This article will help you think about the different and flexible approaches to structuring your Pie organization workspaces for your client projects. This is very help for consulting firms, agencies, and other types of professional services firms.

How-to Video 

Structure your organization and workspaces for consulting clients

If your consulting company works with multiple clients, there are three ways to structure your workspaces in Pie. Use the model that fits your client relationships, project volume, and access needs.
Learn more about Organizations and Workspaces before you start.

Model 1 – One workspace for all clients

1. Create an All Clients workspace and add all client projects there.

2. Keep your internal content and your the recipes you will use for your clients in a separate internal workspace that's only your internal group.

3. When you add client team members and stakeholders to this workspace, leave Executive Viewer and Workspace Admin unchecked in each user's workspace profile so they can only see their assigned projects. See About Workspace Permissions.

4. To separate projects for your own Pie reporting, use project tags. Tag projects with the client’s name (for example, Client – Johns Hopkins) so you can filter project lists and reports by client.
   
   Billing Thoughts — In Model 1, your consulting firm is responsible for Pie licenses since all of your clients are under your Pie organization which is most likely on the Pie Enterprise plan. Some consultants will take this as a cost and others just adds it as a billing line item mixed in with their consulting fees to the clients (for reimbursement).

Model 2 – One workspace per client

1. Create a separate workspace for each long-term client (6+ months or ongoing). For example, Johns Hopkins can be the name of the workspace.

2. Give the client sponsor person Executive Viewer access when you add them to their client workspace if you want them to see all their projects within that workspace.

3. Do not give the Workspace Admin permission to client members because this allows them to add/remove people and manage the workspace. You want to keep control of that part within your consulting firm.

4. You can use a mix of Model 1 and Model 2 if needed. For example, short-term clients in the All Clients workspace, long-term clients in their own workspace.
   
   Billing Thoughts — In Model 2, it's the same billing structure as Model 1 above.

Model 3 – Client’s own Pie organization

1. The client creates their own Pie account and organization.

2. They your consulting firm's key client manager with permissions as both the Organization Admin and the Workspace Admin in addition to their own key person for those permissions. This is key so your consulting team can manage their projects as part of your services.

3. If a client starts off with their projects under your Pie organization, such as in Model 2, with their own workspace, and then they sign up with their own Pie organization, you can help them with dragging and dropping their workspace into their own organization providing you (or who you designate) are organization admins for both your consulting firm's organization and the client's organization.

4. If the client projects are in All Clients (Model 1), then you would first need to create a client workspace and then move each project over to that workspace before you drag and drop the workspace to the client's organization.

   Billing Thoughts — In Model 3, the client has decided to have their Pie account and therefore responsible for Pie licenses. There's a few ways this could go.
   a) Your firm creates the separate client organization and you can get it started with your own credit card billing and invoice the client.
   b) Start with a, but later swap your billing contact and credit card info with the client's person and card with their permission. 
   c) Client creates the org and takes care of billing up front and then adds your consultants to their org's workspaces.
    

Sharing and managing recipes with clients

You can share recipes with clients in any model:

• Within your organization (Models 1 and 2): Duplicate the recipe and assign it to the client’s workspace.

• Client’s own organization (Model 3): Use the send recipe option on the recipe’s configuration page to send them a copy they can import. Tip: You can modify a unique recipe for a client by first duplicating the recipe, making changes, and then send it to them.