Provisioning an External User requires creating a Contact (if not already there) and then enabling the Contact as a Customer/Partner User. The user is now a full External User with login credentials and Experience Cloud access.
- Identify or create the Contact
Open the Account that represents the external organization (or the customer''s personal Account in Person Account orgs). Add the new person as a Contact, or open the existing Contact record.
- Enable as a Customer or Partner User
On the Contact, click the dropdown actions menu and select Enable Customer User (or Enable Partner User for partner contacts). The New User form opens.
- Configure user settings
Set username (typically the email), pick the appropriate license (Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Community), pick the right profile, assign role if applicable. Save.
- Send the welcome email
Salesforce sends a welcome email with login instructions. The user resets their password and logs in. Their access to the Experience Cloud site begins immediately.
- Test the user''s access
Use Login As to verify the user sees the right pages, records, and Knowledge articles. Adjust sharing or profile settings if anything looks wrong.
- Document the user lifecycle
Capture the user''s purpose, the Account they belong to, and the deactivation trigger (left the partner program, ended the contract). Without lifecycle hygiene, External Users accumulate.
The Contact record the External User is linked to. Must exist before enabling the user.
The login identifier. Typically the user''s email address.
Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Community, or similar.
The profile that constrains what the External User can do. Often a custom variant of the standard community profile.
- External User licenses cost per named user. Inactive users continue consuming licenses until deactivated. Audit quarterly to recover cost.
- The Contact-to-User link is one-to-one. A single Contact can be enabled as exactly one External User; a single User must link to exactly one Contact. Plan the data model accordingly.
- Profile changes affect every External User assigned to that profile. Changing a community profile is a high-impact action; test thoroughly before applying.
- External Users cannot be added to standard Salesforce roles. They have a separate sharing model; do not expect role-hierarchy semantics to work.