Client portal

Your clients can have an account with you. They sign in and see their quotes, orders and invoices in one place, pay what's open, ask a question on the document it's about, and send you files.

What a client sees

One list, newest first, of their quotes, orders, invoices, credit notes and projects, with what they owe you and any credit they hold at the top. Drafts never show: a quote, order, invoice or credit note appears once it's no longer a draft, so a quote you're still pricing stays yours until you send it. Archived documents don't show either.

A quote, order or invoice opens with a button to the full document (Open the full document, or View and pay on an invoice). It's the same page a share link opens, so they can print, sign, choose options and pay there. Credit notes and projects show a summary, the messages and the files.

They only ever see their own client's documents.

A client can pay for a confirmed order from its page before you've invoiced it. See Taking payment on an order.

Giving someone access

Open the client and find Portal access. Type their email address and press Give access. They get an email saying they have an account and where to sign in.

• One address, one client. If the same person buys from you for two companies, give each company its own address.
• Anyone at the client can have their own account.
• Remove takes access away right away and signs them out. What they've already sent stays.

Your portal is at /portal/<your workspace address>. The address is set when the workspace is created, from your company name, and it can't be changed.

Its wording

Three boxes in Company Settings → Documents put your own words on the portal and on shared documents:

• Portal welcome line, under the client's name when they sign in. {{org.name}} and {{client.name}} are filled in.
• Paid invoice message, shown on a paid invoice beside the paid amounts. {{org.name}} is filled in.
• Payment instructions, shown on a shared invoice with a balance due.

A blank box shows nothing: OrderDen adds no wording of its own. A paid invoice still shows its PAID stamp and amounts.

Signing in

There's no password. The client types their email address and gets a link that works once and expires after 20 minutes. Clicking it signs them in on that device for 14 days.

For an address with no account, the sign-in page gives its ordinary reply, so it doesn't tell a stranger who your clients are.

Messages

Every quote, order, invoice and project has a Messages tab, and the client sees the same thread on their copy. They ask "can we move the delivery to the 14th?" on the order, and you answer there. On the portal they can also write on a credit note.

You're notified in the app and by email when a client writes, and they're emailed when you reply. Only messages are in the thread. Internal notes and the History tab stay yours.

For 15 minutes after posting, whoever wrote a message has Edit and Delete under it, on either side. An edited message says so, and shows as unread again for the other side. After that it stays as it is; write another to correct it.

Files

On a quote, order, invoice or project, each attachment has a switch:

• Internal: only your team sees it.
• Visible to client: it shows on the client's copy, and they can download it.

A file you upload is internal until you switch it.

The client can send you files too: artwork, a signed form, a photo of the wall you're fitting to. They arrive on the document, marked as theirs and visible to both sides, and you're notified. Images, PDFs, spreadsheets and text documents up to 25 MB; nothing that runs as a program.

Client POs they hand over

A shop or stockist that buys from you often raises purchase orders in their own system. Switch on Let portal clients send you client POs in Company Settings → Documents, and they can send them through the portal instead of by email.

The client sees a Send us a purchase order box on their portal page, for their PO number, the file and a message. You get a row under Client POs in the menu and a notification in the bell. Client POs appears in the menu once you switch the feature on, and stays there while any are on record.

Opening one shows their file next to an order form, already filled in with the client and their addresses. If the file could be read, the lines are filled in too. Check them against the file and press Accept as a draft order:

• It creates a draft order. Nothing they send sets stock aside, and you still confirm the order. The portal box tells them so.
• Their PO number goes in the order's Client PO.
• A line priced at zero takes the client's own price from their price list. Where their PO states a different price, you see both and choose.
• A line whose part number you don't carry goes on as it reads. A purchase order never creates an item in your catalog.

Reading their file

A PDF from someone's own system usually has its text inside it, so What the reader found fills in the form within a few seconds. Nothing needs setting up, and nothing is sent anywhere.

• The item and the quantity are filled in. The price isn't. Each line is priced from the client's price list, and the price they stated is shown above it for comparison.
• A line whose numbers don't add up is marked "Check this one." The reader trusts a price only when quantity × unit price matches the line total printed on the document. Otherwise the quantity comes through and the price is left for you.
• A code that matches nothing in your catalog comes through as a plain line in their wording, counted at the bottom of the card. Pick the item, or leave it as a one-off line.
• A scan, a photo or a fax is read by the same reader as receipt photos. If it can't be read, the card says so and the form stays blank.
• Nothing found? Some POs are a covering letter with the detail elsewhere. Read it on the page and type the lines in.
• Read it again reads the file again, for example after the first attempt failed.

Or press Decline with a reason. They see it in the portal and can send a corrected PO. The reason is required, so they know what to fix.

Declined one by mistake? Reopen puts it back to waiting, to accept or decline again. Deleting the draft order made from a PO does the same on its own: the PO is waiting again, ready to accept into a new order.

Once it's on, every client with a portal account can send purchase orders. Turn it off for one client on their Portal access card.

The file is kept on the submission, and both sides can download it. It's limited to 25 MB, and counts toward the workspace's hourly upload limit along with your team's own uploads.

Their statement

The portal has Your statement of account: the client's account for the current period, with what's owed and how old it is, ready to print. It shows today's position. See Statements of account.

Through the API

The public API covers portal accounts on a client (list, create, revoke), the messages on a document, an attachment's visibility, and the purchase orders clients send (list, accept, decline). See the API reference.