To give a client access to Autovella, create a user with the Customer role and set their Linked Account to the client's account. They sign in, land on Projects and see only the projects that belong to that account, in a read-only view of projects, tasks, sprints, Gantt, calendar and holidays. If a client only needs to look at progress once, a share link avoids creating a user at all.
In this guide
Should I create a client user or send a share link?How do I add a client as a Customer user?What can a Customer see and do?How do I control exactly which projects a client sees?Can I build a custom client role?Why can't my client see their project?Frequently asked questions
Should I create a client user or send a share link?
Autovella has three ways to let someone outside your team see work. Pick the lightest one that does the job:
- Share link. Anyone with the address sees a read-only page for one record, with no sign-in. Best for a quick status update. See Sharing Projects and Guest Links.
- Share with a user. Gives a named person access to one record. Useful when the person already has a user account.
- Customer user. A real sign-in for the client, scoped to their company's projects. Best when the client will come back regularly and you want a stable view without managing links.
If the person will do work, such as logging time or expenses, a Customer is the wrong role. Use Contractor instead. See How Access Works.
How do I add a client as a Customer user?
You need an administrator account.
- Open the avatar menu, choose Setup, then under Users & Access open Users and add a new user.
- Fill in First name, Last name, Username, Email and a Password. The Generate button creates a secure one.
- Set Role to Customer.
- Choose the client in Linked Account. When the role is Customer the label becomes Linked Account * with the note that it scopes the user to only that account's projects and tasks. Autovella will not save a Customer or Contractor without one.
- Save the user and share the sign-in details with your client. For user administration in general see Managing Users and Company Settings.
The account must already exist in Accounts. If it does not, create it first. See Managing Accounts, Contacts and Deals.
User limits. A Customer user is still a user. They count towards your plan's user limit, and if you have reached it Autovella shows User limit reached when you try to add them. See Plans, Storage and User Limits.
What can a Customer see and do?
After signing in a Customer lands on Projects. They do not get the main dashboard. Their menu is limited to Projects, Tasks, Sprints, Gantt, Calendar, Holidays, My Work and Favorites, all view-only.
They see a project when any of these is true:
- The project belongs to the account they are linked to. This is what makes the setup work: a client sees their company's whole project list.
- They own it or are a member of its team.
- It has been shared with them or their team.
They never get the organization-wide default visibility that internal users get, and global projects are not shown to them. Rates and costs are hidden unless an administrator has specifically granted that. Because they have no access to timesheets, expenses, invoices, accounts, contacts, deals, analytics or settings, none of that data is exposed.
Customers can read comments on records they can open, but posting comments needs create or update rights on the module, so by default a Customer role is read-only there too. If you want clients to comment or update tasks, create a custom role and turn on exactly what they need.
Keep clients informed without the email chains
Give each client a read-only view of their own projects in Autovella and keep everything else private.
How do I control exactly which projects a client sees?
Everything is driven by the account link and by project membership, so the controls are straightforward:
- Link the project to the account. On the project form, set Account to the client. The project then appears for every Customer linked to that account.
- Keep internal work separate. Leave internal projects without that account, or under a different account, and they stay invisible to the client.
- Add one-off access. For a project under another account, open it, click Share and add the customer as a Viewer, optionally with start and end dates.
- Remove access. Unlink the project's account, remove the share, or deactivate the user. See Creating and Managing Projects.
Check before you invite. Open the project list as an admin and review which projects carry the client's account. Anything on that account is visible to every Customer linked to it.
Can I build a custom client role?
Yes. If the built-in Customer is too limited, for example because clients should be able to add task comments, create a custom role under Setup → Users & Access → Roles. On the Data visibility tab, tick the External Collaborator flag. This confines people in that role to records they own, belong to, were shared, or that belong to their linked account, no matter what the organization-wide default says. Then grant only the modules they need on the Access tab.
Always check the Access tab before assigning a custom role. A role saved without permissions falls back to Employee-level access. Full steps are in Roles, Permissions and Team Sharing.
Why can't my client see their project?
- Empty Projects list. The user has no Linked Account, or the project is on a different account. Check both.
- Project missing after a change. If the project was moved to the recycle bin or turned into a template it will not show. See Recycle Bin and Audit Log.
- They cannot edit or comment. That is by design for the Customer role. Use a custom role if you need more.
- They see too much. Review which projects are on their account and any shares, and remove what you do not want them to see.
- Dashboard access. Customers do not get the dashboard even if widgets are enabled for other roles.
Frequently asked questions
The client portal is the Customer role. A Customer signs in to Autovella itself and sees a limited, read-only view of their own projects and tasks, with no finance, CRM or settings access.
The linked account is what scopes them to their own company's projects. Without it they would see nothing, so Autovella requires it for Customer and Contractor roles.
Not with the Customer role. If someone needs to log hours or expenses, assign the Contractor role instead.
Yes. Create a Customer user for each person and link them to the same account. Each one sees that account's projects. Each user counts towards your plan's user limit.
No. The Customer role has no access to invoices, accounts, contacts, deals or analytics. Send invoices to clients directly from Autovella instead.
A Customer user has a sign-in and sees all projects on their account. A guest link needs no sign-in and shows a read-only view of one record, and you can set it to expire or revoke it.