Running a client portal

A client portal is one page you share with one client, showing what you need from them, the hours you have logged, their invoices, and the files you have sent.

1Client Portals

Start here

Build one, fill it in, and get the link to your client.

Creating a PortalTurn any client contact into a portal page in about ten seconds, then find and manage every portal you have made…What Is on a PortalEvery new portal arrives with four sections already built: Needs from you, Time, Invoices, and Deliverables.Asking Your Client for ThingsClient actions are the requests sitting in the **Needs from you** section of a portal: an approval, a file, an…

2Client Portals

Getting it to the client

Access levels decide what they can do once they open it.

Sharing a PortalA portal reaches the client as a share link, and the access level on that link decides whether they can act on it or…What Your Client SeesYour client opens a link and lands on a page carrying your logo, their outstanding requests, their hours, their…

Other areas

Getting StartedPagesDatabasesInbox & ContactsInbox RulesFlows

They open a link. No account, no password, no app to install.

Quick Start

Your first portal

1. Open the Create New menu (the + beside your workspace, or New on the home page)
2. Choose Client Portal
3. Search for the client contact and select them
4. Click Create Portal

Optivation builds the page with four sections already in it. Click Send by Email to get the link straight to your client, or Open Portal to fill it in first.

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Key Concepts

Concept	Description
Portal	An ordinary page bound to one client contact. Edit it like any other page, add and remove blocks freely
Sections	Four blocks Optivation seeds for you: Needs from you, Time, Invoices, Deliverables
Client actions	Things you need from the client. They approve, upload, or ask for changes without an account
Share link	How the client gets in. The access level on the link decides whether they can act or only read
Archive	Ends access when a project finishes, without deleting anything

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What a portal is not

A portal is bound to one client contact, and the seeded sections only ever show that client's own actions, hours and invoices. The page body is an ordinary page, so anything you paste in yourself is shown as-is. Keep other clients' work off it.

Clients have no login. Access is the link you send, plus a short email code the first time they approve or upload something.

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Related Features

• Tracking time and invoicing — the hours and invoices a portal shows
• Online invoice payments — let the client pay from the portal
• Contacts — a portal needs a client contact first
• Share Links — how share links work generally