Understanding visibility and access
Access in Clover is deliberate, and managed in the place that owns each kind of thing — the connection, the workflow, the record — so it applies consistently. This page explains the model, which clears up most "why can (or can't) I see this?" questions.
Workflow visibility is not task visibility
This is the distinction that trips people up, so it's worth stating first: workflow visibility and task visibility are two different things.
- Workflow visibility controls who can open a workflow and create tasks from it (and which fields they can use). It's set per workflow — shared with specific teams, or available across the whole organization.
- Task visibility controls who can see and act on an individual task once it exists. It is not simply "whoever can see the workflow."
So workflow visibility decides who can send work; task visibility decides who can see and do a given piece of work.
Two levels of task access: view vs respond
For any single task, separate what someone can view from whether they can respond:
- View access lets you see the task and its activity history.
- Response access lets you open the task wizard and complete it.
How those land depends on which side of the task you're on:
| You are… | Can view the task? | Can respond? |
|---|---|---|
| The creator/assigner | Yes | Yes (until reassigned) |
| Another member of the assigning company | Yes (per the workflow's access) | No, unless it's assigned to them |
| A member of the receiving company | Yes — anyone at the company can view it | No, unless assigned to them |
| The assignee (person, or a department member who claimed it) | Yes | Yes |
The takeaways: - Visibility is broad. Members of both the assigning and receiving companies can generally view a task. (On the assigning side, who can view follows the workflow's access — everyone if it's org-wide, or just the shared teams if it's team-restricted.) - Response is narrow. Only the current assignee can respond. When a task is assigned to a department, every member can see it, but one must claim (accept) it first — that person becomes the assignee and can respond; the rest keep view access only. - Everyone who can view also sees activity history, status, and completed responses; only those with response access use the task wizard.
What partners see of your profile
What another company sees of your company profile depends on your connection and what you've shared. Before connecting, only public information is visible; after connecting, private information becomes available — and only the parts you choose to share.
Who sees your business data
For business process objects, visibility is set on the data itself: a record's access level, plus a definition's external layout, together with the connection requirement, let you share exactly the operational data a partner needs.
Roles, teams, and plans
Two more things shape access throughout. A person's account role and their team and department membership determine what they can do within their company. And the company's plan can affect what's available. These layer on top of the connection-, workflow-, and record-level rules above.
Why it works this way
Governing access where it belongs — on the connection, the workflow, and the record — rather than re-deciding it for every task and field, is what keeps Clover both safe and manageable. Set the rule once, in the place that owns it, and it applies everywhere.
Related
- Workflows and tasks — workflow access vs the tasks it produces
- Connections and the network — the gate for profile and business data
- How Clover works — the full picture