@Mark Manders  & @DineshS  yepp, what I was thinking partly too... But that would indeed, as Dinesh says, end up with a hell of a lot of departments... We're talking about 400 "companies" where they all got each about 10 different departments. That's just about 4000 departments... Then addition to some head quarter offices, with their business units too.

How would you Dinesh, recommend using the parent field on the company record? Setting up, let's say Company "MAIN" -> Company A -> Department 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5? Or do you mean to use Company table for departments instead?