How partnerships work: the relationship between environments, users and organisations explained.
In brief A partnership connects two eConnect environments. After linking, accountants and intermediaries can manage invoices, connect software and retrieve connection keys for their clients. Available from the Basic subscription.
A partnership on the eConnect platform connects two environments, enabling organisations to collaborate. This is the foundation of the intermediary model: accountants and bookkeepers who manage invoices and connect software on behalf of their clients.
A partnership is a connection between two eConnect environments. After creating a partnership, advanced users and administrators from one environment can gain access to organisations in the other environment. This allows an accountant to view invoices, retrieve connection keys and configure software for client organisations.
A partnership always works in both directions: both parties can grant each other access to their organisations. In practice it is usually the accountant who gains access to the client environment, not the other way around, but technically it is symmetrical.
There are two ways to create a partnership:
The accountant sends an authorisation request to the client. After the client accepts, a partnership is automatically created. This is the standard process and the most commonly used in practice.
Two organisations can also create a partnership themselves:
For a manual partnership both parties must be an advanced user or administrator, and the partnership feature must be available in their subscription.
After creating a partnership you still need to configure who has access to which organisations. You do this by adding users as members to the organisations in the partner environment.
Within a partnership you can designate relationship managers. A relationship manager is a specific role that enables someone to coordinate the collaboration between the two environments. You can appoint multiple relationship managers per partnership.
Relationship managers are linked via Partners > Relationship managers > Connect. The relationship manager role must be assigned separately by an administrator in user management.
With a partnership the intermediary can choose to take on the costs of the client connection. This is useful when the accountant offers the e-invoicing service as part of their service to the client.
A partnership can be ended by either party. After ending, the other party immediately loses access to the organisations. Existing invoices and documents remain available in each party's own environment; no data is lost.
Accounting firm with 50 clients: the firm has one eConnect environment of its own. Via authorisation requests all clients are linked. Per client a partnership is created. The accountant retrieves the connection keys and configures the software connection per client. From a single environment the accountant manages all client invoices.
Want to create a partner? Read how to do it.
Start a partnership