If your business runs several depots, branches or franchises as separate accounts under one parent, the network view gives the parent a single read-only summary of what's happening across them all. It's built for oversight — a head-office snapshot of recent activity — not for doing the day-to-day work, which still happens inside each depot's own account. This article explains what the network view shows, who can see it, how depots get added, and the common questions that come up.
What is the network view?
The network view (sometimes called the network rollup) is a read-only summary that sits on a parent account and pulls together recent activity from all the depots, branches or franchises that belong to that network. Instead of logging into each depot one at a time to see how things are going, head office gets one place that rolls up the last 30 days of activity across every company in the network — things like inspection reports being signed off, rental agreements being signed and closed, and credit use.
It exists for businesses that are structured as several separate companies under one umbrella. A common example is a vehicle rental group with branches in different towns, each operating as its own account with its own vehicles, customers, team and templates, but reporting up to a single parent.
What does the rollup actually show?
It shows a 30-day picture of activity across the depots in your network — the kind of headline figures and recent events head office wants to keep an eye on, such as reports completed, rental agreements signed and closed, and credit consumption. It's a summary for oversight, so you get the shape of what each depot has been doing without having to open each one.
For the full, detailed account of who did what within a single depot — created, updated, signed off, closed, sent, with a before-and-after breakdown on each entry — that lives in each depot's own team activity log. The network view rolls activity up; the activity log inside a depot is where you drill into the detail.
Can I manage the depots from the network view?
No. The network view is deliberately read-only — it's for oversight, not day-to-day work. You can't sign off a report, sign or close a rental agreement, edit a vehicle, add a customer or change a template from the rollup. Each depot is run entirely from its own company account, by the people who belong to that account.
This keeps the lines clean: head office gets visibility across the group, while each branch keeps full control of its own operation, its own team and its own settings.
How do I switch between a depot and the parent account?
If you belong to more than one company — for example, you're on the parent account and also on one or more depots — you move between them using the company switcher. See switching between companies for how that works. When you're in a depot, you see and manage that depot's data as normal; when you're in the parent account, you get the read-only network view across the group.
How do I add a depot or franchise to my network?
Depots and franchises are set up for you by the vehReports team — they aren't something you create yourself from inside the app. There's no "add a depot" button, and that's by design: linking a new company into a network correctly (so its activity rolls up to the right parent) is something we handle for you.
To add one, raise a support ticket and tell us the new company you want adding to your network. We'll provision it, link it to your parent account, and let you know when it's ready. If you're not sure whether a network structure is right for your business, ask us in the same ticket and we'll talk it through.
Who can see the network view?
It's available on the parent account, to the people who belong to that parent account. Individual depots don't see the whole network — each depot sees only its own data, exactly as any single company would. So a branch manager sees their branch; head office, on the parent account, sees the rollup across the group.
Within the parent account, what each person can see and do still follows their team role on that account in the usual way.
Does the network view cost anything, or use credits?
No. Viewing the rollup is free and uses no credits — it's just a summary. As across the rest of vehReports, the only two actions that ever use a credit are signing off an inspection report and signing a rental agreement (1 credit each, around £1). Those happen inside each depot, against that depot's own credit balance. Building drafts, running driver licence checks, DVLA and MOT lookups, and adding or editing records are all free and unlimited. For the full picture of what's paid and what's free, see understanding credits.
Do depots share one credit balance, or have their own?
Each depot is its own company account with its own credits. Credits aren't pooled across the network — when a branch signs off a report or signs an agreement, it draws on that branch's own balance, and each branch tops up under its own billing. The network view lets head office see credit use across depots, but it doesn't move credits between them.
Why is the rollup limited to 30 days?
The network view is a recent-activity snapshot — it's there to answer "what's been going on across the group lately?" at a glance, so it focuses on the last 30 days. For a longer or more detailed history of a particular depot, switch into that depot and use its own team activity log, where you can filter by source, action, person and date and open any entry for a before-and-after breakdown.
What if I only run one company — do I need this?
No. The network view is only relevant if you operate several separate companies under one parent. If you run a single account — even a large one with multiple sites managed under that one company — you don't need a network and everything you need is already in your own account: your dashboard, reports, agreements, vehicles, customers and the activity log. The network view is specifically for groups structured as a parent with separate depot or franchise accounts beneath it.
What if a depot should no longer be in my network?
Because depots are provisioned and linked by us, changes to your network structure — adding a new company, or removing one — are handled the same way. Raise a support ticket and tell us what you'd like to change, and we'll sort it out. Any signed reports and agreements in a depot are kept for legal retention regardless, so you won't lose your audit trail.