Vendors and Vendor Offices: What They Are and How They Work

Quick answer

When you work with a client in Brightflag, your firm is set up as a Vendor, and within that, you're assigned to one or more Vendor Offices, which represent your firm's specific locations or billing units for that client (for example, your London office or your New York office).

Your client sets this structure up on their side, not you. What you see and can do in Brightflag depends on whether you have access to just your own office or to all of your firm's offices for that client.

What is a Vendor?

A Vendor is how your firm is represented inside a specific client's Brightflag account. It's the overall firm-level record, for example, "Smith Jones LLP".

Each client you work with sets this up independently, so your firm might be structured slightly differently from one client to the next, depending on how that client chooses to organise things.

What is a Vendor Office?

A Vendor Office is a specific location or billing unit within your firm, set up under the vendor record. This is the level that most of your day-to-day work in Brightflag actually happens at:

• The matters you're working on are tied to a specific office.
• The invoices you submit are tied to that office.
• Your login and user access are granted at the office level, unless you've been given wider access.

If your firm has locations in more than one city, or bills a client through more than one entity, you may see those set up as separate offices for that client, even though it's all one firm.

How do Vendor Firm and Vendor Office fit together?

Think of it as one firm, potentially many offices underneath it. Your firm is known on Brightflag as a (Legal) Vendor. Each location or billing unit your client has set up for you is a Vendor Office sitting under that Vendor firm.

Every office belongs to exactly one firm, but a firm can have several offices, especially if it's a larger firm with multiple locations working for the same client.

Why is my firm split into offices like this?

This structure exists for a few practical reasons that matter to you as a vendor user:

• Billing accuracy. If your firm bills a client from different locations, currencies, or legal entities, keeping these as separate offices helps make sure your invoices go to the right place and aren't rejected for entity or currency mismatches.
• Access that matches who's actually doing the work. Colleagues in one office generally shouldn't need visibility into matters or invoices being handled by a completely different office of your firm, especially if those offices are working on different, unrelated matters for the same client. Office-level access keeps this scoped appropriately.
• Cleaner setup if your firm changes. If your firm restructures, merges, or adds a new location, having offices as distinct records makes it easier for your client to update their side without disrupting other offices' existing matters and invoices.

How do I see everything across my firm's offices?

This depends on the level of access you've been given by your client, not something you can change yourself:

• If you have Vendor Admin access for a client, you can see everything associated with all offices belonging to your firm for that client, view all matters and invoices firm-wide, and manage users across every office. Please note, you need to toggle between each office to see data relating to a specific office, as Vendor admins cannot see all data in one single view.
• If you only have office-level access, you'll only see the matters, invoices, and users within your own office, even if your firm has other offices working for the same client.
• If you belong to more than one office, or work across more than one firm within Brightflag, you can move between them using the office and firm switcher once logged in. See: How Do I Switch Between Offices & Firms in Brightflag.

If you believe you should have visibility into more than you're currently seeing, this is managed by your firm's Vendor Admin or by the client directly. Brightflag Support cannot change your access level.

What if I work with multiple clients?

Each client's Brightflag account is separate, and each one sets up your firm's vendor and office structure on their own terms. This means:

• Your office structure and your access level can look different from one client to another.
• Being a Vendor Admin for one client does not carry over to another client. Access is granted per client.
• You can move between the different clients you work with using the client switcher. See: How Do I Switch Between Clients in Brightflag?