What are Parent and Child accounts and how do I use them?

In this article, you will learn all about the Parent and Child accounts, as well as, how to use them in conjunction with one another.

Types of accounts

There are four different kinds of accounts available for use with the platform:

Has no Parent account.
Can still have access to content via Library Deals.
If account switcher enabled is turned on, then users can link between stand-alone accounts - This means that you can have multiple stand-alone companies with users in each company that are linked together via this link feature.

Contact our support team if you would like to have account switcher enabled.

Only used to house content that gets shared.

It is important to turn off all company features except what is necessary for the library to simplify navigation.

Users should never consume content via this account.
Public Libraries - will show on Our ecosystem page.

Private Libraries - will not show on Our ecosystem page.

Content partner page settings will only show for super admin users within a library company

Similar to Library - the only difference is a parent company has child companies set up.
Used by companies with more than one account, so that content can be managed centrally and shared.

It is important to turn off all company features except what is necessary, and this will simplify navigation.

Should only have users with system roles: Owners, admins, and curators.
Users may be configured to switch into child accounts, although Curators won't see the account switcher regardless of the configuration set.
Admin/Owner users will only see associated child accounts in the account switcher drop-down menu.

Similar to Stand Alone - the only difference is a child company has a parent company.
If account switcher enabled is turned on in the Admin panel, then for users with an account in each company, it is possible to link these accounts as long as the email address in each account is the same. - DO NOT TURN ON IF NOT REQUIRED, AS THIS FEATURE CAN CAUSE CONFUSION.

Contact our support team if you would like to have account switcher enabled.

How content sharing works with Library Deals

Content from a Library is managed within the Manage Libraries tab. This is where all active Library deals are shown for the company. Although, Library accounts have a tab called - Library Deals instead.

Library Deals are the mechanism by which content is shared between a Library and any other company.

You have to set up a deal per target company within the Library or Parent account.

Library Deals can have start/end dates - Users will receive an error message (access denied) when trying to open content from an expired Library deal.

Library Deals can be set up so that all content within the Library is accessible to the target company, or it can be set up so that only a subset of content is accessible to the target company.

Library Deals can be set up as unlimited (so that all users within the target company can access the content) or they can be set up as limited by licenses (by counting and limiting the number of unique users accessing content).

You can edit a Library Deal via the Library/Parent account by:

In the top navigation bar, click on Library Deals
Click on the three pips next to the deal
Select Edit library deal
Make your changes
Click on Update Deal

Best Practice: If an end date is not needed just set the expiry date as far out as possible.

The default visibility of content within the target company can be set to: Hidden, Only visible when assigned, or, Everyone at the company.

Content from Libraries can be placed into Learnlists/Channels that belong to the company and/or might be curated into Learnlists/Channels at a Library level and then shared down to child companies via a deal.

Content shared through a Library deal is NOT copied into the target company - It is not cloned content, it is the same item that is being accessed by multiple companies, so any changes made to content within the Library will instantly be visible to all companies who access that Item/Learnlist/Channel.

Account switching

There are currently two kinds of account switching: Linking and Switching.

Linking

e.g. The same person needs separate accounts in each company because they do their own compliance training as an employee, but they also manage several contractors

Multiple users, one in each company.
Each user may have the same email address (but this is not a requirement).
When a user logs in, the system checks to see if there are any users with the same email address, if there are, then the system ‘links’ the accounts automatically. This means users don’t necessarily have to click the + icon to link their accounts.
Clicking the icon will log the person out of one user, and log them in as another user.
Each specific user stays associated with their company.

Switching

e.g. A Small group of Admins who need to manage content centrally within Parent, but also want to be able to switch to Child companies

One single user only.
You cannot switch to a company where there is a user already with the same email address.

User in company A and a user in company B with the same email address - An admin with the same email address as these users will not be able to use the switcher. The admin user will receive the error 500 message as the system won’t be able to temporarily reassign the user to the other companies, due to the email address already being used by another user.

For switching to work in a Library/Parent account, the user must have the role of Admin or Owner.
Switching this way will keep the same user logged in, but will temporarily change which company they belong to.
If the user does not switch back to their default then they will stay logged into the account they’ve switched to.
Only takes up one license per admin.

Tips

Quizzes can be shared as part of Library Deals - Quiz responses are stored in the Child account.
Cloning a Learnlist between accounts has to be done by our Tech Support team.

In terms of setting tasks, activity tracking happens at the Child/Stand Alone account level. It is currently not possible to set tasks at the Parent level for all Child accounts. Although, there are some reports that can be viewed at the Parent level that reflect activity from all Child accounts:

Company Dashboard in the Parent account is where users can see activity from their child accounts.
Content and People Logs in the Parent account will only show assigned content.
Activity Log in Parent account should show activity for all Child companies.