Customer Contacts as Participants allows Project Managers to add a Salesforce Contact from the customer's Account directly to a Phase as a Participant, and assign them to Project Tasks as a Contributor. Contact Participants do not require a Resource record and do not generate Bookings or Timesheet entries.

Before you start

Contact Participants require at least one Role with Role Type = Contact to exist in your org. Role Type is a field on the Role object that distinguishes Roles intended for external contacts from Roles used by internal Resources.

To create a Contact Role:

1. Go to Precursive HQ > Roles, or navigate to the All Roles list view in Salesforce.
2. Create a new Role and set Role Type to Contact.
3. Save.

Two Role list views are available to help manage your Roles: All Contact Roles and All Resource Roles.

The Project must also have an Account assigned before the Contact tab becomes active in the Add Participant modal. Contacts are filtered to those belonging to that Account.

Note: On upgrade, a post-install script backfills Participant Type = Resource for existing Participant records and Role Type = Resource for existing Role records where these fields are null. No manual data migration is required.

Add a Contact Participant to a Phase

1. Open a Phase and click Add Participant.
2. In the Add Participant modal, select the [Account Name] Contact tab. The tab label shows the name of the Account linked to the Project.
3. Search for and select a Contact. Only Contacts linked to the Account on the Project are available.
4. Assign a Contact Role. Only Roles with Role Type = Contact are shown on this tab.
5. Click Save.

You can also save without selecting a Contact to create an unassigned placeholder. The placeholder appears in the Participant list with the Role initials as the avatar and the label "Unassigned [Role Name]". You can assign a Contact to the placeholder later using the Edit Contact Participant modal.

A Contact can be added multiple times to the same Phase under different Roles. Each Contact - Role combination must be unique per Phase.

Note: The Contact tab is disabled when no Account is assigned to the Project. A tooltip explains this when you hover over the tab.

Assign a Contact Contributor to a Project Task

1. Open the Manage Task Contributors modal on a Project Task.
2. Expand the Contact Contributors section (above the Inactive Contributors section).
3. Select a Contact Participant from the Phase using the Contact picker.
4. Save.

No Planned Hours, Bookings, or Timesheet entries are created for Contact Contributors. The Contact Contributors section tooltip reads: "Contact Contributors are external contacts assigned to this task. No Planned Hours, Bookings, or Timesheet entries are created for them."

A maximum of 5 active Contributors per Project Task applies across Resource Contributors and Contact Contributors combined.

Manage unassigned Contact Participant placeholders

To assign or change the Contact on an existing Participant - including an unassigned placeholder:

1. Open the Participant record on the Phase and click Edit.
2. In the Edit Contact Participant modal, assign or change the Contact.
3. Save.

When you save, all Project Task Contributor records where this Participant is assigned automatically update to reflect the new Contact. You do not need to update each Task individually.

To unassign a Contact Contributor from a Task without removing the Participant from the Phase, click the unassign (x) button on the Contact Contributor row in the Manage Task Contributors modal. The Role is preserved and the row remains in the Contact Contributors section as an unassigned placeholder.

How Contact Contributors appear on Gantt, Kanban, and Task Table

Contact Contributors are displayed across Gantt, Kanban, Task Table, and the Participant List on the Phase with an aqua avatar background. This distinguishes them from internal Resource Contributors, whose avatars have a grey background.

Assigned Contact Contributors show their full name and initials. Unassigned placeholders show the Role initials.

Things to know

• Contact Participants are scoped to the Account linked to the Project. Only Contacts from that Account are available in the Contact picker.
• Changing the Account on a Project does not automatically reassign or remove existing Contact Participants, but may affect their access and visibility.
• Deleting an Account in Salesforce is blocked when a Contact from that Account is assigned as a Participant on a Phase, or is linked to a Resource that is assigned as a Participant.
• Contact Participants do not have rates or costs. Any cost or rate values are silently cleared on save. For more information, see Participant Rates & Costs.
• Contact Participants are not available in Magic Assign or Task Planner. Those surfaces are for Resource-based Participants only.
• The Log Time action is not available to Contact Contributors. No Bookings or Timesheet structures are created for them.
• Contact Participants are shared when their Phase is shared via External Sharing or Customer Workspace. Contact Contributors are shared when their Task is shared. See Sharing Projects and Records with Customers for more information.