I would like to suggest an improvement to the way Asana manages new users and paid seats.
When a user adds another person to a project, I believe that person should be added as a GUEST by default, even if their email address belongs to one of the company’s verified domains.
If the new user actually needs Member-level features, only an Administrator or Super Admin should be able to upgrade that person from Guest to MEMBER, therefore assigning them a paid seat.
Alternatively, there should be an administrative setting allowing each organization to define whether regular users are authorized to add paid Members.
The main reason for this suggestion is cost control and governance. In my opinion, regular users should not be able to unintentionally increase a company’s subscription costs simply by inviting someone to a project. The decision to assign a paid seat should remain under the control of the organization’s administrators.
Unfortunately, we recently experienced exactly this situation.
We currently have 10 paid seats. One of our interns invited another employee to a project. This employee only needed to view projects and tasks, but because she belongs to one of our company domains, she was automatically added as a Member instead of a Guest.
This resulted in an unexpected additional charge of approximately USD 1,132 to our subscription.
The invitation occurred on September 28, and I contacted Asana Support the very next day to explain what had happened.
I was initially instructed to remove the user and then send Support a screenshot, so they could try to process a refund. I followed those instructions. However, I was later informed that the refund could not be processed because it would be against Asana’s subscription policies.
As a result, we not only received an unexpected charge for a user who never needed a paid seat, but following the instructions to remove her also created additional work for us, because now I need to add and configure the employee again.
This experience is exactly why I believe administrators need better control over paid seats.
A Guest-by-default policy, an administrator approval process for new Members, or even a simple setting such as “Only Administrators and Super Admins can add paid Members” would prevent situations like this.
It would give organizations much better control over their subscriptions, avoid unintended charges, and still allow regular users to collaborate freely by inviting people as Guests.
