# Brands and access

Source: https://docs.globagift.io/docs/merchants/brands
Description: Switch between Globagift brand workspaces, understand active and pending brands, and find out how organisation and per-brand permissions affect access.




## Organisations and brands [#organisations-and-brands]

An **organisation** represents the company behind your businesses. It holds the business details used for verification and brings your team together. A **brand** represents a business your customers recognise, with its own workspace for gift card products, designs, activity, storefront, and settlement.

### Example: one company, three different businesses [#example-one-company-three-different-businesses]

In this example, **Northstar Group** is one organisation with three different brands: **Harbour Kitchen**, a restaurant; **North & Co.**, a clothing shop; and **Willow Spa**.

<OrganisationBrands />

Company details and team membership belong to the organisation. Each brand has a separate workspace for its own gift cards, artwork, sales, redemptions and reporting. Manage each brand’s activity independently of the others.

If your company runs one business, the organisation and brand may share a name. They still have separate purposes: company and team settings at organisation level, and gift card activity in the brand workspace.

Open **All brands** to find the workspaces available to you. A brand must be active before its operational pages are available. A pending brand can still be waiting for activation after business verification is complete.

<Screenshot src="/screens/merchant-portal/all-brands.webp" alt="Three active workspaces in an example organisation." caption="Northstar Group is the organisation. Harbour Kitchen, North & Co. and Willow Spa are its three brand workspaces." width="1510" height="1150" />

## Switch brands [#switch-brands]

On desktop, the **brand switcher is at the bottom left of the screen, in the navigation sidebar**. It shows the current brand's name and **Current brand**.

1. Select the current brand's name to open the menu.
2. Select the brand you want to work with.
3. Check the selected brand before issuing a card, sharing a storefront, or reviewing financial information.

You can also use **All brands** to open a workspace. On smaller screens, open the navigation menu from the top bar to find the brand switcher.

Under **Account > Default brand**, select your preferred workspace and save it. The default affects where you land; it does not grant access to another brand.

For example, if you mainly work at Harbour Kitchen, make it your default brand. When you need to review Willow Spa's activity, switch to Willow Spa first. Check the brand name before issuing a card or reading a report.

<Screenshot src="/screens/merchant-portal/brand-switcher-context.webp" alt="The current-brand control at the bottom of the portal sidebar, with Harbour Kitchen, North & Co. and Willow Spa in the open brand menu." caption="On desktop, the brand switcher sits at the bottom left of the navigation sidebar. Select the current brand to open this menu." width="564" height="512" maxWidth="480" />

## Team access [#team-access]

For team roles and brand permissions, see [Team access](/docs/merchants/team-access).