only to users who can access the entity where the private data was created. Customers, suppliers, and bank accounts that are created at the entity level are private and can be used only by that entity.

As long as they have the relevant permissions, users working at the top level can access all data: shared, restricted, and private.

Shared customers and suppliers

Customers and suppliers that are created at the top level are shared by all entities. This means that they appear in lists throughout all levels of a multi-entity company and can be used anywhere in transactions, including AR sales invoices and AP supplier invoices entered by particular entities.

  1. Go to the top level of the company.
  2. Create or edit the customer or supplier.

Restrict by entity or department

Always make sure you're at the top level when enabling and viewing restrictions.

Enable restrictions

The ability to restrict customers and suppliers is a configuration option that your administrator can turn on.

If customers and suppliers at the top level have a Restrictions tab, the option is already enabled.
  1. Go toCompany > Admin > Subscriptions.

    The Subscriptions page is shown.

  2. Select Multi-Entity Management, then select Configure.
  3. In the Entity restrictions section, select any of the following items to restrict them to an entity:
    • Customers
    • Suppliers
    • Current accounts
    • Savings accounts

After saving your changes, a Restrictions tab is shown on the Information page for the data types you decided to restrict.

Restrict customers or suppliers

You can restrict customers and suppliers to a location or department or to the top level only.

  1. At the top level of the company, edit the customer or supplier.
  2. On the customer or supplier information page, select the Restrictions tab.
    • Unrestricted (the default) means that the customer or supplier can be used in any transaction, by any location or department.
    • To restrict by location or department, select Restricted customer or Restricted supplier, and then select particular locations and departments.
    • Restricted to top level only means that the customer or supplier can be used only by transactions entered at the top level.

Entity-specific (private) customers or suppliers

To make a customer or supplier private, switch to the entity first and then create it.

A private customer or supplier can't be used in transactions for other entities. For example, an office supplies supplier that is created for an Arizona entity won't appear in the Suppliers list for other entities.

What does "Not Owned" mean?

In a multi-entity company, shared records such as customers, suppliers, and other items can be edited only at the top level of a company. Some journal transactions, for example, recurring journal entries created at the top level, are also owned at the top and can't be edited from within an entity.

If you display the list of shared records (customer, supplier, or entry) within an entity, you can see the shared records in the list. However, these will be listed as Not owned by the entity and the Edit option won't appear. Move to the top level, which owns the record, to make any changes.