Request access

A teammate shares a link to a project, a page, a document folder, or a list, and you open it without being on it. Instead of a dead end, Onplana shows a request-access page at the same address: add an optional note, send the request, and the people who manage that resource decide. If they grant it, your original link simply works.

Note

Requesting and deciding are both available on every plan. There is no new permission to configure: the people who can decide a request are exactly the people who can already manage sharing on that resource. The one exception is a request to invite someone new who would take a billable seat, which only an organization Owner or Admin can decide (see Requests to invite someone new).

Ask for access

1. Open the link you were sent. If you are signed in to the same organization but cannot see the resource, the page shows You don’t have access, with the resource’s name and who manages it.

2. Optionally write a note saying why you need access. The people deciding will see it.

3. Select Request access. The managers are notified in their bell and by email, and the page shows Request sent.

4. You will get a notification when they respond. On a grant, the notification links straight back to the resource, and your original link works from then on.

You can hold one open request per resource. Withdraw a pending request at any time from the same page; if nobody responds, a request expires on its own after 14 days, and you can ask again.

Tip

A declined request does not close the door. If circumstances change, you can send a new request, and the decider will see the earlier outcome next to it.

Decide requests for what you manage

Pending requests appear on People & Teams → Access Requests, with a pending-count badge on the People entry in the sidebar. You see only the requests you can actually decide:

• Projects: the Project Owner, the project’s Project Managers, and organization Owners, Admins, and Portfolio Managers.
• Pages, folders, and lists: whoever can manage sharing on the resource, plus organization Owners and Admins.
• Invitations that would add a billable seat: organization Owners and Admins only, whatever the resource. A project’s own managers and Portfolio Managers do not see these rows. They are marked New person.

Each request shows who is asking, their note, when they asked, and any earlier outcome for the same person and resource, so a repeat request is never judged blind.

1. Open People & Teams → Access Requests, or select the notification, which lands on the exact request.

2. Choose the access level to grant. For a project that is a project role (Viewer, Contributor, Member, or Project Manager); for a page, folder, or list it is a sharing level (view, contribute, or manage). The least level is preselected. A New person row also carries a seat choice, Guest (external collaborator) or Member (full seat), and both choices start at what your colleague asked for.

3. Select Grant, or Decline. The requester is notified either way, and a grant adds them through the normal membership or sharing rails, nothing bespoke to clean up later.

Caution

Granting project access makes the person a project member with the role you chose. And because a project’s folders, lists, and pages are only reachable by project members, granting one of those to someone who is not on the project also adds them to that project as a read-only Project Viewer; the request row warns you, and Grant asks you to confirm exactly that before anything is written. If you only want them to see one document, decline the request and share that document with them directly instead.

Requests to invite someone new

On every plan except Free, inviting someone who is not in your organization yet can add a billable seat. If the person inviting cannot invite people to the organization themselves (the Invite & manage org invitations permission, Portfolio Manager and up by default), nothing is emailed. The invitation becomes a request on this tab instead, for an organization Owner or Admin to decide. This happens when, for example, a Member who owns a project invites a new address from the project’s Add Members dialog or a task’s assignee picker, or when someone who manages sharing on a restricted folder, list, or page invites someone outside the organization. In those dialogs the send button reads Send request, and the two project dialogs add an optional Why (optional) note for the admin who decides. People who cannot invite directly are not shown the per-seat price.

These still go out directly, with no request:

• A Guest invitation while your plan’s free guest seats have room. Pending guest invitations count toward those seats, so the dialog reads, for example, Free guest seats: 3 of 10 in use or invited.
• Any invitation from someone who holds the invite permission, and any invitation on the Free plan.

To decide one, pick the seat and access level on the row and select Grant. Onplana asks you to confirm (Invite this outside person?), and Approve & invite sends the invitation. It goes out in the name of the colleague who asked, because that is who the new person knows. Nothing changes until they accept, and when they do, they join the organization at the seat you picked. Your colleague is notified either way. If your plan’s member limit is already reached, the approval is refused and the request stays pending until you make room.

Let people outside the organization ask (opt-in)

By default, only signed-in members of your organization can request access, and to anyone else the resource does not appear to exist. If you want outside people (a client, an auditor, a partner) to be able to ask, you can opt a restricted folder, list, or page into a shareable ask link. It takes two deliberate switches:

1. An organization Owner or Admin turns on external access requests for the organization. The standing control is the External access requests card at the top of the Permissions page (People & Teams → Permissions); the share dialog also offers to turn it on inline the first time you need it.

2. On the resource, open Manage access and turn on Allow access requests by link. The dialog now shows the link; copy it and share it however you like.

Someone opening the link verifies their email with a one-time code, optionally says why they need access, and the request lands on your Access Requests tab flagged External, with the verified email as their identity. Approving is never one-click there: you pick the access level and whether they join as a Guest or a full Member, and a confirmation dialog restates the whole effect before anything is sent. Approval sends the same email invitation as inviting them directly, so nothing is granted until they accept, and nothing at all is granted by the link itself.

Note

Both switches default to off, and turning either off again immediately deactivates every ask link in its scope. The organization-wide off switch lives on the Permissions page card (the share dialog only turns it on); switching it off keeps every per-resource opt-in, so turning it back on restores exactly the set that was opted in. Removing a resource’s access restriction also clears its ask-link opt-in, so restricting it again later never silently revives an old link; opt back in deliberately if you still want one. A link for a resource that is not opted in shows a generic “not available” page, never the resource’s name.

FAQs

Why did my link show “Not found” instead of the request page? The request page appears only for signed-in members of the same organization. Outside the organization, or signed out, Onplana does not reveal whether the address exists.

Can someone outside our organization request access? Two ways. You can invite them directly: on a restricted folder, list, or page, open Manage access → Invite someone outside the organization, choose whether they join as a Guest or a full Member (the dialog states the seat cost before you send), and pick the access level. If you cannot invite people to the organization yourself and a new seat would cost money, the button reads Send request and an Owner or Admin approves it first. Or, if the organization and the resource have both opted in, they can ask themselves through the resource’s ask link (see the section above); either road ends in the same email invitation, and nothing is granted until they accept it.

Who else sees a pending request? Only the people who could decide it, on their own Access Requests tab. Requests are not visible to other members.

Does deciding a request require being an administrator? No. A Member who owns or manages a project decides requests for that project, which is why the Access Requests tab is not admin-only. The exception is a request to invite someone new who would take a billable seat: only an organization Owner or Admin can approve that, because the seat is an organization cost.

Can I find a project to ask for without being sent a link? If your organization has turned on the project directory, yes: the All projects tab on the Projects page lists the names of projects you are not on, each with a Request access link. See Let members find projects they are not on.