Giving a Consultant or Agency Temporary Access

CRM consultants, agencies and fractional admins often run a deduplication project for a few weeks. In Dedupely, you give them their own login with a role that fits the job, and an expiry date on that role, so their access ends on its own when the project does. Everything they do is recorded in Merge History and the Audit Log, and you can remove them at any time.

Step 1: Decide what they need to do

Avoid the Admin role. It gives access to users, roles, billing and security, and it can't have an expiry date.

Step 2: Invite them

1. Go to Company Settings → Users and click Add User. You can also click your profile icon and select Invite Team.
2. Enter their first name, last name and work email.
3. Choose their role.
4. Click Send Invites.

If your Security Policy requires 2FA, they set it up before they join. Ask each person on the agency's team to use their own login, so Merge History and the Audit Log show who did what.

Step 3: Set an expiry date

1. On the Users page, click the three dots next to the consultant and select Roles.
2. In Set user role, add an expiry date to their role. Dates expire at the end of the selected day, in your time zone.
3. Click Save.

Pick the last day of the project. If it runs longer, come back and change the date.

What happens when the role expires

• They lose that role, nobody is deactivated. If they have another role that hasn't expired, they keep working with it.
• If it was their only role, they stay on the Users page as an active user, with the role shown as Expired, but they can't get into your account until someone renews it or gives them another role.
• They stay on your Users page. When the project is over, click the three dots next to them and select Remove.

Step 4: Keep an eye on the work

• Merge History shows every merge, with who ran it, the original records and the values that won. See Merge History.
• The Audit Log records merges, scans, changes to Duplicate Searches and settings, logins and role changes, with the user and the time. See Audit Log.
• If records that weren't duplicates were merged, undo the merge from Merge History within 30 days. See Undo a Merge.

Example setup

A company hires a HubSpot agency for a six-week cleanup.

1. Two agency consultants get the Data Manager role, with an expiry date on the project's last day.
2. The agency's account director gets Read-only User, with the same expiry date, to follow progress.
3. The RevOps manager checks Merge History every Friday, and the Audit Log for changes to Merge Rules.
4. The project runs a week longer, so RevOps moves the expiry date. When it ends, RevOps removes the three agency users.

Common mistakes

• Giving the consultant the Admin role. It can't expire, and it includes users, billing and security.
• Sharing one login with the whole agency. You lose track of who did what. Invite each person.
• Forgetting to remove them. An expired role keeps them out, but they stay on your Users page.
• Not agreeing on what they'll change. Agree up front who owns Merge Rules and Auto Merge after they leave.

FAQs about temporary access

• What happens when a role expires? The person loses that role. If it was their only role, they stay listed as an active user with the role shown as Expired, and can't get into the account until it's renewed.
• Do temporary users cost extra? No. Users are unlimited on every plan, with no per-user fees.
• Can the Admin role expire? No. Give consultants a different role.
• Can I extend their access? Yes. Change the expiry date in Roles on the Users page.
• Can I see what the consultant did? Yes, in Merge History and the Audit Log.