Business Units

Business units represent the organisational structure of your company within PinkApple ERP — branches, departments, regional offices, or any other operational grouping. They are the primary mechanism for scoping data, permissions, and reporting.

Key Concepts

Business Unit Types

Before creating business units, you define business unit types. A type is a category or classification of business units.

Examples of business unit types:

• Head Office
• Regional Office
• Branch
• Sub-Branch
• Department

Business unit types form a hierarchy:

Service Root Type (auto-created, hidden)
└── Default Type (auto-created)
    ├── Regional Office (user-created)
    │   └── Branch (user-created)
    └── Department (user-created)

INFO

The Service Root Type is automatically created when a service is provisioned. It's invisible in the UI and acts as the top-level anchor. The Default Type is the first usable type, created beneath it.

Business Units

A business unit is a specific instance of a business unit type. For example:

Business Unit Type	Business Units
Regional Office	Kampala Region, Eastern Region, Western Region
Branch	Main Branch, Jinja Branch, Mbarara Branch
Department	Finance Dept, IT Dept, Operations Dept

Hierarchy Rules

1. Types have parents — Every business unit type (except the service root) has a parent type
2. Units belong to a type — Every business unit is an instance of exactly one type
3. Units have a parent unit — Business units form their own tree (e.g., Jinja Branch reports to Eastern Region)
4. Types stay within their service — A type cannot be moved to a different service's hierarchy
5. Default types are locked — The auto-created default type cannot change its parent

How Business Units Scope Data

Business units are central to data isolation and visibility:

Data	Scoped By
Clients	Business unit where the client was created
Deposit accounts	Business unit of the account
Loan accounts	Business unit of the account
Sub-ledgers	Business unit of the ledger
GL journal batches	Business unit where the batch was created
Transactions	Business unit where the transaction occurred

Visible Business Units

When a user logs in and selects a business unit, the system determines their visible business units — the selected BU plus all its descendants in the hierarchy. A branch manager at "Eastern Region" would see data from Eastern Region, Jinja Branch, and any sub-branches beneath them.

TIP

This means a head-office user with access to the top-level business unit can see data across the entire organisation, while a branch-level user only sees their branch's data.

Business Unit Types vs. Business Units

Aspect	Business Unit Type	Business Unit
Purpose	Classification / category	Actual organisational entity
Example	"Branch"	"Jinja Branch"
Scopes	Roles, COA, GL rules, products	Clients, accounts, transactions, journals
Hierarchy	Type → child types	Unit → child units
Created by	Administrator	Administrator

Setting Up Business Units

See the detailed setup guide: Business Units & Types

Recommended Setup Order

1. Plan your hierarchy — Decide on the types you need (e.g., Region → Branch → Sub-Branch)
2. Create business unit types — Define each type and its parent relationship
3. Create business units — Create actual branches/offices under the appropriate types
4. Assign users — Assign users to specific business units (see Users)

Next Steps

• Multi-Tenancy — How tenant isolation works at the platform level
• Business Units & Types Setup — Step-by-step configuration guide