Assigning a user to multiple companies
What you'll learn
- When a user needs to belong to multiple companies
- How to assign or remove a user's company memberships
- What changes for the user after they're assigned to a new company
- What's handled elsewhere (per-company access, primary company)
When multi-company assignment is needed
Most users belong to one company — the workspace they were created in. But several real scenarios call for multi-company access:
- Consultants or contractors working across multiple client companies.
- Group-level admins who oversee several subsidiary companies.
- Shared-services teams (finance, IT, HR) serving multiple companies under one organization.
- Cross-company audit / review roles.
When a user belongs to more than one company, they see a company switcher in the top-left of the header (covered in Switching between companies) and can move between their assigned companies at will.
Opening the Manage Companies dialog
- Open Settings → Users in the sidebar.
- Find the user in the list — use search if needed.
- Click the three-dot menu at the end of their row.
- Choose Manage Companies.
The dialog opens showing every company in the system as a checkbox row, with the user's current assignments already checked.
manage-companies-dialogAdjusting the assignment
Each row shows:
- A checkbox — tick to assign, untick to unassign.
- The company name.
- A status badge — Active (green) or Inactive (muted). Inactive companies have been disabled.
To change the user's memberships:
- Check any companies you want to add.
- Uncheck any companies you want to remove.
- Click Save.
The change takes effect immediately. The user doesn't need to sign out — they'll see the updated set of companies in their header dropdown (and on the dashboard's Companies list) the next time their profile data refreshes.
What adding a company does — and doesn't do
Does:
- Lets the user see and switch to that company after signing in.
- Applies the user's role-derived default access level to resources in the new company.
- Makes the new company appear in the header's company switcher for that user.
Doesn't:
- Change the user's primary company — they still land in the same company they always did when they sign in. They have to switch explicitly to use the new one.
- Grant any per-resource access overrides in the new company. Those are separate and live in Manage Access; by default the user starts with role-level access in a newly-added company.
- Affect other users in the newly-assigned company. It only adds this one user.
If the user needs elevated or restricted access in the new company (beyond their role's default), open Manage Access next. See Managing a user's access (per-company ACLs).
Common questions
I added a company but the user says the company switcher still doesn't show it.
Ask them to refresh the browser or sign out and back in. Session-cached profile data takes a moment to pick up the change.
Can I set a different primary company from here?
No — the primary company is set when the user is created and isn't changed through this dialog. If you need to switch their primary, the cleanest path is to have them switch to the desired company after signing in (their last switched-to company is remembered server-side).
I unchecked a company the user doesn't need anymore. Did I lose anything?
You removed the user's access to that company's resources. Any documents or tasks they created there still exist, but the user can no longer see them unless you re-add the company. If a task was currently assigned to them in that company, it may become orphaned — consider reassigning before removing.
The company I want to add isn't in the list.
Only companies that exist in the system appear. If it's a new company, an admin with Company Management rights needs to create it first (see Creating a new company in Company Management). If it exists but still isn't in the list, your own account may not have visibility to all companies — ask a senior admin to handle the assignment.
What if I disable a company the user belongs to?
Their membership stays listed, but the company shows with the Inactive badge. The user won't be able to switch to it or work there until it's reactivated. You can leave them assigned during a short disablement window or unassign them for a clean break.
Can I see which companies a specific user belongs to without opening the dialog?
Their primary company shows in the Users list table. For the full list, open the Manage Companies dialog (the current assignments are pre-checked). There's no inline "all companies" column on the Users page.