Portfolio, projects and teams setup : client versus internal topic

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Hey there, great question — this is a super common setup puzzle when working with clients and internal work side by side. I work at Asana, happy to share what I’ve seen work well.

A few patterns that scale

  1. One team per client: Best when each client has multiple projects, unique members, and different permissions. Keeps things tidy if the engagement is big and ongoing.

  2. One “Clients” team with one project per client: Great for lighter engagements where each client only needs a single project and you want a short, clean team list.

  3. Hybrid approach: Keep an internal team with an internal project. Create a client-facing project shared with the client. Use multihoming so tasks that should stay internal live only in the internal project, while client-facing tasks live in the shared project. +1 to the suggestion here: https://forum.asana.com/t/using-portfolios-to-manage-client-projects-where-some-are-private-others-are-client-facing/139722/4

How I handle active vs inactive

  1. Use Portfolios for visibility. Create “Active Clients” and “Archived Clients” portfolios. Move client projects between them as status changes.

  2. Archive projects when a client is inactive. This removes them from day-to-day views but keeps the history.

  3. If you used one team per client and want to keep the team list clean:

  4. Set the team to Private or Request to join

  5. Remove members who don’t need access

  6. Optionally rename to “ZZ Client - Archived” to push it to the bottom of alphabetical lists

  7. Team sidebar clutter usually comes from membership, so leaving teams you don’t need will declutter your view

Permissions tips that help

  1. Share only the client-facing project with the client. Keep your internal project private to your team. Multihome tasks that need dual visibility.

  2. Guests only see what you share with them, so you can keep broader structure internal.

Operational tips

  1. Create a client project template with your standard sections, custom fields, and rules so every new client starts consistent.

  2. Add a “Client” custom field and a “Client Status” field (Active or Inactive) to help with reporting and quick filtering.