What is on a portal
Every new portal arrives with four sections already built: Needs from you, Time, Invoices, and Deliverables.
Each one is a block. Keep them, reorder them, delete the ones that do not suit the engagement, or add them back from the slash menu later.
Needs from you
The client's to-do list. It shows every open action you have raised, with a heading that counts them: "3 things need you".
Actions the client has dealt with move into a Recently done list underneath, so the record stays without cluttering the top.
When there is nothing outstanding they see "You're all caught up".
Raising and managing actions has its own guide: Asking your client for things.
Time
The hours you have logged against that client, as a total rather than a list. Clients never see individual time entries.
What the client sees
- The period and its date range, for example Sep 1–Sep 30
- The total, shown as hours
- A retainer bar, if the job has a budget: "12.5h of 20h used"
- Per-job cards, if you switch the breakdown on
What you can change
Click the gear on the block while editing the page.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Period | This month | Switch between the current week and the current month |
| Show retainer progress | On | The burn-down bar against a job budget |
| Show per-job breakdown | Off | Hours split per job |
| Show rates & who logged time | Off | Adds hourly rates and team member names |
Rates are hidden unless you turn them on
Rates and team member names are off by default and stay off until you switch them on. On a fixed-fee engagement, a per-job hours breakdown invites a conversation about the rate that you may not want to have.
Which hours appear
Time logged against that client in the current period, where the entry has been finished. A running timer does not show. Neither does ad hoc time with no job and no invoice attached, which keeps internal admin off the client's view.
The period is always the current week or current month. There is no custom range and no history.
Invoices
Their invoices, newest first, with an Outstanding total above the list when anything is unpaid.
Each row carries the invoice number, whether it is Sent, Paid or Void, the issue and due dates, the amount, and a Download button for the PDF.
What stays private
The list shows totals only. Line items, your notes, and the time entries behind the invoice never cross to the client, though line items may of course appear inside the PDF you generated.
Draft invoices never appear. An invoice reaches the portal when you tick Mark as sent.
With Stripe connected and client payments switched on, sent invoices also carry a Pay button. See Online invoice payments. Without it, the row reads "Pay [your agency] directly — contact them for payment details".
Deliverables
An ordinary file block, holding one file each. Upload a file while editing the page and the client gets a download card with the file name, type and size.
For several deliverables, use several file blocks. A new portal ships with the placeholder text "Files we share with you will appear here", which you can edit like any other paragraph.
Why this is a file block and not a database view
Database views cannot be filtered per client, so putting one on a portal would show every client's records. Files keep the boundary clean.
Adding to a portal
A portal is a page, so anything a page can hold can go on it: headings, text, images, embedded forms, embedded booking pages.
Embedded forms and booking pages are worth knowing about, because the Book and Answer client actions send the client to them.
The seeded blocks are scoped, your own content is not
Needs from you, Time and Invoices only ever show that one client's data. Anything you paste onto the page yourself is shown exactly as you left it, so do not put another client's work on it.
Related
- Creating a portal — building one and finding it later
- Asking your client for things — the Needs from you section
- What your client sees — the portal from their side
- Online invoice payments — the Pay button