External Project Portal - Control Task Visibility

Last Modified On: October 1, 2025

Inspire Planner makes it easy to collaborate with people outside your organization by allowing you to share projects with external contacts as Project Collaborators. 

When you share a project with an external contact, they’ll receive an email with a link to access the project through the Inspire Planner External Project Portal. From there, they can view project details and update any tasks assigned to them—helping to keep everyone informed and aligned.

When you add contacts as external collaborators, you can also control what the external collaborator sees — the full project (all project tasks), assigned tasks only, or shared tasks.

Having the ability to specify which project tasks are shared with external collaborators helps keep everyone aligned without exposing unnecessary details. Depending on the type of collaboration—whether it’s with clients, vendors, partners, or stakeholders—you can choose which tasks to make visible in the External Project Portal. The following examples illustrate common scenarios where controlling task visibility is especially useful.

1. Working with Clients

You’re managing a client project, and the client wants to see how things are progressing. Instead of sharing the entire project plan (which includes a lot of internal details), you only share the key milestones and deliverables. This way, the client stays informed without being overwhelmed.

2. Coordinating with Vendors

A vendor is helping with part of your project, such as delivering materials by a certain date. They don’t need to see every task in your plan, just the ones that involve procurement and delivery. By sharing only those tasks, you keep them focused on what matters most.

3. Collaborating with Partners

You’re working with a consulting partner on specific work packages. They need to see the tasks they’re responsible for, but sensitive tasks like budgeting or resource planning should remain internal. You configure the portal so they only see what’s relevant to their work.

4. Updating Stakeholders

Your project sponsors want a quick snapshot of progress but don’t need to know every detail. By sharing just the high-level tasks and milestones, you give them the big picture without cluttering their view.

This help article explains how to control which project tasks are visible to an external collaborator.

• Share the Full Project (all project tasks)
• Share Assigned Tasks Only
• Share Selected Project Tasks

Share the Full Project (All Project Tasks)

This section will show you how to share the full project with an external collaborator.

 

1. Go to the Project you would like to share. Click on the Add Project Collaborator icon within the Project Toolbar on the left.
   
   
    
2. Click on Add Collaborators.
   
   
    
3. Select contacts as the search area. Then, search for the contact by name. The search results picklist will return contacts you've recently viewed. If the contact you are searching for is displayed in the list, you can click on them to select. If they do not appear in the results picklist or if you have contacts with the same name, you can click on "Show all results" to see all search results, including the contact's Account Name (Company), email address, and city.
   
   
    
4. The contact you selected will be displayed below the search box. You can search for another contact if you would like to add multiple project collaborators. Each contact you select will be displayed below the search box.
   
   You can remove a contact by clicking on the "x" to the right of the contact's name.
   
   
   
    
5. The Permission Level will default to "Viewer". This is the only permission you can grant external contacts.
   
   
    
6. Set the Task Visibility to Full Project. This will share all project tasks with the external collaborator.
   
   
    
7. Set Send Email to TRUE, then click on Add Collaborator.
   
   If you have selected multiple contacts, an email is then sent to each contact, which contains the link to the external project portal.

Share the Assigned Tasks Only 

This section will show you how to share only the external collaborator's assigned project tasks.

 

1. Begin by assigning project tasks to the contact (external collaborator).
    
2. Once you've assigned project tasks, click on the Add Project Collaborator icon within the Project Toolbar on the left.
   
   
    
3. Click on Add Collaborators.
   
   
    
4. Select contacts as the search area. Then, search for the contact by name. The search results picklist will return contacts you've recently viewed. If the contact you are searching for is displayed in the list, you can click on them to select. If they do not appear in the results picklist or if you have contacts with the same name, you can click on "Show all results" to see all search results, including the contact's Account Name (Company), email address, and city.
   
   
    
5. The contact you selected will be displayed below the search box. You can search for another contact if you would like to add multiple project collaborators. Each contact you select will be displayed below the search box.
   
   You can remove a contact by clicking on the "x" to the right of the contact's name.
   
   
   
    
6. The Permission Level will default to "Viewer". This is the only permission you can grant external contacts.
   
   
    
7. Set the Task Visibility to Assigned Tasks Only. This will share only the project tasks (and their parent tasks) assigned to the external collaborator (where their name is in the Assigned To field).
   
   
    
8. Set Send Email to TRUE, then click on Add Collaborator.
   
   If you have selected multiple contacts, an email is then sent to each contact, which contains the link to the external project portal.

Share Only Selected Project Tasks

This section will show you how to share specific, selected project tasks with an external collaborator.

**This feature will be available with Inspire Planner's OCT 2025 Major Release, scheduled to be deployed to Production environments on October 21, 2025.

 

1. Begin by selecting the project tasks you would like to share with external collaborators. Right-click on any column heading, go to the column picker and check "Share Externally". This will display the "Share Externally" column in the project schedule.
   
   Please Note:
   If the “Share Externally” option is not available in the column picker, reach out to your Salesforce System Administrator to confirm that the setup steps in the Admin Guide – External Project Portal - Control Task Visibility have been completed.
   
   
2. You can drag and drop this column to your desired area. Select the project tasks you would like to share externally by setting the Share Externally checkbox to TRUE. Then, save the project.
   
   
    
3. Next, click on the Add Project Collaborator icon within the Project Toolbar on the left.
   
   
4. Click on Add Collaborators.
   
   
    
5. Select contacts as the search area. Then, search for the contact by name. The search results picklist will return contacts you've recently viewed. If the contact you are searching for is displayed in the list, you can click on them to select. If they do not appear in the results picklist or if you have contacts with the same name, you can click on "Show all results" to see all search results, including the contact's Account Name (Company), email address, and city.
   
   
    
6. The contact you selected will be displayed below the search box. You can search for another contact if you would like to add multiple project collaborators. Each contact you select will be displayed below the search box.
   
   You can remove a contact by clicking on the "x" to the right of the contact's name.
   
   
   
    
7. The Permission Level will default to "Viewer". This is the only permission you can grant external contacts.
   
   
    
8. Set the Task Visibility to Shared Tasks. Selecting this option will share only project tasks where "Share Externally" is TRUE, regardless of assignment.
   
   
    
9. Set Send Email to TRUE, then click on Add Collaborator.
   
   If you have selected multiple contacts, an email is then sent to each contact, which contains the link to the external project portal.

Adjust Project Task Visibility

You can adjust the external project collaborator's task visibility after they've been added to the project. 

Simply open the Add Collaborator dialogue and hover over the task visibility for the contact. An edit icon will display to the right. Click on the edit icon.

Then, adjust the contact's task visibility for the project.

A confirmation message will be displayed. Click on Yes to proceed with your changes.