Understand roles, visibility and read-only access

Access is layered. A workspace role grants broad capabilities, project visibility determines who can open a project, and assignments decide who performs particular work. Stakeholders and vendor contacts use narrower participant experiences rather than ordinary workspace membership.

Before you start

• Only the project owner or a workspace admin can manage project access.

• Workspace roles and custom permissions are managed outside the project.

Step by step

1. Start with the workspace role

The workspace role controls broad abilities such as administration, project creation or ordinary participation. Custom roles can narrow or extend the capabilities available to a member.

2. Check project visibility

In Project settings, open Access. Whole workspace allows every workspace member to see the project. Restricted limits it to explicitly added members, plus the owner and workspace admins.

3. Add the project audience

Use Add members to choose specific users or resolve an audience by group, location or role. Preview the matched people, then add them. Only workspace users become project members.

4. Keep participant access separate

Stakeholders can be invited to surveys, use-case testing or approvals without becoming project members. Vendor contacts receive project-scoped portal access. Neither participant link should be used as a substitute for internal membership.

5. Recognise read-only states

A cancelled project is read-only until an admin reopens it. A user without write permission can navigate and inspect permitted evidence but cannot use editing controls. Some actions also require a specialist assignment.

6. Review access before sending

Before publishing a form or sending an invitation, confirm the intended internal members and the separate external audience. Changing project visibility does not automatically invite respondents or vendors.

What happens next

• Set the project to Restricted if its evidence should not be workspace-wide.

• Assign the relevant scorers, stakeholders and approvers in their own workflows.

Troubleshooting

The Access tab shows information but no editing controls.

Only the project owner or a workspace admin can manage access. Ask one of them to change visibility or add you as a member.

The audience preview includes stakeholders but the Add members button reports fewer people.

Project members must be workspace users. Stakeholders in an audience remain available for participant invitations but are excluded from project membership.

A member can open the project but cannot edit it.

Check their workspace role or custom permissions, whether the project is cancelled, and whether the action requires an assigned role such as finance reviewer or approver.

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