When I paraphrase a direct idea from someone, I'd just end the sentence with (John 2010, p. 10). However and sometimes (especially while analyzing to support my claim), I use the citation signal known as 'see' to support an idea.
For example: The company can benefit from its long history (see Company X 2002, para. 1) (where the source 'Company X' does NOT clearly state the idea of the company benefiting from its history but rather 'agree' with my statement since it states that the history of the company dates back to 100 years ago for example).
From Wikipedia:
“See” indicates that the cited authority clearly supports, but does not directly state the proposition given.
I see that such signals are mainly used in legal matters, is their usage in regular academic writing acceptable? I'm using Harvard.