> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://karansingh.gitbook.io/aws-saa-c02/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://karansingh.gitbook.io/aws-saa-c02/security-and-management/organizations.md).

# Organizations

## Overview

* Organizations is an **account management service** that enables you to **consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization** that you **create and centrally manage**.

## Benefits

* **Centralized management of all of your AWS accounts:**
  * You can **combine your existing accounts (or create new accounts or invite existing ones) into an organization that enables you to manage the accounts centrally**.<br>
* **Consolidated billing for all member accounts:**
  * You can **use the management account (formerly known as the "master account") of your organization to consolidate and pay for all member accounts** and management accounts can also access the billing information, account information, and account activity of member accounts in their organization.<br>
* **Hierarchical grouping of your accounts to meet your budgetary, security, or compliance needs:**
  * You can **group your accounts into organizational units (OUs)** and **attach different access policies to each OU** and you can **nest OUs within other OUs to a depth of five levels**.<br>
* **Global access:**
  * Organizations is a **global service** with a **single endpoint that works from any and all AWS Regions**.<br>
* **Free to use**
  * Organizations is a feature of your AWS account **offered at no additional charge**.

## Service Control Policies (SCP)

* SCPs are a type of organization policy that you can use to **manage permissions in your organization**.<br>
* SCPs **offer central control over the maximum available permissions for all accounts in your organization**.<br>
* &#x20;SCPs **affect only IAM users and roles** that are managed by accounts that are part of the organization. SCPs don't affect resource-based policies directly. <br>
* &#x20;SCPs **affect only member accounts in the organization**.
  * They have **no effect on users or roles in the management account**.<br>
* &#x20;SCPs **do not affect any service-linked role**.
  * Service-linked roles **enable other AWS services to integrate with Organizations and can't be restricted by SCPs**.<br>
* They **can be nested**, and when they are, they are **inherited**.