Articles in this section

See more

Multi-entity setup with legal entities

Beste
  • Updated
Follow

Table of contents

Multi-entity setup allows organizations with multiple legal entities to manage their Leapsome workspace in a structured, entity-aware way. Each user can be assigned to one legal entity, and admins can scope integrations, processes, and access permissions accordingly.

This article explains how to enable and configure the multi-entity setup end-to-end.

Enabling / disabling the legal entity feature

Before you can create and assign legal entities, you need to activate the feature in your workspace settings.

  1. Go to 'Settings'
  2. Select 'Basic settings'
  3. Open the 'Advanced features' section
  4. Check the box next to 'Enable multi-entity setup'
  5. Click 'Save changes'

Once enabled, a new 'Legal entities' section will appear in your Settings, and the Legal entity attribute will become available on all user profiles.

To disable multi-entity setup, follow the same steps and uncheck 'Enable multi-entity setup'. Note that you can only disable this feature while no employee is assigned to a non-primary legal entity. Leapsome will then run in single-entity mode and all legal entity options will be hidden.

Creating new legal entities

After enabling the feature, create the legal entities that reflect your organization's structure.

  1. Go to 'Settings'
  2. Select 'Legal entities'
  3. Click 'Create a new entity'
  4. Enter the entity name and any relevant details
  5. Save the entity

Repeat this process for each legal entity in your organization. The first entity in your account is automatically designated the primary entity. All other entities are secondary entities.

Assigning users to legal entities

Each user can be assigned to exactly one legal entity. You can assign users individually or in bulk.

Assign a single user

  1. Go to the user's profile
  2. Find the 'Legal entity' attribute
  3. Select the appropriate entity
  4. Save the changes

Assign users in bulk

  1. Go to 'Settings'
  2. Open the 'User list'
  3. Select the users you want to update
  4. Use the bulk update action to assign a legal entity

You can also assign legal entities via Excel import. Include a 'Legal entity' column in your import file with the exact entity name.

Assigning different SSO configs per legal entity

If your organization uses Single Sign-On (SSO), you can set up a separate SSO configuration for each legal entity. This is useful when different entities use different identity providers.

To set up SSO for a specific entity:

  1. Go to 'Settings'
  2. Open 'Legal entities'
  3. Click on the legal entity you want to configure, and select 'Configure SSO settings' 
  4. Enter the SSO details for that entity
  5. Save the configuration

Please read here if you would like to to learn more about SSO set up and configuration.

SSO inheritance

Secondary entities can inherit the SSO configuration from the primary entity instead of maintaining their own. This is useful when all entities share the same identity provider.

To configure inheritance:

  1. Open the SSO settings for a secondary entity
  2. Enable the 'Use primary configuration' option
  3. Save the changes

Assigning different DATEV configs per legal entity

If your organization uses DATEV for payroll, you can configure a separate DATEV sync for each legal entity. This allows each entity to maintain its own payroll connection.

To set up DATEV for a specific entity:

  1. Go to 'Settings' > 'Integrations and imports' > 'HRIS integrations' > 'Outbound Provisioning' and select DATEV
  2. In the dropdown, select the legal entity you want to configure
  3. And click on 'Start authorization' to continue with your DATEV setup

DATEV inheritance

Like SSO, secondary entities can inherit the DATEV configuration from the primary entity.

To configure inheritance:

  1. Go to 'Settings' > 'Integrations and imports' > 'HRIS integrations' > 'Outbound Provisioning' and select DATEV
  2. In the dropdown, select the legal entity you want to configure
  3. Enable the 'Use primary configuration' option
  4. Continue your authorization process with DATEV

Please read here if you would like to to learn more about DATEV set up and configuration.

Assigning admin access per legal entity

You can give local HR managers or HRBPs the ability to invite, deactivate, and manage users within their assigned legal entity or scope, without granting full admin access. This is done through access roles with a defined user scope.

Scoped admins can:

  • Invite users within their scope
  • Deactivate users within their scope
  • Bulk-update user attributes within their scope

To configure scoped admin access:

  1. Go to 'Settings' > 'Employees' > 'Access roles'
  2. Create a new access role by clicking on 'New access role'
  3. Give your role a name and assign users to this role on the 'Users with this role' tab
  4. On the 'User scope' tab, select the HRBP scenario 'Yes, for compatible permissions, each user with this role will have access to a different set of users defined at the user-level'
  5. On the 'Permissions' tab, enable the relevant user management permissions. Suggested: Turn the 'Show recommended' toggle on, and enable all the recommended permissions
  6. Navigate to the user's profile that you assigned this role to, and go to the 'Role' tab 

  7. Configure the access scope for your custom role using the 'Legal entities' filter and click 'Save'

Running processes per legal entity

You can scope Leapsome processes, such as surveys and reviews, to specific legal entities using participation rules. This ensures that cycles, surveys, or other processes only include users from the relevant entity.

To scope a process to a legal entity:

  1. Open the process setup (e.g. a survey cycle or review cycle)
  2. Go to the participation rules where you have 'Include' and 'Exclude' options
  3. Add a rule filtering by 'Legal entity'
  4. Select the entity you want to include
  5. Save the configuration

This approach is useful when different entities run separate HR processes on different timelines or with different content.

Survey and review analytics can also be filtered or viewed in aggregate by legal entity. Attribution is based on a demographic snapshot taken at the time of participation, so changes to a user's legal entity after they respond will not affect past results. In those cases, our support team can help with refreshing demographic data. Please get in touch with us if you need help with this by clicking on the 'Support' button in the platform.

Limiting visibility across legal entities

By default, users in your Leapsome workspace can see colleagues across all legal entities. If your organization requires stricter separation, you can restrict visibility so that users only see colleagues within their own legal entity. This restricts user visibility in search, the org chart, the company tab, etc.

This is controlled through Feature Access Matrix. To configure it:

  1. Go to 'Settings' > 'Employees' > 'Feature Access Matrix'
  2. Look for the 'View employees from all legal entities' option and configure it as you wish
  3. Click on 'Save'.

Users with restricted visibility will not be able to search for, mention, or view profiles of colleagues outside their legal entity.

What is shared across all legal entities

Not everything in Leapsome is scoped per legal entity. Some platform elements are intentionally global to keep processes consistent across your organization.

What is set up globally:

  • Workflows, templates for goals, meetings, and reviews, and other process configurations are set up globally by super admins. They can still be triggered per legal entity using participation rules, but the underlying setup is shared. This is intentional, so that processes remain consistent across entities.
  • Public goals, public praise (Instant Feedback), teams and skills (competencies) are shared across all legal entities.

FAQ

  • Can a user belong to more than one legal entity?

No. Each user can be assigned to exactly one legal entity. If a user's entity changes, you can update their assignment at any time via their profile, the user list, or an Excel import.

  • What happens to existing data if I disable multi-entity setup?

When you disable multi-entity setup, Leapsome switches to single-entity mode. All users are moved back to the primary legal entity and all legal entity options are hidden across the platform. You can only disable the feature while no employee is assigned to a non-primary entity.

  • Can each legal entity have its own admin?

Yes. You can use scoped access roles to give local HR managers or HRBPs user management permissions limited to their own entity or user scope. They will not have access to users or settings outside their scope. See the section on assigning admin access above.

Is billing separate per legal entity?

  • No. Billing is centralized across all legal entities in your Leapsome account.

Related articles

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.