Registration Authority
A registration authority is whoever issues a registration number: the tax authority behind a national tax number, the revenue board behind a sales tax number, the authority behind the identity card. A few of these are shipped with the system and cannot be deleted, because the registration numbers they issue are the ones every company needs.
What it is for
Every company quotes registration numbers on its paperwork, and each number was issued by a body. Naming those bodies once keeps the numbers consistent, and makes it possible to print them properly on an invoice or a letter.
Some of the records in this list arrive with the system, marked Predefined, because they are the authorities behind the numbers the rest of the system expects to find: the tax numbers and the identity card. Those cannot be deleted. You can add your own alongside them.
This list is small and it should stay small. One record per issuing body, not one per number.
Every field, in plain words
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration Authority | Your short code for the issuing body. | FBR | Required. It must be unique. |
| Name | The body as it should read on paperwork. | Federal Board of Revenue | Required. |
| Related To Government | Whether this is a government body. | Tick it for the revenue board or the identity authority. | It records what kind of body it is. Nothing is calculated from it. |
| Primary For Country | The country this is the main authority for. | Pakistan | Optional, picked from the country list. Fill it where a group has to resolve to one default authority per country. |
| Predefined | Whether this record was shipped with the system. | Read only. You cannot set it. | A record with this ticked cannot be deleted. The refusal names the record. |
How to configure it
- Open Registration Authority and read what is already there. The tax and identity authorities are usually present already and marked Predefined.
- Add a record for any further issuing body the client quotes a number from. Type the code and the full name.
- Tick Related To Government for the government bodies.
- Set Primary For Country where the client operates in more than one country.
- Save, then go to Registration Group and build the kinds of number on top of these authorities.
Scenarios
"Our provincial sales tax number comes from a different body than the federal one"
Two records, one per body. Each registration number then names the body that actually issued it, which is what an auditor asks for.
"I tried to tidy up the list and it refused to delete one"
That record is Predefined, meaning it came with the system. Leave it. Deleting it would break the numbers that depend on it.
What it is connected to
- Read by Registration Group, which can name a default authority for a kind of number, and by Registration, where each number names its issuer.
- The predefined records exist because the standard tax and identity numbers are built on them.
- The employee equivalent is Identification Authority in People Directory, which issues the documents a person holds.
If something looks wrong
- "The save says the code cannot be empty" - both the code and the name are required.
- "The save says it already exists" - that code is already used. Codes must be unique.
- "It says it cannot delete this one because it is predefined" - that is correct and there is no way round it. A record shipped with the system stays.