Account structure
Business portfolio
A business portfolio groups your Meta business assets and lets you manage access to them. You may also see the older term Business Manager, or BM, in existing instructions. For WhatsApp, the portfolio is the business-level container for your WABAs. Select the portfolio that should own the assets when you connect to YCloud. Do not create a new portfolio only because you cannot see an existing one. First check that you are signed in with the correct Meta account and have the required access.WhatsApp Business Account (WABA)
A WABA contains the business phone numbers and message templates used by your business on the platform. It has its own WABA ID. The WABA is a management asset. Customers exchange messages with a business phone number, not with the WABA ID. A WABA belongs to one business portfolio. Giving a person or provider access to a WABA does not make that person or provider a second owner. Meta distinguishes access to owned assets from access to assets shared by another business. See Meta’s WhatsApp Business Accounts documentation for the platform relationship.Phone number
Each connected business phone number has a phone number ID, a display name, and a business profile. The number is the sender identity used in a customer conversation. See Business phone numbers for requirements and profile information.Your YCloud account
Your YCloud account is where you use YCloud tools and manage authorized connections. During Embedded Signup, you select or create the relevant Meta assets and authorize access. Check the portfolio, WABA, and number before you finish.Keep the identifiers separate
Use the identifier requested by the specific guide or API. A phone number ID is not interchangeable with the phone number itself.
Check ownership and access before you connect
- Confirm that the selected portfolio represents the business that should own the assets.
- Make sure someone in your organization retains the necessary administrative access.
- Record the WABA ID and number information for future troubleshooting.
- If you already use WhatsApp through another provider, follow the migration guide instead of creating replacement assets without checking the consequences.
- Treat business verification, display name review, and number registration as separate checks.
Find the asset that owns the problem
Use the level of the operation to choose where to investigate:Example: one business, two numbers
A business can use one number for customer support and another for a regional operation. They remain distinct sender identities even if they belong to the same WABA. The WABA can contain reusable approved templates, but each number still has its own profile and operational state. A customer messaging the support number does not open a free-form service window with the other number. Portfolio-level messaging capacity is also not multiplied simply by adding more numbers.Keep an asset register
Record the portfolio name and ID, WABA name and ID, sender phone number, phone number ID, connected YCloud account, and responsible administrator. Include the intended purpose of each number. Use this register before completing Embedded Signup. If you see two similarly named portfolios, match the ID and owner instead of choosing by name alone. If an agency is helping, agree which business owns the assets and which party only has delegated access. When support asks for a WABA ID, do not send the numeric telephone number in its place. In YCloud’s Messages API, some operations use the actualfrom number; Meta APIs may ask for a phone-number ID. Follow the specific field contract.