People, members and tracked-only
Who can own work, who needs a login, and why those are different questions.
Most tools make “can own work” and “has a login” the same thing, which means you either pay for people who never sign in or leave their work invisible. StatusLoop separates them.
One roster, two kinds of person
- Member
- Has a login. Signs in, submits updates, sees the portfolio. Uses a seat.
- Tracked-only person
- No login, no seat, no cost. Can own projects, tasks and milestones, and appears in capacity planning like anyone else.
Both live in one roster under People, so there is no separate contractor list to keep in step. The distinction is visible in the roster and nowhere else — work owned by a tracked-only person looks the same on a plan as anyone else's.
Who should be tracked-only
- Contractors and agency staff who work in your tools, not ours.
- Executives who only ever read the exported deck.
- Shared specialists from another team whose time you need to show in capacity.
- Anyone you are not sure about — upgrading later is one click, and costs nothing until you do.
Upgrading someone later
Invite them from the roster. The invite matches on email, so the existing person record is reused rather than duplicated — their history, ownership and designation all carry over. This is the reason to put people in as tracked-only early rather than waiting: nothing is lost by doing it now.
Designations and pods
- Designation
- What someone does — engineering, design, product. Used by capacity to show the shape of a team, not just its size.
- Pod (domain team)
- A cross-functional group focused on an area. A person belongs to at most one. A whole pod can be assigned to a project in one action.
When someone leaves
Deleting a member does not delete the person record or their history. The person survives as tracked-only, so past ownership and progress notes still make sense to anyone reading them later. Their project assignments remain editable like anyone else's.
Seats and cost
Only members count against your plan's member limit, and pending invitations count too — an unaccepted invite is still holding a seat. Tracked-only people are never counted, however many you have.
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