Maintain company data, contacts and verification – a client's master data

If you operate a reporting office for a client, you need reliable information about that company: its company name and address, its size, whether the works council has approved, how employees were informed about the reporting office, and above all who is responsible at the client. You maintain this information on the organisation's “Basic data” tab. To keep it current, you have the client confirm and correct their data via a personal link. The first section of the tab, with “Organisation”, “Note”, “Responsible organisation” and the links to the data protection and legal notices, is described in Maintain an organisation's basic data – reporting office and legal details.

Prerequisites

• You have the team role “Administrator” and are assigned to the organisation. Without this role you do not see the “Edit”, “New” and “Actions” buttons.
• You are on the detail page of the organisation, “Basic data” tab.

Structure of the “Basic data” tab

The tab is divided into sections. The bar at the top of the tab jumps directly to a section.

• “Basic data” – core data of the organisation and information shown in the reporting form.
• “Company details” – company name, address, contact details and size of the company.
• “Information for employees” – how employees were informed about the reporting office.
• “Payment details” – information for your own billing of this client.
• “Contact person” – contact persons at the client, each with their role.
• “Verifications” – the client confirms their data, once or regularly.

Your own changes in these sections apply immediately, even when the organisation is already verified. They do not need to be confirmed by the client.

Edit company details and information for employees

1. In the “Company details” section, click “Edit”. A side panel titled “Company details” opens.
2. Adjust “Name/Company name”, “Street/House number”, “Postcode”, “City”, “Website”, “General email”, “General telephone number” and “Number of employees”.
3. For “The works council has given its approval”, choose “Yes”, “No” or “No works council”.
4. In the “Information for employees” area, tick “Quality Manual”, “Intranet” or “Staff Information Sheet”, depending on the channels through which employees were informed.
5. Click “Save”.

The message “The changes have been saved successfully.” appears. Both sections show the new values immediately; “Information for employees” shows “Yes” or “No” for each channel.

Edit payment details

1. In the “Payment details” section, click “Edit”. A side panel titled “Payment details” opens.
2. Tick “SEPA Direct Debit” if the client pays by SEPA direct debit.
3. Enter the “Account holder”, “IBAN” and “BIC”, and under “Sending invoices by email” the address for invoices.
4. Click “Save”.

The client sees the payment details in the confirmation link and can correct them there.

Maintain contact persons

The “Contact person” table shows “Role”, “Name”, “Position”, “Email”, “Phone” and the state of the email address for each person: “Pending”, “Confirmed” or “Not responsible”. As long as nobody has been added, it shows “No contact persons have been entered yet.”

Roles

• “Management” – required role.
• “1. Contact person for reports” – required role.
• “2. Contact person (deputy)”
• “Data Protection Officer” – with address.
• “Supervisory Board (Chair)” – with address.
• “Other” – for further people who do not match any of the other roles.

If a required role is missing, the “Verifications” section names it under “Lack of designated contact persons”.

Add a contact person

1. In the “Contact person” section, click “New”. A side panel opens with the heading “Create a contact”.
2. Choose the “Role”.
3. Under “Contact”, fill in “Name” and “Email”, and if needed “Position”, “Phone” and “Mobile”. For “Data Protection Officer” and “Supervisory Board (Chair)”, “Street/House number”, “Postcode” and “City” are added.
4. Click “Save”.

“Role”, “Name” and “Email” are required. The note below the “Email” field says that the person receives an email to confirm the address. Until the person has done so, their email address shows “Pending”.

View and edit a contact person

1. Click a row of the table. A side panel with the person's name opens. Under “Contact” it shows the role and contact details; under “Confirmation” it shows the state of the email address (“Pending”, “Confirmed” with date, or “Not responsible”), “Change link” (whether the person receives the permanent change link) and “User account” (“None (contact without logging in)” or the user account with its role).
2. To make changes, click “Edit”. The side panel “Edit contact details” opens.
3. Adjust the fields and click “Save”.

Resend the confirmation email

1. Open the contact person and click “Actions”.
2. Choose “Resend confirmation email”.

A message confirms that the confirmation email was sent again. An earlier confirmation link to this person no longer works afterwards.

Invite a contact person as a user

A contact person has no access to the application at first. If they are to work on reports themselves, invite them as a user.

1. Open the contact person, click “Actions” and choose “Invite a user”. The side panel names the person and the organisation they will be assigned to, and notes that the contact person stays unchanged.
2. “Email” is prefilled with the contact person's address.
3. Check the “Role”. For “1. Contact person for reports”, “Ombudsperson” is preselected; for “2. Contact person (deputy)”, “Deputy Ombudsman”. Change the role if needed.
4. Tick “Enforce two-factor authentication” if needed.
5. Click “Invite”.

A message confirms that the invitation was sent to the person's email address. The person receives an email to confirm their access. In the contact person's side panel, “User account” then shows the new account with its role; you then manage that role under “Settings → Users”.

Delete a contact person

1. Open the contact person, click “Actions” and choose “Delete”.
2. The dialog “Really delete?” appears, saying that the contact person will be deleted and that this cannot be undone.
3. Click “Delete”.

What happens when you add or change contact persons

• A new contact person, and a contact person whose email address was changed, receive an email saying that they were named as a contact person of the reporting office. In it they confirm their address or say that they are not responsible.
• If a contact person's email address is changed or the contact person is removed, the previous address receives a message.
• If a person says they are not responsible, the team's administrators receive an email notification. The table then shows “Not responsible”; replace the person.

Set up verification

The “Verifications” section shows the organisation's “Status”: “Draft” (never requested), “Verification requested” (first request running), “Verified” (the client has confirmed) or “Not verified” (a request expired without an answer). Next to it are “Last confirmed” with the date, name and email address of the confirming person, “Open feedback” and, if a required role is missing, “Lack of designated contact persons”. The confirmation and the name of the confirming person are stored, so you can show at any time when the client last confirmed their data.

1. In the “Verifications” section, click “Edit”. A side panel opens with the heading “Edit verification”.
2. Under “Automatic verification requests”: tick “Ask customers regularly to confirm their details” if the application should ask regularly, and choose the “Interval”: “Annually”, “Every six months” or “Quarterly”. The interval is calculated from the last confirmation.
3. Under “Recipient”: choose a contact person or “Different email address”. With “Different email address”, a required email address field appears. The recipient is also preselected for “Send to confirm”.
4. If needed, enter further addresses under “Copy to”, one email address per line.
5. Choose the “Language”, for example “German”. It applies to all emails to the client and to the forms they open.
6. Under “Permanent edit link”: at “Send to”, tick each contact person who should be able to report changes at any time.
7. Click “Save”.

If you choose “Different email address” and leave the field empty, a message at the field asks you to enter an email address.

Practical tip: the permanent change link is only sent to a person once they have confirmed their email address. If their address still shows “Pending” in the “Contact person” table, they receive the link automatically after confirming. If a person is deselected under “Send to”, their link stops working.

Send to confirm

1. In the “Verifications” section, click “Send to confirm”.
2. The dialog “Send for confirmation?” appears. It explains that the client receives a personal link that is valid for 14 days and once, where they confirm, correct or add to the company details and contact persons, and that a reminder follows after 5 days without an answer.
3. Click “Send”.

A message confirms that the confirmation request was sent to the recipient's address. Under “Feedback” a new “Confirmation request” row appears with the status “Open”, waiting for the “Customer”. If the organisation was still a “Draft”, the status changes to “Verification requested”; an organisation that is already “Verified” stays “Verified”.

If no recipient is set, nothing is sent, and a message asks you to set a recipient under “Verifications” first.

What the client sees

All pages for the client are public and need no login. They appear in the language you chose under “Language”.

The confirmation link in three steps

The recipient receives an email with the personal link; the addresses under “Copy to” receive a copy. The link opens the page “Please check your details” with your team's name in the header and the date the link expires.

1. “Company”: the company details, the information for employees and the payment details are prefilled with the stored values. The client corrects whatever is wrong and clicks “Next”.
2. “Contact persons”: for each recorded role the client sees the name and contact details and corrects them if needed. Under “Add a contact person” they add missing people; only roles that are not yet filled are offered, plus “Other”.
3. “Confirm”: the client enters “Your name”, ticks “I confirm that the information provided is correct and complete.” and clicks “Confirm data”. The note below the tick says that their name, email address and the time are stored.

The organisation then shows “Verified” for you. If the client corrected or added anything, a feedback item of type “Amendment” is created as well. If the link has already been used or has expired, the page shows “This link is no longer valid”; “Request a new link” sends a new link to the stored recipient. Pages for invalid links show no stored data.

The permanent change link

Contact persons you selected under “Permanent edit link” receive an email with the change link. On the “Report a change” page they report changes at any time, without waiting for a confirmation request:

• Under “What’s changing?” they choose a field, for example “City” or “IBAN”, and enter the new value in “New value”, or they report another person or new contact details for a role, or that a role no longer applies.
• “Further amendment” adds more rows; in the “Note” field they can explain, for example, from when the change applies.

The change link does not show the stored data, because it stays valid permanently; the contact person only enters the new values. The link stays valid after submitting.

Confirming an email address as a contact person

Every newly named contact person receives an email saying that they were named as a contact person of the reporting office. On the “Confirm email address” page the person confirms by clicking “Confirm email address”; merely opening the link is not enough, so that automatic link checks in email programs do not trigger anything. If they are not responsible, they follow the “not responsible” link in the email and click “I’m not the right person to ask”. Your “Contact person” table then shows “Confirmed” or “Not responsible”.

Review feedback

The “Feedback” subsection lists all requests to the client (“Confirmation request”) and all changes the client has reported (“Amendment”), with “By”, “Received on”, “Status”, “Waiting for” (“Customer” or “Team”) and “Changed fields”. If feedback is waiting for you, the “Basic data” tab shows the count as a red number.

Clicking a row opens the “Feedback” side panel. The changes table lists “Field”, “So far” and “New” for each change; a plain confirmation shows “Confirmation of all data, with no individual changes.” For an amendment it also shows the client's “Note”.

Adopt all changes

1. Open an “Amendment” that is waiting for “Team”.
2. Click “Apply all”.

A message confirms that the change was adopted and the customer is informed.

Adopt selected changes

1. Open the feedback item and untick, in the changes table, the changes you do not want to adopt.
2. Click “Actions” and choose “Apply selected items”.

A message confirms that the selected changes were adopted. The item then shows “Partially adopted”. Adopted values appear immediately in the “Company details”, “Payment details” and “Contact person” sections. A person newly named by the client is created as a contact person and receives an email to confirm their address.

Reject a change

1. Open the feedback item, click “Actions” and choose “Decline”.
2. The dialog “Reject the change?” appears. In the required field “Reason given to the customer”, enter why you do not adopt the change.
3. Click “Decline”.

A message confirms that the change was rejected and the customer is informed. The client receives your reason by email.

Remind the client of an open confirmation request

1. Open the open “Confirmation request”.
2. Click “Send a reminder”.

A message confirms that the reminder was sent. The reminder contains a new link; the link from the first email no longer works.

Withdraw a confirmation request

1. Open the open “Confirmation request”, click “Actions” and choose “Withdraw”.
2. The dialog “Withdraw the enquiry?” appears, noting that the link to the customer will stop working.
3. Click “Withdraw”.

A message confirms that the request was withdrawn and the link no longer works. If the organisation showed “Verification requested”, it returns to “Draft”, or to “Verified” if it has been confirmed before.

What happens automatically

• If the client does not answer, the application automatically sends a reminder after 5 days.
• The confirmation link is valid for 14 days and only once. Only the link from the latest email works.
• If a request expires without an answer, the item shows “Expired” and the organisation “Not verified”. The team's administrators receive an email notification.
• With automatic verification requests enabled, the application sends the next request itself once the interval since the last confirmation has passed. The “By” column then shows “System”. “Request automatically” shows the interval and, once known, the date of the next request.
• When the client confirms their data or reports changes, the team's administrators receive an email notification.
• After “Apply all”, “Apply selected items” or “Decline”, the client receives an email saying whether their change was adopted, partially adopted or not adopted.