Set up an owner with multiple businesses

When one person owns multiple businesses, often called related entities, for example an S corporation and a rental LLC alongside their personal tax return, add each business as its own client and link the owner to every one of them as a single contact. The same approach works for a family whose members share some of the same businesses. The owner then has one client portal login that covers all of their businesses, much like linked accounts in other practice management software, while Jobs, requests, documents, proposals and invoices stay separate for each business.

Add each business as its own client

Create one client for each entity you work for, including the owner’s personal return if you prepare it. Choose Individual for the person and Organisation for each company. Jobs, client requests, files, proposals and invoices all belong to one client, so keeping each entity separate keeps its records, deadlines and billing apart. See Add a Client.

When you add the first client, you can create the owner as its contact. For each later business, link the existing contact instead of creating a new one, as described below.

Link the owner to another business

Link an existing contact to another client so the same person, with the same portal login, is connected to that business:

1. Open the business client and select the Contacts tab.
2. Click the + button above the contacts list.
3. Set Attaching existing contact? to Yes.
4. Choose the owner in Contact.
5. Enter their Role at this business, such as Owner or Shareholder. A role is required when you attach an existing contact.
6. Optionally enter a Different email address for this business.
7. Choose whether to tick Include on requests and Billing contact, then click Create.

You can also start from the contact: open the contact, select the Clients tab and click + to pick another client for them.

If you try to add the owner as a new contact with an email address that is already in use, Tidyflow stops and asks you to attach the existing contact instead. Each email address belongs to one contact in your workspace.

Choose what the owner receives for each business

Each link between the owner and a business has its own settings, so the owner can receive requests for one company and invoices for another:

• Include on requests adds the owner to client requests sent for that business. The owner needs client portal access before you can turn this on.
• Billing contact shows that business’s invoices to the owner in the client portal.
• Role records their position at that business.
• Email address (the different email address) is used for that business’s proposals and invoices. Client requests are always emailed to the contact’s main email address.

To change these later, open the business, select the Contacts tab and use the contact’s row menu (Include on requests, Exclude from requests, Add as billing contact or Remove as billing contact), or click the contact’s name and edit the section headed For followed by the business name. The contact’s Clients tab shows the same settings for every business they are linked to.

Give the owner one client portal login

Client portal access belongs to the contact, not to each business, so one login covers every business the owner is linked to. Turn it on once from any business: on the Contacts tab, open the owner’s row menu, choose Enable portal and keep Email the client a login link ticked. Turning portal access off from any business turns it off for all of them. See Enable client portal access for a Contact.

When the owner signs in to the client portal:

• Requests lists the requests from every business in one list, with the business name on each row.
• Documents has an account selector for switching between businesses.
• Billing lists invoices from every business where the owner is a Billing contact, with an Account column.

The client-side view is described in Using the client portal.

Send proposals and invoices for each business

Each proposal and each invoice belongs to one client. Send a separate proposal to each business, with the owner as the Approver Contact, so every entity signs its own engagement and is billed on its own.

To reuse a proposal for another business, open it and choose Duplicate. The copy opens as a draft. Change the Client to the other business, choose the Approver Contact again, adjust the pricing and send it. See Proposals overview.

Keep an owner’s businesses together with a client group

A client group can collect one owner’s businesses, for example a group called Patel family. A client can belong to several groups, so the businesses can also stay in groups such as S-Corporation or Monthly Bookkeeping. Filter the Clients and Jobs lists or reports by the group to see the owner’s businesses together. See Organize clients into groups.

To start the same work for all of an owner’s businesses at once, open Settings > Job templates, open the template’s menu and choose Create jobs. In Bulk Job Creation, filter by the owner’s group under Client groups, select the listed clients and click Create jobs.

Remove the owner from one business

To unlink the owner from a business they no longer own, open that business, select the Contacts tab, open the owner’s row menu and choose Remove from client. The owner stays linked to their other businesses and keeps their portal login. See Remove a contact from a client.