Inviting users to a project

Plans: Everyone · Permissions: Admins, Managers, Team Leads

Projects & TagsProjectsHandbookMake sure your people have access to the right projects in Timely.

This article shows how to add teammates to a project so they can log time, access reports, and stay in sync.

How to Invite Users

1. Head over to the Projects Dashboard in Timely.
2. Click ”+ New Project” or ”…” > “Edit” under an existing project.
3. Under the People & Hourly Rates section, search for the name of your team member.
4. Click Update or Save project — and they’re in! They’ll be able to log time to this project moving forward.

Those you’ve selected will automatically receive an email notification inviting them to the project.

What Invited Users Can Do

Role	Can log time	Can view reports	Approve timesheets	Edit project settings
Employee	Yes	Only their own	No	No
Manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Admin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

For more details on user access levels, check out the article on user access levels.

Automatic Project Membership

In some workspaces, users may be able to log time to projects they’re not explicitly members of. If your workspace has All projects logging enabled, users can select and log time to any active project when creating time entries.

When they select a project they’re not currently a member of, they’ll see a dialog with two options:

• Add as member: The user becomes a permanent project member and will continue to see this project in their project list for future time entries
• Log once: The user can log this specific time entry, but won’t be added as a permanent member. They can still edit this particular entry later, but won’t see the project in their regular project list

This flexible approach allows users to log occasional work to projects without permanently joining projects they rarely use, helping keep project member lists clean and relevant.

Adding users to a project via bulk entry reassignment

Managers and Admins can also add users to a project automatically when bulk-reassigning time entries. If you select entries from multiple users and move them to a target project where some of those users aren’t yet members, Timely will prompt you with two choices:

• Add to project — the non-member users are added to the target project at their default hourly rate, and all selected entries are moved.
• Skip entries — only entries belonging to existing project members are moved; entries for non-members are left unchanged.

If you choose Add to project and then click Undo within the 10-second window that follows, the membership changes are fully reversed along with the entry reassignment.

For full details on the bulk project change workflow, see Bulk actions in Timely.

Tips & Tricks

• The email notification sent when a user is added to a project is just a heads-up — no action needed! Once added, the user can start logging time to that project immediately.
• Need bulk invites? Consider using the self-service import manager to bulk add users, and make other changes, to lists of projects.

FAQ

Can I invite people with project-specific permissions?

No, each user has set permissions at the user level — by adding them to a project you are allowing them to work within that project to whichever user level they’ve been assigned (Employee, Manager, Admin).

Can invited users access all reporting?

This varies by user access level. Employees can see their own data and their own logged time, but won’t see others’ work or global report settings unless they’re a Manager or Admin.

What happens if someone logs time to a project they’re not a member of?

If your workspace has All projects logging enabled, they’ll see a dialog asking whether to join as a permanent member or log just once. See Automatic Project Membership above for details about these options.