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Add a host-guest partnership

This article describes how to add a host-guest partnership to share access to your accounts with external parties.

Cerby Team avatar
Written by Cerby Team
Updated over 9 months ago

Who can use this feature?

  • Workspace Admins and Users

  • Available to Cerby Automate

  • Only supported using the Cerby web app

With Cerby, you have a secure and controlled way to collaborate with external parties through a host-guest partnership.

This feature helps you and your company support sharing access to accounts with members who don't belong to your domain (contractors, agencies, partners, vendors, or clients) while retaining complete control over these accounts and gaining visibility on their usage.

A host-guest partnership is a connection between existing host and guest workspaces managed by their respective Admins. This connection is established via a request sent from the host workspace and accepted by the guest workspace Admin.

IMPORTANT: A host workspace can have multiple host-guest partnerships. However, Cerby supports establishing only one partnership with the same guest workspace.

Any user from the host workspace can add this type of partnership, and they automatically become the Partnership Owners, a role that enables them to perform management tasks over the partnership.

When sharing an account with the guest workspace, Partnership Owners can assign one of two roles:

  • Collaborator: With this role, guest workspace members can only log in to the shared accounts.

  • Manager: With this role, guest workspace members can log in to the shared accounts and request access to these accounts for other members.

For more information about roles, read the article How Cerby manages roles.

This article describes how to add a host-guest partnership.


Requirements

The following are the requirements to add a host-guest partnership:

  • From the host workspace

    • An existing Cerby workspace

    • A Cerby account with any workspace-level role. For more information about roles, read the article How Cerby manages roles.

    • The workspace ID of the guest workspace

      TIP: The workspace ID is located at the top-right corner of the Partners view in the dashboard of the guest workspace, as shown in Figure 1. The Workspace Admin from the guest workspace must share this ID beforehand with the host workspace user who will add the partner.

      Screenshot of the Cerby web app dashboard. The Partners view is displayed with a workspace ID and the Copy ID button highlighted at the top-right corner of the page

      Figure 1. Workspace ID in the Partners view of the Cerby web app dashboard

  • From the guest workspace

    • An existing Cerby workspace

      IMPORTANT: Contact the Cerby Customer Support team by sending an email to support@cerby.com or a message through the help chat of the Cerby dashboard to request the Partners feature and receive assistance in creating the guest workspace. You can also ask for the existing guest workspaces created by your organization

    • A Cerby account with the Admin role to accept the partnership request from the host workspace


Add a host-guest partnership

As a user from the host workspace, regardless of your workspace-level role, you can add a host-guest partnership. The process involves sending a partnership request that must be approved and accepted by the corresponding Admin in the host and guest workspaces.

To add a host-guest partnership, you and your partners must complete the following main steps:

The following sections describe each main step.

1. Send the partnership request

As a user from the host workspace, you must complete the following steps to send the partnership request:

  1. Log in to your corresponding Cerby workspace.

  2. Select the Partners option from the left navigation drawer. The Partners view is displayed, as shown in Figure 2.

    Screenshot of the Cerby web app dashboard. The Partners view is displayed with a message explaining this feature and the Add partner button

    Figure 2. Partners view of the Cerby web app dashboard

  3. Click the Add partner button. The Invite your partners dialog box is displayed with a description of the Partners feature.

    NOTE: A list of partners is displayed on the main panel of the Partners view when you already have access to any partnership. In this case, click the Add button.

  4. Select the Connect with another partner option.

  5. Click the Next button. The Enter your partner's information dialog box is displayed.

  6. Enter the corresponding information in the following fields:

    • Workspace ID

    • Partner's email address

    • Reason for request

    NOTE: When an Admin adds a partner, the Reason for request field is not displayed.

  7. Click the Send request button. The dialog box closes, a success message box is displayed, and an email is sent to the host workspace Admin.
    The details of the new partnership are also displayed on the main panel of the Partners view with the Awaiting admin’s decision state.

TIP: If the host workspace Admin takes a long time to approve the request, you can click the Send reminder button to send a reminder. Also, if the guest workspace declines the partner request after the host workspace approval, you can click the Resend request button to send a new request.

NOTE: When a host workspace Admin sends the partnership request, the approval is automatic, and they become the Partnership Owner. You can continue in step 3. Accept the partner request in the guest workspace.

2. Approve the partner request in the host workspace

As a host workspace Admin, you must complete the following steps to approve the partner request:

  1. Log in to your corresponding Cerby workspace.

  2. Select the Partners option from the left navigation drawer. The Partners view is displayed with a list of partners in the Your partners section.

  3. Select the partner from the list. The Review partnership request message is displayed in the Accounts tab with the Decline request and Approve request buttons.

    TIP: Click the Learn more button to display the partnership request details: the guest workspace id, the partner’s email address, and the reason for the request.

  4. Click the Approve request button. A success message box is displayed, and an email is sent to the guest workspace Admin with the partner request.

    For the Partnership Owner, the details of the new partnership are also displayed on the main panel of the Partners view with the Share accounts button disabled.

3. Accept the partner request in the guest workspace

As a guest workspace Admin, you must complete the following steps to accept the partner request:

  1. Log in to your corresponding Cerby workspace.

  2. Select the Partners option from the left navigation drawer. The Partners view is displayed with the Partnership request message and the Decline request and Accept request buttons.

  3. Click the Accept request button. The Terms of Service dialog box is displayed.

  4. Select the I confirm that I have read, consent, and agree to Cerby’s Terms of Service option. The Accept request button is enabled.

  5. Click the Accept request button. The dialog box closes, and a success message box is displayed.

NOTE: Refresh the page in both the host and guest workspaces to update the host-guest partnership details. The Share accounts button in the host workspace is enabled.

Now you are done. It’s time to start using all the supported features of the host-guest partnership.


Use the host-guest partnership

The following are the supported features of the host-guest partnership you can use:

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