[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.

Webinars

• Role selection

• Collaborator training

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!