Asana is a popular project management software that helps teams organize work, manage projects, and collaborate effectively. One of its useful features is the ability to add guest users – people from outside your organization who need access to certain projects or tasks.
In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know about adding and managing guests in Asana.
Table of Contents
Overview of Guest Users in Asana
Guest users are external team members that don’t share your organization’s email domain. For example, if your email is [email protected], an external contractor with email [email protected] would be considered a guest.
Here are some key things to know about guest users in Asana:
- Guests only have access to projects and tasks they are specifically invited to. They can’t see any other projects or tasks in your workspace. This allows you to collaborate securely.
- Guest users don’t count towards your workspace’s membership limits. So you can add as many as you need without incurring additional charges.
- Guest permissions are configurable – you can customize what they can see and do.
- Guests can be added to both free and paid Asana workspaces. However, more advanced permissions and controls are available in paid workspaces.
Prerequisites for Adding Guests
Before adding guests, make sure:
- You have edit access to the workspace: Only workspace admins and editors can add guests. Regular workspace members cannot.
- Your workspace is on a paid plan: Guest users are only available for paid Asana workspaces, not free ones. So you need to be on Premium, Business Class or Enterprise plan.
If you meet both prerequisites, you can proceed to the next step of actually adding and configuring guests.
How to Add a Guest User in Asana
Follow these simple steps to add someone as a guest to your Asana workspace:
1. Go to Workspace Members Page
Click on the workspace name on the top left. Then click on “Members” next to the workspace name.
Asana Workspace Members
This will open the manage members page for your workspace.
2. Click “Invite Members”
On the members page, click the “Invite Members” button.
Invite Asana Members
3. Enter Guest’s Email Address
In the invite members popup, enter the complete email address of the person you want to add as a guest.
Enter Guest Email
4. Choose Guest Permissions
By default, guests have “Can edit” permissions which allow editing tasks they are invited to.
If you want to restrict permissions, click the “Change permissions” link and choose view-only access.
Guest Permissions
Use the “Share Project” dropdown to choose which Asana project you want to give the guest access to. To share multiple projects, you’ll need to repeat this guest adding process.
Choose Project to Share
6. Click Send Invite
Finally, click “Send Invite” to invite the guest to the workspace. They will receive an email invite which they can use to sign up and access the shared project.
That’s it! You have successfully added a guest user to your Asana workspace.
Configuring Advanced Guest Permissions
The basic guest adding process shares an entire project with view or edit rights. However, for more advanced control, Asana workspaces on Business Class or Enterprise plans have additional options:
1. Task Level Permissions: You can add guests as collaborators on individual tasks, without giving access to the whole project.
2. Restrict Sections: Within a shared project, you can restrict guests from seeing certain sections.
3. Moderated Status: Guest posts and activity can be moderated before publishing to other users.
4. Read-only Access: The “Can view” permission restricts guests to read-only access.
5. Custom Fields and Forms: You can hide certain custom fields and forms from guests.
To configure these advanced permissions, workspace admins can use the “Members” tab in the Admin Console.
Best Practices for Managing Guest Users
Here are some tips for smoothly managing guests in your Asana workspace:
- Limit Access: Only share what is absolutely necessary with guests. Don’t give them blanket access to all projects.
- Automate Invites: Use Zapier or Asana’s API to automate sending guest invites for routine external collaborations.
- Review Activity: Periodically review guest activity using the audit log to ensure they only access relevant content.
- Revoke Access: Remove guests from projects after their work is done so that they don’t retain indefinite access.
Summary
Adding guest users is a great way to securely collaborate with your clients, contractors, partners and anyone outside your core team.
By following this guide, you can quickly get started with adding guests in Asana. Just make sure to limit guest permissions thoughtfully so that your proprietary information stays protected.
Implementing a sound guest access policy will let you scale business partnerships and external collaborations without compromising security or increasing costs.
