Guest access for clients and outside partners

Working with people outside the company

Client work means sharing: the plan, the latest files, a weekly update, a place to ask questions. It also means keeping some things private: internal estimates, team discussion, drafts that are not ready. Emitii handles both inside the real space your team already works in. Clients join as guests, and they see what you share with them and nothing else.

How guests are invited

Admins invite guests from Admin Console > Guests with an email and a name ("Invite guest"). The workspace owner decides which admins may invite guests. The guest accepts the invitation and signs in like anyone else.

Space managers then add the guest to spaces from the space's member list. One guest can be in several spaces, for example a client contact who sits on two projects. If a guest later joins your company, they can be promoted to a full member.

A common pattern for agencies and consultancies:

1. Create a space for the client, often with the Client space type.
2. Add your own team as members.
3. Add the client's contacts as guests to that space.
4. Pick a Guest access preset, then share the cards, files and posts the client should see.

Guest access per space

Each space has a Guest access switch. It turns on by itself when the first guest is added and off when the last guest leaves, and a space manager can also switch it by hand. When guest access is off, guests cannot open the space, but nothing is lost: shared items and settings are kept, and switching it on again restores everything.

Members always know when a space has outside people in it. The space header shows a chip such as "3 guests" or "Guest access on".

Two layers decide what guests see

What a guest can open comes from two layers, and the stricter one wins.

Workspace defaults. In Admin Console > Guests > Guest permissions, admins set one switch per area: Dashboard, Board, Tasks, Schedule, Timesheet, Docs & Files, Posts, Activity and Trash. Dashboard, Board, Tasks, Schedule, Docs & Files and Posts are on by default.

The space's Guest access tab. Each space fine-tunes this with three presets:

• Only what I share: guests see the items members share with them.
• Full project: guests see the whole project in the areas that are open.
• Custom: set each section yourself.

With Custom, each section has its own level:

The same tab has Who they see (the whole team or only chosen people), Hide team edit history on shared items (guests see comments only), and Reset to workspace defaults.

Sharing items with guests

Everything in a space is internal until a member shares it. You can share cards and columns, to-dos and to-do lists, docs, files and folders, posts, and schedule events.

• Items follow their container. A card follows its column, a to-do its list, a doc its folder, unless you set it individually. Share a "Client review" column and every card in it is shared.
• Each item can be Guest or Internal. Use "Share with guests" or "Make internal" on any item. An item marked Internal stays private even inside a shared column, list or folder.
• Badges show the state. Members see a Guest badge on shared items and an Internal badge on the exceptions. Guests never see sharing controls.
• Meetings share themselves. Inviting a guest to a meeting on the Schedule shares that event with them.
• Guest work is visible. Docs and to-dos a guest creates are shared automatically.

Guest Pulse and Pulse

A space with guests has two chats. Pulse is for the team only. Guest Pulse is the team plus the space's guests. Internal discussion stays in Pulse, and client conversation happens in Guest Pulse, where the whole team can follow it. Guests also comment on shared items, with @mentions and attachments. See team communication for how Pulse works.

When a member asks @emitii in Guest Pulse, Emit only uses what guests can see, so an answer there never quotes internal work.

What guests can do

Guests can view or contribute: comment, create and edit items in the sections opened to them, and log their own hours if the Timesheet is open to them. They never manage a space, so settings, the roster and the space name stay with your team. If an outside person needs to run a space, invite them as a member instead.

Privacy by default

• Only their spaces and people. Guests see the spaces they are in and the people they share a space with.
• Unshared means Not Found. Anything not shared with them shows as Not Found, and they are never notified about it.
• Making internal again is clean. When an item goes back to Internal, guests' earlier notifications about it are hidden too.
• History is kept. Removing a guest keeps their comments and work. They can be restored later with their spaces.

How it connects to access control

Guest access is part of Emitii's wider permissions and access model, where levels are set per space and per area. See the client management use case for a full walkthrough, and the admin and access docs for the settings themselves.

Who uses it

Agencies share review columns and deliverables with clients and keep internal estimates private. Accounting firms share a folder per client for document requests. Event companies bring vendors into the event's space and share only the run of show. To see a client space from the inside, try a live demo or request access.