Legal Entities
A legal entity is a company or organization that is formally registered under the law and recognized as a separate legal unit from its owners or parent company. This recognition allows the entity to enter into contracts, own assets, incur liabilities, and comply with regulations in its jurisdiction. Large corporations often register multiple legal entities in different countries or regions to comply with local laws, manage taxes, and conduct business efficiently.
Organizations create legal entities to:
- Comply with local labor, tax, and data protection laws.
- Hire local employees under appropriate employment contracts.
- Sign client or vendor contracts specific to that legal jurisdiction.
- Operate bank accounts and handle local billing and invoicing.
- Ensure limited liability and legal separation from the parent company.
In the system, each legal entity must be represented by a unique record to ensure accurate tracking of contracts, transactions, and compliance. Customers and suppliers that operate in multiple regions must create separate records for each legal entity. Each record name must match the official legal entity name. For example, if Nova India Pvt. Ltd. signs an agreement with Microsoft, the contract is recorded with the supplier's legal entity — such as Microsoft Corporation USA (for North America) or Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd. (for Europe).
A single legal entity can support multiple business units, and conversely, a business unit may be associated with multiple legal entities. For instance:
- Nova India Pvt. Ltd. might support both Product Development and Customer Support business units.
- Nova UK Ltd. might handle Sales and Implementation Services for EMEA clients.
- A cloud services agreement in Germany is signed between Nova UK Ltd. and the European client's legal entity.
- A software license purchase in India is signed through Nova India Pvt. Ltd.
The system routes all transactions (invoicing, billing, tax reporting) through the appropriate legal entity.
At contract creation, the user must search for and select the correct supplier or customer legal entity to ensure enforceability and compliance.
Unlike business units, which clients use internally (for example, Nova India's Cloud Services business unit for reporting or approvals), legal entities apply to both the client and external parties (suppliers and customers). This ensures contracts are legally enforceable and compliant with regional laws.
Managing Legal Entities
Prerequisite: The administrator must grant users the necessary permissions to view and manage Legal Entities under Shared Apps.
You can manage legal entities in Conga CLM through the Legal Entities list page. From here, you can view, customize, and create, edit, delete, or export records as needed.
Click the App Launcher icon () and select to view the Legal Entities list page.
For more details on adjusting columns, filters, and layouts, refer to Customize List Views.
