Partner Account Relationships
Partner Account Relationships are links between two Partner Accounts that describe how they're connected.
13 min read
A Partner Account Relationship is an explicit, typed link between a source Partner Account and a target Partner Account. It captures organizational and operational connections — such as corporate hierarchies, platform memberships, or aggregation setups — directly in the account structure, and allows Klarna to apply specific monitoring or changes applicable on a wider number of accounts. For examples of how relationships fit into common modeling patterns, see Model your Partner Accounts.
Klarna requires Acquiring Partners to register the relationships between the Partner Accounts they create whenever those accounts belong to companies that work together. This applies to enterprise use cases where an owning company holds multiple Partner Accounts — for example regional subsidiaries or divisions — as well as e-commerce platforms that manage multiple Partner Accounts on behalf of their clients.
The following relationship types are available:
| Type | Meaning | Typical use case |
|---|---|---|
ORGANIZATION_MEMBER | The source is a Partner Account that is a subsidiary, division, or branch of the target organization | A global enterprise has multiple branches or sub-brands, and the Acquiring Partner had to create multiple Partner Accounts due to their own account structure. |
MANAGED_PLATFORM_MEMBER | The source is a Partner Account whose payments are exclusively processed by the target platform. The member does not have full control of the account on the Acquiring Partner — the platform manages it on their behalf. | An e-commerce platform uses the Acquiring Partner's distribution tools to automatically activate and manage their Partners through the Acquiring Partner. |
AGGREGATING_PLATFORM_MEMBER | The source is a Partner Account whose payments may be processed by the target platform, but may also operate directly with the Acquiring Partner or through other platforms. The member keeps full control of their account and delegates access and authorization to the platform. | The Acquiring Partner allows e-commerce platforms to let a Partner share use of their account with another Partner on the same platform. |
Each source Partner Account can have at most one
MANAGED_PLATFORM_MEMBER or AGGREGATING_PLATFORM_MEMBER relationship. The relationship_type and target_partner_account_id can't be changed after creation — to correct either, end the existing relationship and create a new one.Partner Account Relationships are informational. They provide context about how Partner Accounts are connected but don't control access or product behavior. Partner Accounts may also be connected through product configurations — for example, via a Payment Acquiring Account — but those connections don't reflect as Partner Account Relationships.
Relationships and dependencies
flowchart LR
subgraph Source["Source Partner Account"]
direction TB
SRC_PA(Partner Account)
end
PAR(Partner Account Relationship)
subgraph Target["Target Partner Account"]
direction TB
TGT_PA(Partner Account)
end
SRC_PA --- PAR
PAR --- TGT_PA
class SRC_PA primaryEntity
class TGT_PA primaryEntity
class PAR secondaryEntity
A Partner Account Relationship connects two Partner Accounts. The Acquiring Partner that manages both accounts manages the relationship.
- Source Partner Account: The Partner Account identified by the
{partner_account_id}path parameter. Therelationship_typedescribes the source's role relative to the target. - Target Partner Account: Specified by
target_partner_account_idduring creation.
The combination of
source_partner_account_id, target_partner_account_id, and relationship_type forms a natural key — each combination must be unique.Resource properties
Lifecycle
The
state of a Partner Account Relationship is derived from effective_from and effective_to relative to the current date. It's calculated on read and can't be set directly through the API.flowchart LR
start((Created)):::tertiaryEntity -->|"effective_from<br>in the future"| NE1[NOT_EFFECTIVE]:::box2
start -->|"effective_from<br>is today or past"| EF[EFFECTIVE]:::box1
NE1 -->|"effective_from<br>date reached"| EF
EF -->|"effective_to<br>date passed"| NE2[NOT_EFFECTIVE]:::box2
| State | Definition |
|---|---|
EFFECTIVE | The current date falls within the window defined by effective_from and effective_to |
NOT_EFFECTIVE | The current date is outside the effective window — either before effective_from or after effective_to |
When
effective_from is omitted during creation, it defaults to the creation date. When effective_to is omitted, the relationship has no scheduled end date and remains effective indefinitely after effective_from.Frequent use cases
Create relationships during onboarding
Partner Account Relationships can be created as part of the onboarding flow. When onboarding a new Partner, include the relationships in the request so they're established from the start. Learn more about how to execute the onboard operation.
Create a Partner Account Relationship
Use createPartnerAccountRelationship
to link a source Partner Account (identified by the path parameter) to a target Partner Account. If the target Partner Account doesn't exist yet, create it first with createPartnerAccount.
to link a source Partner Account (identified by the path parameter) to a target Partner Account. If the target Partner Account doesn't exist yet, create it first with createPartnerAccount.List Partner Account Relationships
Use listPartnerAccountRelationships to retrieve all relationships for a source Partner Account. Results are sorted by
to retrieve all relationships for a source Partner Account. Results are sorted by partner_account_relationship_id in ascending order, with cursor-based pagination up to 100 items per page.Read a Partner Account Relationship
Use getPartnerAccountRelationship to retrieve a single relationship by its identifier.
to retrieve a single relationship by its identifier.Update a Partner Account Relationship
Use updatePartnerAccountRelationship to modify
to modify description, effective_from, or effective_to. Only properties included in the request body are updated.The
relationship_type and target_partner_account_id are immutable. To correct either, end the existing relationship and create a new one with the correct values.End a Partner Account Relationship
There's no dedicated delete action. To end a relationship, set . This transitions the state to
effective_to to a past or current date using updatePartnerAccountRelationship. This transitions the state to NOT_EFFECTIVE.Jump to section...