Manage portal access

Use a client’s settings in Studio to manage their Portal access. Inviting a client user, showing a Portal section, and sharing a project are separate steps.

Project visibility and a person’s permissions are separate settings. Client Portal Visibility in Project Settings uses Allow or Deny to control publication. Allow does not invite anyone or change their permissions or Project selection. See Share work with clients.

Check people and invitations

Open Clients, select the client, then go to Settings → People. This page shows people who have joined your agency’s Portal, pending invitations, and anyone whose access your agency removed. It never shows people or invitations from other agencies that work with the same client. From here you can invite a client user or remove a person’s Portal access.

An invited person still needs to accept the invitation. Email status describes the email attempt, not whether the person has joined.

Provider accepted records a provider receipt separately from the delivery status. An accepted email can still bounce later.

Use Copy link to share a pending, unexpired invitation another way. Copying does not send another email, replace the invitation, or give the recipient access before acceptance. If your browser cannot use the clipboard, Copy invitation link opens with an Invitation link field you can select and copy. An email failure does not itself invalidate the invitation.

To try email again, select Resend invite on a pending, unexpired invitation. Resend keeps the same invitation link, recipient, expiry, and access. It starts another email attempt; Invitation queued does not confirm delivery. Copy link remains a separate action. An expired, revoked, or accepted invitation cannot be resent.

Edit Member permissions

For a person with explicitly configured relationship access, open Settings → People and select Edit permissions. Base role shows Member or Owner for this client relationship. For active access bound to an admitted Profile, your agency can assign Owner or change an existing Owner back to Member.

1. Choose Member or, when available, Owner. Under Direct grants, select Admin or Approver as needed. You can combine the grants.
2. Check the summary for Member participation, Admin, and Work approval. Finance controls are hidden by default; any saved Finance grant remains intact.
3. Select Save permissions. Permissions updated confirms the save. Cancel discards unsaved selections.

Your agency owns and controls the entire Portal. Owner is an access role within one client relationship, not ownership of the Portal. Your agency can undo that assignment.

Owner includes all permissions in this relationship. Admin includes Approver and Finance without selecting their direct checkboxes. Removing Owner or Admin removes its included rights while keeping grants selected separately. Finance alone does not grant approval or Admin. Financial permission does not itself share invoices or make financial operations available.

An admitted Admin or Owner can invite a new Member and edit eligible active Members on the Portal People page within that relationship’s Project limits. A relationship Owner can grant Admin; an Admin can preserve or remove an existing Admin grant but cannot appoint a new Admin. Your agency can undo permission edits and Owner assignments in Studio. An agency edit does not lock out a later authorized client edit. The legacy company People model remains separate; see Client roles and the People page.

The Portal People page also shows Pending invitation permissions for eligible, unexpired Member invitations. An admitted Admin or Owner can select Edit permissions and save direct grants before the recipient joins, within the same Project limits. Editing does not accept, resend, or extend the invitation. The recipient must still verify their account and accept the invitation before those permissions apply. Your agency can undo these edits in Studio. Expired, revoked, or unavailable invitations do not appear in this editor.

The editor changes permissions within the existing scope. It does not join someone to the client’s company, select projects, publish work, share private conversations, or pin a contact.

Edit permissions is disabled for revoked access, access without an explicit project scope, and legacy permissions that have not been mapped. The reason appears beside the control. Owner assignment additionally requires active access and a live Profile binding; a pending invitation cannot acquire Owner. Opening an eligible legacy entry creates an unsaved Member draft. Existing permissions stay unchanged until you save.

If an explicit policy still carries an old Read-Only label, a successful canonical save clears that old restriction and applies your chosen policy. There is no new Read-only choice. Relationship Owner changes do not appoint or remove a client Workspace Owner.

An admitted client Admin or Owner can also remove eligible Member access or cancel a pending Member invitation from Portal People. These actions do not delete the person’s Profile, work, saved permissions or Project selection. Cancelling stops the old invitation link, but cannot recall sent email.

An admitted client Admin or Owner can restore a previously accepted Member from Removed Member access on Portal People, within their current relationship and Project permissions. Restoration keeps the Member’s saved permissions and Project selection. Previously accessible conversation history returns only within current access and the conversation’s existing audience; it does not add participants or expose another person’s private Request. Cancelled invitations that were never accepted are not restorable here.

For a previously accepted Member, Restore access in Studio restores the same relationship grant with its saved permissions and Project selection. A temporary legacy Read-Only restriction remains until a separate canonical permission save or migration changes it. A cancelled invitation that was never accepted shows New invitation required, not Restore access. This message does not renew the cancelled invitation or send a replacement.

If a person separately owns their client Workspace, your agency can still edit, remove or restore their accepted Member access in this Portal relationship. Those actions do not change their Workspace ownership. Remove from organization remains protected for a Workspace Owner. After you restore Portal access, the person may need to sign in again.

If saving fails, the editor keeps your selections and shows the error. Review the error before trying again.

Choose a person’s Projects

In Settings → People, select Edit Project access beside a person with explicitly configured relationship access. The editor loads their saved scope. Opening it does not change access.

Choose All Projects for current and future Projects in this agency’s client relationship. Choose Specific Projects to check individual Projects, or leave every checkbox unchecked to give no Project access. Use Load more Projects to reach later results. Saved selections stay checked even when they are beyond the first page.

Select Save Project access to apply the selection. Cancel leaves the saved scope unchanged. This edit does not change the person’s Owner or Member role, direct grants, invitation, or Primary Contact pins.

Project selection does not publish a Project. Client Portal Visibility must also be Allow for that work to appear. A Project with Deny can remain selected without becoming visible to the client.

If saved selections are no longer available, review Remove unavailable selections before saving. Watson does not silently remove them when you open the editor. If access changes while the editor is open, the editor reloads the current scope. A failed save keeps your draft and shows the error.

Revoked access and unmapped legacy scope cannot be edited here. Your agency controls Project scope for relationship Owners too; this does not change client Workspace ownership.

Set a person’s Portal access level

For existing access that uses the legacy levels, your agency sets each person’s level in Settings → Members & Roles, under Clients. The levels are Collaborator (the default), Primary, and Read-Only. A Read-Only person sees the work you share but cannot respond. This is your agency’s control, not the client Owner’s, and this legacy control cannot lower a client’s Owner.

Existing Read-Only restrictions remain in force until that access is converted to normal Member permissions. Conversion preserves the Project selection and revoked status; it adds no Admin, Approver, or Finance grants. The legacy Primary access label is separate from a Primary Contact pin. Pinning a contact does not change their access level.

Preview Portal as a client

Open More options and select View Portal, then choose a person and select Begin preview. You see a read-only view of the project work shared with that person in your agency’s Portal. The preview cannot change anything and does not open their personal inbox, notifications, account settings, or your agency’s billing information.

A preview session expires after an hour. Select Exit preview to end it sooner and return to Studio. If ending the preview fails, use the retry option; the preview stays closed while you retry.

The preview applies only to its Portal tab. Studio stays signed in as you, including in another tab, after using browser Back, after a reload, and when you reopen Studio. You do not need to end a Portal preview before continuing your own work in Studio.

Preview links are short-lived and can be used once. Start a fresh preview from Studio if a link expires or has already been used. If the client’s access is removed, the preview stops showing their work rather than switching to your own account inside Portal.

A live preview of real client work as your own Profile with a selected role is unavailable. Use the exact-client preview above or the fictional example preview.

Choose Portal sections

Under Portal Settings, choose which sections the client can open. Some sections, including standalone Pages, Approvals, and Discussions, are not available yet even if their switches appear. Clients can still review individual files from a project.

To make work appear inside a section, check the project and file settings in Share work with clients. Archiving a client pauses access to your agency’s Portal while preserving their saved permissions. Unarchive the client to resume access for people whose grants are still active.