Within the business landscape, many enterprises operate with a central head office, referred to as the parent account, accompanied by an array of subsidiary branch offices, known as child accounts. These child accounts can include divisions or branches of the same overarching company linked to the primary parent account.

Consider a scenario where you are engaging in business discussions with a company like "Acme Communications." Imagine the advantage of already being aware that one of their major divisions is already a valued customer. The "Account Hierarchy" feature helps with the identification of such associations, empowering you to capitalize on these connections and accelerate deal closures.

How to enable parent field?

To enable the parent field in Accounts,

1. Login to the CRM and go to Admin Settings > Leads, Contacts & Accounts > Accounts.
   
   

2. If the field parent account is not present in the Accounts page, click Add field, search for parent account and click Add Selected.

Let us see how to link all associated accounts.

1. In the left nav bar, go to CONTACTS AND ACCOUNTS > Accounts,

2. Choose a child account and click Edit.
   

3. Now, associate it with the parent account using the Parent Account field.

4. Enter the parent account name you want to map it to.

5. Click Save.
   
   

Alternatively, you can click the Account Hierarchy icon (inverted fork) under account name in the account details landing page.

Note: A sales account can have only one parent account. But, they may have multiple child accounts.

Account Hierarchy: How do I view all child accounts from a parent account

1. Go to the Account landing page.

2. Open the Account details section on the left pane, and click on the Account hierarchy icon next to Account details to view the child accounts.
   
   

3. You can expand the column width to accommodate longer hierarchies.
   

4. You can also customize the number of columns to be displayed. The CRM supports up to 8 columns in the Hierarchy view.
   

5. You can also add/update the parent account right from the Hierarchy screen. 
6. Users who do not have the necessary permissions to view an account will be unable to view details of the said account.
   
   

Watch the detailed video to learn more about Account Hierarchy in Freshsales.

What is the maximum level of hierarchy that is allowed?

Twenty-five nested parent accounts can be created.

How many child accounts can one parent have?

A maximum of 250 child accounts can be created for a single-parent account. A hierarchy tree can have 5,000 accounts at the max.

Note:
1. Parent-child account association is not supported in 
    a.Data Migration
    b.Workflow automation
2. If a user has access to the parent account, then by default she/he has access to all associated child accounts.