This guide will walk you through getting started with Conclude Link External connections. To connect with other teams and workspaces across your organization, see Conclude Link Internal Quickstart.
Start here
In this guide we will cover:
- How to sign up for an account
- Navigating the Admin settings
- Selecting teams and inviting collaborators
- Linking external companies
- Setting up an integration account
Step 1: Sign up for an account
To get started, click “Get Started” or “Sign Up” on our website. During the sign-up process, you will be asked to select your primary messaging platform: Slack or Microsoft Teams. You only need to sign in with one platform to use Conclude Link for external links.
After selecting your platform, sign in and complete the authentication process. Once authenticated, you’ll see a confirmation message indicating that your workspace is connected.
If you do not want to connect to another messaging platform, click Continue.
To set up an account for your organization, provide the necessary information and click on Create account.
You will then see the following page:
Click on Go to Dashboard to continue setting up the integration between Microsoft Teams and Slack.
Step 2: Enable Conclude Link in the Dashboard
When you first land on the Dashboard, you will be directed here. To enable Conclude Link (external connections), toggle the switch in the upper right corner of the box.
The Settings section on the sidebar includes User settings where you can manage your personal information and the Admin settings. Here, admins will find the following:
- Account overview: an overview of Conclude features, including the number of synchronized channels, active users, and billing plan
- Account settings: : admins can modify the organization’s name and other relevant information, including address and country
- Admin roles: Account Admins and Account Owners have the authority to manage teams and link channels
- Workspaces: view and manage different teams and workspaces (connected to Conclude). If a team or workspace isn’t listed, admins have the option to add these by going through the sign-up process with Slack or Microsoft
- Users: see a list of active and inactive users and send reminders to users who need to connect Conclude to the associated Slack or Teams account
💡 Tip: If you haven’t created an account during the onboarding process, you will be automatically directed to the Create account tab.
Here, you can provide details, including the organization name (mandatory). Once the account is created, you can access other settings within the Admin settings.
After adding your Slack workspace or Microsoft Teams account to the Workspaces tab, navigate to the Channel section of the Link external tab on the sidebar to create channel links. Follow the prompts to connect channels with external companies and collaborators.
Important: For external links, only your team’s active users in connected channels are counted as Conclude Link active users. External collaborators are not counted as active users.
Step 3: Select teams and invite external collaborators
Go to the Link external tab and navigate to the Channel section to send email invitation links to external collaborators.
- Click Invite by email
- Choose the Slack or Microsoft team you want to connect
- Select the channel you want to link to an external team
- Enter the collaborator’s name and email, then click Send
Next, you can review and edit the invitation message, selecting Send myself to send the invitation from your email address or Send via Conclude to have Conclude send the invitation directly.
Important: Send the invitation link to the Slack or Microsoft Teams administrator at the company you wish to connect with, so they can complete the setup and authenticate with their platform. The invitation link will expire in 96 hours.
After sending the invitation, you can track the status in this tab to see if the invitation is accepted or pending.
Step 4: Linking to external companies
When the external company’s admin receives the invitation email, they should click on the invitation link to start the setup process.
- Select platform: the admin will first select the messaging platform they use (Slack or Microsoft Teams)
- Authentication: after selecting Add to Slack or Sign in with Microsoft, they’ll be guided through the standard authentication process for their chosen platform
- Once authenticated, they will see an option to select a team and channel to connect with your channel. They can also create a new channel by clicking Create channel
- After choosing the team and channel, they should click Continue
- The channels will now be linked, enabling real-time message synchronization e.g. if a message is sent in a Slack channel, it will appear in the connected Microsoft Teams channel
- Similarly, files shared in the conversation will be accessible on both platforms
Once your external connection completes the setup and links their team’s channel with yours, their invitation status will be updated to Accepted. This confirms that the external channel connection is active and ready. You can see their status by navigating to the Channel section of the Link external tab.
Step 5: Setting up an integration account
An integration 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.
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 settings, the admin selects the user account and signs them in
- Once configured, Conclude will use the integration 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 Settings > Admin > Workspaces
- Click the Edit (pencil) icon next to the workspace where you want to enable the integration account
- Select the pre-created integration account from the drop-down then click Save
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 linked channels. For private channels, manually add this account to the channel
- Once configured, messages from external users will be posted using the integration account
- This setup is recommended even when users exist on both sides, as it provides a fallback when credentials are not available for all users