Manage a Partnership

Once a partnership exists, you will edit its header, adjust its holdings, move it through its lifecycle, and occasionally remove it. Because a partnership defines who owns what, several of these actions are deliberately guarded — they require extra confirmation, a reason for the record, or are blocked entirely when the change could break downstream data.

Editing the header

You can update the partnership name, effective dates, and notes from the details screen.

• The name must stay unique within your organization.
• If you set an Effective To date, it must be on or after Effective From.
• Header edits are recorded in the audit trail (before and after values).

note

Header editing is only available while the partnership is Draft or Active. A Suspended or Closed partnership cannot be modified.

Editing holdings — a high-risk change

Changing ownership percentages is treated as a sensitive, high-risk operation, because it alters who owns what. Two safeguards apply.

1. A reason is mandatory

Whenever a holding percentage changes, the system requires you to enter a reason for the change (at least 5 characters, such as "Share reallocation agreement dated 15/01/2026"). This reason is stored on the audit record alongside the before-and-after snapshot of the holdings, giving you a compliant, traceable history of every ownership change. You cannot save the change without it.

2. No auto-adjustment

The system never rebalances the other rows for you. If you reduce one partner from 50% to 40%, the remaining 10% is not redistributed automatically. The active rows must still total exactly:

Holdings must sum to exactly 100%, and at least one managing partner is required.

If your edited holdings do not satisfy this, the save is rejected with a precise message and the offending rows are highlighted. You adjust the figures yourself until the total returns to 100% and exactly one managing partner remains.

Removing a partner from the table soft-deletes their row (it is kept for history), and a partner who has exited can be kept as an inactive row that no longer counts toward the 100% total.

Changing status

Use the status control on the details screen to move the partnership through its lifecycle. The system only permits the transitions shown below.

From	You can move to
Draft	Active
Active	Suspended, Closed
Suspended	Active, Closed
Closed	(nothing — final state)

Activation re-validates the holdings

Moving a partnership to Active (from Draft or from Suspended) re-runs the holdings validation. If the active rows do not total exactly 100%, or there is no managing partner, the activation is blocked and the partnership keeps its current status. The blocked attempt is logged. Fix the holdings, then activate again.

Suspended and Closed lock the record

• A Suspended partnership cannot be edited or deleted until it is re-activated.
• Closed is permanent. A Closed partnership cannot be re-opened, edited, or deleted. Treat closing as a final decision.

Every status change is written to the audit trail. For the canonical state list, see Status Lifecycles.

Deleting a partnership

Deletion is a soft delete — the record is hidden from lists but retained for audit, never physically erased. It is also guarded.

A partnership cannot be deleted if it is referenced by any project. If you try, the system blocks the deletion and tells you exactly how many references exist, for example:

"Partnership cannot be deleted because it is referenced by 2 projects."

The suggested alternative is to change the status to Closed instead, which retires the partnership without breaking the projects that depend on it. Blocked deletion attempts are also logged.

You also cannot delete a partnership that is Suspended or Closed — re-activate it first if you genuinely need to remove a Draft/Active partnership that has no references.

For the full table of what blocks each kind of deletion across the system, see Delete Guardrails.

Quick reference

Action	Guard
Edit header	Only when Draft or Active. Name stays unique; dates stay in order.
Edit holdings	Reason required; total must return to 100%; no auto-rebalance.
Activate	Re-validates 100% + managing partner, or the activation is blocked.
Suspend / Close	Locks the record from editing; Closed is final.
Delete	Blocked if referenced by projects, or if Suspended/Closed. Soft delete only.