Customer portal overview

In this article, you'll learn what your customers see in your customer portal and how they get into it. It's worth knowing, because every estimate and invoice you send ends up there, and it's where your customers approve, sign and pay.

What the customer portal is

Every company in the CRM gets its own customer portal at customer-portal.page, followed by your company's portal name (for example, customer-portal.page/yourcompany). It carries your logo and business name, and your phone number when you have one on file.

In the portal, your customers can:

• See every estimate, invoice and document you've sent them
• Approve an estimate by signing it, or decline it with a reason
• Pay an invoice or an estimate deposit by card
• Download or print a PDF of any document
• See their upcoming and completed jobs
• Look back at the payments they've made

There's nothing to switch on. The portal is there as soon as your CRM is.

How customers get in

There are two ways in.

From a text or email you send:

1. The customer taps the link in the estimate or invoice message.
2. The portal opens straight onto that document. They don't have to sign in.

By signing in:

1. The customer goes to your portal address.
2. They type their Last name and the Last 4 digits of your phone number (the number you have on file for them).
3. They click Sign in.

A customer with no last name on file, just a company name, signs in with the company name instead. Because the login checks their record live, if you change a customer's last name or phone number in the CRM, their login changes with it. People in the same household who share a last name and phone number see everything for all of them in one place.

The Inbox

The Inbox is the first thing customers see. At the top it says "Hey (first name), it's great to see you." If anything is unpaid, it says how many invoices and the total, with a Pay Now button that opens the oldest unpaid invoice's payment page.

Below that, Your Inbox lists every estimate, invoice and document you've sent them, newest first. Each card shows the title, a status, the date it was sent (and the due date on an invoice), and the total. If an estimate asks for a deposit, the card shows that too. The statuses customers see are:

• Estimates: Awaiting approval, Approved, Deposit due or Declined
• Invoices: Pending, Partly paid, Overdue, Paid or Refunded
• Documents: Sent, Viewed, Awaiting signature or Signed

On a computer, the inbox runs down the left and the open document sits beside it. On a phone, the inbox is the home page and each document opens on its own page.

Approving or declining an estimate

When a customer opens an estimate, they see Approve and Decline. If the estimate asks for a deposit they can pay by card, the button reads Approve & pay deposit instead.

To approve:

1. They click Approve (or Approve & pay deposit).
2. If the estimate has optional items, they tick the ones they want.
3. They draw their signature in the Sign box. Clear starts it over.
4. If they want a copy of the signed estimate, they tick Get a copy via email.
5. They click Approve, or Continue when there's a deposit to pay next.

Approving is signing, so the signature goes onto the estimate itself. If there's a deposit, they go on to pay it. Whether they can sign now and pay the deposit later depends on your estimate settings.

To decline:

1. They click Decline.
2. They pick a reason from the list, such as "Too expensive for my budget" or "Timeline doesn't work for me".
3. They click Decline.

You'll see why each estimate was declined in the CRM.

Paying an invoice

On an unpaid invoice, the customer clicks Pay invoice. The payment page goes step by step:

1. Add a tip? appears only if you collect tips and the invoice is for a job. They can pick a suggested amount, type their own, or choose No Thanks.
2. Add your signature: they sign and click Continue.
3. Make a payment: they enter their card. They can also tick Save this card for future charges.

Once an invoice is paid, it shows "This invoice was successfully paid" and a Download receipt button. A part-paid invoice has Receipt so far.

If you untick credit card payments when you send an invoice, there's no Pay invoice button, and the customer is told you'll arrange payment with them directly.

Downloading or printing a document

• On a computer, the ⋮ menu beside the document has Print and Download as PDF.
• On a phone, Download PDF at the top of the page emails the PDF to an address the customer confirms. That's easier than a download on a phone.

Signing other documents

If you send a document that needs a signature, the customer sees Sign to approve under it. They draw their signature and enter their name.

My Booking

The My Booking tab shows the customer's jobs in two lists:

• Upcoming: scheduled jobs that haven't happened yet, marked Confirmed. Each one has Add To Calendar so they can save it to their own calendar.
• Completed: jobs with a status of Done, marked Completed.

Each job shows the date and time, the Service (the job type), Where, and Who's coming? (the team members assigned). Canceled jobs aren't shown.

Booking another service

The portal header has a Book a service button that links to your website. It only shows when you have a website on file. Your phone number sits beside it so customers can call you instead.

Payment history

On a computer, customers click their initials at the right of the greeting to open Your Profile, then the Payment history tab. On a phone, it's under Menu > Payment history. The table shows each payment's invoice number, date, payment type and total. Clicking an invoice number opens that invoice.

Related articles

• Connecting Stripe to take online payments
• What your customers see when you send an estimate
• What your customers see when you send an invoice
• Setting how clients pay estimate deposits
• Letting customers see estimates for done jobs