How to invite a Guest User
The Guest Account feature lets a user who already has a paid license under one account (their Primary Account) be invited to work in additional accounts (Guest Accounts) — without requiring a second paid license. This makes it easy to bring in consultants, contractors, or anyone who needs to collaborate across multiple accounts, while keeping each account's data separate and preventing duplicate license charges.
Primary Account vs. Guest Account
- Primary Account: The account where a user's license and billing live. Every user has exactly one Primary Account, and it cannot be changed or transferred.
- Guest Account: Any other account a user is invited into. Guest access does not use or require a paid license in that account.
When a user logs in, they're taken to their Default Account first. From there, they can navigate to any Account they have access to. The Default Account is set within the User Profile by each User.
What's Shared vs. Account-Specific
A small set of identity fields are shared across every account a user belongs to:
- User name (first, middle, last)
- Email address
- Phone number
- Title
- Company
- Password
- Avatar
- Signature
Everything else stays isolated to each account — including notifications, user preferences (sorting, filters, etc.), account settings, project assignments, activity history, and audit logs. There is no cross-account rollup.
Eligibility to Join as a Guest
A user can only be invited into another account as a Guest if:
- They have an active license in their Primary Account
- The invited account's product tier matches their Primary Account's product tier (Standard users can only join Standard accounts; Pro users can only join Pro accounts)
This matching requirement prevents a user from being loaded as a low-cost license in one account and then invited into a higher-tier account to access features they haven't paid for.
A user's Account Role must be the same across every account they belong to. For example, someone who is an Account Reviewer in their Primary Account will also be an Account Reviewer in any Guest Account they join — this ensures Project Role assignments stay consistent with what their license type allows.
Inviting a Guest
When you invite someone by email address, one of three things happens:
- New to FACS: If the email address isn't in the system yet, they receive a standard account invitation and go through the normal Create Account process.
- Existing user, eligible: If the email address already belongs to a FACS user elsewhere and they're eligible (active license, matching product tier), they receive an invitation email directing them to the Join Account page instead of Create Account. Accepting the invite gives them access to your account as a Guest.
- Existing user, not eligible: If the email address belongs to an existing user who is not eligible (their Primary Account is inactive/archived, or the product tiers don't match), you'll see an error message:
If you invite multiple people at once, only the ineligible email address(es) will be blocked — everyone else who's eligible will still be invited successfully.
This error message will display if you attempt to invite a Guest User with a different Account Role then they have in their primary account. If the Guest user needs a different role in the Guest Account, the Guest Users role in their Primary Account will need to be updated.
Once accepted, Guest users show up in your account's user history and user list the same way any invited user does, with Guest shown as their Account Role.
There's no limit to how many accounts a user can be a Guest in.
Navigating Between Accounts
If you have access to more than one account, click your account logo (top left of the screen) to open a list of every account you belong to, sorted alphabetically by account name with your Primary Account pinned at the top. Each row shows the account's logo and name — selecting one takes you into that account's Home page.
Managing Guest Users (Account Settings)
Account Administrators have the same basic tools for managing Guest users as any other user, with one key limitation: a Guest user's Account Role cannot be changed within the Guest Account. Everything else works the same:
| Action | Behavior for Guest Users |
|---|---|
| Edit | Assigned Project and Default Project Role can be changed; Account Role cannot |
| Bulk Edit | Same as above, applied to multiple users |
| Archive | Removes the user's access to the Guest Account and its projects |
| Delete | Removes the user from the Guest Account only — their Primary Account is unaffected |
| Restore | Reactivates the user in the Guest Account |
| History | Shows this account's history for the user only (not history from their Primary Account) |
What Happens When Primary Account Status Changes
Because Guest access depends entirely on a user's standing in their Primary Account, certain changes there automatically remove the user from all Guest Accounts:
| If this happens in the Primary Account... | Then in every Guest Account... |
|---|---|
| The user is archived | The user is deleted from the Guest Account |
| The user is deleted | The user is deleted from the Guest Account |
| The account's product tier no longer matches | The user is deleted from the Guest Account |
| The Primary Account itself is deleted | The user is deleted from all Guest Accounts |
NOTE: A user's Primary Account cannot be transferred directly. To move a user to a new Primary Account, they must first be deleted from their existing account, which frees up their email address for reuse. They can then be invited to join the new account under that same email address. If needed, they could also be invited back into their original account as a Guest — but the system will treat them as a brand-new user, not a continuation of their previous account history.
If you have any questions, or need additional assistance, please reach out to our support team at support@facsware.com and we will be happy to assist you.