Your workspace
One organisation or several?
The hardest decision to undo, explained with the three criteria that matter.
If you have several legal entities, brands or branches, at some point you must decide whether they go together or apart. Decide early: moving documents and files between organisations later is work, and some things cannot be moved.
The three criteria
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Must someone NOT see the other's material? | Separate | Together |
| Do they invoice and contract separately with third parties? | Probably separate | Together |
| Does the same person work across both daily? | Together, with teams | Separate |
Important
The first overrides the others. If there is information that must not cross — for competition reasons, a partner agreement, or regulation — separation is the answer even if it is more awkward to run.
What changes with the choice
- 1
Separate: real isolation
Nothing is visible across. Including contacts, templates and reports.
- 2
Separate: duplicated administration
Configuration, users and balance for each. That is the price.
- 3
Together: a single picture
Group-wide reporting and shared work without switching.
- 4
Together: separation via permissions
Works well for branches, not for different partners.
Watch out
The most commonly mis-decided case is branches. Five organisations get created "so each sees its own", and a month later management wants a consolidated report that must now be assembled five times by hand. That is what teams and permissions were for.
If you already chose wrong
It is not irreversible, but it is one of the expensive ones. Half an hour of thought at the start saves weeks later.
Worth knowing
Switching organisation happens from the same control at the top, without logging in again. And whoever has access to several has it explicitly: nothing becomes visible by accident.
›Can users belong to several?
Yes, with access granted in each.
›Is the balance shared?
Each organisation holds its own; if that complicates things, it is an argument for merging.
›What about a franchise?
Usually separate, with head-office access where appropriate.
A real case
The situation
A group with five branches creates one organisation per branch.
What you do
- Checks that nobody must be blocked from another's material
- Merges them and separates with teams and permissions
What you get
Management gets the consolidated report and each branch still sees only its own.
The situation
An organisation is created per branch office.
What you do
- Uses projects or folders inside one
What you get
The structure does not multiply without reason.
The situation
Two companies share an organisation and everything mixes.
What you do
- Separates each into its own
What you get
Each one holds its own.
The situation
Reports have to be added up by hand across organisations.
What you do
- Considers whether separating them was really needed
What you get
The decision is revisited against real use.
The situation
One person works in both and duplicates accounts.
What you do
- Grants access to both with one account
What you get
Duplicate passwords disappear.
The situation
They were separated out of caution and now it gets in the way.
What you do
- Revisits the decision with usage data
What you get
The structure matches how people work.
This article answers
- separating group companies on the platform
- one organisation per legal entity or a single one
- how to organise several brands
- splitting by branch or not