Set up portals

Contents

Introduction
Set up clients
Set up portals
Create tasks

Collaborate easily with client portals

A client portal is an online space where you and your clients can share information and documents securely and privately.
You'll need to set up a portal for each client you want to collaborate with.

 

 

Set up your default portal settings

Before you create your first client portal, you need to set up your practice's portal details. To do this you need to be a Practice Administrator.

To set up your default details

  1. Click the Clients option in the left navigation, and then click the Portal or Portal list tab.
  2. Click Get Started with Portals. This assistant will step you through the details you need to set up.
  3. In the Getting started with Portals step, choose the portal web address that your clients will sign in to, to access the tasks and documents you share with them.
    The address will be in this format: https://mypractice.portal.accountants , where “mypractice” is your practice name, or another subdomain name you want to use.
    Note that you can’t change this address after you click Next in this step.
  4. In the Personalise your Portals step, you can upload a logo. This will display in your clients’ portals.
    You can upload a JPG or PNG file up to 800KB and 1000 pixels wide.
  5. Click Next.
    If the client you want to create a portal for:
    • hasn’t been set up, you’ll need to do this first – see Create clients.
    • is already set up in Practice Online, click the Create a Client Portal button and then continue with step 3 of the "Create client portals" procedure below.

Create client portals

To create a portal

  1. Click the Clients option in the left navigation, and then click the Portal or Portal list tab.
  2. Click Create portal.
  3. Enter a unique name for the client’s portal.
  4. In the Clients in this portal section, click + Add clients.
  5. Type your client’s name in the text field and select them from the displayed list.
    To add more clients, click + Add client below the client you've already selected.
    Note that a client can only belong to one portal.
  6. Now you need to select who can access the portal. They can be a full access user (who can see everything), or a contributor (who can only see what you’ve shared with them). Click the + Add full access user and + Add contributor links to select or create users.
    For example, you can add a business owner or director as a full access user so they can view all documents listed within the client portal. Or you might add a bookkeeper as a contributor so you can just share specific documents with them.
  7. Click Create Portal.
    An email is sent to the users inviting them to connect with your practice. The users can click the Sign in to your portal button in the email to accept the invitation.

How clients access their portals

Users can access their portal by going to the web address you chose for your practice, eg https://mypractice.portal.accountants or by clicking the links in the email notifications they receive.

All open tasks you’ve assigned to them appear after they sign in. If the user has access to several portals, they can choose the one they want to view from the same portal site.

When viewing their task, the user can leave comments for you, and you’ll receive an email notification.