# Partner with an agency

Before you can share a request with an agency, you need an active partnership with it. You find the agency under Discover, send it an invitation, and it accepts. Each partnership has one setting of its own: whether the agency may change an officer on a confirmed shift without asking you. Admins manage partnerships; Managers can find agencies and send invitations.

## Why partner?

A request is shared only with agencies you have an active partnership with — the share list holds nobody else. The partnership is the agreement that lets an agency see your requests and propose its officers. How a shared request becomes a rostered shift is on [How a request becomes a rostered shift](/docs/concepts/how-a-request-becomes-a-rostered-shift).

## Who can do what?

| Task | Who |
|---|---|
| Open **People → Agencies** | Admin, Manager |
| Find agencies under **Discover**, send or cancel an invitation | Admin, Manager |
| See **Partnerships**, change **Officer swaps**, remove an agency | Admin |

On **Partnerships**, a Manager is told *Only an Admin can see and manage partnerships*. Control does not see the page.

## What is on the Agencies page?

**People → Agencies** opens **Security Agencies** — *Manage partner agencies and discover new partnerships*. The panels count your agencies, partnerships, pending invitations and the officers your partners have, and partnerships by status. **View** switches between four lists:

| View | Lists |
|---|---|
| **Agencies** | Agencies you have an active partnership with, with their officer and user counts |
| **Partnerships** | Each partnership, its status and its officer-swaps setting |
| **Discover** | Agencies on ShiftTracker you are not yet partnered with |
| **Invitations** | Invitations you have sent, with their status and expiry |

**Export CSV** downloads the agency list. Click an agency for its page: contact details, its partnerships and its invitations. An agency's record is its own, so you cannot edit it from here.

![Security Agencies on the Partnerships view. Agency Overview reads Agencies 1, Partnerships 1, Pending 0 and Officers 5; Partnership Status reads Active 1, Inactive 0, Accepted 1 and Declined 0. The view buttons read Agencies (1), Partnerships (1), selected, Discover and Invitations. One partnership is listed: Trentside Security Personnel, badged Partner and Active, bookings@demo.shifttracker.co.uk, 0115 496 0200, Since 3 Mar 2026, with a switch, off, labelled Officer swaps: needs approval, and beneath it Conflicts and role mismatches still need your approval.](/docs/img/agency-partnerships.png)

## How do I invite an agency?

1. On **Security Agencies**, choose **Discover**. Search by name, email or address.
2. Press **Invite** on the agency.
3. In **Invite Agency Partnership**, set the **Rate Modifier (%)** if you want, and edit the **Invitation Message**.
4. Press **Send Invitation**.

![Discover searched for Pennine, showing 1 Discoverable — Pennine Guarding Services, with 0 officers and 0 users, ops.pennine@demo.shifttracker.co.uk and an Invite button — and the Invite Agency Partnership dialog open over it: Send a partnership invitation to Pennine Guarding Services, Rate Modifier (%) 0.00 with the hint Percentage adjustment applied to standard rates, and the Invitation Message We would like to invite Pennine Guarding Services to partner with our organisation for security staffing., with Cancel and Send Invitation buttons.](/docs/img/agency-invite-dialog.png)

The invitation is emailed to the agency's contact address and can be accepted for **7 days**. It appears under **Invitations** as **Pending**, with its expiry date, until the agency accepts or declines it, or it lapses and reads **Expired**. Once accepted, the partnership is active and the agency appears in your request's share list.

You cannot send a second invitation to the same address while one is pending — *A pending invitation already exists for this agency.* — or invite an agency you already partner with.

Once an invitation has expired, you can invite the same agency again.

**Rate Modifier** is recorded with the invitation and the partnership. Nothing calculates a rate or an invoice from it today.

## Can an agency change an officer without asking me?

Only if you allow it, partnership by partnership. By default, when an agency wants to swap the officer on a shift you have confirmed, it sends you a change request to approve.

1. On **Partnerships**, turn on the switch beside the agency — **Officer swaps: needs approval**.
2. Confirm in **Allow direct officer changes?** — *Conflicts, Working Time warnings and role mismatches will still come to you for approval. You can turn this off at any time.*

The label then reads **Officer swaps: direct**, and the agency's swaps apply straight away — unless the new officer clashes with another booking, raises a Working Time warning, or does not hold the role the request asked for. Those still come to you. Turning it off again restores approval for every swap. The switch is greyed out on an inactive partnership.

How you review a change request is on [Review proposals and confirm officers](/docs/organisation/review-proposals).

## Can I end a partnership?

Yes. An Admin presses **Remove** on the agency's row in the **Agencies** view and confirms **Remove Agency** — *Ends your partnership. You can invite them again later.*

- The partnership is switched off, and the agency drops out of your requests' share list.
- Your open requests that were shared with the agency are taken back, and its pending proposals on them are withdrawn. Each take-back is on the request's **History** as *Unshared from … : partnership ended*.
- A request the agency already has an officer confirmed on stays shared, so those shifts go ahead.
- The agency, its officers and past shifts are not deleted.

To work with the agency again, invite it again from **Discover**.

## Can I cancel an invitation?

Yes, while it is **Pending**. Admins and Managers press **Cancel invitation** under it on the **Invitations** view. It then reads **Expired**, the agency can no longer accept it, and you can invite the same address again. An invitation shows the agency it has reached by name once an agency signs up from, or opens, the link in its email.

## If it goes wrong

| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| An agency is missing from a request's share list | You have no active partnership with it, or its invitation is still pending. |
| *A pending invitation already exists for this agency.* | One is still pending. Cancel it on **Invitations** to send a new one. |
| *This agency is already partnered with your organization.* | It is on **Partnerships** already. |

## Related

- [Create and manage agency requests](/docs/organisation/manage-requests)
- [Review proposals and confirm officers](/docs/organisation/review-proposals)
- [How a request becomes a rostered shift](/docs/concepts/how-a-request-becomes-a-rostered-shift)
- [Organisation, agency, client — who is who](/docs/concepts/organisation-agency-client)