The Parent Company feature lets you define hierarchical relationships between companies in Productive’s CRM.
For example, you can link Acme Client Company to a parent company, ACME. Once set, the relationship is visible from both sides and available as a filter and grouping option in reports.
This is useful for agencies that manage clients with multiple regional offices or local branches and want to report by group rather than by individual company.
How It Works
The relationship is visible from both sides of the connection:
On the parent company (e.g., ACME): a Group companies field lists all companies that belong to it.
On the child company (e.g., Acme Client Company): a Parent company field shows which company it belongs to.
A few rules to keep in mind:
Each company can have one Parent company.
A parent can have multiple Group companies.
The relationship is optional. Companies without a parent remain standalone.
Only one level is allowed. You can only select a parent that doesn’t have a parent itself.
A company that already has group companies can’t be given a parent. Its Parent company field is replaced by Group companies.
Your own organization’s company can’t be given a parent.
Setting a Parent Company
Go to CRM > Companies and open the child company (e.g., Acme Client Company).
In the Info tab, find the Parent company field.
Click the field and select an existing company from the dropdown.
The relationship is now active. The parent company’s Group companies field updates automatically.
📌 Only Admins, Managers, Coordinators, and users with the Add, edit, and archive companies permission can assign or change a parent company. Nobody can change the parent of an archived company.
📌 When you change a company’s parent, people from the previous parent who were contacts on this company’s deals are removed from those deals.
Viewing the Relationship
Anyone who can open a company’s Info tab can see the relationship.
On the child company, the Parent company field shows the assigned parent as a clickable link.
On the parent company, the read-only Group companies field lists all companies that belong to it.
You can also add Parent company as a column, filter, group-by, and sort option in CRM > Companies.
Removing a Parent Company
Open the child company’s Info tab.
Click the × next to the company name in the Parent company field.
The relationship is removed. The company becomes standalone again and no data is lost.
Archived Parent Companies
If you archive a parent company, the relationship stays intact.
Sending Invoices to Parent Company
When you send an invoice, you may need to bill the parent company while keeping the budget and invoice associated with the child company.
In the Send Invoice modal, the To field offers the parent company’s emails and contacts alongside the child company’s, grouped under Client emails and People emails. Only the child company’s default billing emails are pre-filled, so add the parent’s recipient yourself.
📌 A company email only appears as an option if it’s added in CRM > Companies > Contact details.
Using Parent Company in Reporting
In Deals, Budgets, Invoices, Time entries, and Tasks reports, Parent company sits under the Client field. It’s available as a filter, column, and group-by option.
To find it, search for Parent company or expand Client. The column header reads Client: Parent company. It isn’t in the default column list.
In Resource planning, Parent company is available as a filter only.
Example filter combinations:
Filter | Returns |
| Data for Acme Client Company only
|
| Data for the companies in the ACME group (subsidiaries only, not ACME’s own records) |
| Data for everything except ACME’s subsidiaries, including ACME’s own records |
📌 To include ACME’s own records alongside its subsidiaries, add Client = ACME as a second filter and set the filter logic to or.
Permissions
Users with the Add, edit, and archive companies permission can also edit the Parent company field, regardless of their permission set.
Permission set | Edit |
Admin | ✓ |
Manager | ✓ |
Coordinator | ✓ |
Staff | ✗ |
Client | ✗ |