Answer
A Lightning Payroll subscription does not limit the number of companies you can have; it only limits the total number of employees across all companies, depending on the license level you have. In some circumstances, our customers share their subscription with their accountant/bookkeeper since our subscription allows for 2 seats per license. If your client does not wish to share their license, you are able to have your own license, which you can process payroll with instead.
You can manage client backups in two ways:
- Have all companies on one database, using the Entities button to switch between companies; or
- Have each company on a separate database, and use Tools >> Restore Backup and Tools >> Create Backup to save and restore work.
We advise caution when sharing backups between parties, as it can result in a loss of data and, ultimately, a loss of your clients’ information. You can see here for best practices to ensure that your data does not become overwritten/lost.
We have instructions on how you are able to manage your backups, which you can read here.
Lastly, a Tax Agent simply needs to have their own machine credential (attached to their own ABN) in order to process Single Touch Payroll on their clients’ behalf. You can read about how to submit STP as a Tax Agent or Supplier in our FAQ here.