[From Wrike] When to Grant a Collaborator License 🏅
There are two popular scenarios when inviting Collaborators to your Wrike account:
- Sometimes you need additional force like contractors to complete a project.
- Other times you need your partners or clients to be constantly updated on a project’s progress.
Among Wrike’s different types of licenses, Collaborators are used when you need to give someone limited access to items in your Wrike account. They don’t take up a paid license seat, check out this Community post to learn more about Collaborator limits.
It's a long post so here’s a rundown of what we'll be discussing below:
- When to Grant a Collaborator License
-
What Collaborators See?
Folder tree
Folder level
Tabs
Views
-
Some Extra Stuff You’ll Need to Know
Collaborators and Access Roles
Collaborators and Advanced Workflows
Proofing and Approvals for Collaborators
FAQs
Webinars
When to Grant a Collaborator License
This license type is best used for people outside of your organization who don’t need to create work but need to be in the know of the projects’ progress. If someone only needs to change task statuses or leave comments - that’s where a Collaborator’s license comes in handy. Please note that if someone needs to create tasks and add context to them (like adding descriptions), it’s better to make that person a Regular or External User.
In short, Collaborator licenses are great for
- People outside of your organization
- Users who don't need to create work
- Someone who only needs to leave comments or change a task's status
What Collaborators See
This is how a Collaborator’s Workspace in Wrike looks (Enterprise subscription):
- Folder tree: Folders and projects are shared with the Collaborator
Tip: If there are many items in the folder tree, you can star folders/projects that you work with frequently.
- Tabs: Inbox, My Work, Stream for all accounts. Collaborators can also use Calendars and Reports on Business and Enterprise subscriptions when they’re shared with them.
- Views:
List View - Collaborators can view tasks shared with them, filter those tasks & sort them.
Board View - Drag and drop tasks to change their status, filter those tasks & sort them.
Table View - View tasks shared with them, display task attributes and open them in Task View (only the ones that are shared with them)
Gantt Chart - View table and timeline portions, print timeline.
- Task View:
Collaborators can:
- See tags (if they are shared)
- Star
- Add to My Work (pin button)
- Follow
- Copy Permalink
- Change status
- See assignees and task dates
- Attach files and see dependencies
- See task description
- Add comments and @mention users who share the same task
Collaborators can’t:
- Change title
- Change task description
- Change assignees
- Change dates
- Folder View:
Collaborators can:
- See tags (if they are shared)
- Follow
- Copy Permalink
- Attach files
- See folder description
- Add comments and @mention users who share the same folder
Collaborators can’t:
- Change title
- Change folder description
- Project View:
Collaborators can:
- See tags (if they are shared)
- See project progress
- Follow
- Copy Permalink
- See owners and project dates
- See status
- Attach files
- See project description
- Add comments and @mention users who share the same project
Collaborators can’t:
- Change title
- Change the project description
- Change owners
- Change dates
- Change status
Some Extra Things You’ll Need to Know
Collaborators and Access Roles
Admins on Enterprise can create new roles and customize existing ones. For example, you can give a Read Only access to a Collaborator and customize the Role so that the Collaborator will not be able to change a task’s status or attach files to the task. Please note that Access Roles can't grant more rights than stipulated by the user license.
Collaborators and Advanced Workflows
Admins on Business and Enterprise accounts can enable fixed and flexible Workflows - when changing a task’s status, users can only choose from certain predesignated statuses. Admins determine which status should have predetermined follow-up statuses and they choose what the follow-up statuses are (in a flexible Workflow, all other statuses are accessible under a “More” menu option.) This is a great way to streamline how Collaborators can change Statuses to tasks in Wrike.
Proofing and Approvals for Collaborators
Collaborators can use Proofing to add comments directly to images, videos, .pdf and Microsoft Office files attached to Tasks, Folders, and Projects, and Approvals when they have files that need to be reviewed and approved or approve files themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Do Collaborators see Custom Fields? They can see Custom Fields that have values in them. If the Custom Field is empty, Collaborators won’t be able to see them. Also, Collaborators can’t add or edit Custom Fields.
Are Collaborators included in the Workload Charts? No, they don’t have access, nor are they included in the Workload Chart for your account.
Can Collaborators see Reports? Collaborators can see Reports shared with them. All tasks in the Report will be visible to Collaborators, but they will only be able to open the ones that are shared with them in the Task View. Please note that Reports are available on Business and Enterprise subscriptions.
Can Collaborators track time and view time logs? Only Regular and External Users can track time. Collaborators can use the Task Stream if they need to communicate such information. Please note that Collaborators can currently see time entries added by other users in the Task Stream. If you need to hide this info, please consider creating duplicate projects or tasks for your partners or clients who are granted a Collaborator license.
We’d love to hear how you’re using Collaborator licenses, comment below with your team’s best practices.
We’re thinking about writing the same summary for other types of users. Let us know which user you’d like to hear about next 👍
Happy Collaborating!
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Please rework the Wrike for Collaborators video to include Spaces. We would like to create an onboarding training for Collaborators, but feel this video is not good to use b/c it is outdated. Can this be done? If Wrike adds features, then the resource material needs to be updated.
What other videos, webinars would you suggest at this point?
Hey Wendy, great timing! We now have a course on Discover about Spaces which you can share - let me know if this helps?
Thank you Stephen. I will check it out. At first breadth, being a 300 level course, not sure if it will be appropriate for collaborator training?
Oh, sorry, this is simply the numbering system for the courses and doesn't reflect the level. It's introductory and I'm sure it will help in some ways to better understand Spaces.
These are beta courses however so your feedback would is really appreciated!
I've also passed on your feedback about the video.
I also think this webinar is a great overview if you'd like to check it out.
If you have any specific questions about Spaces that I can help with, let me know 🙂
Thanks Stephen. That type of numbering system is routine in higher education, so if it doesn't reflect levels, it could be misleading to some. I would suggest no system, just title.
As I review the courses, I can send feedback. The link you sent is for a 45 minute video, which is a bit long for me to digest at once. And I would be hesitant to refer this out to a new Collaborator.
I'm looking for micro-learning resources to refer to new Collaborators for onboarding. Short and simple. Since collaborators do not have many working rights within the account, the basics are only what is needed.
Thank you for the continued dialogue!
Totally understand Wendy and I've passed on your feedback to the Education team on the numbering and also webinar lengths.
Watching might not be the best option for you so we do have our Help Centre for them to understand Wrike. For them, they'll only know the environment of a Collaborator and each help article has whether they can use the function or not.
Our support team can help with any questions or if you have specific FAQs I can help with to make the onboarding easier, I'm more than happy to help with that document.
Thank you Stephen. This is the angle I'm pursuing now - the Help Center and document resources. But everyone loves a good, short video that gets to the point. :) Please ask the team to create a 5 min video for collaborators. We are using the Navigating video for onboarding Users presently. Although jam packed and quick moving (I learn something new everytime I watch it), we think it is a good first hit to see all the panels and views, folders, projects and tasks.
That's great to hear Wendy and the team has been passed the idea of creating shorter videos.
I will say again that 12 courses (Discover is currently in Beta) on our Discover learning program really works. It gives you some hands-on action with the tool to practice and we're seeing some great onboarding results from people taking the courses.
Thanks so much for your insight, feedback and sharing your onboarding process right now. The Community is here for any questions you have on your learning/onboarding journey 🙌
This is a fantastic overview! We're fairly new to Wrike and have limited paid licenses - so Collaborators have greatly improved utilization and our case to expand our license count. 😎
Thanks for the feedback, Anthony Fronza!
Just chiming in to second Wendy's request for a five minute video for collaborators. We've found that collaborators get confused by seeing information for regular users, so having a short, current video that is specifically for them would help a lot.
Hey L. Denise Turner, thanks for reaching out! 🙂
The last video provided in the post above is not exactly a 5-minute one, but it's rather short too, less than 15 minutes. And I'm passing on the feedback for the team to update it and include spaces in that 👍
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa By chance has there been a new video created with Spaces for Collaborators yet?
Hey Marj Downey! There isn't a new one yet, but I'll definitely raise this with our team again; thank you for flagging this!
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Hi,
If I have some collaborators I want to convert to regular users. How shall I do it? Will their work as a collaborator still show up as from the same user? Does this free the collaborator license when it converts to a regular user?
Thanks!!
Hi Ram Moskovitz,
You've asked an excellent question!
The answer is yes, all of the work done by a collaborator will remain unchanged and still show as from that same user.
Changing a user's license type only changes what they can see and do in the account, and doesn't affect any previous work. All comments, assigned tasks, etc., will still be attributed to that same user after a license change, regardless of what the license is changed to.
Please let us know if you have any questions. 😊
Can collaborators view Bookmarks in spaces? I reviewed all of the materials provided but none covered this topic. Thanks!
Hi Molly Bendell, yes, collaborators can view Bookmarks in spaces!
Thanks @.... I had actually logged in as a demo user with collaborator license last night who was shared to some tasks and projects in the space, but not the space itself. I had concluded that they were not able to view the bookmarks. I'm guessing based on your response that they could see the bookmarks if they were added as an actual member of the space. Is that accurate?
Hi Molly Bendell, indeed you'd need to share the space with the collaborator for the user to be able to view the bookmarks since that functionality belongs to the space.
If I invite a collaborator to a space does that mean the collaborator can see all tasks in that space or just the ones assigned to them?
Melissa McGroder waht do you mean by inviting to a space? First you invite the collaborator to your account. This means not that he can see anything. Then you share some projects, tasks, or even spaces with the collaborator. If ou share the whole space with him he can see all projects and task within this space (without taking the advanced sharing option for specific projects or folders into account).
As soon as you assign a task to a collaborator he can see it, does not matter if he can the space or not. The disadvantage is only that the task is free floating for him. So he sees it in the todo list, but he can not see to which project it is related as long as you do not give him access to the project.
Great info.
Katie Thacker, This is a helpful reference.