Not everyone who touches a project needs a login. Virtual members let you assign tickets to contractors, clients, and stakeholders without giving them system access or sending notifications.
Every agency works with people outside the core team. A freelance illustrator handling one deliverable. A client's CTO who needs to be tagged on architecture decisions. An accountant who should appear on finance-related tickets but never log in.
Until now, you had two bad options: give them a real account they'll never use, or track their work informally in comments and sticky notes. Virtual members fix this.
What is a virtual member?
A virtual member is a team member who exists in your project for assignment and tracking purposes but cannot log in and never receives email notifications. They don't need an email address. They don't count toward your seat limit in the same way. They're visible on ticket assignments, member lists, and project boards — but they never interact with the system directly.
Think of them as placeholders with names. Except these placeholders show up in filters, assignments, and reports — so nothing falls through the cracks.
When to use virtual members
The most common use cases we see:
- Freelancers and contractors — assign them tickets so you know who's responsible, without onboarding them into your tool.
- Client stakeholders — tag a client's project manager on relevant tickets to keep your internal records accurate.
- External vendors — a print shop, a hosting provider's support contact, or a legal reviewer who needs to appear in the workflow.
- Future hires — create a placeholder for a role you're about to fill so tickets can be pre-assigned.
How to add a virtual member
Go to your team settings and open the invite form. Check the "Virtual member" checkbox. The email field disappears — you only need a name and a role. Click "Create Virtual Member" and they're immediately available for ticket assignment across all projects they're added to.
Virtual members appear in your member list with a "Virtual" badge so there's never confusion about who can actually log in.
No notifications, no noise
One of the key benefits: virtual members are automatically excluded from all email notifications. When a ticket is updated, reassigned, or commented on, they won't receive anything. This is intentional — they don't have accounts, so notifications would just bounce or confuse.
Your real team members still get notified normally. The virtual member is simply a record of responsibility, not a communication channel.
Keep your records accurate without bloating your team
The alternative — creating real accounts for people who never log in — clutters your team with inactive users, wastes seats, and creates security surface area you don't need. Virtual members give you accurate assignment tracking with none of the overhead.
If a virtual member eventually joins your team for real, you can always create a proper account for them later. The two aren't linked — virtual members are lightweight by design.