AR networks · service-provider networks · multi-site DA firms

One licence. Every member firm.
One principal-level audit trail.

The principal firm carries regulatory liability for every member firm underneath. Member firms still need data autonomy. Amaea is built for that split: network-wide rule monitoring, single-licence billing, member-firm walls intact.

What the principal firm actually needs.

Six structural questions that come up in every network-level rollout conversation we've had.

Cross-firm visibility: The principal compliance team sees every flag across every member firm in one dashboard. Roll up by adviser, by firm, by rule, or by client tier. Network-level reports run from the same data the member firms see.
Member-firm autonomy: Each member firm runs their own day-to-day compliance: their own dashboard, their own users, their own data. The principal can read but not edit; the member firm owns their record. Standard tenancy isolation (Article 9-grade) plus a one-way read permission for the principal.
Single licence, transparent billing: One contract, one invoice, billed to the principal firm. Per-member-firm allocation is reported but not enforced: you can add or remove member firms without contract renegotiation.
Network admin role: Network-level admins can provision new member firms, audit cross-firm permissions, and pull the network-wide compliance pack. Member-firm admins keep full control of their firm's users and data.
Principal-liability reporting: Quarterly report set built for the principal's regulatory responsibility: every member firm's compliance health score, every flagged rule citation, every overdue review. Exports as one PDF for board packs.
Rollout cadence: Typical network rollout is 2-4 member firms in the first month (the engaged ones), then the remaining firms over the following quarter. Onboarding per firm is a single session with their compliance lead. No data migration required: the read-only Intelliflo / SharePoint integrations stand up nightly.

Why network principals are looking now

The supervisor reads the network as one firm.
Most networks see themselves as twelve.

01 Q1 2026 · Network principal

A member firm receives a Section 166.

The principal compliance team finds out via the member firm forwarding the FCA letter on Friday. The same week the FCA asks the principal to demonstrate consistent oversight of the firm in question across the previous 12 months.

02 Documenting the oversight

12 months of evidence, 8 working days.

The compliance team asks each member firm for their quarterly oversight records, suitability sample-checks, vulnerability-cohort reports, training logs. Some firms send Excel. Some send PDFs from their CRM. Some send nothing.

03 The supervisory letter

"Cannot evidence consistent network oversight."

The principal firm spends the next quarter rebuilding a retrospective oversight framework while the FCA's supervisory engagement continues. The Section 166 expands. Two more member firms get follow-on queries.

04 Six months later

Still rebuilding. From the inside out.

The compliance team is six months into building a retrospective oversight framework. Pulling 12 months of records from each member firm, normalising the formats, evidencing supervision the way the FCA wanted to see it in week one. Two more Section 166s have landed in adjacent member firms; the engagement keeps widening.

"We thought we had oversight. We had reports. We didn't have evidence."Compliance Director, AR network principal · after a Section 166

Every network principal we've spoken to has either lived this or watched a peer live it. Amaea makes network oversight a default of the data, not a quarterly project.

The principal firm carries the regulatory liability. The compliance system should match.

Scope a group rollout

Rollout, in steps.

Scope call (30 min)

Principal compliance lead + 1 member-firm compliance officer + Amaea. We map your network's structure: how many member firms, which CRMs dominate, where oversight currently lives. No prep required.

Principal-firm setup (1-2 days)

Network-level admin provisioned. Principal compliance team gets read access across all member firms once those firms are live. Compliance health scoring rules confirmed (your standards apply, not ours).

First-cohort member firms (week 2-4)

2-4 engaged member firms go live first. Each is a single onboarding session with their compliance lead. CRM integration stands up nightly. Compliance health surfaces within 7 days of go-live.

Remaining firms (month 2-3)

Rolling onboarding. The principal compliance team sees the network-level dashboard populate as each firm goes live. Quarterly principal-liability report ready by end of quarter one.

Network rollout questions, answered.

Q1Does Amaea work for a true AR network (we authorise the firms) or only for service-provider networks?

Both. The principal-liability model and cross-firm read access are designed for true AR networks where you carry the FCA authorisation. Service-provider networks (where each member firm is directly FCA-authorised) get the same cross-firm visibility but the regulatory framing is lighter.

Q2Can a member firm see other member firms' data?

No. Cross-firm reads go one direction only: principal can read member, member cannot read sibling. Enforced at the database layer via Row Level Security: not in application code.

Q3What if a member firm leaves the network?

The member firm exports their full data (CSV + PDF audit-trail bundle) and the principal's read access is revoked. The member firm can continue using Amaea directly or migrate to a different platform. Their historical audit trail goes with them; the principal retains a snapshot for regulatory record-keeping under SYSC 9.

Q4How is pricing structured for a 25-firm network?

Bespoke. The floor is the Enterprise rate per principal firm; usage scales with active clients across the network rather than per-firm. Networks typically pay 40-60% less per member firm than each firm would pay individually.

Q5Do member firms need to all use the same CRM?

No. Amaea connects to whichever CRM each member firm uses. The principal-level dashboard normalises the data; you don't need to standardise CRM choice across the network as a prerequisite.

Q6Can the principal compliance team customise rules per member firm?

Network-wide rule baseline plus per-firm overrides. The principal sets the floor (e.g., "every member firm runs the COBS 9.5 nightly sweep"). Individual member firms can add stricter rules but cannot weaken the network baseline.