Summary

Jira Service Management has two locations where a service project's customers are listed. Understand the difference between them.

Customers' section and People and Access' tab

Essentially, there is no difference between customers in the Customers section and those in the People and access tab. Users added in the People and access tab with the customer role will have the same level of access as customers on the Customers page.

However, inviting a new customer (one that does not exist on the site yet) via the People and access tab will invite them with an Atlassian account, while inviting them via the Customers tab will invite them based on your site's Customer access configuration. This means that project admins without permission to manage the Users on a site level won't be able to invite customers through the People and access tab unless they are inviting someone from an approved domain.

As this is by design, we have a feature request suggesting the ability to manage customers in a single location to avoid confusion and improve product usability. See also JSDCLOUD-9228 - Have only one place to manage the Customers in Jira Service Desk.

Explanation

Since there's no solution or workaround for this behavior, it's important to understand how and why these customers are placed in each location.

When a customer is manually added by an Admin or Agent in either the 'Customers' section or the 'People and Access' tab, they will appear in both. Even if added in only one location, the entry is mirrored across both. However, if a customer creates their account through the Help Center or via email, they will only appear in the 'Customers' section and not in the 'People and Access' tab.