Assignments to providers without an account

An external assignment sends a report to a Provider Related company before it works through an authenticated account. The original report remains owned and controlled by the source organization.

Availability: Company only; requires Delegate work to external providers and access to the report. Level: Advanced.

Purpose

Use this flow to share a one-off job through a private portal, receive updates, and maintain a clear boundary between what the provider sees and internal information.

Requirements

• An active, visible report.
• An active Related company with Provider or Both role.
• No other active external assignment or outgoing B2B handoff on the report.

Create and operate the assignment

1. From the report, select the Provider and write the subject it will see.
2. Explicitly choose what to share: details, customer reference, contact, equipment, and attachment information. Subject is always shared.
3. Create the assignment. This does not automatically change the report status.
4. Generate a private portal link, copy it, and deliver it through a secure channel. It lasts 90 days, is shown in full once, and generating another revokes the earlier link.
5. The provider views the projection and posts Progress or Response updates, with up to five attachments per update.
6. The source organization posts notes, progress, or responses and decides which publications are visible to the provider.
7. Complete or cancel the assignment when finished; the link is revoked.

Rules and effects

• The link is not emailed automatically.
• Each portal attachment can be up to 5 MB and may be JPG, PNG, WebP, PDF, TXT, or CSV.
• The provider cannot assign people, change status, resolve, close, or cancel the report.
• An active assignment blocks resolving, closing, and canceling the original report.
• Linking the Provider to an account revokes portal links and moves the job to Pending conversion. The linked Company must convert or reject it.
• Conversion creates a local provider report; it does not create a permanent agreement or permit subcontracting for that job.

Required and optional information

Required: Provider, subject, and active report. For cancellation or rejection: reason. Optional: additional categories, portal link, updates, attachments, and visibility of each publication.

Practical example

A workshop assigns an engine repair to an unregistered provider and shares subject, equipment, and details, but not contact information. It manually sends the link. The provider attaches a diagnosis; the workshop keeps report control and completes the assignment when the equipment returns.

Current limits

• Only one portal link can be active, and its full value cannot be recovered after leaving the page.
• The portal provides no lifecycle control or access to unselected data.
• There is no automatic link delivery or provider directory.
• An active assignment must be completed, canceled, or converted before the report can end.