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The Client Portal gives your customers a secure, branded login experience where they can view their invoices, track project progress, pay outstanding balances online, and raise support tickets — without needing to contact you directly for routine information.

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What clients can do

  • Dashboard — outstanding balance, active project count, open ticket count at a glance
  • Invoices — view all invoices, download as PDF, pay online with a card (if Stripe is connected)
  • Projects — view project status and progress percentage for projects linked to their account
  • Support — raise support tickets, track status, reply in thread, rate resolved tickets (1–5 stars)
  • Help — browse your published knowledge base articles
Clients access the portal at portal.{your-domain}. To give a customer portal access, create a user account for them in Settings → Users & Roles with the Client role and link it to their CRM customer record.

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Common tasks

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Give a customer portal access

1

Open Settings → Users & Roles → Invite User

2

Enter the customer's email address

3

Assign the Client role

4

Link to CRM customer record

In the Linked Customer field, search for and select the customer record from CRM. This is the critical step — without it, the portal will show no data (no invoices, projects, or tickets).
5

Send the invite

The customer receives an email with a link to set their password and access the portal.

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View what a specific client sees

1

Open CRM → select the customer

2

Check that the customer has a linked user account

The customer record shows whether a portal user is linked. If not, create one via Settings → Users & Roles.
3

Confirm the data linked to their account

The portal shows invoices, projects, and tickets that match the customer’s CRM ID. Check Finance → Invoices and Projects to confirm the data is linked to the right customer.

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Manage invoice visibility in the portal

1

Ensure invoices are linked to the correct customer in Finance

Open Finance → Invoices and verify each invoice has the correct customer selected. Invoices linked to a different customer will not appear in that customer’s portal.
2

Check invoice status

All invoices (Sent, Overdue, Paid, Partially Paid) are visible in the portal. Draft invoices are not shown.

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Enable online invoice payment in the portal

1

Connect Stripe Connect in Settings → Payments

Online payments in the portal require Stripe Connect to be set up and verified.
2

Confirm the customer can pay

In the portal, each outstanding invoice shows a Pay Now button. The customer enters their card details in a Stripe-hosted element and pays directly. You receive the payment in your Stripe account.
3

Payments are recorded automatically

Once paid, the invoice status in Finance updates to Paid automatically. No manual payment entry required.

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Respond to a client support ticket

1

Open IT & Helpdesk → Tickets and filter by source: Portal

Tickets raised from the client portal are tagged with the source “Portal” and linked to the customer’s CRM record.
2

Review and assign

Assign the ticket to the appropriate team member. The client is notified when the ticket is assigned and when its status changes.
3

Reply in the thread

Add a public reply to the ticket. The client sees your reply in real time in their portal Support tab.
4

Resolve the ticket

Click Resolve. The client is prompted to rate the experience (CSAT 1–5 stars) when they next view the ticket.

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Publish knowledge base articles for clients

1

Open IT & Helpdesk → Knowledge Base → New Article

2

Write the article

Use the rich text editor. Add a clear title and relevant tags — tags are used for ticket deflection (when a client types a support ticket subject, matching articles are suggested before they submit).
3

Set visibility to Public

Articles must have Visibility: Public to appear in the client portal Help tab. Internal articles are only visible to your team.
4

Set status to Published

Draft articles are not shown. Publish when the article is ready.

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Revoke a client’s portal access

1

Open Settings → Users & Roles

2

Find the client user and click Deactivate

Their login is revoked immediately. Their data (invoices, tickets, project records) is not affected — only the login is disabled.
3

Reactivate if needed

Reactivation restores their login with the same linked customer record and access rights.

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Troubleshooting

The most common cause is a missing or incorrect customer link. Open Settings → Users & Roles, find the client user, and confirm the Linked Customer field is set to their CRM record. Then check that invoices and projects in Finance and Projects are assigned to that same customer.
Pay Now requires Stripe Connect to be fully set up and verified. Go to Settings → Payments → Stripe Connect and check the connection status. If the Stripe account has any outstanding verification requirements, payments will be blocked until they are resolved.
Portal tickets are created in the tickets table with the source “Portal”. Check IT & Helpdesk → Tickets and remove any source filters that might be hiding portal tickets. If the ticket is truly missing, check Supabase logs for any insert errors.
Check that your email provider is connected under Settings → Email. Also confirm the invite was sent to the correct email address. Go to Settings → Users & Roles and find the user — if they show as Invite Pending, use Resend Invite.
CSAT data is submitted per ticket when the client rates the resolved issue. Reports → IT & Helpdesk → CSAT shows aggregated scores. If a ticket was resolved but not yet rated, it will not appear in the CSAT data until the client submits their rating.

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FAQ

Yes. If a client user is linked to customer records in multiple Softbooq workspaces, they can switch between them from the portal header using the organisation dropdown.
Yes. Every invoice in the portal has a Download PDF button. The PDF uses your company logo, address, and branding from Settings → Company Profile.
Visibility is controlled by data linkage, not explicit permissions. Invoices and projects assigned to the client’s CRM customer ID are visible. To hide something from a client, do not link it to their customer record — or create a separate customer record for the data you want to keep internal.
Deleting a CRM customer with a linked portal user is blocked — you must deactivate the portal user first. This prevents accidental data orphaning.
Clients can update their name and email from their profile settings within the portal. They cannot edit the underlying CRM customer record — that must be done by your team in CRM.

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See also

CRM

Client portal users are linked to CRM customer records.

Finance

Invoices in Finance are visible and payable in the client portal.

IT & Helpdesk

Support tickets raised in the portal appear in IT & Helpdesk.