Understanding the difference between User settings and Company settings in SamBooks

SamBooks has two separate settings hubs — one that's yours, one that belongs to the company — reached from two different spots in the sidebar. Mixing them up is the most common way to end up in the wrong place: this guide clarifies where everything lives, who can change what, and what happens if you work across more than one company with the same account.

What this is for

SamBooks keeps two categories of settings clearly separate:

• User settings (/impostazioni/utente) — about you: personal profile, account security, privacy consents, sidebar personalization, notifications. You manage them yourself, for your own account, and no colleague sees or changes them in your place.
• Company settings (/impostazioni/azienda) — about the company you're currently working in: tax profile, VAT codes, numbering series, data import/export, document archive, subscription, external integrations, warehouse reasons. Changing these affects every colleague working in that company, and — unlike your personal settings — write access is reserved to a specific role.

The point that causes the most confusion, and the reason this guide exists: the "Settings" item in the sidebar always opens the company's hub, never yours. Your personal settings are reached from a different spot: your profile menu, at the bottom of the sidebar.

Before you start

• Nothing to prepare: this is an orientation guide, not a task to carry out.
• It helps most if you've already read (or need to read) the specific guides for each personal area — linked at the bottom — and couldn't find the right entry point.

Step by step

1. Open your profile menu, at the bottom of the sidebar

At the bottom of the sidebar, below all the navigation items, you'll find two stacked elements. At the top the company selector: it shows the logo and name of the active company and, under the name, your role in that company; it's always a dropdown, even with a single company, because that's where a new company is added (step 5). Below it is your profile menu: the avatar with your initials and your name. Open it — it shows your name and email at the top, then five entries: Profile, Security, Customize sidebar, Settings, Sign out.

The "Settings" entry in this menu opens the User settings hub — five cards: Profile, Security, Consents, Personalization, Notifications. It's different from the "Settings" item you see higher up, among the main navigation sections of the sidebar: that one belongs to the Company block and opens something else entirely (step 3). Same name, two destinations: if you've read a guide that mentioned "Settings → Customize sidebar" in the main navigation menu, that's not the right spot — personalization is reached from here, from the profile menu, not from there.

2. The five User settings cards: all yours, all personal

Opening "Settings" from the profile menu shows:

These are all your own settings: no colleague can see or change them, and — with the one exception of notifications, explained in step 4 — they're the same no matter which company you're currently using.

3. The sidebar's "Settings" item opens the company instead

Now look at the main navigation sidebar, not the profile menu: the "Settings" item you find there (Company block, near the bottom) leads to /impostazioni/azienda, the hub with nine cards — Tax profile, VAT codes, Numbering series, Import, Export, Archive, Subscription, Integrations, Warehouse reasons. In the same sidebar block you'll also find three direct shortcuts that lead to pages within that same hub without going through the grid: Tax profile, Team and Subscription. Tax profile and Subscription are cards in the grid too; Team, on the other hand, exists only as a sidebar item.

Every card in this hub concerns the active company, not you: someone with access to multiple companies sees different content when switching between them (a different VAT number, a different team, different integrations), unlike user settings, which stay identical. Write access here is reserved to the Manager role: an Administrative user opens the same cards and reads everything, but saving a company setting is refused; a Viewer is read-only everywhere, settings included. Team is a case of its own, reserved to the Manager: for the other roles the page shows an explanatory panel instead of the member list. The full detail of who can write what, area by area, is in Understanding roles and permissions in SamBooks; how to invite colleagues and your accountant is in Inviting your team and your accountant.

4. Multiple companies: what follows you, and what stays with the company

If your account has access to more than one company (listed in the "Your companies" card of your Profile, each with the role you hold in that specific company — you can perfectly well be Manager in one and Viewer in another), here's what happens when you switch between them with the selector at the bottom of the sidebar:

• Profile, Security, Sidebar personalization, Consents — stay identical: they're tied to your account, not to a company. Your passkeys, your password, the sections you've hidden from the menu, your privacy consents apply wherever you're working.
• Notifications — the rule changes here, and it's the least intuitive part: your notification preferences (which categories you receive by email or push) are saved per company, not in one block for your whole account. If in one company you turn off "Purchase cycle" emails because that client doesn't concern you, they stay unchanged in another company until you turn them off there too.
• Company settings (tax profile, team, integrations, subscription…) belong entirely to the active company, and your role can differ in each one.

On opening, SamBooks brings back the last company you used (or the default one, the first time); from there, the selector at the bottom of the sidebar switches context at any moment, with no need to sign out and back in.

5. Adding another company to the same account

From the company selector at the bottom of the sidebar, the "Add company" entry opens the "Add a company" dialog, which links a new company to your existing account — "Link another company to your profile, without creating a new account. It will have its own subscription (starts on a trial)." You don't need another email or another password: you remain the same person, with shared personal settings and separate company settings for each one.

If something isn't working

• I'm looking for "Customize sidebar" under the Settings item in the main navigation and it's not there. That's correct: that item opens the company's settings. Personalization lives in your profile menu, at the bottom of the sidebar (step 1), or in the "Personalization" card of your User settings.
• I can't find the subscription in User settings. Right: the subscription belongs to the company, not to you — you'll find it in Company settings ("Subscription" card) or via the direct shortcut in the sidebar.
• I changed a notification preference but the other company still shows the old one. That's not a bug: notification preferences are per company, unlike profile, security, personalization and consents. They need to be set separately in each company.
• My role changes from one company to another and I don't understand why I see fewer items. Because the role is company-specific: you can be Manager in one and Viewer in another, and the company settings adjust accordingly. Your personal settings, on the other hand, always stay the same.
• I don't see a "Team" card among the company settings. It isn't a card in the grid: it's its own item in the navigation sidebar, in the same Company block, alongside Tax profile and Subscription.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between user settings and company settings? The former are yours and follow you wherever you work (profile, security, consents, sidebar personalization); the one exception is notification preferences, which are set company by company. The latter belong to the active company and change depending on which one you're using.

Why can't I find the subscription in User settings? Because the subscription belongs to the company, not to the individual user: it lives in Company settings.

Can I have different roles in two different companies on SamBooks? Yes: the role is company-specific. You can be Manager in one and Administrative or Viewer in another, with the same account.

Where do I change my personal preferences? From your profile menu at the bottom of the sidebar, "Settings" entry (not the one in the main navigation sidebar): it opens the User settings hub with the five personal cards.

Can only the Manager change the company's settings? For writing, yes: Manager has full access, Administrative can see but not edit company settings, Viewer is read-only everywhere. Full detail in the roles guide.

How do I switch between companies on my account? From the company selector at the bottom of the sidebar, above your profile menu: clicking another company in the list switches context immediately.

Do my passkeys work for all companies or just one? For all of them: they're tied to your account, not to a specific company.

If I switch companies, do I lose my notifications or my consents? Not your consents: they belong to the same account and stay identical everywhere. Notifications, on the other hand, are saved per company: the ones from one company don't automatically apply to another.

Related features

• Customizing the navigation sidebar — detail of the Personalization card.
• Securing your account with passkeys and an authenticator app — detail of the Security card.
• Managing privacy consents and AI transparency — detail of the Consents card.
• Deactivating your SamBooks account — a personal action that lives in the Profile card.
• Understanding roles and permissions in SamBooks — who can write what in company settings, area by area.
• Inviting your team and your accountant — how to bring colleagues into your company.