Inviting Clients to a Workspace

When you add a client in DocStreamAI, you create a dedicated workspace for their business and send their owner an invitation. The client's owner must accept the invite and claim the workspace before it becomes active — and once they have, they invite their own team. This guide walks through the full flow, step by step, and calls out the two moments where setups most often go wrong.

How the accountant–client model works

• You (the accountant) manage all of your clients from the Clients page. Each client is a separate workspace (organization) with its own documents, integrations, and settings.
• When you add a client, DocStreamAI emails an invite to the person who will own that workspace — the business owner, not an employee.
• The owner accepts the invite, creates their account, and completes a short onboarding (country/currency and industry).
• After that, the owner invites their own staff. You keep your Accountant role and continue managing their books.

Why this matters: Nothing is monitored or processed until the owner accepts. If a client tells you "it isn't working," the first thing to check is whether they accepted the invite.

Step 1 — Create the client workspace

1. Open the Clients page from the sidebar.
2. Click Add Client.
3. Fill in:
   • Organization name — the client's business name (the owner can rename it later).
   • Owner email — the email address of the person who will own the workspace. Enter it twice to confirm and avoid typos.
   • Invite expiry — how long the invite link stays valid (default 12 hours; up to 1 week).
4. Click Create & invite. DocStreamAI creates the workspace and emails the invite.

Use the business owner's email — not your own, and not a staff member's. Whoever accepts this invite becomes the workspace Owner, with full control including billing. This can't be reassigned without the owner deleting their account.

Until the client accepts, the client card shows an "Awaiting owner" status, and you can't enter the workspace yet.

Step 2 — The owner accepts the invite (the client's action)

This is the most commonly missed step. The owner receives an email and clicks the link, which opens a "Claim {organization}" page explaining: "Your accountant set up this workspace for you. When you accept, you become the owner."

The owner then:

1. Signs in with the exact email the invite was sent to — using Google sign-in or an email/password account.
2. Completes a short onboarding: Country & Currency, then Industry.

The invited person must not already have a DocStreamAI account. Each account can belong to only one organization. If they already have one, they'll be asked to delete it first, or use a different email.

Once they finish, they land on their dashboard as the workspace Owner, and the client card on your Clients page flips to "Claimed."

Industry is set here, by the owner — and it drives how invoices are categorized. Make sure your client knows to pick the closest match, not the most general one. See Configuring Accounting Settings for why this is the single highest-impact setup choice.

Step 3 — The owner invites their team (the client's action)

After claiming the workspace, the owner adds any employees who need access. Only the owner (or an admin they designate) can do this — you can't add their staff for them.

The owner:

1. Opens Team from the sidebar.
2. Clicks Invite Member.
3. Enters the teammate's email and chooses a role.
4. Sends the invite. Each teammate gets their own email and creates their own account.

Roles at a glance

Team members invited by the owner also must not already have a DocStreamAI account.

Step 4 — Enter the workspace

Once the card shows "Claimed," click it to enter the client's workspace and see their full dashboard. To return to your client list, use Exit to clients at the top of the sidebar.

Managing and troubleshooting invites

• Invite expired or lost: Open the client card and choose Resend invite to issue a fresh link.
• Wrong email entered: Cancel the pending invite and send a new one to the correct address.
• Card stuck on "Awaiting owner" after the client says they accepted: Refresh the page, and confirm the client actually reaches their dashboard (not just the sign-up screen).
• "You already belong to an organization": The client has an existing DocStreamAI account. They must delete it from their settings before accepting, or use a different email.