> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tread.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Confirm Company Hierarchy

> Flat or parent/child — decide the structure with your Tread implementation lead before uploading data.

## What you'll do

Decide whether your account runs flat or parent/child, then send the structure to your Tread implementation lead. Hierarchy is not self-serve — Tread creates the parent and child companies for you. Your job is to decide, confirm, and provide the list.

## Before you start

* A list of every legal entity, division, or terminal that dispatches trucks.
* Agreement from operations on whether dispatchers cross divisions today.
* Your Tread implementation lead's contact.

## Walkthrough

<Steps>
  <Step title="Default to flat">
    Most Tread accounts run flat — one company, one set of master data. Pick this unless you have a hard reason not to.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Use parent/child only for real regional splits">
    Ask for child companies only when divisions have their own dispatchers, fleets, and books. Users added to the parent can navigate down to every child; users added to a child cannot see parent-level data.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Decide where master data lives">
    If drivers, equipment, and [Sites](/concepts/sites-geofences) are used across children, create them at the parent and share them down via [Company Shares](/concepts/connected-ecosystem). If children are truly independent regions, manage data at each child. See [Companies & Hierarchy](/concepts/companies-hierarchy) for the full model.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Send the structure to Tread">
    Give your Tread implementation lead the entity list, which users belong at the parent, and which belong at each child. Tread creates the companies — confirm the result before any master data is uploaded.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Verify

Open **Dispatch** → **Dispatch as**. The companies on screen match the structure you sent. Master data lives where you decided — nothing was created on the wrong company.

## Common mistakes

<Warning>
  **Setting up a shared fleet's master data on a child company.** A multi-region producer with one shared fleet set up every driver, vendor, truck, and customer on a child account instead of the parent. Dispatchers couldn't move drivers across divisions. Drivers were imported as vendors. Payroll pulled the wrong hours. The fix took two days of manual back-end work. When children share a fleet, create at the parent and share down. See [Companies & Hierarchy](/concepts/companies-hierarchy).
</Warning>