Within Teamwork.com, collaborators are one of three user license types you can choose from when adding people to your site.
When you add a new user as a collaborator or downgrade an existing standard user, they will not count towards the cost of your subscription but they will have reduced permissions compared to standard users.
Each user will have a user type tag with a unique color. Client users will be indicated in aqua, while standard users are green and collaborators are purple.
Understanding collaborator permissions
Collaborators have limited permissions within Teamwork.com. They can perform basic actions such as completing tasks and milestones assigned to them, but cannot edit the main properties of a task.
Collaborators can:
- Complete tasks assigned to them
- Complete milestones assigned to them
- Set progress on tasks assigned to them
- Note: Setting a task's progress to 100% will automatically complete the task.
- Follow tasks
- View files
- Edit files they upload
- Add new messages
- Reply to existing messages
- Add comments to project items
- Set privacy on project items
- Be granted view-only access to the calendar via their profile permissions.
- This will also give them access to the Events section of the My Work area.
- Be granted permission to view a project budget on an individual project.
- Note: A collaborator will first need to have permission to View Time Log enabled for the project in order to have the budget permission enabled.
Collaborators cannot:
- Edit task properties:
- This includes changing dates, attaching files, changing assignee, changing tags, or changing board column.
- Create new tasks, task lists, milestones, notebooks, links, or risks
- Update milestones, task lists, tasks, notebooks, links
- Complete tasks or milestones not assigned to them
- Set progress on tasks not assigned to them
- Log time
- Set reminders on tasks
- Manage project budgets
- Be a project owner
- Add project updates
- Add new projects
- Add tags to any projects or project items
- Access Finance and Billing
- Create events in the calendar
- Generate iCal feeds
- Access and set statuses
- Become a site or project administrator
- Manage task templates
- Manage people and companies
- Access or manage Portfolio
- Access or manage Resource Scheduling
- Access or manage project templates
- Access Workload Planner
- Be an observer on projects
- Run reports anywhere on the site
Note: Collaborators can only use integrations related to the features they have permission to access. For example, they cannot use any time-related integrations as they do not have permission to log time.
To update a collaborator's permissions, go to the People section of your site. To the right of the user you wish to change you can choose the pencil icon.
Select the Permissions tab and click the blue Edit button beside the Project access count.
From the list of available projects, select Edit to the right the relevant project.
You can then adjust the permissions for the collaborator on the selected project.
With restricted permissions, options such as updating tasks, task lists, milestones, and logging time will be crossed out. If you have a user that needs any of those permissions, you will need to make them a standard user.
Note: Collaborators can only be granted permissions at project level (above). At site level, they can view the My Work and Projects tabs, as well as the Calendar if granted the profile permission.
You can also set default permissions for collaborators in your site's general settings.
Adding a collaborator
To add a new user as a collaborator, you can select it from the user type dropdown.
Downgrading an existing user to a collaborator
You can also change an existing user to a collaborator by navigating to the people section of your site.
In a project's People tab or the site-level People area, click the three dots to the right of the relevant user and select Edit Profile from the dropdown menu.
Go to the Essentials tab in the user's details modal and update the Type from standard user to collaborator before clicking Update.
You can also downgrade a user via their profile area.
Working with collaborators in Teamwork.com Desk
Within Teamwork.com Desk, you can add existing collaborators from your Teamwork.com site to be agents on your Desk account.
Note: Collaborators from your Teamwork.com site are added to Desk as agents. You will be able to select whether to add them as full-time or part-time agents, depending on your Desk subscription plan.
Working with collaborators in Teamwork Chat
Existing collaborators from your Teamwork.com site can also be invited to your Teamwork Chat account but will be treated as paid users per your Teamwork Chat subscription plan.
For more information, see: Understanding User Permissions and Access