Customizing a multi-entity environment requires an advanced knowledge of how customization works in Method.
In most cases, multi-entity accounts will initially get set up with the help of a 3rd party Method Solution Provider, or work with our customization team directly.
However, if you are technically savvy and have the necessary time, you can take on this customization yourself.
📌 NOTE: Do not be confused by the terminology. An entity of a multi-entity account is not the same as a QuickBooks Entity Name (customer, vendor, employee). In the following document, when we refer to an entity, we are only referring to an entity account in a multi-entity environment.
Customization Basics
NOTE: Entities are referred to as Tenants when it comes to fields and tables.
The Tenant table stores each entity for a multi-entity account.
The Name field in the Tenant table corresponds to the account name (organization name) for the head office or entity.
Every other table has a
TenantIDfield to indicate which entity a record belongs to. This corresponds to theRecordIDvalue in the Tenant table.For example, if a head office has zero customers and three entities, and the entities have three customers each, there will be nine customers in the Customer table. The Tenant and Customer table might look like this:
Note that John Smith appears twice, but that's because this customer is in two entity locations, East (
TenantID = 2) and West (TenantID = 3).All dropdowns, grids, reports, and calendars are automatically and invisibly filtered to limit the data to only show records relating to the
TenantIDsigned in. For example, if a user signed into the East entity, which has aTenantIDof 2, they would only see Bob Crenshaw, Craig Crider, and John Smith in the Customer and Leads app.If a record has no
TenantIDspecified, then it is considered global, and shown to everyone.
What values from session options are available?
Multi-entity - Current entity- the currentTenantIDthe user is currently signed into.Multi=entity - Permitted entities- the user's "Permitted entity List", a comma separated list of theTenantIDsthis user has been given access to.
How does filtering work?
By default, objects will show only the records that have no TenantID or that match the TenantID the user is signed in with.
However, if you apply a filter that specifies the TenantID in any way, then your filter will override the default filter. Keep in mind that regardless of which filter you apply, records will still be limited to their Permitted entity List (see previous section).
How does saving work?
If you execute a Save All action on a screen when creating or editing a record:
If the record is a new record and no
TenantIDexists on the screen, the new record will save using theTenantIDthe user signed in with.If the record is an existing record and no
TenantIDfield exists on the screen, then the originalTenantIDis preserved.If a
TenantIDexists on the screen, it is used as an override.
NOTE: Be careful when switching an existing record between different entities for QuickBooks tables. It is not possible to move a record that has been synced with QuickBooks to a different entity without causing a conflict.
How does Retrieve value from a Table work?
If there is no
TenantIDfield specified in the criteria builder, it will default to theTenantIDthe user signed in to. There is a default filter to only select records within the current entity.If you specify a
TenantIDin your criteria builder, you will override the default filter. However, only records accessible in the user's Permitted entity List will show.
Example Scenario:
|
|
1 | Head Office |
2 | Franchisee A |
3 | Franchisee B |
4 | Franchisee C |
A method user, Mary, has been given access to everything except Franchisee C, which would be TenantID = 4 .
SCENARIO 1:
Mary signs into Franchisee A ( TenantID = 2 ). She wants to retrieve a value from the Customer table, and specifies TenantID Greater Than Number Zero .
This will retrieve all the records in the customer table, EXCEPT for any customer that has a TenantID of 4, because Mary does not have access to TenantID = 4 . It is not in her Permitted entity List.
SCENARIO 2:
"Anna Smith" is a customer, and belongs to Franchisee B, ( TenantID = 3 ).
Mary, again, signs into Franchisee A ( TenantID = 2 ).
Mary attempts to Retrieve Values from Table, searching for any record that contains "Anna Smith" in the Name field.
Note that there is no TenantID specified as a condition, so in this case, Anna Smith will not be retrieved. Why? Because Mary is in Franchisee B, and Anna Smith is in Franchisee A, and there is an automatic filter to only search the entity that Mary is currently in.
In order to retrieve Anna Smith, Mary would have had to override the default filter and specify TenantID > 0 . The image below would return Anna Smith's record.
