A legal entity in PeopleForce is a registered company that your employees are legally employed by. If your organisation runs several companies, for example one per country, you can record each one, assign people to it, filter and report by it, and have documents signed on its behalf.
Where to manage legal entities
Go to Settings → General → Legal entities. The page shows a table with the columns Name, Country, Registration number and People. The default entity is always listed first and the others follow in alphabetical order. Use the search box to find an entity by name, or filter the list by Country.
To see who belongs to an entity, click its row. The People in this entity panel lists current employees with their job titles (and a Starts on column if you can see hire dates). You can search by name, and clicking a person opens their profile in a new tab.
Create a legal entity
Go to Settings → General → Legal entities and click New legal entity.
In the General step, under Company details, enter the Name and choose a Country.
Enter the registration number. The field label changes with the country: EDRPOU, NIP or Company registration number.
If the City field appears, enter the registration city.
Go to the eSignature setup step and set up the stamp and signatories (see the next section).
Click Create legal entity.
If a field has an error, the wizard opens the step that contains it. For example, a Ukrainian number that isn't 8 digits shows the error "must contain 8 digits".
Set up the eSignature stamp
The eSignature setup step controls how the entity appears on documents signed on its behalf.
Under eSignature details, choose what the stamp shows: Company name (on by default), Company identifier — the EDRPOU, NIP or company registration number (on by default) — and Company representative (off by default).
If you turn on Company representative, choose the employee who is officially authorised to sign for the company.
Under Authorized signatories, choose the employees who can sign on behalf of the company. You can choose more than one person.
Check the eSignature preview on the right: it shows Signed in PeopleForce around the edge, the lines you turned on and a "Signed on" date.
Save the legal entity.
Sign documents on behalf of a legal entity
You can request a signature on behalf of a legal entity when you send documents through Upload & distribute files or Split & distribute PDF. This works only with the PeopleSign provider and the Simple Electronic Signature type (PeopleSign is available on the Professional plan). Other providers and signature types, including PeopleSign's Advanced Electronic Signature, don't add the stamp.
Tick Request eSignature and choose PeopleSign with Simple Electronic Signature.
Tick Include legal entity signature.
Choose the legal entity, then choose one of its authorized signatories. Terminated employees aren't listed.
Send the documents.
If the entity has no current employees, you see the warning "There are no employees in this legal entity". When automatching is on, documents are matched only to employees of the selected entity.
The authorized signatory gets a signature request email that says "You are signing on behalf of" followed by the entity name. When everyone has signed, PeopleForce adds the Signed in PeopleForce stamp to the signed PDF, and the audit trail shows the signatory as signing on behalf of the legal entity. The stamp uses the entity's settings at the moment of signing, so later changes don't affect documents that are already signed.
A person can no longer sign for an entity if you remove them from the signatory list, if they are terminated, or if the entity is deleted. If that happens before an upload is sent, you're asked to turn off the eSignature request for that file or start the upload again.
Edit or delete a legal entity
In the table, open the row's actions menu and choose Edit.
Make your changes in either step and save.
To delete an entity, open the row's actions menu, choose Delete and confirm in the Delete legal entity dialog. The default entity can't be deleted.
Assign a legal entity to an employee
An employee's legal entity is part of their job history. It is recorded in the Positions table on the Job tab of their profile, with an Effective from date.
Open the employee's profile and go to the Job tab.
Add a new position record, or edit an existing one.
Set the Effective from date and choose the Legal entity.
Save. The employee's current legal entity comes from their most recent position record that has already taken effect.
You can also set the legal entity:
In hire forms — in the position block.
With an employee import — use the legal entity column. If a name doesn't match an existing entity, the import creates a new one with that name.
Through the Public API — list legal entities, filter people and vacancies by legal entity, and set it on employees and position records.
Where legal entities are used
People directory: the Legal entity filter.
Document templates: the {{employee.legal_entity}} placeholder. Ukrainian compliance (Kadry) templates also offer the legal entity name, registration number, registration city and director's name, filled from the company representative.
Recruitment: a legal entity on each vacancy, a legal entity field on vacancy request forms, an offer letter placeholder and filters in recruitment reports.
Reports and exports: HR report filters, a legal entity column in custom reports, the pay gap filter and legal entity data in exports.
Rule-based assignment: a Legal entity rule wherever you assign by rules, for example payroll cycles and policies.
Workforce planning: a legal entity on headcount positions, with filters.
Performance and learning: filters for objectives, KPIs and course enrolments.
Who can see and manage legal entities
Settings page: admins, and any role with the Legal entities setting enabled.
Employee data: in Settings → Roles & permissions → (role) → People → Job → Positions → Legal entity, choose None, View or Edit. This controls whether the legal entity appears on the Job tab, whether it can be edited and whether the document placeholder is filled in. The row appears once you have a legal entity besides the default.
Signing on behalf of an entity: only the Authorized signatories can sign for the entity. To request a legal entity signature, the sender needs at least View access to Legal entity.
Availability
Legal entities must be switched on for your account. The redesigned page, the wizard and the eSignature stamp are an additional part of the feature that must be switched on too. Stamps need PeopleSign with the Simple Electronic Signature type (Professional plan). The registration City field and the always-visible Company representative field appear only for accounts that use the Ukrainian HR compliance (Kadry) module.