Manage project members

Add workspace users to a project, elevate client users, change project roles, override the consultant category, and remove members.

Written for
admin, user
Roles
owner, admin, project-manager, elevated-client-user
Requires
Owner, Admin, or a workspace-user Project manager to add or remove workspace users; Owner, Admin, or any Project manager to elevate client users (a client Project manager only for their own client); Recent re-authentication
Feature
projects

Project membership is what gives a workspace Member access to a project's tickets, and what turns a client user into an elevated client user. Members are managed on the project's Members tab. Owners and Admins are managers of every project without being listed as members.

Before you start

  • Open Projects, choose the project, and open the Members tab. Everyone who can see the project can see its member list; the add form appears only for people who may change it.
  • Membership changes are access changes, so SAQ asks you to confirm your identity (re-authenticate) before the first change in a while.
  • Client users can only be elevated if their client is the project's billing client or one of its collaborating clients.

Add a member

  1. In the Person list, pick someone. The list has two groups: Workspace users and Client users. Only client users of clients on this project are offered.
  2. Choose a Role: Member or Project manager.
  3. Select Add.

The hint under the form explains the client case: "Adding a client user elevates them on this project. Elevation is usable once they have a password or passkey login."

Adding a person who is already a member changes their role instead. You can also change a role directly with the Role select in the table.

What elevation means

A client user normally sees only tickets they started or were added to as a viewer. Elevating them on a project widens that:

  • They see every ticket in that project that is billed to their own client.
  • They read and write Shared and Internal comments there, never Staff.
  • They can be assigned tickets in that project and can be a Project manager of it.
  • They still never log time, never see estimates, rates, notes, or non-billable time, and cannot set billing fields.
  • They can create personal API tokens, as long as the token names at least one project.

Elevation only works in a full login session, that is, a session started with a password or passkey. A client user who still logs in by magic link is listed as Elevated (needs a full login first) and keeps regular client access until they set a password or add a passkey under Account → Security. The Type column shows Workspace user, Elevated client user, or Elevated (needs a full login first).

Consultant category override

For workspace users the Category column lets an Owner or Admin pick a consultant category that applies to time this person logs on this project, overriding their workspace default. Leave it on the default to use the category set under Settings → Consultant categories. The override applies to new time entries only; existing entries keep the category they were logged with. See Consultant categories and rate cards.

Remove a member

Select Remove on the row and confirm Remove {name} from the project? The confirmation says what happens: "They keep their workspace access; the project membership and any elevation end."

For a client user, removal ends the elevation, and any API token they minted that depended on this project is revoked. Tickets they reported or view stay visible to them through those grants. A workspace user can always remove themselves from a project.

Who may do what

Action Owner or Admin Workspace-user Project manager Client Project manager Member
Add or remove workspace users Yes Yes No No
Elevate a client user Any client on the project Any client on the project Own client's users only No
Remove an elevation Same as elevate Same as elevate Own client's users only No
Change a role Yes Yes Own client's users only No
Consultant category override Yes No (not offered in the UI) No No
Leave the project Yes Yes No Yes

Rules

  • A person is either a workspace user or a client user in a workspace, never both, so the two groups in the Person list never overlap.
  • Agent accounts are members of every project automatically and are listed with the other workspace users.
  • Changing a client user's role to Project manager lets them elevate other users of their own client, but not add workspace users or edit project settings.
  • Removing someone from a project never touches their time entries, comments, or workspace membership. To remove a client user from the workspace altogether, see Manage client users.

Common problems

"You may only elevate users of your own client." A client Project manager tried to elevate a user of a different client. Ask an Owner, Admin, or workspace-user Project manager.

"The person's client is not on this project." The client user's client is neither the billing client nor a collaborating client. Add the client under Settings → Collaborating clients first.

"Only owners, admins, or a workspace project manager add members." A client Project manager or a plain Member tried to add a workspace user.

The person shows "Elevated (needs a full login first)" and still sees nothing. They must log in with a password or passkey. Ask them to set a password under Account → Security; the elevation becomes active on their next full login.

A client user is not offered in the Person list. Either their client is not on the project, or they are already a member. A client Project manager is only offered users of their own client.

  • Create a project Create a project, choose its key and billing client, set the billing mode, and understand what a project decides for the tickets inside it.
  • Collaborating clients Add a second client to a project so its users can be elevated and its tickets can be billed to it, and understand how visibility is scoped on multi-client projects.
  • Manage client users Add people who log in on a client's behalf, read their login type and elevations, set the billing contact flag, and remove them.
  • Project role A project role is what a person is on one project, Member or Project manager; for a client user it is also their elevation.
  • Project manager What the Project manager role adds on one project, what still needs an Owner or Admin, and the limits when the manager is an elevated client user.
  • Client user What a client user sees and can do in SAQ, the difference between regular and elevated mode, and how a full login unlocks elevation.
  • Consultant categories and rate cards Define the categories that carry hourly rates, assign a default category per person with project overrides, and maintain each client's rate card with effective dates and project-specific rates.