Related companies

A Related company represents a client, provider, or both within your organization, even if the counterpart does not yet use ReportArea. The record is private and can later be linked to a registered Company.

Availability: ReportArea Company only; the record needs commercial permission, linking needs network permission, and assignments need external-delegation permission. Level: Advanced.

Purpose

Use a Related company to bring together a counterpart's identity, contacts, equipment, orders, and reports; assign work before it has an account; and later recognize its organization without moving local history.

Requirements

An organization in Company mode.
The organization to be linked as the counterpart must also be in Company mode; a Professional organization must change mode before it can be proposed.
To create, promote, edit, suspend, or manage contacts: Manage commercial operations.
Only an active Business customer can be promoted.
Select Client, Provider, or Both role.

Step by step

Open Related companies and create a new record or promote an existing business customer.
Enter display name, legal name, tax identifier, language, channels, address, and notes.
Add contact people, primary contact, and update-recipient setting where relevant.
Choose the role: Client for commercial operations and shared work; Provider for external assignments; Both for both uses.
If the counterpart opens its own organization, begin email linking from this record.

Rules and effects

There is no global directory or cross-organization deduplication.
The record always belongs to the organization that created it; linking does not transfer customers, reports, or history.
Responding to an assignment through a portal does not create a link or convert a Professional organization into Company by itself.
Promoting a customer preserves all related data.
An organization cannot link to itself, and one account cannot be linked to two records from the same source.
The linked account becomes fixed; the interface cannot replace it.
Provider role cannot be removed and the record cannot be suspended while active assignments exist.
A pending link blocks suspension. Suspension also deactivates the associated customer; reactivation restores both.
Records are suspended, not deleted.

Required and optional information

Required: display name, role, and language. Optional: legal name, tax identifier, email, phone, billing details, notes, contacts, and account linking.

Practical example

A technical service records “South Motors” as a Provider and assigns a diagnosis before it has an account. Months later South Motors creates a Company; both sides confirm the link and decide each open assignment without losing history.

Current limits

Existing Companies are not searched or suggested by name or identifier.
A confirmed link cannot be removed or pointed to another account through the interface.
A network manager without commercial permission may be authorized to view the record while the navigation entry is absent.
Relationships are direct and private; they never reveal the counterpart's customers or providers.