What Clients Can See and Do

When a client opens a project, it looks much like it does for your team: the same tools, the same people. What's inside is different. Clients see only the items your team has shared with them, and everything starts private to your team.

This article applies to projects that work with clients. To set one up, see Working with Clients.

How Visibility Works

• Everything starts private to your team. A new message, to-do list, doc, file or event is for your team until someone shares it, unless the project's New things start as says otherwise (see Working with Clients).
• Every page says who can see it. Under the title bar of anything that can be shared, your team sees a band: marigold with an eye when the client can see it (Marlow & Co. can see this message and its comments.), slate with a lock when only your team can (Only your team can see this message.). It stays in view as you scroll. Clients never see it.
• Lists mark what's shared. On the Message Board, the To-dos, Docs & Files and Check-ins, shared items wear a marigold Client can see pill after their name; everything else is your team's. The calendar, the project's tool cards, Search and Activity show a small marigold eye instead.
• What's inside follows along. To-dos follow their list, cards follow their board, docs follow their folder, answers follow their question and comments follow what they're on. Their band says so and links to where it's set: Marlow & Co. can see this to-do because the Website deliverables to-do list is shared. with Change on the to-do list. Images, files and voice notes in a shared item's text open for clients too.
• Drafts stay private. Clients can't open a draft; a draft set to be shared says Marlow & Co. will see this message once it's posted.
• Clients' own posts are visible. Anything a client posts can be seen by your team and by the other clients on the project.

Share When You Post

Every form that starts something new asks Who should see this?, with two answers: Only our team or Our team and Marlow & Co. The one you pick fills with its color. New messages, to-do lists, docs, files, links, folders, events, check-in questions, progress and health updates, and the project's external links all ask.

Inside a folder there's nothing to choose: the form says what the folder decides, for example Only your team, like everything in Signage drafts. While Only our team is picked, clients aren't offered in the @-mention suggestions or the notify list. The question only appears in projects that work with clients.

Share or Hide After Posting

1. Open the item.
2. Click Change in the band under the title bar.
3. In Who can see this message?, choose Only our team or Our team and Marlow & Co.
4. Click Save.

The item's ••• menu offers the same change in one click: Share with Marlow & Co. or Make it team only. Something that follows a list, board or folder can't be changed on its own: its band sends you to the list, board or folder instead.

Tool by Tool

What	How to share it
Messages	Who should see this? when you post, or Change in the band on the message
To-do lists	Who should see this? when you make the list, or Change in the band on the list's page. Its to-dos and groups follow it
Loose to-dos	Never visible to clients
Docs, files, links and folders at the top of Docs & Files	Who should see this? when you add them, or Change in the band on each one's page
Anything inside a folder	Follows the folder
Calendar events	Who should see this? in New event, or Change in the band on the event
Chat	The whole chat at once, with Change in the band at the top of the chat
Boards	The whole board at once, with Change in the band at the top of the board. Its columns and cards follow it
Check-in questions	Who should see this? when you create the question, or Change in the band on the question. Answers follow the question
Progress and health updates	Who should see this? when you post the update, or Change in the band on its page
Approvals and correspondence	Always visible to clients: that's what the Clients tool is for

Share a Chat

A project's chat is shared all at once. Click Change in the band at the top of the chat and choose Our team and Marlow & Co.: clients can read it, including earlier lines, and post in it. While it's shared, the chat's message box reminds your team that Marlow & Co. can see this chat. Choose Only our team to make it private again. Until it's shared, the chat isn't listed on the client's project page at all.

Share a Board

A board is shared the same way, from the band at the top of the board: every column and card on it becomes visible to clients, along with cards added later. Cards follow their board, so a card can't be shared or hidden on its own. Until it's shared, the board isn't listed on the client's project page at all.

Clients can move cards between the columns of a shared board and comment on them. Adding cards, steps and columns stays with your team.

Commenting on Something Shared

On anything the client can see, the comment box carries a reminder next to Post comment: Marlow & Co. will see your comment. Team-only items show nothing.

How Clients Hear About Things

When you share something, the clients on the project start following it and hear about new comments, chat lines and answers, according to their own notification settings. The exception is a message, doc or file shared as you post it: there the When this posts, notify… choice decides who follows, and Everyone on this project includes clients.

Hiding an item takes every client off it, so they stop hearing about it. On an item only your team can see, clients aren't offered in the @-mention suggestions or the notify list, so nothing about it reaches them. See @-mentions and Following and Unfollowing Discussions.

What Clients Can Do

In the projects they're on, and only with what's shared, clients can:

• Open each of the project's tools, apart from a chat or board that isn't shared. A tool with nothing shared looks empty to them.
• Read, comment on and cheer anything shared with them.
• Follow what's shared with them with the Notify me box at the bottom of each item, choose who else is notified, and set reminders with Remind me… in an item's ••• menu.
• Post messages, add to-dos to shared lists, upload files, and add events to the project's calendar.
• Move cards between the columns of a shared board.
• Post in the chat once it's shared.
• Answer check-in questions they're asked.
• Approve or decline an approval that names them, and reply in correspondence.
• Use Search, Activity, Calendar and Everything, which show them only what's shared with them.
• Start private chats with your account's owners and admins and with people on their projects, unless private chats are turned off for their company in Admin > Permissions.

What Clients Can't Do

Clients can't:

• See items only your team can see, loose to-dos, drafts, or who can see what (the bands, pills and dots are your team's).
• Change who can see an item.
• Edit, archive, move or copy what the team posted. They can edit and delete their own posts and comments.
• Create docs, folders, to-do lists, cards, board columns or check-in questions. Those are set up by the team.
• Save drafts or schedule posts. What a client posts goes up right away.
• Add events from the all-projects Calendar, or subscribe to a calendar from another calendar app. They add events in a project's calendar instead.
• Create projects, invite people to your account, or add and remove people on a project.
• Change a project's name, description or tools, turn Work with clients on or off, or archive or trash a project.
• Request approvals, start correspondence, or write check-in questions.
• Create public links.
• Use Reports or the Admin area, or see a project's health gauge.
• See timesheets or anyone's logged hours: the ⏱ badges, My Timesheet, and the Timesheets report are for your team only. See Timesheets.
• See the whole account's directory. On People, a client sees the account's owners and admins and the people on their own projects.
• Be made an admin or owner. Change them to a team member first: see Changing User Types.