---
id: KB-CL-011
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/collaboration/a-project-with-several-companies-at-once
idioma: en
categoria: colaboracion
subcategoria: externos
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CL-001, KB-CL-009, KB-CL-003]
citadoPor: [KB-CL-018, KB-CL-020]
---

# A project with several companies at once

_A joint venture, a consortium or a shared site: who keeps what and who answers for it._

**Responde a:** joint venture documentation · project with several companies who keeps the documents · consortium shared documentation · working with a partner on a joint project

When two or three companies join for a project, the first thing agreed is the split of work and money. What is almost never agreed is where the documentation lives — and that becomes a problem exactly when the project ends and everyone goes their own way.

## The three questions to close at the start

1. **Where does the project file live?** — In one place, not three. If each partner keeps their own, nobody holds the whole.
2. **Who sees what?** — Everyone sees the project; each company's internal material is not shared by default.
3. **What does each take away at the end?** — Decide beforehand. Afterwards the conversation is far more awkward.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The third is always forgotten and causes the most trouble years later, when a claim arrives and what was done must be reconstructed. If nobody agreed who keeps the whole, each partner has a fragment and none can answer in full.

## How it is organised in practice

| Layer | Who enters | What it holds |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The shared project | All partners | What affects the whole: contracts, minutes, deliveries |
| Each partner's own | That company only | Their staff, their subcontractors, their costs |
| Third parties | By their link, no account | Only theirs: what they sign or supply |

> [!WARNING]
> The expensive mistake is doing it backwards: opening one space where everyone sees everything "because we are partners". Each company's employment and cost documentation need not circulate, and sharing it creates obligations nobody meant to take on.

## What to record along the way

**En corto**

- Who supplied each document and when.
- What was approved, by whom, and against which version.
- And any communication that commits something, inside rather than in crossed emails.

These three are what gets asked for if the project ends in dispute. They are free to record while it happens and impossible to reconstruct afterwards.

> [!NOTE]
> It applies equally to a joint-venture site, a research consortium, a shared development or a large engagement split between a law firm and a consultancy. The vocabulary changes, the mechanics do not.

**What if each partner uses a different system?**

Pick one for the shared project; internal work stays wherever each prefers.

**Can access be limited to one phase?**

Yes, and for occasional collaborators that is the sensible option.

**Who pays for consumption?**

Whatever is executed from the hosting organisation comes out of its balance; agree it alongside the rest of the split.

## Ejemplos

**Two builders take on a site together and each keeps its own part.**

- Open the shared project and keep internal material separate
- Agree in writing who keeps the whole at the end

→ Four years later, facing a claim, there is a single complete file to turn to.

**On a project with five companies, each sends their documentation to whoever they think best.**

- Records each company as a participant with its scope
- Assigns which document each one provides
- Checks progress per participant rather than per inbox

→ Nobody duplicates or gets left out, and only those with something outstanding are chased.

**One company can see the documentation of a competitor.**

- Limits each participant's scope

→ Each sees their own.

**All five are chased when one is missing.**

- Chases only whoever is outstanding

→ Those who complied receive no reminders.

**Two companies upload the same document.**

- Makes clear who provides what from the start

→ Duplicated work is avoided.

**The project ends and the accesses stay active.**

- Revokes access on closing

→ The file is not left open to five companies.

**A company subcontracts and an unexpected participant appears.**

- Records which companies are authorised

→ The list of who participates is known.

**Nobody knows who provided what when a problem arises.**

- Checks the participant record

→ The question is answered with a name and a date.