---
title: "Outpost for MSPs"
description: "How the MSP plan runs many client organizations from one console, keeps each client's data apart, and adds sales, projects, agreements, and invoicing."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/msp/"
product: "depot"
type: "concept"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "Overview of the MSP plan. One console with a practice level and a workspace per client, each client in its own database, pooled allowances, and the business features: sales and quotes, projects, client agreements, client invoicing, client payments, the client portal, and practice-wide reports. Links to every MSP task page."
availability:
  plans: ["msp"]
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/msp/index.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Outpost for MSPs

The MSP plan is for a managed service provider that looks after other
organizations' endpoints and is paid for it. One console holds every client
you serve, keeps each client's data apart from every other client's, and adds
the business side of the practice: sales and quotes, projects, client
agreements, and invoicing. This page explains how the console is arranged on
the MSP plan, how client data is kept separate, and where each task is
documented.

The MSP plan is the only plan licensed for paid managed services to other
organizations. See [Plans and limits](/account/plans-and-limits/).

## The practice and the client workspace

On the MSP plan, the console has two levels.

| Level | What it is for | How you get there |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Practice | Work that spans clients or belongs to your business: the client roster, the cross-client ticket and alert queues, sales, projects, client billing, practice reports, and your own settings | Sign in, or select **Return home** in a client's workspace |
| Client workspace | One client's endpoints, users, tickets, alerts, scripts, profiles, documentation, and reports | Select the client's name in **Clients**, or pick it in the **Client** switcher in the header |

You never switch consoles. The navigation changes to show the level you are
at, and the header shows which client you are working in. The navigation
layouts are described in [The Outpost console](/depot/#the-navigation).

Your team signs in once and works every client from the same account. Your
clients do not sign in to the console. Their end users reach your team through
the Outpost tray app on their computers, and the people you invite sign in to
your branded client portal to see invoices, pay, approve work, and raise
tickets. See [Tray](/tray/) and [Client portal](/client-portal/).

## How client data is kept apart

Each client has its own database. Its endpoints, users, tickets, scripts,
documentation, and agreements are stored there. When you work inside a
client's workspace, every page reads from that client's database, and a
request made inside one client's workspace cannot name a different client,
whatever permissions the technician holds.

Records that belong to your practice rather than to one client are kept
separately from every client's database. These include the client roster,
prospects, quotes, and invoices. The practice-level pages that read across
clients, such as the **Inbox** and the practice **Reports**, ask each client's
database in turn. When a client cannot be reached, the page says so and shows
the rest, rather than leaving that client out without a word.

## Pooled allowances

The MSP plan's included active endpoints and Outpost Cloud Storage apply to
your account as a whole. They are pooled across your clients, not given to
each client separately. See
[Plans and limits](/account/plans-and-limits/#endpoint-pricing-on-enterprise-and-msp).

**Storage report** at the practice level shows what each client stores and how
much of it Outpost meters. See [MSP reports](/msp/msp-reports/).

## What the MSP plan adds

The MSP plan includes everything in Enterprise, plus:

| Feature | What it does | Where it is documented |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Multiple client environments | A workspace and a database per client, the client roster, and the cross-client views | [Add and manage clients](/msp/clients/), [Practice home, Inbox, and estate status](/msp/practice-home-and-inbox/) |
| Sales and quotes | A pipeline of prospects and deals, priced quotes, and a private link where the prospect or client signs | [Sales pipeline and quotes](/msp/sales-and-quotes/) |
| Sales orders | What an accepted quote's hardware became: buying, delivery, invoicing on delivery or on order with a deposit, and margin | [Sales orders](/msp/sales-orders/), [Procurement and assets](/procurement/) |
| Quoting tools and opportunity workflows | Quotes won in Quoter, Salesbuildr, or QuoteWerks, and workflows that act on the pipeline | [Quoting tools](/msp/quoting-tools/), [Opportunity workflows](/msp/opportunity-workflows/) |
| Projects | Phases, tasks, milestones with client acceptance, budgets, change orders, and a client status page | [Projects](/msp/projects/), [Time tracking and dispatch](/msp/time-and-dispatch/) |
| Timesheets | Each technician's week across every client, with ticket and task time filled in, submitted and approved weekly | [Timesheets](/msp/timesheets/), [Approve timesheets](/msp/timesheet-approvals/) |
| Client agreements | What each client pays every period, counted by device type and seat, with discounts, price increases, and a next-bill estimate | [Client agreements](/msp/agreements/), [Bill by device type and seat](/msp/device-and-seat-lines/), [Billing catalog](/msp/billing-catalog/) |
| Client invoicing | Monthly draft invoices, sending, payments, credit notes, and an export for your accounting package | [Invoice clients](/msp/client-invoicing/) |
| Client payments | Online payment of your invoices through your own Stripe, Square, Braintree, Authorize.net, or QuickBooks Payments account, with pay links and autopay | [Client payments](/client-payments/) |
| Client portal | A branded portal where your clients' people see invoices, pay, approve, raise tickets, and more | [Client portal](/client-portal/) |
| Practice reports | Reports across clients, including financial, project, and sales reports | [MSP reports](/msp/msp-reports/) |

Sales, projects, agreements, invoicing, client payments, and the client
portal are the business features. They exist only on the MSP plan.

## How the business features fit together

The business features follow the order in which a job happens:

1. You work a deal in **Sales** and send the prospect or client a quote.
2. The prospect or client signs the quote. Accepting it creates the client if
   it is new, a draft agreement for the monthly lines, a draft invoice for the one-time
   lines, an onboarding ticket, and a project when the quote sells one. A
   quote that sells hardware also raises a sales order, which you buy,
   deliver, and invoice. See [Sales orders](/msp/sales-orders/).
3. You activate the agreement. From then on, time your team logs on that
   client's tickets and project tasks is classified by the agreement's rules.
4. Outpost drafts an invoice for every client whose billing day has arrived.
   You check it and finalize it, which emails it to the client's billing
   contact.
5. The client pays online from the email, in the client portal, or by
   autopay, when you have connected a payment provider.

## Who can do what

Each business area has its own permissions, so a practice can give a
salesperson the pipeline without the invoice book, and a project manager the
projects without either.

| Area | Permissions |
| --- | --- |
| Clients | `client:read`, `client:manage` |
| Sales | `crm:read`, `crm:write`, `crm:send`, `crm:approve` |
| Projects | `project:read`, `project:write`, `project:time`, `project:calendar`, `project:manage` |
| Timesheets | `ticket:write`, `timesheet:approve`, `psa:admin` |
| Agreements and invoicing | `psa:read`, `psa:write`, `psa:invoice`, `psa:admin` |
| Client payments | `psa:payments`, `psa:refund` |
| Client portal | `clientportal:read`, `clientportal:manage`, `clientportal:users`, `clientportal:remote`, `clientportal:branding`, `clientportal:domains` |

Client billing is not the same as **Settings** > **Billing**. Client billing
is what your clients pay you. **Settings** > **Billing** is your own Outpost
subscription. See [Roles and permissions](/depot/roles-and-permissions/).

## Related

- [Add and manage clients](/msp/clients/)
- [Client contacts, sites, and contact tags](/msp/contacts-and-sites/)
- [Practice home, Inbox, and estate status](/msp/practice-home-and-inbox/)
- [Client agreements](/msp/agreements/)
- [Invoice clients](/msp/client-invoicing/)
- [Client payments](/client-payments/)
- [Client portal](/client-portal/)
- [Sales pipeline and quotes](/msp/sales-and-quotes/)
- [Sales orders](/msp/sales-orders/)
- [Projects](/msp/projects/)
- [Timesheets](/msp/timesheets/)
- [MSP reports](/msp/msp-reports/)
- [Plans and limits](/account/plans-and-limits/)