Invitations
One screen to see every access invite going into your Core Estimator account and every one going out.
Who this is for
Builders, subcontractors, and estimators. Builders use it to keep track of the subbies and consultants they have invited onto their projects. Subbies and estimators use it to pick up invites sent to them by a builder and jump into the right project.
What this module is for
Invitations is your inbox and outbox for anyone you share a project with in Core Estimator. When you invite a plumber to price a bathroom reno, the invite lands on their Invitations Received list. When they accept, you see the status update on your Invitations Sent list. It is the single place to check "who did I invite, did they accept, and is there anyone waiting on me to accept their invite".
Things worth knowing upfront
This module lives under the Dashboard section of the left menu, not under Contacts. It is reached from the Dashboard top tab.
There are two tabs: Invitations Received and Invitations Sent. You land on Received by default.
Invitations are not sent from this screen. You send an invite when you add an external user to one of your projects. This screen is where you review what has already been sent and what is waiting for you.
Once an invitation is accepted, the person becomes an External User on your account and appears in the External Users list.
Clicking any row opens an edit panel on the right side of the screen. Clicking outside the panel closes it without saving.
How to get there
From the top of the screen, click Dashboard.
In the left menu, click Invitations.
The Invitations Received tab is open by default. Click Invitations Sent to switch to the outbox.
Dashboard > Invitations > Invitations Received / Invitations Sent
What you'll see
The screen has two tabs across the top. The list below the tabs shows one row per invitation.
Invitations Received
Invites that have been sent to you by other builders, estimators, or companies.
Column | What it shows |
Received From | The person who sent you the invitation. |
Company | The company the sender belongs to (if their account has a company set). |
Space | The Core Estimator account you are being invited into. This is the sender's workspace, not yours. |
Status | Where the invitation is up to. See the status table further down. |
Date Received | When the invite arrived. |
Invitations Sent
Invites you have sent out from your account. Same shape as Received, but shown from your side.
Column | What it shows |
Sent To | The person you sent the invitation to. |
Company | The company of the person you invited (if one is on their contact record). |
Space | Your account name, shown to the person you invited. |
Status | Where the invitation is up to. |
Date Sent | When you sent it. |
Step-by-step: review an invitation you have received
Use this when someone has invited you to work on their job and you want to open it up and act on it.
Go to Dashboard > Invitations. The Invitations Received tab opens first.
Find the row for the invitation you want to review.
Click anywhere on the row. A panel slides in from the right with the invitation details.
Read the details. Check who sent it, what account they are inviting you into, and the status.
Action the invitation using the buttons at the bottom of the panel.
Click outside the panel or close it to return to the list.
What the platform does automatically. When you accept an invitation, the sender's side updates to Accepted on their Invitations Sent list and you become an External User on their account. You don't need to tell them separately.
Step-by-step: review an invitation you have sent
Use this when you want to check whether a subbie, estimator, or consultant has picked up the invite you sent them.
Go to Dashboard > Invitations.
Click the Invitations Sent tab.
Find the row for the person you invited. The Date Sent column tells you how long ago it went out.
Check the Status column to see where it is up to.
If you need to look at the invite itself, click the row and the panel opens with the full detail.
Tip — Sort by date if the list is long. Click the Date Sent header to put the most recent invites at the top. Handy when you are chasing a subbie who has not responded.
Understanding Status
Each row has a Status value telling you where the invite is up to. The values you are likely to see in practice:
Status | What it means | What to do next |
Pending | The invitation has been sent but the recipient has not opened or actioned it yet. | Wait a day or two. If nothing happens, give them a nudge outside the platform (call, text, or email). |
Accepted | The recipient has accepted. They now have access to the invited project on your account. | Nothing. They will show up in External Users and can start working on the shared project. |
Declined | The recipient has rejected the invitation. | Talk to them outside the platform to understand why. If it was sent to the wrong person, send a fresh invite to the right one. |
Expired | The invitation sat too long without being actioned. | Send a new invitation. The old row stays in the list as a record. |
Note: Status values are shown as they appear in the platform. If you see a value on your list that is not covered above, use the wording shown on screen when referring to it.
Worked example
You are running a bathroom renovation on Kingston Road and you need a plumber to price the rough-in and fit-off. Last Tuesday you added Kevin from Ridgepoint Plumbing as an external user on the Kingston Road project. That action sent Kevin an invitation.
It is now Thursday morning and you want to check Kevin has picked it up before your client meeting at 10am.
Click Dashboard at the top of the screen.
Click Invitations in the left menu.
Click the Invitations Sent tab.
Look for Kevin's row:
Sent To: Kevin Walsh
Company: Ridgepoint Plumbing
Space: (your account name)
Status: Accepted
Date Sent: 14 Apr 2026
Status is Accepted, so Kevin is in and you can move on.
While you are on the screen, you notice a new row on the Invitations Received tab. Nolan Homes has invited you to join their Elmwood Heights duplex project as a pricing contact. You click the row, the detail panel opens on the right, and you accept. You now have access to Nolan Homes' project and they can see you have come on board.
Tips
Check Sent weekly. Running through Invitations Sent once a week catches any subbies who never actioned your invite so you can chase them before it holds up a job.
Chase outside the platform. If a subbie hasn't actioned an invite after a few days, a quick text or phone call gets further than another email. Builders don't always check platform emails.
Match company names to contacts. If the Company column is empty for someone you invited, it usually means there is no company set on their contact record. Update their contact to tidy it up.
Use Received as a to-do list. Treat Invitations Received like an inbox. Clear Pending items at the start of the day so you are not sitting on someone else's work.
Troubleshooting
Symptom | Cause | Fix |
I invited a subbie but they say they never got anything. | Platform emails sometimes land in junk, or the email on their contact record is wrong. | Check their contact record for the correct email. If it is wrong, update it and send a fresh invite from the project. If it is right, ask them to check their junk folder. |
My Invitations Sent list is empty even though I know I have invited people. | Either you are looking at Invitations Received by mistake, or invites were sent from a different login. | Make sure the Invitations Sent tab is selected. If it is and the list is still empty, check whether someone else on your team sent the invites from their own login. |
A subbie accepted my invite but they do not appear in External Users. | The list may not have refreshed in your browser. | Reload the page. If they still don't appear, check their row on Invitations Sent is showing Accepted, not Pending. |
I can't find the button to send a new invitation from this screen. | Invitations are created from a project, not from this module. This screen only tracks what has already been sent. | Open the project you want to share, add the person as an external user from there, and the invite will show up on this list. |
An old invitation sits at Pending forever. | The recipient never actioned it and it may now be stale. | Send a fresh invitation from the project. The old one stays on the list as a record but the new one will drive the access. |
Related articles
External Users — the read-only list of subbies and contractors who have accepted an invitation onto your projects.
Projects — where you add people to a project, which is what triggers an invitation to land on their Invitations Received list.
Contacts — your directory of subbies, suppliers, clients, and employees. The email on a contact is what an invitation is sent to.
Still stuck?
Reach out through the chat bubble in the bottom right of Core Estimator and we'll give you a hand.