> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vestrapay.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Partners > Give an outside party read-only visibility of the settlement share they are owed, without giving them access to your business. A partner is an outside party who is owed part of the money you collect and needs to see it settle. Typical examples are a regulator, an agency, an insurer, a franchisor or a school's parent body. In the usual arrangement you would send them a report each month. With partner users, they sign in and look for themselves. A partner is **not** a member of your team. They cannot see your payments, customers, keys, balances or settings. They see only the settlements that paid the shares you have chosen to grant them, in the services you chose. You manage partners in the merchant dashboard under **Settings β†’ Partner users**. > [card] [Invite and manage partners](https://docs.vestrapay.com/partners/access.md) > > Add a partner user, choose what they can see, and manage their access. > [card] [Splits](https://docs.vestrapay.com/services/splits.md) > > Partners are tied to the splits you configure. Set these up first. ## How partners relate to splits Partner access builds on the [services and splits](https://docs.vestrapay.com/services/overview.md) model. Each service is divided into named splits, and each split pays a bank account. When you add a partner user, you assign service permissions: the services they may see and, within each, the splits they are entitled to. Their dashboard then reports what those splits received. This is why one rule matters above the others: access is granted **per split, not per account**. One bank account can back several splits, for example a licence fee and a levy that both pay a regulator. If access followed accounts, you could not show a partner one and hide the other. Granting by split keeps each partner's view exact. A service can only be assigned to a partner once it has split accounts. If you have none yet, the **Partner users** page tells you to add split accounts on a service first. ## What a partner sees After signing in, a partner sees a dashboard scoped to one workspace, which is one merchant they have been added to. It reports: * **Summary figures** for a date range: the total transaction volume of their services, the number of transactions, and the total settled to their accounts. * **Charts** showing how their volume divides across services, and activity month by month. * **Settlement history**, with one row for each settlement and each of their own bank accounts. Money settled into different accounts is never added together, and accounts belonging to others are never shown. * **Settlement details** for any row, listing the contributing services and, for each, the splits that paid the account. They can filter by date and by service, and search by settlement ID or service name. ### Full view and Partial view When you assign a service to a partner, you choose how that partner sees the base amount for the service. The choice is made for each service. | Choice | What the partner sees for the service | | - | - | | Full view | The total the service received, alongside their own share. Use it where the partner is entitled to see the whole of the service's takings, such as a parent body that audits a unit. | | Partial view | Only the amount equal to their own share. Use it where other participants' amounts are none of the partner's business. | You can choose a different view for each service, so one partner can have full visibility of one service and a restricted view of another. ## Workspaces A partner is identified by their email address, and that address works across every merchant on Vestrapay. If one organisation is owed money by several merchants, it needs only one login. Each merchant that adds them creates a separate **workspace**. * When a partner signs in, they choose a workspace. Everything they then see belongs to that merchant alone. * Switching workspace replaces the scope entirely. Nothing carries over from the previous one. * Suspending a partner affects only your workspace. Their access to other merchants is untouched. Because the same email is used everywhere, a partner must have an address of their own. An email that already belongs to a merchant or team account on Vestrapay cannot be used. The dashboard rejects it, and the underlying error is `email_already_registered`. Ask the partner for a different address. ## Before you add a partner **1. Create services and splits** Add the [services](https://docs.vestrapay.com/services/overview.md), [sub-accounts](https://docs.vestrapay.com/services/subaccounts.md) and [splits](https://docs.vestrapay.com/services/splits.md) that the partner will be tied to. A service with no splits cannot be assigned, because there is nothing for the partner to see. **2. Open Partner users** Go to **Settings β†’ Partner users**. **3. Add the partner user** Choose **Add partner user** and follow the steps in [Invite and manage partners](https://docs.vestrapay.com/partners/access.md). Adding or changing partners needs full access to **Settings** in your team role. Viewing them needs read access. If an invitation fails with `partner_access_not_enabled`, contact [tech@vestrapay.com](mailto:tech@vestrapay.com). ## The invitation What happens next depends on whether the email already has a Vestrapay partner account. | The email is… | What happens | | - | - | | New to Vestrapay | The partner receives an invitation to create a password, and is shown as invited until they do. The link is valid for 48 hours. | | Already a partner of another merchant | They already have a password, so the workspace is available straight away and they are active. They receive an email with a link to the partner sign-in page. | | Already a merchant owner, team member or Vestrapay staff address | Not allowed. Use a different address. | If an invitation lapses, choose **Resend invite** from **Settings β†’ Partner users**. Resending invalidates the earlier link. ## Statuses | Status | Meaning | | - | - | | Invited | The partner has been added but has not yet created a password. | | Active | The partner can sign in and select the workspace. | | Suspended | Access to your workspace is stopped at once. Other workspaces are unaffected. | Choosing **Activate** on a suspended partner restores access immediately. If they never accepted their invitation, they return to invited instead and still have to complete it. ## Good practice * **Grant the least that works.** Prefer Partial view unless the partner needs to see whole-service totals. * **Review access when splits change.** If you restructure a service, check the partners attached to it. * **Use shared mailboxes carefully.** A partner login is identified by an email address. Prefer an address that your partner organisation controls. * **Suspend when in doubt.** Suspending takes effect at once and can be reversed with **Activate**. ## Next [Invite and manage partners](https://docs.vestrapay.com/partners/access.md) in the dashboard. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.