The client portal
Who can see each project, how much of it, one person seeing less, previewing as a client, one client across projects, and every client at once.
Written By Timothy Murenzi
The client portal is your client’s own view of their project. They can message you, approve estimates and products, pay invoices, and see their budget and schedule, with your costs and internal notes left out.
It is not one switch for the whole studio. It is set one project, and one person, at a time. Portal settings have three homes, and each answers a different question:
The project’s Client portal tab: who can see this project, and how much of it.
A contact’s Client portal tab: one person’s account, across every project they are on.
Settings › Studio › Client experience: every client at once, and who has ever actually signed in.
Watch it: the Client portal lesson in Campus (3:30, six chapters). Each section below names its chapter.
1. The project’s Client portal tab
Watch it: chapter 1 of the Client portal lesson in Campus, “The project’s own tab” (starts at 0:11).
Open the project and click the Client portal tab, after Documents. Every project has one from the day it is made. You can also get here from a Comms room: ⋯ › Client portal →.
This project appears in the client portal is the switch for the whole project. Turn it off and nobody can open it, and every other project those people have is untouched. To close the whole portal for everyone instead, see How to lock and unlock the client portal.
2. Who can see it
Watch it: chapter 2 of the Client portal lesson in Campus, “Who can see it” (starts at 0:39).
Everyone who can see the project is listed, and everyone here is a person, not a role. Each row holds:
The toggle that turns that person’s access on or off.
Their role: Client, Partner, Family, Stakeholder, Architect, General Contractor, Electrician, Plumber, Interior Consultant, Structural Engineer, Landscape or Other.
Sees: how much they see, for example The project’s 9 sections. Someone who has never been invited shows Not invited yet and a Send access link.
Last opened, and Preview to see the project as them.
A consultant with their access turned off is how a trade sits on a project without being made a client.
Click + Add someone to add a person, either someone in your contacts or a new person. Adding someone always creates a contact record, so there is never a row you cannot give access to.
3. What the project shows, and one person seeing less
Watch it: chapter 3 of the Client portal lesson in Campus, “What it shows, and one person seeing less” (starts at 1:15).
What the project shows is the menu everyone on the project sees: Messages, Files, Finances, Budget, Products, Links, Calendar, Activity and Overview. Use All or None to set them at once.
To choose differently for one person, open their row and untick a section. Their row then says, for example, 8 of 9, custom, and Use the project’s sections puts them back on the project’s list whenever you want.
The project’s list always wins. Turn a section off for the project and it goes for everybody, custom or not, and a person’s row shows it as project: off rather than letting you tick it back for them. A person’s list can only ever be smaller than the project’s.
A hidden section is removed from the menu and cannot be opened by its address either.
The rest of the tab
Header & welcome: a banner and a welcome message signed with your studio name.
Investment overview: show exact amounts or a percentage only, and choose which parts appear. Margin, vendor cost and vendor payables are never shown.
Products: how the schedule is organized (room, category or status) and which fields reach your client. Name, image, quantity and approval always show; cost, markup and margin never do.
Each part saves on its own.
4. Seeing it as they do
Watch it: chapter 4 of the Client portal lesson in Campus, “Seeing it as they do” (starts at 1:51).
Before you trust any of it, click Preview on a person’s row, or Preview as at the top of the tab. You get their page, read only, with a bar across the top naming whose view it is and saying nothing you click is saved. Exit preview takes you back.
A section they cannot see is not grayed out and it is not locked. It is not there. That is deliberate: a grayed tab invites the question of what is behind it.
What your client can do
Pay an invoice.
Approve or reject a product, with a note.
Review and approve an estimate or change order.
Request changes: their note is posted into your shared room so you can reply.
Snooze something until later.
Message you, and sign out.
Their Home shows what is waiting on them first, then the rooms they can open. Products shows their schedule with your client status words, and vendors and spec numbers left out.
5. One client, all of their projects
Watch it: chapter 5 of the Client portal lesson in Campus, “One client, all their projects” (starts at 2:19).
A person is usually on more than one project, so their contact record holds the account. Open the contact and click its Client portal tab: the address they sign in with, their portal code, when they were invited and when they last came in, with Resend invite, Copy portal link and Turn off access.
Under it, Their projects lists every project they can open and how much of each they see, so you can answer “what can this client see?” without opening four projects.
Turning access off here is the whole account, and the page says so before you do it. Nothing is deleted, and turning it back on restores what they had.
6. The whole studio
Watch it: chapter 6 of the Client portal lesson in Campus, “The whole studio, and what stays in Comms” (starts at 2:52).
Go to Settings › Studio › Client experience. Who has portal access answers the question nobody could answer before: which of my clients has ever actually opened this. Every client, their state (Active, Invited, Never invited, Turned off), how many of their projects they can open, and when they last signed in.
Filter it to Never signed in, Invited, not accepted, Turned off or Has a project hidden, then Send access, Resend invite or Manage → in one click. Chase the right few instead of all of them.
The same page holds Firm defaults (fonts, accent, page background and text colors, and Product statuses: what clients are told for each status), Maintenance mode, what clients see on documents, what clients can do, the weekly client update, and catch-up emails for unread messages.
What stays in Comms
One thing stays in Comms, because it belongs there: which rooms a client can open. That is about the room, so it is set in the room’s ⋯ menu. See How Comms works.
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