"Pre-registered" AppleCare --- to whom is it registered?
Technically, AppleCare plans get registered individually to each equipment record in Apple's database. Similarly, a customer record gets registered to each equipment record and when you log in to Apple's web site, your customer record is polled to determine which equipment records should be presented to you. AppleCare transfers with the hardware, so registering it to a person (or com pay record) would be harder to implement and manage.

You can work through the process by following this guide:


How to manage your AppleCare agreements - http://support.apple.com/kb/HE50


My experience is this isn't worth your time and that for 20+ machines, you'll want to keep internal records and not rely on Apple's externally facing registration portal. It allows anyone to register a Mac and if someone else mistypes their serial number (and types in your valid serial number), the registration presented at your account for tracking computers could lack that device. It's still covered and internally Apple knows who they sold it to no matter who tries to register that serial number and what Apple ID they use to do so. I just wouldn't want to trust that portal to keep my list in one place.



Apple has business teams in all retail stores and they might be your best way to get detailed instructions and assistance on how to correct any errors in registration and assist you in getting the AppleCare records straight if they don't match your records. The portal for end users doesn't have the tools to make it easy to manage large numbers of computers.

You will also want to look into a self-servicing account and although you might be a little shy of the 50 devices needed, I've seen many organizations set these accounts up with 20 to 30 macs on one order.


http://www.apple.com/support/programs/ssa/


That program has many benefits other than just the tools to bulk upload and manage AppleCare plans and registration but it's well worth it solely for the purpose you described above. The end user portal at https://selfsolve.apple.com is designed for consumers and ease of re-registering a used / unregistered Mac from a consumer standpoint - not a business that may have several purchases of 20 machines, some with and some without AppleCare so you'll want to look into software designed for business needs (like JAMF's Casper, Apple's JointVenture and SSA Program) and reach out to Apple's Business Staff to keep abreast to changes they may make to the tools going forward if it doesn't make sense to invest in tools like Casper, JV or SSA.