--- title: Associated Party Expense order: 14 updated: 2026-07-12 --- # Associated Party Expense *Associated Party Expense* records amounts your firm owes to an associated party — a referrer, agent, or intermediary — against a single enquiry. When a contact person is entitled to a payout on a deal, you list them here with the rupee amount and a note explaining why. These entries are **internal bookkeeping only**: they never appear on the quotation, and they never change the price the customer sees. The data follows the enquiry through to its order and feeds the customer commission analytics in *Reports*. Internally this list is the enquiry's *commission list*, so the permissions and some report labels still read "Commissions". ## Before you start Two permissions gate this feature. Both hang off *Enquiry* access — see [Users and permissions](/docs/settings/users-and-permissions). - *View Commissions List* (`enquiry.viewCommisionsList`, depends on `enquiry.view`) — shows the *Associated Party Expense* panel on the enquiry and order detail screens, and the *Associated Parties* filter in advanced search. Without it, the server strips the list from every response, so a read-only user cannot see the entries at all. - *Edit Commissions* (`enquiry.editCommisionsList`, depends on `enquiry.viewCommisionsList`) — shows the *Associated Party Expense* action in the enquiry's *Actions* menu, which opens the editor. Both default to **off**. If the menu entry is missing, ask your administrator. > **Server-enforced save rule (gotcha).** The editor button appears with *Edit Commissions*, but the save endpoint itself additionally requires the general *Edit Enquiry* permission (`enquiry.edit`). If you can open the editor but every *Save* comes back "Forbidden", you are missing *Edit Enquiry*. ## Open the editor 1. Open the enquiry from the [Enquiry Bank](/docs/enquiry-bank/enquiry-bank-list) — either the full detail page or the stacked quick-view. 2. Open the *Actions* menu and choose *Associated Party Expense* (*Manage associated party expense*). 3. The *Associated Party Expense* modal opens, listing any existing entries. A badge in the header shows the current count (`0 entries`, `1 entry`, `2 entries`, …). The editor lives only on the **enquiry**. On an order the same panel is read-only (see [Where the data appears](#where-the-data-appears)). ## Add, edit, and remove entries Each entry is one row with three fields plus a remove control. ### Contact Person A searchable dropdown of the contact persons on record (customer-side or supplier-side — see [Customer contacts](/docs/records/customer-contacts) and [Supplier contacts](/docs/records/supplier-contacts)). Start typing to search by name; leave it empty to browse the list. This field is **required**. - A given contact person can be listed **only once** per enquiry — persons already chosen in other rows are hidden from this row's search, so you cannot pick the same one twice. - The server re-checks every selected ID: if an ID does not resolve to a real contact person the save is rejected with `Contact person not found`. This blocks forged IDs from ever being written. ### Amount The rupee payout for this party, shown as an Indian-currency number field. It must be a **positive amount** — the field's minimum is `0.01` and the server independently rejects anything that is not greater than `0`. Up to `2` decimal places are kept. This field is **required**. The editor only records **fixed rupee amounts**. (Older data may include a percentage-style entry from a previous version; those still display as a percentage in the read-only panels, but the current editor always saves a fixed amount.) ### Remarks Free text explaining the entry — for example `Q1 referral`. This field is **required**; the server rejects an empty or whitespace-only remark. There is no fixed character limit. ### Adding and removing rows - *Add Contact Person* appends a fresh blank row at the bottom. - The trash icon on a row removes that row. - With no rows the modal shows a *No entries yet* empty state. ### Save *Save* submits the **entire list at once** — it replaces whatever was stored before. So removing a row (or clearing every row) and then saving deletes those entries. On success you get an *Associated Party Expense saved* toast and the enquiry refreshes. > **Fill every field before saving.** The editor has no per-row "incomplete" warning, but the server validates the whole payload: any row with a blank person, a non-positive amount, or an empty remark makes the entire save fail with `Invalid request data.` Complete or delete partial rows before pressing *Save*. ## Where the data appears ### On the enquiry The enquiry detail screen shows an *Associated Party Expense* table (*Contact Person*, *Amount*, *Remarks*), gated by *View Commissions List*. See [View an enquiry](/docs/enquiry-bank/view-enquiry). ### On the order When an enquiry is converted to an order, its entries are **copied forward** onto the order as a snapshot. The order detail shows the same read-only *Associated Party Expense* table (gated the same way). There is no editor on the order side — edit the entries on the enquiry. Because the order holds a snapshot taken at conversion time, later edits to the enquiry do not retro-update an order that was already created. See [Orders](/docs/enquiry-bank/orders). ### In advanced search The [Advanced search](/docs/enquiry-bank/advanced-search) modal has an *Associated Parties* filter (shown only with *View Commissions List*). Selecting one or more persons matches enquiries whose associated-party list contains **all** of the selected persons. ### In reports The customer analytics in *Reports* aggregate these entries into an *Associated Party Expense* block — total paid in the selected period, a per-recipient breakdown, and the top entries by amount. That analytics view is gated by the detailed customer-analytics permission, separate from the two permissions above. ### In history Changes are captured in the enquiry's change history with the contact-person names resolved. See [History and logs](/docs/enquiry-bank/history-and-logs). ## Common questions ### Does this change the quotation or the price the customer pays? No. Associated Party Expense entries are purely internal records. They are never printed on the quotation and never alter any customer-facing amount. See [Generate a quotation](/docs/enquiry-bank/generate-quotation). ### Can I record a percentage instead of a fixed amount? Not in the current editor — it saves fixed rupee amounts only. If you need a percentage, compute the rupee figure yourself and enter that. ### Can I add more than one party to an enquiry? Yes — add as many rows as you need, for example one for an outside agent and another for an internal referrer. Each contact person can appear only once, though. ### Why can't I see the *Associated Party Expense* panel or action? The read-only panel needs *View Commissions List*; the editor action needs *Edit Commissions* (and saving also needs *Edit Enquiry*). Users without the view permission never receive the data — the server removes it from the response, so it cannot leak even to a forged request. ### I removed a row but it came back — what happened? Removals only take effect when you press *Save*. Closing the modal without saving discards your changes and the original list stays intact. ### My save keeps failing with "Invalid request data" — why? At least one row is incomplete. Every row needs a valid contact person, a positive amount, and a non-empty remark. Finish or delete any half-filled row and save again. ### I edited the enquiry's entries but the order still shows the old ones. The order stores the list that existed when it was converted. Editing the enquiry afterwards does not rewrite that snapshot.