Last Modified On: June 3, 2025
Inspire Planner makes it easy to work with people outside your organization by allowing you to add them 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 Portal. From there, they can view project details and update tasks assigned to them—making it simple to keep everyone informed and aligned.
When an external contact updates a task—such as changing the status, logging actual effort, or adding a description—Inspire Planner automatically posts the update to the task’s Chatter feed. The Project Manager is tagged in the post to ensure they’re notified of any changes in real time.
If preferred, Project Managers also have the option to turn off these Chatter notifications.
Chatter
This help article explains how Project Managers can share a project with external contacts and how those contacts can access the project and update their assigned tasks using the Inspire Planner External Project Portal.
Please Note:
To allow an external contact to view a project and their assigned tasks, they must first be added as a Project Collaborator on that project.
To learn how, please see Share a Project (Project Collaborators)
Once a contact has been added as a Project Collaborator, they’ll receive an email notification letting them know a project has been shared with them.
The email includes the Project Name as a clickable link. When the contact clicks the link, they’ll be taken directly to the Inspire Planner External Project Portal to access the project.
When an external contact updates a task—such as changing the status, logging actual effort, or adding a description—Inspire Planner automatically posts the update to the task’s Chatter feed. The Project Manager is tagged in the post to ensure they’re notified of any changes in real time (see example below).
If preferred, Project Managers also have the option to turn off these Chatter notifications. To do so, simply go to the Details tab.
Set 'Disable Project Direct Messages' to TRUE and click on Save to save your changes.
If you do not see the 'Disable Project Direct Messages' field in the project details, ask your Salesforce System Administrator to review the Admin Guide - Chatter Notifications for External Contact Task Updates
The following sections in this article are presented from the contact’s point of view.
The first time you access the Inspire Planner External Project Portal, you’ll be prompted to register.
Your email address will be used as your default username. Simply create a password and click Register to complete the process.
Once registered, you can then use the same email address and password to log in to the portal.
Helpful Tip:When logging in, select "Remember me". This will store the login email and password on the page and will make it easier to sign in the next time.
Once logged in, you will see a list of Projects that have been shared with you. Click on a Project name to view the Project.
If the entire project has been shared with you, you’ll be able to view the full project schedule, including the Gantt chart. If not, you’ll only see the tasks that have been assigned to you.
Please note:
The following features/columns are not available/visible in the external project portal:
The Planned Effort and Actual Effort columns are visible by default. However, these fields can be hidden if preferred. To hide these fields, please see Admin Guide - Hide Effort Columns in the Inspire Planner External Portal.
If you have project tasks assigned to you, you can update their status, log actual effort, and add a brief description.
To view and update your assigned tasks, click the “List My Salesforce Tasks” icon located in the project toolbar on the left.
A window will open displaying the specific Salesforce tasks assigned to you. From there, you can update the following details:
Please note that the Due Date and Planned Effort are defined by the Project Manager and cannot be modified.
When you’re done, just close the window. Your updates will automatically sync with the project in Inspire Planner.
The Project Toolbar on the left side of the screen provides icons for navigating and performing various actions within the project. Some icons may appear grayed out—these represent actions that are only available to Project Managers.
If External File Sharing is enabled for a Project, then the View All Project Attachments (Folder Icon) will be available in the project toolbar. For more information, please see External Project Portal - Share Project Files.
The Gantt Toolbar, located in the top right corner, contains icons that allow you to navigate and perform different actions within the Gantt Chart.
To log out of the Portal, you can simply close your browser or click the Log Out button located in the top right corner of the page.