Connect – External Invitee Guide

Accept an invitation to connect with another company on Slack or Microsoft Teams

If another company has invited you to collaborate through shared channels or chats, you’re in the right place. This page relates to Step 5 of the Connect – Cross-Company Quickstart (for external connections). For more information about what happens when you accept a connection, read this guide.

Step 1: Connecting with Conclude

This step explains what you, as the invited external company, need to do to get started with Conclude.

  • Click the invitation link in the email to begin setup. If you do not have an email, check your spam folder or reach out to your contact. The link is valid for 96 hours
  • Select your messaging platform – Slack or Microsoft Teams
  • Authenticate your platform by clicking Add to Slack or Add to Microsoft and then follow the prompts

 

select your messaging platform

 

Step 2: Choose a connection type

  • Slack authentication: you’ll be asked which channels you would like to connect – select Channels and click Continue
  • Teams authentication:
    • Select a workspace or tenant
    • Select team – here you can select your team name or Chats
    • Select channel – here you can select or create a new channel or create or connect a chat

 

choose your connection type

 

Step 3: Connecting channels and chats

  • If you selected an existing channel or chat in the previous step, click Continue and the connection will be set up
  • If you selected New channel a dialog will appear. Enter the channel name, an optional description, and check Make private if you want to restrict access by invitation only. Click Create

Once connected, real-time synchronization begins:

  • Messages sent in one platform will appear in the other
  • Files shared in the conversation will be accessible on both sides

 

create or connect channels or chats

 

Step 4: Navigating the web dashboard

  • Once you are set up, you can navigate to the web dashboard (button in the top right of the Conclude website)
  • Under Channels you will see an overview of which channels and chats are connected with the company that has invited you to be a collaborator
  • To set up new connections and invite collaborators, go to Connect external, then the Channels tab, to send email invitation links

Important: users from your company are not counted as active users and do not require a licence. However, if you decide to set up new connections, your users will be counted as active users (as you will be the inviting company).

 

external connections web dashboard conclude connect

 

Step 5: Setting up an integration user account

An integration user account enables Conclude to post messages on Microsoft Teams. This account serves as a fallback to post messages into channels and chats when no user account is available and ensures consistent message synchronization.

If you are using Microsoft Teams, this step is essential to ensure no messages are missed.

Important: the company that has invited you cannot complete this step. Follow the steps below or watch this guided video tutorial.

 

 

Here’s how it works:

  • A Microsoft admin creates a special, generic user account (e.g. “Customer” or “External user”) that isn’t associated with any physical person in the Microsoft admin system
  • In Conclude’s Admin console, the admin selects the user account and signs them in
  • Once configured, Conclude will use the account to post messages that would be handled by the Conclude Bot
  • This ensures that messages sync smoothly when user credentials aren’t available

To set up an integration account:

  • Navigate to the web dashboard under Admin console > Workspaces
  • Click the Edit (pencil) icon next to the workspace where you want to enable the integration account

 

set up an integration account

 

  • Select the pre-created integration account from the drop-down, then click Save

 

integration account settings

 

The account operates across the entire Microsoft organization. It will post any messages that don’t originate from a user with credentials in the same Microsoft tenant signed in with Conclude.

Important: If the integration account is not yet signed in to Conclude, you will see a prompt to sign in and authorize Conclude to post messages on the account’s behalf.

Additional tips:

  • Ensure the integration account is added to the team containing your connected channels. For private channels, manually add this account to the channel
  • This setup is recommended even when users exist on both sides, as it provides a fallback when no user credentials are available

 

Connect. Collaborate. Conclude