Group structure — from the holding company down to the smallest department

A tenant is no longer necessarily one company. It can be a whole corporate group: a holding company, subsidiaries beneath it, branches under each subsidiary, and departments inside all of that. This lesson explains the four building blocks, the one golden rule that everything else depends on, and how to work the group chart in practice.

The four pieces

The group is the tenant itself — subscription, billing and users are counted here. A company is a legal entity: it employs people on paper and files insurance and tax returns under its own numbers. A branch is a place of work belonging to one company — it is not a legal entity; it exists because a location has its own work calendar and attendance site. A department is the unit of daily work: positions, people, and the reporting lines.

🏛️ Nile Holding Group (the tenant — the parent company at the top)

🏭 Nile Manufacturing (legal entity — its own insurance file & tax card)

📍 Alexandria branch (place of work — own calendar & site)

📁 Shipping · 📁 Warehousing

📁 Finance (company-level department, no branch — perfectly fine)

🏭 Nile Distribution

📁 Finance ← 📁 Payroll

The golden rule

Every department belongs to exactly one company, and a child department automatically inherits its parent's company. A department subtree can never straddle two companies. This single rule is why everything else works by itself: "the Distribution HR manager sees Distribution employees only" resolves through it, payroll picks each company's people through it, and moving a department re-scopes access in seconds with no admin action. Single-company tenants never see any of this — one hidden default company absorbs everything and the chart looks exactly as it always did.

Working the chart

In HR, open Organization → Departments. A multi-company tenant shows the Group structure card: one tree of companies (factory icon), branches (pin icon) and departments (folder icon), with search that also matches codes like "AX10126". Hover any node for its actions: a company adds departments, branches or subsidiaries; a branch adds departments at that branch — any number of them; a department adds sub-departments. The create dialog shows where the new department will land ("inside: Alexandria branch"). Drag a department onto a company, branch or department to move it — its whole subtree follows and takes the destination's company.

The group structure card: default company at the top, subsidiaries with their codes, a branch, and departments beneath — The group chart: holding → subsidiaries → branch → departments, one tree.

Selecting a node opens its details on the other pane: a department shows its positions and people; a company shows headcount, branches, its statutory identity (insurance employer number, tax card, commercial register, bank) and a filing-readiness card listing exactly which fields are still missing; a branch shows its calendar, attendance site and governorate. The separate Companies and Branches settings pages still exist, but everything they do is reachable from the chart.

Why payroll cares

Each company runs its own payroll, pays from its own bank account, and files NOSI form 1 and tax form 4 under its own numbers. An employee counts toward the company on their employment record; transferring them to a sister company keeps one employee file (service years intact) while the new company's ledger picks them up from the transfer month.

Summary. Group → companies → branches → departments; a department belongs to one company and its children inherit it. Build and manage all of it from the group chart — permissions, payroll and reports read the structure and adjust themselves.