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Inviting consultants to collaborate on projects allows you to work more closely with them and stay aligned on work that needs to be completed. This also streamlines billing and invoicing, allowing you to accept consultant bills and pay consultants directly through Monograph.
Click here to learn more about what a consultant can see and do in collaborative projects. You can download a one-page PDF at the bottom of this article to share with your consultants, if needed.
As a paid Monograph subscriber, your firm can also be invited to collaborate with another Monograph firm. Click here to learn more.
🚨 At this time, only subscribed firms based in the US that use USD are able to invite consultants to collaborate in Monograph. Additionally, only US-based consultants are able to be invited.
Ways to Invite Consultants
There are various places throughout Monograph where you can manually invite a consultant to collaborate on a specific project if automatic invitations aren't enabled. The consultant's visibility will remain the same regardless of where they are invited.
Consultant Fees Page
Project Details
Project Overview
Consultant Directory
Consultant Details Page
Bills Page (when uploading a consultant bill)
💡 Once a consultant accepts a project invitation sent by a firm, any future projects that they are invited to by that firm will be automatically accepted. These will appear in the consultant's in-app notifications.
Click on the toggles below to learn more about the manual invitation process in each area.
Consultant Fees Page
Consultant Fees Page
After you've selected the company for a project or phase consultant in the Consultant Fees page, if automatic invitations aren't enabled, you'll be prompted to invite them to collaborate. The Primary contact's email address will be used by default, but the dropdown can be used to select another contact or create a new contact for the company.
Click Send invite to send the invitation or Skip to bypass the invitation.
Once the invited project or phase consultant has accepted the invitation to collaborate, they cannot be removed from the project. In this case, a warning will appear when hovering over the options to delete or edit the consultant.
Editing or Deleting a Consultant Invitation on the Consultant Fees Page
If a consultant has been invited but has not accepted the invitation, the company used can still be edited or deleted from the Consultant Fees page. To continue, click on the Edit button next to the consultant's name to edit or click on "X" to delete the consultant and cancel their invitation.
When editing, you'll have the option to select a new company, which will automatically cancel the invitation that was sent to the original company. Click Next after the new company has been selected.
After selecting the new company, you'll then have the option to select the new recipient and send the new invitation.
Project Details Page
Project Details Page
A consultant can easily be invited directly from the Project Details page. In the Consultant Collaboration section, use the Automatic consultant invitations toggle to enable automatically inviting consultants to the project as they are added.
To manually invite consultants, click the ellipses next to the consultant for whom you'd like to invite and select Send invite.
A pop-up will appear prompting you to invite the consultant. The Primary contact's email address will be used by default, but the dropdown can be used to select another contact or create a new contact for the company.
Click Send invite to send the invitation or Cancel to cancel the invitation process.
After they have been invited, the Status will appear as Invited. Once they accept the invitation, they will appear as Active.
Resending or Canceling an Invitation from the Project Details Page
Resending an Invitation
To resend an invitation from the Project Details page, click on the ellipses next to the consultant and select Resend Invite. You'll then be prompted to select the email address for resending the invitation and select Resend Invite again.
Canceling an Invitation
To cancel an invitation from the Project Details page, click on the ellipses next to the consultant and select Cancel. You'll then be prompted to confirm that you'd like to cancel the invitation with a warning that doing so will prevent the firm from collaborating. Click Yes to cancel the invite or No to go back.
Project-Specific Overview Page
Project-Specific Overview Page
Consultants can be invited from the Project-Specific Overview in the Consultants section found in the bottom right corner of the page. Here, click on the Email icon to send the invitation.
A pop-up will appear prompting you to invite the consultant. The Primary contact's email address will be used by default, but the dropdown can be used to select another contact or create a new contact for the company.
Click Send invite to send the invitation or Cancel to cancel the invitation process.
After the invitation is sent, the icon next to the consultant will appear as an email with an arrow underneath it. Once the invitation is accepted, the icon will change into a green circle with a white checkmark.
Resending an Invitation from the Project-Specific Overview
To resend an invitation from the Project-Specific Overview page, click on the email icon next to the consultant. You'll then be prompted to select the email address for resending the invitation. Click Resend Invite when ready.
Consultant Directory
Consultant Directory
If a consultant needs to be invited to multiple projects at once, you can add the from the Consultant Directory. To do this, navigate to Contacts and click Consultants in the sub-menu.
Once here, click on the Connect button for the consultant who should be invited and a pop-up will appear. Here, choose if you would like to invite the consultant to access all current and future projects that they are assigned, or only specific projects that they are assigned.
Select the appropriate option and click Connect to send the invitation to the primary consultant contact.
After the invitation is sent, the consultant will be able to invite any other team members on their end.
To note: When a consultant is added to multiple projects at once, their invitation will include the names of the specific projects.
Import from QuickBooks
When importing a new consultant from QuickBooks Online, you'll be prompted to enable collaboration with all important consultants on their assigned projects. Click Yes to proceed with inviting the consultants or No to cancel.
Clicking Yes will automatically add the consultant to any project that they are assigned to going forward.
Consultant Details Page
Consultant Details Page
To invite a consultant to a project from the consultant's Details page, navigate to Contacts > Consultants and click on their name to open the Details page. Here, you can use the toggle in the Collaboration connection section to auto-connect the consultant to any current and future projects that they are assigned to.
Note: in order to invite a consultant to collaborate, the company must have the primary contact details completed.
Consultant Projects
Alternatively, click on Projects in the sub-menu to see any of the projects that the consultant has been invited to, along with the status of each project's invitation.
Click on the ellipses next to a project and select Send Invite again and a pop-up will appear. Click Send invite to send the invitation or Cancel to cancel the invitation process.
Resending an Invitation from the Consultant Details
To resend an invitation from the Consultant Details page, click on the ellipses icon next to the specific project and select Resend Invite. You'll then be prompted to select the email address for resending the invitation. Click Resend Invite when ready.
To cancel an invitation from the Consultant Directory, click on the ellipses next to the project and select Cancel Invite. You'll then be prompted to confirm that you'd like to cancel the invitation with a warning that doing so will prevent the firm from collaborating. Click Yes to cancel the invite or No to go back.
Enabling Automatic Invitations
After creating a new project, if no consultants have been added, you'll be prompted to enable automatic invitations for any consultants as they are added to the project's Consultant Fees page.
To setup automated invitations for a project, click Start sharing. This will ensure that any consultants who are added to the Consultant Fees page will automatically be invited to collaborate.
To bypass the automated invitations, click Skip for now to proceed with adding consultants without inviting them (inviting them manually instead). This setting can be enabled or disabled for a project at any time by navigating to the project's Details page.
Cancelling an Invitation
Invitations can be cancelled from the Project Details page or from within the Consultant Directory.
Project Details
To cancel an invitation from the Project Details page, click on the ellipses next to the consultant and select Cancel. You'll then be prompted to confirm that you'd like to cancel the invitation with a warning that doing so will prevent the firm from collaborating. Click Yes to cancel the invite or No to go back.
Consultant Directory
To cancel an invitation from the Consultant Directory, click on the ellipses next to the project and select Cancel Invite. You'll then be prompted to confirm that you'd like to cancel the invitation with a warning that doing so will prevent the firm from collaborating. Click Yes to cancel the invite or No to go back.
How to Collaborate
After a consultant has accepted their invitation to join a project, you can collaborate in the following ways for the specific phase or project (depending on whether they are a phase consultant or project consultant):
Assign deliverables and receive reassigned deliverables
Request and receive consultant bills / send consultant bill reminders
Pay consultant bills through Monograph
Consultants can view the phase or project's details, milestones, and deliverables that they are assigned to. They can also create their own phases, milestones, and deliverables as needed that are specific to them or their team.
📚 Click here to learn more about the project details that a consultant can view and how they can interact with collaborative projects.
Consultant-specific phases, milestones, and deliverables will not impact your project or budget; they will only be visible to the collaborating consultant's team.
Accepting an Invitation to Collaborate
If another Monograph firm invites your firm to collaborate on a project as a consultant, you will have access to the collaborative projects, milestones, and deliverables they choose to share with you.
After the invitation arrives via email, open the email and click Access project.
You will be prompted to log in to Monograph, or if you're already logged in, you'll be taken directly to the Projects page. Here, a pop-up will appear prompting you to accept or decline the invitation.
When accepting the invitation, the firm that invited you will automatically be added to your team's Client Directory. Click Add as new client to add the firm as a new client, or click Merge with an existing client to merge the firm's information with a client that already exists in Monograph.
After the invitation is accepted, the shared project or phase will become accessible from the Projects page, along with any milestones or deliverables. Shared information cannot be edited, except for the budget, which only affects your firm. However, additional phases, milestones, and deliverables can be added through the normal creation process without impacting the inviting firm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is able to invite consultants to collaborate?
The ability to invite consultants to collaborate depends on a users permissions as well as the specific area of the app that the consultant can be invited from.
Consultant Fees - Only users with permissions to edit the project can add/invite consultants via the Consultant Fees page.
Project Details - Only users with permission to edit the project can add/invite consultants via the Project Details. However, users with the ability to view a project are still able to view the consultants and collaborators for that project.
Project-Specific Overview - Only users with permissions to edit the project can add/invite consultants via the Project-Specific Overview. However, users with the ability to view a project are still able to view the consultants and collaborators for that project.
Consultant Directory - Only users with permission to manage consultants can invite consultants to collaborate.
If I invite a consultant to one project, will they be able to access all of my projects?
No - if you invite a consultant to Monograph, they will only be able to access your project(s) that you invite them to collaborate on.
My consultant signed up for a paid Monograph subscription. Will they have more access to my projects?
No - a consultant with a paid Monograph account will have the same access to your collaborative project as they would with a free Consultant account. The only difference is that they will have more control over their own phases, milestones, and tasks on their end, as well as access to their own projects.
What project details can a consultant see after they've been invited to collaborate?
Consultants can view limited project information, such as the following.
Project name and client name
Project/phase dates and gantt chart
Shared milestones and deliverables
Consultant bills that they have uploaded
For examples of how consultants view project information after they've been invited, as well as how they can interact with projects, review this article.
Can consultants view the rates and budget information for a project they were invited to?
No, consultants cannot see phase details such as billable rates or budgets set by the inviting firm. However, they can set their own budget for a phase, which remains separate and does not affect or appear in the inviting firm's budget.
Consultants with paid Monograph accounts can also assign team members with their own billable rates and budgets, which also dose not impact or appear in the inviting firm's budget.
Can consultants see information for other consultants, such as assigned deliverables, budgets, etc., that have been invited to a project?
No, consultants can only view information for projects and deliverables that they are assigned to. They cannot view any information related to other consultants.
Is there information that I can provide my consultants when inviting them?
Yes! You can download and send the one-pager attached below (Collab-mg.pdf) to your consultants to help them get started.
For more detailed guidance, they can also refer to our collection of Collaborative Consultant Account articles.