Many SME customers have more than one location: a chain of shops, a care organisation with several sites, a wholesaler with depots or a group of restaurants. Sooner or later someone asks whether each location should be its own company in the CRM. Without a clear rule, one salesperson creates five records, another keeps one, and the pipeline, ownership and reports stop adding up. Pomio CRM recommends one simple test.
The test: does the branch act as its own customer?
Create a separate company record for a branch when at least one of these is true: it has its own decision maker who can say yes or no, it signs its own contract or order, it is invoiced separately, or it is a separate legal entity with its own registration number. If none of these apply, the locations are part of one customer and belong on one record.
When one record is better
If purchasing is central, there is one contract and one invoice address, splitting the customer over several records only creates work. Deals end up on the wrong location, activity history is scattered and nobody sees the full relationship. Keep one company, store the locations in the address or notes field, and record on each contact which site they work at. Use the legal or trading name rule for the company name, and do not add a city to it unless the branches really need separate records.
When separate records are better
If a franchisee or a regional office decides and pays for itself, it behaves like a separate customer. Give it its own record, its own deals and its own owner, and use a consistent name such as the trading name followed by the location. Note the head office in a field or in the description so colleagues can see the records belong together, and decide in advance who handles group-wide agreements.
Link contacts and deals to the right record
Whichever choice you make, every contact should be linked to a company and every open deal linked to the company that will sign. A deal for one location belongs on that location's record when it is separate, and on the main record when there is only one.
Apply the rule at import and when merging
Most problems arise during imports and clean-ups. Check the rule before importing a list with several addresses per customer, and tell the people who may merge duplicate records that branches invoiced separately are not duplicates, even when the names look almost the same.
How Pomio CRM helps
In Pomio CRM companies, contacts, deals and owners are linked records, so pipeline views and reports follow the structure you choose. Roles decide who may create, edit or merge companies, and the audit log shows who changed what and when.
In short
Give a branch its own company record only when it decides, contracts or is invoiced on its own. Otherwise keep one record with the locations noted, link every contact and deal to the right record, give each separate branch one owner, and apply the same rule at import and when merging.