Why companies come first
In this application, a company is not just an address book entry. It is the container for branding, defaults, template scope, and document numbering behavior. If company data is sloppy, everything built on top of it becomes inconsistent.
What the company resource stores
- Identity: company name, description, industry, founded year, employee count
- Contact: email, phone, website, and address
- Branding: uploaded company logo
- Operational defaults: active status, default currency, timezone, date format
- Reference numbering: sequence start and custom reference-number format
Why reference format matters
Reference numbers are often the first thing auditors, HR teams, and external recipients use to identify a document. A predictable format makes searching, filing, and explaining a letter much easier.
Reference format tokens
You can build formats such as:
ECT/HR/{{seq:4}}/{{month_name_am}}/{{year_short_am}}
Useful token categories include:
- Sequence tokens:
{{seq}},{{seq:4}},{{seq:5}} - Year tokens:
{{year}},{{year_short}},{{year_am}},{{year_short_am}} - Month tokens:
{{month}},{{month_name}},{{month_name_am}},{{month_short}} - Context tokens:
{{company_name}},{{letter_type}}
Company template studio
The company resource also exposes internal and external template studio pages. These are separate from the letter template resource and are best understood as company-level layout or shell design tools for branded output.
- There are dedicated pages for Internal Templates and External Templates.
- The external template studio uses a visual designer with presets and merge tags.
- Teams can load a preset, modify the structure, and save the design back to the company.
- These layouts help enforce a consistent branded look independent of the wording inside each letter type.
Edge cases to watch
- Inactive companies: the UI hints that inactive companies should not generate letters, so treat that flag as operationally significant.
- Sequence start changes: changing this after production use may confuse human numbering expectations.
- Company naming changes: if your reference format includes company name, renaming a company affects future references.
- Timezone/date format drift: these settings can subtly change how users interpret generated dates.
Professional setup advice
- Agree on one official company name format before importing employees.
- Decide whether reference numbers should be human-friendly, audit-friendly, or both.
- Keep branding assets high quality and consistent in aspect ratio.
- Document why a company uses a particular numbering scheme so future admins do not “simplify” it incorrectly.
When to create separate companies
Create separate company records when branding, numbering rules, template sets, or operational ownership differ in a meaningful way. Do not create separate companies just because departments differ unless the document program truly needs separate governance.