Once you have invited your clients to Productive, you can easily add them to collaborate on your projects.
This ensures effective communication and allows clients to stay updated on project progress without accessing sensitive financial information.
In the Essential plan, Client Collaboratrs can view projects and tasks, but they cannot see time-related data or budgets.
In the Professional and Ultimate plans, Client Leads can be granted access to budgets and can view time entries on budgets as well as time estimates on tasks.
Client Lead and Client Collaborator are the permission names used in organizations created from mid-August 2026 onward (previously Client Manager and Client Staff).
👉 See Why Your Permission Set List May Look Different for the full breakdown.
Adding Clients to a Project
👉 See Adding Clients To Projects for the full steps on adding or removing a client from a project.
Client Permissions on a Project
Regardless of their permissions or your license plan, every client can:
Open and close tasks
Delete tasks
Add comments
See and edit project notes
See project members
Subscribe to project notifications
Customize their fields
Export tasks
View and collaborate on docs
View the project activity
Leave the project
Create new and collaborate on existing (shared) docs
Clients cannot remove project members or create new task lists or folders. They also cannot see your Worked time on tasks.
📌 Use a folder’s Client access setting to keep it and its contents hidden from clients. For details on restricting folder access for clients, see: Private Folders in Projects.
Clients with Access to Budgets and Timesheets
Client Leads or clients with access to budgets and timesheets (available in Professional or Ultimate Productive subscription plans), will have additional options.
👉 See Giving Clients Access to Budgets and Timesheets for what Client Leads can see and do on budgets and timesheets.
Customizing Client Permissions
If you need more control over what clients can access and do in your projects, you can create custom client permission sets.
This allows you to define exactly what each client can see and do, ensuring they have the right level of access while keeping sensitive information protected.
👉 Learn more about customizing client permissions here.
