Guests are how Tandem App lets you work with people outside your company — clients, freelancers, contractors — without showing them anything they shouldn't see. This guide explains what a guest can and can't do and how to set one up.

What a guest sees

A guest sees only the channels you add them to. They don't see your other channels, your list of people, or anyone's email address. They can't send or receive direct messages. Search, email summaries and phone notifications only ever include what they're allowed to see.

Your team can always tell which channels are shared: every channel with a guest in it carries a clear label.

Guests are free

Guests don't count as paid users. Your plan includes 5 guest places for every paid user (owners, admins and members), so a team of four can work with up to 20 outside people.

Step 1: create a channel for the client

Create a private channel for the client or project, for example client-northwind. Add your own team members who work on it. Upload the brief or contract to the channel's Docs, and add the first tasks to its board.

Step 2: invite the client

  1. Open the channel and go to its People page.
  2. Under Invite someone new, enter the client's email address and choose Guest (external).
  3. Choose the guest's access in this channel (below).
  4. Optionally set the date their account ends.
  5. Send. They get an email link and land in this channel when they accept.

Step 3: choose what they can do

Access is set per channel, so the same guest can have different access in different channels:

  • Full access — can chat and edit tasks and docs. Good for a freelancer who works inside your process.
  • Chat only — can chat; tasks and docs are view-only. Good for most clients: they comment and approve, you keep control of the plan.
  • Read only — can read everything but not post or edit. Good for an observer or an auditor.

You can change a guest's access later from the channel's People page.

Step 4: let access end on its own

Work with a client usually has an end. There are two dates you can set:

  • An "until" date for a channel: the last day the guest can use that channel.
  • An end date for the guest's account: the last day they can sign in at all.

When the date passes, access switches off by itself — nobody has to remember to remove them. Leave the dates blank for no end date.

Good habits

  • Keep internal discussion about a client in a separate, guest-free channel.
  • Turn client requests into tasks with one click from the message, so they're tracked rather than buried in chat.
  • Put signed-off files in a clearly named Docs folder, such as Approved.