Client portal development services

The life of a client user

1. 01

   Invite

   Staff or a client administrator invites a named person.

   Output: Pending account

2. 02

   Verify

   The person confirms their email and sets up sign-in.

   Output: Active user

3. 03

   Assign

   Role and matters they can see are set.

   Output: Correct access

4. 04

   Review

   Access checked periodically with the client.

   Output: Current users only

5. 05

   Remove

   Access ended when they leave or the work ends.

   Output: No stale accounts

Roles inside a client organisation

Letting clients manage their own colleagues

For larger clients, a nominated client administrator who can invite and remove colleagues saves your staff work and keeps access accurate, because the client knows when people join or leave. Your staff keep the ability to override and to see who has access. For smaller clients, staff may manage users directly. Either way, every user has their own account: shared logins make it impossible to know who did what and are hard to revoke.

Ask larger clients to confirm their user list periodically.

Ending access properly

Sign-in that clients can manage

• Email and password with a second factor

  Widely understood; offer an authenticator app or code.

• Sign-in links

  Simple for occasional users, as long as email is secure.

• Client's own company sign-in

  Possible for larger clients with compatible identity systems.

• Account recovery

  A safe route that cannot be abused to take over accounts.

Launching the portal to clients

Clients need a reason to change how they work with you. Explain the benefit to them, such as one place to see what is needed and no more lost attachments, rather than the benefit to you. Invite a few friendly clients first, watch where they struggle, then extend. A short guide and a named contact for the first weeks help. Keep an alternative route for clients who cannot use the portal, but steer most work into it.

Supporting external users

Many client support questions are about signing in, finding a request and uploading files. Clear screens reduce them; a help page and a simple route to ask for help handle the rest. Track the questions you receive and fix the causes. Staff should be able to see what a client sees, without logging in as them, to help over the phone.

People who work for several clients

Some users act for more than one client, such as a bookkeeper serving several of your clients, or a group finance director overseeing several companies. The portal should let one person hold access to several client organisations, switching between them clearly, rather than creating duplicate accounts. Each organisation's documents must remain separate, and removing access from one should not affect the others.

Make the current organisation obvious on every screen to avoid uploads landing in the wrong place.

Showing clients who has access

Clients increasingly ask who can see their information. A screen listing their users, their roles and when each last signed in, together with a log of key actions, answers that question quickly and supports their own security reviews. It also helps your staff spot accounts that should have been removed.