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Let’s take a quick look at how to send client portal invites in the Client & Contact structure.
In this video:
Send client portal invites.
A quick look a the client portal
The Client Portal
The client portal is how you securely share files, and client requests, and send other information back and forth, you can even send forms that need to be signed via eSignature.
Before you begin sharing those things, your client needs access to the portal.
We recommend inviting them to the client portal as soon as they are onboarded. If you don’t, no biggie. Canopy will remind you to invite them if you attempt to send anything their way.
Send a Client Portal Invite
A few things to keep in mind with the client portal.
Client portals operate on a client level, however each contact should have their own login. Logins will make it possible to have each contact see the documents and information sent directly to them.
It is important to remember that contacts cannot access their portal on their own- they have to be invited with their email address to get portal access.
Invite Individual contact
To start
Head to a Client Record.
On the left-hand side, you will go to the Contacts section.
Here under the contact name, you can quickly see their client portal status.
You can see:
If no invite has been sent
Or, if they have been invited but they have never logged in
Or, when they last logged in
To invite an individual contact
Click on the arrow to expand a contact’s details.
At the bottom of this section you can select Send Invite.
Note: if your contact does not have an email in their contact record a pop-up will appear asking you to add a primary email address. You can easily update their contact record from here by selecting the type of email address and then typing one in.
In the Client Portal invite window, you will:
First, Confirm the contact and contact email address - this will flow into this window from whatever email they have in their record.
Next, you can leave a personalized message if you choose to.
You have the option of using an email template here as well. If you have a template you like to use for onboarding, you can drop that here. You can also use one of these preset templates stored in Canopy.
This message is the perfect spot to include information about Canopy’s client portal help center. We recommend sending them this link to help them get started.
Now you’re ready to send the invite!
Invite multiple contacts
You can also quickly send an invitation to all contacts associated with the client.
In the client record, navigate to the contacts section on the left-hand side.
Click on the three dots at the top of the section.
Select Invite contacts to the client portal
The same pop-up window appears but this time you can use the checkboxes to select from all the contacts associated with this client.
You can once again add a personalized message
When you are ready hit Send!
The Client Portal Experience
Email Invitation
Let’s take a quick look at what the invitation looks like.
In the email, your client will see your personalized message and a button to create their account.
After clicking Create Account, they will be able to create a password using the email address the invitation was sent.
Then they log into the portal.
Inside the Client Portal
Let’s take a look at what a client sees in the portal.
They will start on the Home tab when they first log in.
The portal is laid out so your client can see several tabs for:
To-do: show a list of all tasks and client requests you have assigned your client
Files: shows all of the files you have shared with your client
Billing: (if applicable) shows their outstanding balance, and lists all invoices and payment history. If enabled your clients can also make payments here too!
As you add files, those will appear under recent files. A client can upload any relevant files by selecting “Add a file”.
Lastly, they can navigate to their user settings at the bottom, by selecting their initials.
They can edit their information or find resources to help them use the portal. You can also share this link with clients when you're onboarding them! As a best practice, you might share this link with them in your client portal invitation email.
Learn more about the client portal here.