Collabs are short team conversations attached to one record, such as a patient's chart, an appointment or an invoice. This article is for practice Owners and Admins. It shows how to choose your practice's collab rules and decide which roles can use collabs. For day-to-day use, see How to Use Collabs.
Before you begin
Only Owners and Admins can change Collabs settings.
Collabs must be turned on for your practice. If you don't see Collabs under Configuration, contact Prospyr support.
Your changes apply to everyone in your practice once you click Save.
Open Collabs settings
All collab rules for your practice are on one settings page.
In the left menu, scroll down and click Settings.
In the settings menu, click Configuration.
Click Collabs.
Choose a starting preset
A preset fills in all the rules on the page at once. Pick the one closest to how your team works, then change single rules if you need to.
Click the Preset menu at the top of the page.
Choose a preset:
Private: only the people in a collab can read it. The owner adds people (members can suggest people) and approves join requests. Others can see that a collab exists on the record. Only the owner can resolve and reopen it, and members can't leave while they have an open task.
Team room: others can see a preview (title, owner and status) and join without approval. Any member can add people and resolve. Members can leave with an open task, and new activity reopens a resolved collab.
Task driven: hidden from people who aren't in the collab. Only the owner adds people and approves join requests. People who are given a task are added, and removed again when their task is reassigned unless they posted. The owner and task assignees can resolve.
Scroll down and check the rules. Each one now shows the preset's choice, with a short line under its name explaining what it does.
In the example below, Team room is chosen. Choosing a preset replaces the rules on the page, but not your choices under What non-members see, by record type. Nothing changes for your team until you click Save.
Fine-tune the rules
Change any rule to fit your practice. When you do, Preset changes to Custom (your own mix of rules). The line under each rule always describes the choice that's selected.
Who can see and join a collab
These rules decide how private collabs are and how people get into them. The owner is the person who started the collab.
Under What non-members see, choose what people who aren't in a collab see on the record:
Nothing: they can't see the collab.
That a collab exists: they can see that the record has a collab.
A preview (title, owner, status): they can see its title, owner and status.
Under Who can add people, choose Owner only, Owner, members can suggest (members suggest people and the owner adds them), or Any member.
Under Who approves join requests, choose Owner, Any member, or No approval needed (people who are allowed to join get in right away).
In the example, the collab shows a preview, any member can add people, no approval is needed to join, and Preset changes to Custom.
Tasks and mentions
These rules decide what happens to the members of a collab when tasks are given out, passed on, or someone is mentioned.
Under Add task assignees as members, choose whether a person given a task in a collab is added to it: Always, Ask first, or Never.
Under When a task is reassigned, choose what happens to the person who had the task:
Keep the previous assignee: they stay in the collab.
Keep the previous assignee and ask: they stay, and the person who reassigns the task is asked whether to remove them.
Remove them unless they posted: they're removed unless they posted in the collab.
Under Leaving with an open task, choose Allow, Warn (members are warned before they leave), or Block (members can't leave while they have an open task).
Under Mentioning a non-member, choose what happens when someone mentions a person who isn't in the collab: Suggest adding them, Add them automatically, or Not allowed (only members can be mentioned).
In the example, assignees are asked first, previous assignees are removed unless they posted, members are warned before leaving with an open task, and only members can be mentioned.
Wrapping up
These rules decide who can close a collab, what happens to it afterwards, and how many collabs a record can have.
Under Who can resolve, choose who can mark a collab as done: Owner, Owner and task assignees, or Any member.
Under Resolved collabs, choose Stay visible, read-only (members can still read them but can't change them) or Are hidden (members no longer see them).
Under Reopening, choose how a resolved collab picks back up:
Reopen on new activity: new activity reopens it.
Owner reopens: the owner can reopen it.
Start a new collab instead: resolved collabs stay closed, and staff start a new one.
Under Collabs per record, choose Several allowed or One per record.
In the example, the owner and task assignees can resolve, resolved collabs are hidden, new activity reopens them, and each record can have only one collab.
Set different visibility for one type of record
Use this when one kind of record needs more or less privacy than the rest, for example hiding collabs on notes completely.
Scroll down to What non-members see, by record type.
Next to the record type, choose Nothing, That a collab exists, or A preview (title, owner, status). The record types are Appointment, Invoice, Document, Note, SMS, Portal message and Patient.
Leave the other record types on Workspace setting. They follow your choice under What non-members see, and the line under their name shows which one, for example Uses the workspace setting: That a collab exists.
In the example, Note is set to Nothing, so people who aren't in a collab on a note can't see it.
Require Team Chat access (optional)
Turn this on if only people with Team Chat access should be able to take part in collabs.
Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Turn on Require Team Chat access to take part in collabs.
Save your changes
None of your choices apply until you save.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.
Check for the Collab settings saved message at the top of the screen.
Save is greyed out until you change something, and again after saving. In the example, Leaving with an open task is changed to Warn and saved.
Choose which roles can use collabs
The rules above decide how collabs work. Role permissions decide what each role is allowed to do in them.
In the settings menu, click Access & HR, then Custom Permissions.
Click Collabs to open its permissions. Hover over the i next to a permission to see what it allows:
Collab Access: take part in collabs.
Start Collabs: start a collab on a record.
Add Collab Tasks: add tasks to a collab they're in.
Add Collab Members: add people to any collab they're in, not only ones they own.
Remove Collab Members: remove people from any collab they're in, not only ones they own.
Join Any Collab: join a collab without approval.
Resolve Any Collab: resolve or reopen any collab they're in, not only ones they own.
In the role's column, choose Allowed or Forbidden for the permission. Scroll sideways to see more roles. Not available means the permission can't be given to that role.
Click Save Changes, then check for the Updated workspace custom permissions message
In the example, Join Any Collab is set to Allowed for Front Desk and saved.
After setup
Once your settings are saved, share How to Use Collabs with your team. It shows how to start a collab, add teammates and tasks, and resolve it. Collabs work alongside Team Chat and Tasks.
Good to know
If you leave the Collabs settings page without clicking Save, your changes aren't kept.
Choosing a preset replaces the rules you've already changed on the page, so choose the preset first and fine-tune afterwards.
If a staff member can't start a collab, check their role's Collab Access and Start Collabs permissions.