The client portal

The client portal is where your clients review estimates, pay deposits and invoices, and see their job history, photos and documents. Clients sign in with a one-time code sent to their email, so they don't need a password.

How do clients sign in to the client portal?

Clients sign in on your business's Client Portal page:

1. The client enters their email address and clicks Send One-Time Code.
2. Interdatum emails a 6-digit code to that address. The code expires after 10 minutes.
3. The client enters the code under One-Time Code and clicks Open Portal.

The email address must match a client record in your CRM. Clients are added automatically when they submit your intake form, and you can also add them yourself. For privacy, the sign-in page doesn't say whether an email address matched a client.

A client can request a new code once every 60 seconds, and requesting a new code cancels the previous one. After 5 wrong attempts, the client needs to request a new code. Clients can click Use a different email to start over.

If someone is already signed in to the CRM as staff in the same browser, the portal sign-in is refused. Sign out of the CRM or use a private window to test the client portal.

Estimate and invoice emails include an Open Your Portal button that links straight to the job. The portal sign-in email also has an Open Client Portal button.

If the client isn't signed in yet, the link takes them to the sign-in page first and then back to the job after they sign in. A signed-in client can only see their own jobs.

What's on the client's portal dashboard?

After signing in, clients see a welcome page with their Total Files, Active and Completed counts, and a list of their jobs. Each job shows the service, the File number, the status, the requested date, the service address and any balance owing. Clicking View File opens the job.

A client with no jobs sees No Files Yet ("Your files will appear here once you have made a service request."). The dashboard uses your business logo and your client portal colours, and the client can sign out from the dashboard.

Each job in the portal is one File, so a client with several jobs, or several properties, sees each one separately.

What can clients see and do on a job?

When a client opens a job, the portal shows:

• File timeline — updates about the job, such as the estimate request, estimates and invoices sent, estimates accepted, and payments received. Clicking a timeline entry opens the related document.
• Documents — the job's estimates and invoices, plus any files you've shared with the client.
• Service details — the service, requested date and service address.
• Job photos and documents — the job's photo gallery.

Clients only see estimates and invoices that have been sent. Drafts stay hidden until you send them. Estimates and invoices show their totals, deposit or balance owing, the PDF, and a tax breakdown when tax applies.

How do clients accept or decline an estimate?

On a sent estimate, the client has these options, depending on the deposit and your payment setup:

• Deposit required, online payments ready: the client ticks I agree to the Terms & Conditions and clicks Pay Deposit. Paying the deposit accepts the estimate.
• Deposit required, no online payments: the client sees your offline payment instructions, ticks a box confirming they approve the estimate and will pay the deposit directly to you, and clicks Accept Estimate. You record the deposit when it arrives.
• No deposit required: the client ticks a box agreeing to the work without a deposit and accepting your terms, then clicks Accept Estimate.

The client can also click Decline Estimate and confirm. You can send a revised estimate afterward.

The portal shows a message when an estimate has been accepted, voided or replaced by a newer estimate.

How do clients pay invoices in the portal?

On a sent or partly paid invoice, the client sees the invoice total and balance owing.

• If you accept online payments through Stripe, the client clicks Pay Invoice to pay the balance by card on Stripe's secure checkout page.
• If you don't, the portal shows "Pay [your business] directly — e-Transfer, cash or cheque" with your offline payment instructions. If you haven't added instructions, it asks the client to contact you for payment details.

The portal shows a message when an invoice has been paid in full, voided, or replaced by a newer invoice.

How do I share files and photos with clients?

In the job's Documents tab, when you upload a document, choose who can see it under Visible in:

• Admin only — not shown in the client portal.
• Client portal only — shown to the client but not in the admin document list.
• Admin and client portal — shown in both.

Shared documents appear in the portal's Documents list, where the client can Open or Download them. Job photos appear in the portal's photo gallery, and once the job is closed, the client can click Download Job Package to download the job's files.

Can I customize the client portal?

Yes. Go to Settings → Client Portal ("Configure client portal payments and appearance"). Under Client Portal Theme you can set the Background Colour, Text Colour, Button Colour and Button Text Colour. The portal also shows your business logo.

Enter your Terms and Conditions in the same section. Clients see your terms when they click the Terms & Conditions link before paying a deposit or accepting an estimate.

The same settings page is where you connect Stripe for online payments, add offline payment instructions, and set your currency and tax.