---
title: "Add and manage clients"
description: "Add a client and its database, read its record, move between client workspaces, change a client's status, and move endpoints from one client to another."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/msp/clients/"
product: "depot"
type: "how-to"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "MSP plan. Clients > New client creates a client and its own database, with an optional network discovery switch. The client record shows status, storage, billable endpoints and metered endpoint hours, a link to the client's documentation, and the Pioneer AI override. Switching clients, Return home, client statuses, and moving endpoints between clients."
availability:
  plans: ["msp"]
  permission: "client:manage"
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/msp/clients.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Add and manage clients

A client is one organization whose endpoints you manage. Each client gets its
own workspace in the console and its own database. This page shows how to add
a client, what its record holds, how to move between client workspaces, and
how to change a client's status. For how clients fit into the MSP plan, see
[Outpost for MSPs](/msp/).

## Before you begin

- You are on the MSP plan.
- Adding a client and changing it needs `client:manage`. Reading the roster
  needs `client:read`.

## Add a client

1. Select **Clients**, then **New client**.
2. In **Name**, enter the client's organization name.
3. Under **Database**, leave **Create the database for me** selected. On the
   Outpost-hosted service, Outpost creates the client's database for you and
   prepares it.

   :::note
   **I will supply a connection string** applies only to self-hosted
   deployments, where the Depot server cannot create the database itself.
   There you enter the connection string in **Client database DSN**. The
   database must already exist, and Outpost creates its schema when you save.
   :::

4. To have this client's agents list the other devices on their networks,
   select **Turn on network discovery**. Outpost then suggests the computers
   that could take an agent. You can turn it on later instead. See
   [Network discovery](/endpoints/network-discovery/).
5. Select **Create client**.

The console opens the new client's record. If network discovery could not be
turned on, the client is still created and the console says so. Turn it on
later under the client's **Profiles**.

A client is also created for you when a prospect accepts a quote addressed to
them. See [Sales pipeline and quotes](/msp/sales-and-quotes/).

## Enroll the client's endpoints

Endpoints join a client through an installer downloaded inside that client's
workspace. Open the client's workspace, then follow
[Install and enroll the agent](/agent/install-and-enrollment/).

## Find a client

**Clients** lists every client. Select a client's name to open its workspace,
or select **Record** to open the client's record.

The search box matches the client name and the hostnames that client's agents
connect to. The list opens on the **Current clients** view, which leaves out
offboarded clients. The other built-in views are **Active only**, **Largest
first**, **Being provisioned**, and **Offboarded**.

## Read a client's record

The record shows:

| Card | What it holds |
| --- | --- |
| **Details** | **Status** and **Database engine**. |
| **Storage** | This client's own storage destinations. When none is the default, the client's files use your practice-wide destinations in **Settings**. See [Storage destinations](/depot/storage/). |
| **Billing** | A read-only usage rollup for the current period: **Billable endpoints** and **Metered endpoint hours**. |
| **Documentation** | **Open their documentation** opens the client's articles, assets, credentials, domains, and licenses in their workspace. See [Documentation](/documentation/). |
| **Email domains** | The email domains that file mail to your support mailboxes under this client. See [Client email domains](/service-desk/mailboxes/#client-email-domains). Shown to technicians with `mailbox:manage`. |
| **AI** | Whether Pioneer AI can work with this client's data. Shown only when your practice's AI policy allows a per-client choice. |

**Open workspace** opens the client's workspace. **Edit** changes the name or
the status.

The **Primary contact** card on the **Overview** tab names the client's main
contact. **Contacts** and **Sites** open the client's people and sites in its
workspace, and **Client portal** opens its portal settings. See
[Client contacts, sites, and contact tags](/msp/contacts-and-sites/) and
[Client portal](/client-portal/).

### Set Pioneer AI for one client

In the **AI** card, choose **Pioneer AI**:

- **Use MSP default** follows the practice setting in **Settings** > **AI**.
- **Force off** keeps Pioneer AI away from this client's data.
- **Force on** allows it for this client.

Select **Save**. **In effect now** shows the result. Changing it needs
`ai:manage`. See [Pioneer AI](/pioneer-ai/).

## Work inside a client

Open a client's workspace in any of these ways:

- Select the client's name in **Clients**.
- Pick the client in the **Client** switcher in the header.
- Select **Open workspace** on the client's record.

Inside the workspace, a bar above each page names the client and shows its
status, with a **Clients** link back to the roster. The navigation shows that
client's sections. A suspended client's status is shown as a warning, so you
can see you are working in a paused client.

To leave the workspace, select **Return home** at the top of the navigation.
It takes you back to the practice level.

## Change a client's status

1. On the client's record, select **Edit**.
2. In **Status**, choose the new status.
3. Select **Save changes**.

| Status | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `provisioning` | The client is being set up. |
| `active` | The client is live. |
| `suspended` | The client is paused. Its workspace shows the status as a warning. |
| `offboarded` | You no longer work for the client. |

The status also changes what reaches the client's endpoints and MDM devices:

- **Suspended.** Endpoints and devices keep checking in and reporting, so
  inventory and monitoring stay current, but nothing is sent to them: no
  scripts, commands, remote sessions, wakes, software or patch installs,
  policy changes, or MDM commands. Scheduled scripts are recorded as skipped.
  Scripting is turned off on the endpoints, so script schedules they hold stop
  too, including while they are offline. An action you try is refused with
  **This client is suspended, so nothing can be sent to its devices.** Agent
  self-updates and the patch windows an agent runs on its own keep running.
  Setting the client back to `active` resumes delivery and turns scripting back
  on.
- **Offboarded.** The client's agents are refused and disconnected at once,
  new endpoints cannot enroll, and its MDM devices are refused when they check
  in. Its active Android devices are disabled and show **This device's
  organization is no longer managed by Outpost.** Moving the client out of
  `offboarded` re-enables them. Outpost re-enables only the devices it
  disabled, so a device that was already disabled or in lost mode stays as it
  was.

When you suspend a client, or offboard an active one, work already queued for
its devices is dropped, so reactivating the client does not deliver it:

- Agent commands that have not run yet expire. Endpoint transfers to another
  client are kept.
- MDM commands still on their way are canceled, including wipes and locks, and
  each one's timeline shows it canceled. Inventory and verification queries
  stay, because the devices still answer them.

The `client.update` entry in the audit log counts the commands that expired
and the MDM commands that were canceled.

An offboarded client is never deleted. Its invoices, tickets, and audit trail
still name it, so its row stays on **Clients** under the **Offboarded** view.

## Move endpoints between clients

To move an endpoint that was enrolled under the wrong client, use
**Transfer to another client** in the endpoint's **Actions** menu. To move
several at once, select them in **Endpoints** > **All endpoints** and use
**Transfer to another client** on the selection bar. Your practice's own
workspace can be the source or the target, and an offline endpoint moves the
next time it connects. Only active clients are offered as targets. See
[Transfer an endpoint to another client](/endpoints/endpoint-actions/#transfer-an-endpoint-to-another-client).

## Verify

- The new client is on **Clients** under **Current clients**.
- Selecting its name opens its workspace, and the bar above the page names
  the client.

## Next steps

- [Install and enroll the agent](/agent/install-and-enrollment/)
- [Client contacts, sites, and contact tags](/msp/contacts-and-sites/)
- [Client agreements](/msp/agreements/)
- [Practice home, Inbox, and estate status](/msp/practice-home-and-inbox/)