View-only license management

The view-only license feature is currently in beta testing, and enabled only for a select group of customers. This article explains how to set up the management of licenses during the beta period, so that you can do your day-to-day management with your existing identity provider (IdP) and helpdesk software.

View-only licenses

View-only licenses are useful for infrequent users of Asana who need to see the progress of work without needing to take action on tasks or projects. Invite your stakeholders to Asana with a view-only license so they can see status updates and project progress, as well as avoid duplication of work outside Asana.

If users with a view-only license need to collaborate more in-depth with colleagues through adding comments, creating tasks and projects, or viewing organization-wide data like goals, they should request a full license.

View-only license management for admins

This section will outline the 5 main areas of view-only license management for admins. Explained in detail below are the following:

1. Setting up groups in your IdP
2. Syncing groups to Asana with Push Groups or similar functionality
3. Partnering with Asana Support to grant licenses to IdP-owned Asana groups and provision accounts
4. Providing a link to your ticket intake form to collect requests for full licenses
5. Ongoing license management

Set up groups in your Identity Provider 

There are two options for setting up groups in your Identity Provider (IdP), displayed below. We recommend Option 1.

Option 1: General access group with nested licensed member groups

With this option, the general access group provides SAML access to all users, regardless of whether they have view-only or full licenses. Users are limited by default in Asana. The nested full members group provides access to a full license. This group should be synced via Push Groups or similar functionality to Asana.

Option 2: Distinct limited access groups licensed member groups

Each group grants SAML access to Asana. Paid users and executives should be pushed to Asana via Push Groups or similar functionality.

We don’t recommend pushing a limited user group to Asana. If you decide to take this approach, we recommend that this group should exist in your IdP only.

Sync groups to Asana

1. Identify the IdP groups that should grant users full licenses.
2. Sync those groups to Asana, with Push Groups or similar functionality.
3. You can thereby manage membership of your licenses via your IdP, and sync that membership to Asana.

Partner with Asana Support to grant licenses to the IdP-owned Asana groups and provision your account

1. Provide your account team with the team names of the groups synced from your IdP to Asana teams.
2. Your account team will provision your account with view-only licenses, and grant licenses to the identified groups.

We recommend including all your current Enterprise, Enterprise+, or Legacy Enteprise members in your IdP owned groups so that they maintain their current licenses through this transition. Once the transition is complete, you can then edit licenses and adjust their license type via your IdP.

Validate the correct groups are granted licenses

Visit the Settings tab in the admin console to confirm the correct groups are granting licenses in Asana. All members of these groups will be given a full license. Users on multiple groups only use a single license.

Provide a link to your ticket intake form to collect license requests

Asana automatically sends license requests to your helpdesk software. This must be configured in Asana’s Settings tab in the admin console.

This URL must be configured so that your users are sent to the correct place to submit license requests. If you don’t configure this URL, your limited members will be directed to the wrong place.

Ongoing license management

Once you’ve configured your licenses, all management of licenses will be done by adding your users to the correct groups in your IdP.

Granting a full Enterprise, Enterprise+, or Legacy Enterprise license

1. Grant a license by adding a user to a group in your IdP that is intended to provide full licenses to users.
2. This information will be synced to Asana, and Asana’s group license management functionality will automatically provide that user with a license.

We do not recommend managing license directly in Asana as part of this beta.

To confirm what groups are used to grant licenses, log into Asana’s Admin Console. Navigate to Settings > License Settings > License request management.

Removing a license

1. To remove a license, simply remove a user from all groups in your IdP that are intended to grant users licenses.
2. Users in Asana who are not members of any Enterprise, Enterprise+, or Legacy Enterprise groups will automatically be granted a limited license.

Ensure this user remains a member of a group that grants SAML access to Asana. Otherwise they will not be able to log in.

To confirm what groups are used to grant licenses, log into Asana’s admin console. Navigate to Settings > License Settings > License request management.

You can confirm a user's license type from the Members tab.