Guidance

EHC Online: manage access using your Defra account

Updated 31 January 2024

Your Defra account shows the different accounts and services you have access to. You may have access to more than one account and more than one service depending on the type of work you do.

1. Account management roles

For each account you have an account role. This may differ from account to account depending on to what permissions you’re given.

Your account role is different to the role you might have with any one service.

1.1 Admin

As an admin, you’re the super user for your organisation and have access to the account dashboard where you can:

• invite other users in your organisation to the service
• assign user service roles
• manage organisation details

Being an admin does not affect your access to a service.

If you created the account, you’re automatically given the role of admin.

An admin can also create another admin if needed.

It’s best to have more than one admin so if one admin is absent then another can make changes to an account.

1.2 Standard user

As a standard user you cannot access the account dashboard. A standard user can only be given access to a service shown in your Defra account.

2. The account dashboard (admins only)

To get to the account dashboard for your organisation select “Manage account” in your Defra account.

Within the account dashboard you can see the number of:

• team members (such as employees)
• intermediaries (such as third parties or agents)
• related organisations

You can also manage:

• user access to an account
• user access to services you have registered this account for
• organisation details
• related organisations

At the bottom of the dashboard there are links for the services the account is registered with.

2.1 Invite a user to work on your account

Go to your Defra account and select “Manage” next to the account you want to add a user to.

You can add a user as:

• a team member who can have standard or admin access
• an intermediary who can only have standard access

Select “Add a team member” or “Add intermediary” as needed. Enter their email address and select “Continue”.

You’ll be notified that an invitation has been sent to the user and that they must respond to it within 30 days before it expires. Select “Continue”.

You’ll get an email when the user has registered so you can choose their account role and which service to give them access to.

2.2 Give account and service access for the first time (admin only)

Once the user has registered, you then need to give them an account role and a service role.

You can do this using the link in the email notification sent to you or through their profile page.

Give account role and service role via email link

When you get the notification that the user has registered you must assign the user an account role. If you do not, the user will not be able to use EHC Online.

When the user has registered, you’ll get an email notification with a link to “Give this person access to use online services”.

This will take you to the user’s profile page. Select “Give account access”.

Choose whether you want that user to have admin or standard access:

• admins can view and edit the information about your organisation and manage other people’s access to services
• standard users have no account responsibilities and only perform the tasks you choose within a specific service.

Select “Continue”.

Intermediary users can only be standard users.

You’ll see a list of service roles you can assign to that user. If your organisation has only signed up to the Exporter Service (EHC Online), you’ll only see that one. The service roles available depend on the service. You must select an option, even if there is only one available. Then select “Continue”.

You’ll then be notified that the user now has access. Select “Continue” to return to the user’s profile page to check the role appears on their profile.

Giving account and service access on user’s profile page

Go to your Defra Account and select “Manage account” next to the account which has a user who needs an account role and service role granted.

1. In the account dashboard, select “Manage team access”.
2. Select the team member whose needs an account role and service role.
3. On that user’s profile page select “Give account access”.
4. Choose whether you want that team member to have admin or standard user access.

2.3 Change and remove user access (admin only)

Go to your account page and select “Manage account” and then “Manage team access”.

Here you can open each team member’s profile page and change user type from admin to standard by selecting “Change account role” or “Remove user”.

Make sure you remove access from users who no longer need it.

If you leave the organisation and have not given admin access to another team member, no admin tasks can be performed on your organisation’s account. Make sure at least one other team member has admin access.

To remove an admin’s access another admin will need to select “Remove user”. They will still have access to the account dashboard.

2.4 Manage organisation details

You can view and change your organisation’s details for a specific account.

Go to your Defra account, find the organisation you need to change and select “Manage account”.

Select “Manage your organisation”.

You can make changes to organisation details such as:

• name
• address
• phone number

Changes to a limited company, public limited company or limited liability partnership

You must update any details you need to change on Companies House first.

Then contact the APHA Service Desk on 0330 041 6999 who will make the changes for you.

Changes to an individual, sole trader, non-UK organisation or charity

Contact the APHA Service Desk on 0330 041 6999 to make the changes for you.

3. Related organisation accounts (parent and child)

Some organisational structures have one or more parts of the business that work separately to the main business, such as a branch of a large supermarket chain. These organisations are ‘children’ to the ‘parent’ organisation.

In these cases, the business might want to manage the child organisations separately from the parent.

To do this, add a related organisation account. This organisation will be fully independent, with their own team members, intermediaries and services.

Only the account admin who created the related organisation is inherited from parent to child. There must be at least one account admin who is common between parent and child at all times.

3.1 Add a related organisation account

Go to the Defra management dashboard, find the organisation you need to add a related organisation to and select “Manage account”. Then select “Manage your organisation”. On the Organisation details page, select the “Related organisations” tab.

Then select “Add a related organisation”. Enter the organisation’s details. You’ll need to register for any services the related organisation will need.

3.2 Accessing a related organisation from your Defra account

If you have access to the parent account (as an admin or standard user), you’ll see all related (child) organisations listed under the parent organisation.

If you do not have access to the parent account, you’ll only see the related organisation you have access to.

4. Registering an account with a new service

An account can have one or more services registered to it depending on the type of work you do. You’ll need to be an admin for that account in order to register new services.

To register an account with a new service, go to your Defra Account, find the account you want to register the service with and select “Manage account”.

On the account dashboard, select “Register services”.

If your account has more than one account admins, it is possible the account has already been registered for a service, but you do not have access to it. In this case you would see a list of services already registered to this account.